Privileged Youtuber Travels to Afghanistan, Gets Stuck During Taliban Offensive and Threatens To Sue Critics in Thailand

[9S_]

Travel Blogger Misses the Mark in Travel to Afghanistan by BK Magazine

“Afghanistan is gradually being taken over by the Taliban. Herat, its cultural capital, is under siege. It’s one of the last places on Earth any foreign traveler should be right now. 

 

 

Yet, last week, that is precisely where Thailand’s most famous homegrown travel blogger found herself. 

 

Now Monthon “Mint” Kasantikul, the figure behind I Roam Alone, a solo travel blog with over five million followers, is digging her heels in, going on a full-court press to defend her decision to travel to a war zone in the thick of a pandemic and threatening legal action against her critic”

Original Link:

https://bk.asia-city.com/city-living/news/travel-blogger-misses-mark-afghanistan-controversy

Edited August 5, 2021 by 9S_

[KWOG]

Pandemic angle adds nothing...her actions would've been maxed out stupid in 2019 or any other year.      

[PatrickSatoLee]

to travel there is being stupid, add to sue her critics is beyond stupid. 

[Smithydog]

The sad fact is that under Thai law she is perfectly allowed to sue her critic. Hope the critic wins....would love to see the reaction if they counter-sue her!.

[kerryd]

Oddly enough, some people have gone there not really knowing what was going on. Though in her case she knew what was going on.

Going to make a short version of this.
I spent 10 years in Afghanistan between 2003-2014. A couple years in a camp outside of Kabul and 8 years and a bit on the Kandahar Air Field.

In Kabul, civvy employees flew in/out on commercial air just like tourists. We needed visas and went through Customs and Immigration like normal passengers.

For awhile my job was escorting our employees to/from the airport (though we travelled in armoured convoys, we got dumped at the airport and left on our own until the convoy came back for us.

Ran into a few bewildered "tourists" that were like the proverbial "fish out of water". Mostly elderly couples.
All I could do was direct them to the local "official" travel agent so they could arrange transport to the only hotel they were allowed to stay in and then back to the airport in 2-3 days for their flight out. Seems someone had sold them tickets to an "exotic" destination and they wound up in Kabul,

You were taking your life in your own hands if you tried to travel around Kabul without an armed escort. Insurgents would attack the hotel and walled compounds around the city that housed foreigners even when they had armed guards.
They'd even do "drive by" rocket attacks on outlying military camps where they'd roar down the road in a pick up, a guy in the back would get up and fire an RPG towards the camp and then they'd speed off as fast as they could.

Now that's gangsta !

When I first went to Afghanistan, I thought we'd be able to travel around on our time off the way we'd been able to do in Croatia 10 years earlier but no such luck. I had especially wanted to see where the Bamiyan Buddhas had once stood (before the Taliban obliterated them). Wasn't happening. Ever.

We weren't allowed outside the front gate of the camp except to go to the once a week market in the parking lot and even then we had to wear our bullet proof vests (and not the light "movie" kind).

Kandahar was worse. We couldn't even go out the front gate. Not that you'd want to anyways. After awhile you got used to being woken by the rocket attack sirens, spend a couple minutes waiting for the "boom" to see how far away it was, then drifting back to sleep by the time the All Clear sounded.

I left in 2014. Many contingents pulled out before then. The Taliban were already starting to take control in some regions, almost as fast as the foreign contingents pulled out.

Going there as a tourist now ? Idiotic at best. Her Thai passport isn't going to give her any protection. It's about 120 kms to the Turkmenistan border or 130 to Iran.
If there are no flights out (to Kabul or a neighbouring country) then she's really in a pickle.

If it were me, I'd make a run for it on a cold Friday morning  when everyone is either in bed or going for morning prayers. Unfortunately it's summer time there right now.

Probably a 3 hour drive at the best of times, but in a burqa with some other women along for the ride, it might be possible.

My understanding of the current situation is that the Afghan military is "pulling back" to protect the major population centers while basically abandoning the rural areas.

