A bus takes me on the first leg of my journey, and for the first 40 miles, we pass through the tribal area, a region run by autonomous chieftains. As a westerner, I must take an armed guard because kidnapping and banditry are rife here.

Then a familiar sight, five years ago, I remember passing this burnt-out tank. It's still here. We just cross the border into Afghanistan.

Hello, these ten thousand rupees afghani this comes (from) our bank. This kid is offering to exchange my American dollars, and Pakistani rupees for the local currency, afghanis.

So how much do they want for all of this?

Oh, he's asking for 100 rupees.

He wants 100 rupees?

(Yes.) This amount of money.

It sounds like a right exchange rate, is it?

Yeah, I, I don't think so, but that's what he wants from you, if you can't...

The problem is, there are 40,000 afghanis to the dollar, and these guys are only offering me 10,000.

Someday, I think you will be a very good businessman.
Yes.

After being so pleasantly fleeced by the kids, I hire an old Russian army jeep at the border, with it comes my driver Aziz and the man who'd be my guide, Abdul, and off we set towards the spectacular Hindu Kush. Slowly the road snakes towards Kabul and as we go, it brings back a terrible sense of deja-vu.

The last time I traveled up this road, it was controlled by the warlords of the Mujahidin, and there were checkpoints all the way along it, each one extracting a toll. If you refused to pay it, it could cost you your life.

But for the moment, this part of Afghanistan is relatively peaceful. Soon, I get my first glimpse of the capital, Kabul.

chieftain: the leader of a people or clan

afghanis: the basic monetary unit of Afghanistan, equal to 100 puls

fleece: charge (someone) an unfairly high price