Peshawar – Afghan Consulate

Lamli, my Malaysian friend, is prepared to go to Afghanistan. She got the Afghan visa already, quite easily, she said. I thought it should not be a bad idea also to get one before I got back to Pindi. Her visa is for two months, 60 dollars. Afghan visa is like a ticket, for a month it is 30 dollars, for 2 it is 60 dollars. You can buy any number of duration of stay, and the price is 30 dollars per month. The visa procedure is easy and straightforward.

Today is Thursday, and Afghan embassy is supposed to open. The consulate stated that it only accepted visa application on Tuesday and Thursday, but apparently it worked everyday. I went early to the consulate, got the application and filled it. When waiting for the interview, there was a fat bodyguard staring at me for quite long time.

Then his first sentence, instead of a salaam greeting, was:
“kukukukukakakakakikiki….”
Three years ago, in 2003, I came to this consulate to apply visa. The bodyguards asked me to show them Indonesian language, I said,
” kuku-kuku kaki kakak-kakak kakekku kaku-kaku,
kaku-kaku kuku-kuku kaki kakak-kakak kakekku”
which was the almighty tongue-twister in our language. Apparently that this was the strongest image I gave impression to the people.

Mr Rasuli, the diplomat in mid-twenties, is a friendly and handsome man. I imagined if he was in Indonesia he should be a famous movie star (Lam Li agreed, she said even in Bollywood he would be very famous movie star). Mr Rasuli was the person-in-charge in issuing visas for foreigners. He was listening to MP3 songs from his laptop when I entered, and it seemed that the visa was straightforwad. Mr Rasuli even saw my photos from Kashmir and he wished me good luck, to take better photos in Afghanistan.

I decided not to apply for visa that day, because the visa started from the date of issue, not the date of entry. I was thinking of going to Afghanistan about two months after, so it would not worth if I applied now. Luckily it was Mr Rasuli who pointed the fact to me. Lam Li didnt know about this and she is now disappointed to apply the Afghan visa too early.

The same time I was in Afghan consulate, Lam Li was trying to apply for Iran visa in Iranian consulate. But she was there just to find that it was consulate holiday today. Thursday and Friday were weekdays for Iranians.