In that case, I'd suspect the airport may still be an option. Flight options will be limited but there could still be some regional flights to the capital or maybe Uzbekistan.

(Kinda wonder if Massoud's old Northern Alliance might start up again. His face was on posters all over the place, even in Southern Afghanistan, despite having been assassinated by the Taliban just before 9/11. They were about the only ones that could have given the Taliban a fight (hence why they assassinated Massoud, knowing the Americans would be attacking soon after 9/11.)


If you read the article and got to the point about Joshua Boyle and his wife being "kidnapped" - it's BS. I was in Afghanistan when that happened. He wasn't kidnapped. He was a Muslim convert that wanted to prove he was a "real" Muslim so he arranged a trip where he could sneak  into Afghanistan and hook up with a Taliban group. He spent the next 5 years living in Pakistan while trying to convince everyone that he was still in Afghanistan. 
That is, right up until one of his daughters got sick and couldn't be treated locally. That's when they "arranged" for his wife to be spotted by an American drone. (I won't go into all the details but his story was so full of holes it made a fishing net look like a steel bucket.)

(His wife and daughter were hospitalized after they arrived in Canada and he was arrested but released soon after. He claimed the abuse had been done by "the terrorists". Lol, the "terrorists" were so P.O'd by the accusations that they actually released a public statement denying the accusations. His wife left him (naturally) and moved back the USA with her kids.)

And this is the "short version" !!

I could literally write a book about all the **** I saw in Afghanistan but it wouldn't make very good reading.

[HolyCowCm]

3 hours ago, kerryd said:

nd this is the "short version" !!

I could literally write a book about all the **** I saw in Afghanistan but it wouldn't make very good reading.

I don’t disbelieve you one little tiny bit.

She has to be quite naive to think she is above all to go there. Maybe she thinks she is like a Thai Mother Teresa whose stories told that she could go into a battlefield and bullets would not hit her. 

Sorry, many years ago I was sourcing Basmati rice and Pakistan happened to be the best price.  But I was Leary as at the time tourists were being killed. Anyway loved the owner seller but was not about to go be under full body guard from airport to hotel to mill to port 100% of the time while being white and American. Also thought maybe if they somehow got word of the shipment was to go to USA that something could have possibly been done to it, and the safety outweighed all. 

And that is only Pakistan. 
 

[kerryd]

15 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

And that is only Pakistan. 
 

Indeed. When I was in "the 'stan" they did a survey in Pakistan and something like 95% of the respondents had a negative view of the USA.

Because that is what their gov't and religious leaders have been pushing on them for generations.

They had a big earthquake in 2005. Canada sent troops to help with the rescue efforts.
One of the guys was kidnapped right off the street and held by insurgents for over 12 hours, until "someone" called them and told them to release him.

The first nations to start sending aid and pledges were the USA, Canada, the UK (etc, etc). Pakistan demanded that any aid sent had to be in boxes that had no "national" symbols on it (i.e. like American flags or "USA" stamped on them) because they wanted the Pakistani people to think that all the aid had come solely from their gov't.

And certainly not the hated USA.

At one point in Kandahar, we won the contract to run the airfield and needed experienced staff. I spoke to the Airfield Manager and was going to try and recruit staff in Thailand, as Suvarnabhumi was up and running but Don Muang was being shut down, so I figured there'd be lots of skilled airfield workers available.

The Deputy Project Manager nixed the idea because he wanted to hire Pakistanis, for 2 reasons. One is that he figured they save money on airfare for their "once a year" trip home and two - he was getting a kickback from "someone" in Pakistan that would have arranged the workers.
(He ended up getting canned for some "budget shenanigans" he pulled and a couple other reasons.)

I told them flat out that they would never be allowed to use Pakistan employees and sure enough, the Americans also flat out told them no way.
(We ended up hiring mostly Filipinos and Indians.)

