There Are Few Old Women in Afghanistan

sounds like Valhalla to me :wink:

Car bombs, chaotic airports and the prospect of evening tea with a warlord might make most tourists a little queasy. Not, however, 84-year-old Gertrude Lysinger.
"It's been interesting", said the grandmother from Philadelphia as her tour bus whizzed through western Afghanistan, passing murals of mujahideen martyrs and an abandoned fighter jet.

While thousands of American soldiers are scouring Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden, for the past fortnight a dozen US tourists with an average age of 74 have been touring the country, after spurning warnings from their friends, family and the state department.

"My kids think we are nuts," admitted Richard Glenn, a 79-year-old retired college principal from Ojai, California.

Mary Lloyd, a housewife from Phoenix, Arizona, added: "My daughter said, 'You're flying into a war zone. I'm never going to see you again'. She asked for my last words."

Challenging the perception of Americans as a stay-at-home nation, the 12 are seasoned travellers. "We want to see Afghanistan before they start putting up Hiltons and McDonald's. We want to get out and smell the land," said Dr Glenn.

The tourists have encountered only generosity from ordinary Afghans. "We make quite a stir wherever we go," said Dick Bogart, a retired computer salesman from San Francisco and grandfather of 10. "It's been very touching."

On their second day of their tour, however, a car bomb exploded half a mile from their Kabul guesthouse, killing three people. "That was scary," admitted Mrs Lloyd.

Later they travelled west to Herat, where they discovered the city had nearly been engulfed in a battle between the governor and a rival warlord two weeks earlier. Undeterred, after touring the city, they had an audience with the governor, Ismail Khan.

"He told us he didn't want to be called a warlord," said Mr Bogart. "It was a very powerful experience."

Transportation, not terrorism, has been the greatest challenge, said the tour leader Gary Wintz, 57, who last visited Afghanistan in 1978.

"This is one of the most difficult countries on earth," he said. "But I think this is an exceptional group."

The tour also prompted reflections on America's image abroad; many were openly anti-Bush.

"My main object in life is to get Bush out of the White House," said Connie Pencall, a retired teacher. "He is a terrible, terrible man. We are not welcomed anywhere any more."

Janet Moore, an Englishwoman who runs a tour company in California, had the idea of bringing the first Americans to tour Afghanistan.

Her stepfather, Peter Sanders, was a colonial officer who lost an army to Pashtun tribesmen in 1939. After his death last year she travelled to Afghanistan, accompanied by her 70-year-old mother and five-year-old daughter. They were overwhelmed by the hospitality of the people.

After initially filling 20 places for the Afghan tour, at $6,340 (£3,562) each, eight people dropped out after violence escalated in the run-up to next month's Afghan presidential election.

The travellers' adventure ends today when they cross the Khyber Pass into Pakistan's North-west Frontier province. "Don't worry", joked Mr Wintz. "We'll be okay. And if we pass Osama, we'll give him a ride."

Panzade--

Great story. I hope the Afghani women are peeping at the "mature" Westerners.