Danger never far in Kabul

While I was preparing to set off on my trip into this country, signs foretelling that it would not be easy kept appearing.

Two days before a photographer and I were to depart, the travel agency that we arranged the trip with announced that the only flight going from China to Afghanistan, which left once a week from Urumqi, had been canceled. The abrupt notice forced us to find another way into the country. We finally found a suitable flight leaving from Delhi, India.

Equally nerve-racking, I was only able to secure the visa I needed to enter Afghanistan days in advance of the trip's start. And to do that I had to take the unusual step of going to the Afghan Embassy in Beijing and filling out an application while standing in a 10-square-meter reception room and talking to officials through an intercom system.