In Kabul, I was doing a project to dig a trench to lay some comm lines for the military. I was sent 3 "locals" to assist.
One of them was a kid about 18ish years old. When you hear the expression "wide-eyed fanatic" - his picture is probably what they were referring to.
He was telling me how he'd just come from a Madrassas (Pakistani Religious School where they essentially learn nothing but the Quran all day, every day, until they can recite it from memory - forwards and backwards.) 
Then he started asking the "wrong" questions. Like where our accommodations tents were (and where I slept) and where the headquarters tent was.
He didn't ask many questions after that as I had him detained and the MPs took him off for questioning. Not sure what happened to him but he wasn't allowed back on base again. Ever.

Of course, one of the problems in Afghanistan is the Pakistani support for the Taliban (overt and covert). It pi55es off the Afghan gov't, especially when Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harbouring the "Pakistan Taliban" (intent on overthrowing the Pakistani gov't).

The Pakistan Intelligence Service (the ISI) are known to work "hand-in-hand" with the Haqqani terrorist network, whom they use to do their "dirty work".
The Haqqanis are considered to be as much "criminal" as "terrorist" (anything for a buck) and were the people sheltering Joshua Boyle and his family.
(As mentioned before, when they needed to "come home", Boyles wife started walking around the compound they were living in without wearing a head covering, so her blonde hair would be seen by the American drones.)
The Americans did spot her and started preparing a rescue mission but gave the Pakistanis a chance by telling them to get her (and her family) out or the Americans would go in. 
The Pakistanis didn't want another American raid into their country like when they got Osama so they contacted the Haqqanis and arranged a handover.

Boyle later claimed they were rescued after a shootout but the Pakistani Army troops that oversaw the handover said no shooting happened. (Basically the Boyles were driven to a pre-arranged spot, got out of the vehicles and the Haqqanis drove off. Then the Army "rescued" the Boyles.)

It's funny (sort of) because Boyles first BS story was that he and his (6 months pregnant) wife were just on a "backpacking trip" when he was "kidnapped".
That apparently didn't "sell" well so he changed his story and said they went to Afghanistan "to help the people that the gov't wouldn't".
I guess that story didn't sell well either so he changed it again to he'd gone there to "teach".

I'm guessing he did a lot of "teaching" during the 5 years he was being sheltered by the terrorists. Would explain why they (the terrorists) never once made any ransom demands for them and never once appeared in any of the videos that were "smuggled" out.
He did say once in a (smuggled) letter that they'd be killed if the Afghan gov't didn't stop executing terrorists. 
Coincidentally, a son of the Haqqani leader was imprisoned in Afghanistan and facing the death sentence. 
Strange though, Afghanistan didn't stop executing murderers and terrorists and the Boyles weren't killed.

So what would happen to the blogger if captured by the Taliban ?

A number of things could happen, most of them unpleasant. There is a slim chance she could try to buy her way out. I doubt they'd be impressed by how many followers she had (and that could actually work against her).
If they knew she had over 5 million followers on Youtube ?

Well, wouldn't that make a great audience for a "demonstration" of what the Taliban can and will do. 

Remember, these are religious fanatics who believe anything they do is sanctioned by their god. Especially when it comes to dealing with infidels and non-believers.

[poohy]

I've still got  a decent agent in Kabul (husband and wife team)from our birdwatching tour days 2012 / 2014

Luckily we never had any problems (phew)

[HolyCowCm]

18 minutes ago, kerryd said:

Indeed. When I was in "the 'stan" they did a survey in Pakistan and something like 95% of the respondents had a negative view of the USA.

Because that is what their gov't and religious leaders have been pushing on them for generations.

They had a big earthquake in 2005. Canada sent troops to help with the rescue efforts.
One of the guys was kidnapped right off the street and held by insurgents for over 12 hours, until "someone" called them and told them to release him.

The first nations to start sending aid and pledges were the USA, Canada, the UK (etc, etc). Pakistan demanded that any aid sent had to be in boxes that had no "national" symbols on it (i.e. like American flags or "USA" stamped on them) because they wanted the Pakistani people to think that all the aid had come solely from their gov't.

And certainly not the hated USA.

At one point in Kandahar, we won the contract to run the airfield and needed experienced staff. I spoke to the Airfield Manager and was going to try and recruit staff in Thailand, as Suvarnabhumi was up and running but Don Muang was being shut down, so I figured there'd be lots of skilled airfield workers available.

The Deputy Project Manager nixed the idea because he wanted to hire Pakistanis, for 2 reasons. One is that he figured they save money on airfare for their "once a year" trip home and two - he was getting a kickback from "someone" in Pakistan that would have arranged the workers.
(He ended up getting canned for some "budget shenanigans" he pulled and a couple other reasons.)

I told them flat out that they would never be allowed to use Pakistan employees and sure enough, the Americans also flat out told them no way.
(We ended up hiring mostly Filipinos and Indians.)

In Kabul, I was doing a project to dig a trench to lay some comm lines for the military. I was sent 3 "locals" to assist.
One of them was a kid about 18ish years old. When you hear the expression "wide-eyed fanatic" - his picture is probably what they were referring to.
He was telling me how he'd just come from a Madrassas (Pakistani Religious School where they essentially learn nothing but the Quran all day, every day, until they can recite it from memory - forwards and backwards.) 
Then he started asking the "wrong" questions. Like where our accommodations tents were (and where I slept) and where the headquarters tent was.
He didn't ask many questions after that as I had him detained and the MPs took him off for questioning. Not sure what happened to him but he wasn't allowed back on base again. Ever.

Of course, one of the problems in Afghanistan is the Pakistani support for the Taliban (overt and covert). It pi55es off the Afghan gov't, especially when Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harbouring the "Pakistan Taliban" (intent on overthrowing the Pakistani gov't).

The Pakistan Intelligence Service (the ISI) are known to work "hand-in-hand" with the Haqqani terrorist network, whom they use to do their "dirty work".
The Haqqanis are considered to be as much "criminal" as "terrorist" (anything for a buck) and were the people sheltering Joshua Boyle and his family.
(As mentioned before, when they needed to "come home", Boyles wife started walking around the compound they were living in without wearing a head covering, so her blonde hair would be seen by the American drones.)
The Americans did spot her and started preparing a rescue mission but gave the Pakistanis a chance by telling them to get her (and her family) out or the Americans would go in. 
The Pakistanis didn't want another American raid into their country like when they got Osama so they contacted the Haqqanis and arranged a handover.

Boyle later claimed they were rescued after a shootout but the Pakistani Army troops that oversaw the handover said no shooting happened. (Basically the Boyles were driven to a pre-arranged spot, got out of the vehicles and the Haqqanis drove off. Then the Army "rescued" the Boyles.)

It's funny (sort of) because Boyles first BS story was that he and his (6 months pregnant) wife were just on a "backpacking trip" when he was "kidnapped".
That apparently didn't "sell" well so he changed his story and said they went to Afghanistan "to help the people that the gov't wouldn't".
I guess that story didn't sell well either so he changed it again to he'd gone there to "teach".

I'm guessing he did a lot of "teaching" during the 5 years he was being sheltered by the terrorists. Would explain why they (the terrorists) never once made any ransom demands for them and never once appeared in any of the videos that were "smuggled" out.
He did say once in a (smuggled) letter that they'd be killed if the Afghan gov't didn't stop executing terrorists. 
Coincidentally, a son of the Haqqani leader was imprisoned in Afghanistan and facing the death sentence. 
Strange though, Afghanistan didn't stop executing murderers and terrorists and the Boyles weren't killed.

So what would happen to the blogger if captured by the Taliban ?

A number of things could happen, most of them unpleasant. There is a slim chance she could try to buy her way out. I doubt they'd be impressed by how many followers she had (and that could actually work against her).
If they knew she had over 5 million followers on Youtube ?

Well, wouldn't that make a great audience for a "demonstration" of what the Taliban can and will do. 

Remember, these are religious fanatics who believe anything they do is sanctioned by their god. Especially when it comes to dealing with infidels and non-believers.

Yep, now you know why I never went ahead for the basmati rice for a huge retail USA market. I was extremely worried about the rice being tainted with poison. 

[thai3]

On 8/5/2021 at 10:23 PM, kerryd said:

Indeed. When I was in "the 'stan" they did a survey in Pakistan and something like 95% of the respondents had a negative view of the USA.

Because that is what their gov't and religious leaders have been pushing on them for generations.

They had a big earthquake in 2005. Canada sent troops to help with the rescue efforts.
One of the guys was kidnapped right off the street and held by insurgents for over 12 hours, until "someone" called them and told them to release him.

The first nations to start sending aid and pledges were the USA, Canada, the UK (etc, etc). Pakistan demanded that any aid sent had to be in boxes that had no "national" symbols on it (i.e. like American flags or "USA" stamped on them) because they wanted the Pakistani people to think that all the aid had come solely from their gov't.

And certainly not the hated USA.

At one point in Kandahar, we won the contract to run the airfield and needed experienced staff. I spoke to the Airfield Manager and was going to try and recruit staff in Thailand, as Suvarnabhumi was up and running but Don Muang was being shut down, so I figured there'd be lots of skilled airfield workers available.

The Deputy Project Manager nixed the idea because he wanted to hire Pakistanis, for 2 reasons. One is that he figured they save money on airfare for their "once a year" trip home and two - he was getting a kickback from "someone" in Pakistan that would have arranged the workers.
(He ended up getting canned for some "budget shenanigans" he pulled and a couple other reasons.)

I told them flat out that they would never be allowed to use Pakistan employees and sure enough, the Americans also flat out told them no way.
(We ended up hiring mostly Filipinos and Indians.)

In Kabul, I was doing a project to dig a trench to lay some comm lines for the military. I was sent 3 "locals" to assist.
One of them was a kid about 18ish years old. When you hear the expression "wide-eyed fanatic" - his picture is probably what they were referring to.
He was telling me how he'd just come from a Madrassas (Pakistani Religious School where they essentially learn nothing but the Quran all day, every day, until they can recite it from memory - forwards and backwards.) 
Then he started asking the "wrong" questions. Like where our accommodations tents were (and where I slept) and where the headquarters tent was.
He didn't ask many questions after that as I had him detained and the MPs took him off for questioning. Not sure what happened to him but he wasn't allowed back on base again. Ever.

Of course, one of the problems in Afghanistan is the Pakistani support for the Taliban (overt and covert). It pi55es off the Afghan gov't, especially when Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harbouring the "Pakistan Taliban" (intent on overthrowing the Pakistani gov't).

The Pakistan Intelligence Service (the ISI) are known to work "hand-in-hand" with the Haqqani terrorist network, whom they use to do their "dirty work".
The Haqqanis are considered to be as much "criminal" as "terrorist" (anything for a buck) and were the people sheltering Joshua Boyle and his family.
(As mentioned before, when they needed to "come home", Boyles wife started walking around the compound they were living in without wearing a head covering, so her blonde hair would be seen by the American drones.)
The Americans did spot her and started preparing a rescue mission but gave the Pakistanis a chance by telling them to get her (and her family) out or the Americans would go in. 
The Pakistanis didn't want another American raid into their country like when they got Osama so they contacted the Haqqanis and arranged a handover.

Boyle later claimed they were rescued after a shootout but the Pakistani Army troops that oversaw the handover said no shooting happened. (Basically the Boyles were driven to a pre-arranged spot, got out of the vehicles and the Haqqanis drove off. Then the Army "rescued" the Boyles.)

It's funny (sort of) because Boyles first BS story was that he and his (6 months pregnant) wife were just on a "backpacking trip" when he was "kidnapped".
That apparently didn't "sell" well so he changed his story and said they went to Afghanistan "to help the people that the gov't wouldn't".
I guess that story didn't sell well either so he changed it again to he'd gone there to "teach".

I'm guessing he did a lot of "teaching" during the 5 years he was being sheltered by the terrorists. Would explain why they (the terrorists) never once made any ransom demands for them and never once appeared in any of the videos that were "smuggled" out.
He did say once in a (smuggled) letter that they'd be killed if the Afghan gov't didn't stop executing terrorists. 
Coincidentally, a son of the Haqqani leader was imprisoned in Afghanistan and facing the death sentence. 
Strange though, Afghanistan didn't stop executing murderers and terrorists and the Boyles weren't killed.

So what would happen to the blogger if captured by the Taliban ?

A number of things could happen, most of them unpleasant. There is a slim chance she could try to buy her way out. I doubt they'd be impressed by how many followers she had (and that could actually work against her).
If they knew she had over 5 million followers on Youtube ?

Well, wouldn't that make a great audience for a "demonstration" of what the Taliban can and will do. 

Remember, these are religious fanatics who believe anything they do is sanctioned by their god. Especially when it comes to dealing with infidels and non-believers.

Extremely interesting thanks, did you ever post on Tv? 

[kerryd]

Just now, thai3 said:

Extremely interesting thanks, did you ever post on Tv? 

Member of TV since Jan 2005. (Same username.)

[gummy]

1 minute ago, thai3 said:

Extremely interesting thanks, did you ever post on Tv? 

I should think be the length of this post he hasn't quite finished one over there yet

[kerryd]

5 minutes ago, gummy said:

I should think be the length of this post he hasn't quite finished one over there yet

555 - I've currently got 2 other posts open and am also replying to a newspaper article, while trying to have a "google translate" conversation on Line.

(I apologize for the brevity of this and my previous post. I shall endeavour to do better in the future. Or not.)

[gummy]

9 minutes ago, kerryd said:

555 - I've currently got 2 other posts open and am also replying to a newspaper article, while trying to have a "google translate" conversation on Line.

(I apologize for the brevity of this and my previous post. I shall endeavour to do better in the future. Or not.)

Sorry to interrupt your work, but are you reading Tolstoys "War and Peace and the same time  ?

[kerryd]

24 minutes ago, gummy said:

Sorry to interrupt your work, but are you reading Tolstoys "War and Peace and the same time  ?

Read that years ago actually as a part of the 54 "Great Works of the Western World" (as decided by the board of Encyclopedia Britannica).
I am re-reading the "History of Herodotus" though as well as "Galileo Goes to Jail" when I'm bored.

(I've got a Clive Cussler and a Frederick Forsyth novel on the go as well but I usually save those for when I have to go to Immigration and may end up sitting/standing in a line for an hour or so.)

[gummy]

1 minute ago, kerryd said:

Read that years ago actually as a part of the 54 "Great Works of the Western World" (as decided by the board of Encyclopedia Britannica).
I am re-reading the "History of Herodotus" though as well as "Galileo Goes to Jail" when I'm bored.

(I've got a Clive Cussler and a Frederick Forsyth novel on the go as well but I usually save those for when I have to go to Immigration and may end up sitting/standing in a line for an hour or so.)

Well you win hands down on that my friend. I will now crawl back to the hole I came out of and go to annoy somebody else

[AussieBob]

Wow - what a story/s @kerryd  I have had no such thing, but I was dealing with the senior levels of Defence in Aust for many years  and all that rings very true.  And there are many other stories you and they could tell but cant, are absolutely horrendous.

In my opinion, we should have gone in and done what was necessary and then  got out. But as is always the case, the Politicians have too much say over what and how the Military does its job. And the Pollies are subject to the whims and fancies of the fickle public and the corrupt media.  

Years ago, Nth Korea was facing total ruin. They had endured drought for a long time and there was no food, and China was not big enough to support them any more. So what did the Pollies in the west do? They sent food and supplies. I and many like me were calling for guns to be sent to the people - only then could they overthrow the corrupt regime, who took everything from the West and told the people it all came from China.  Political correctness and bleeding heart liberals have caused more death and destruction than Covid, by a long way. I hope that one day the majority will realise that and react appropriately in the future.  People die - supporting evil corrupt regimes (like Myanmar right now) because of the poor starving people, is the wrong approach.  Africa is full of corrupt regimes that have been propped up by western aid for over 5 decades. 

[Faraday]

@kerryd

Your experiences are fascinating & I'm sure many of us would like to read more of them.