Two Afghan women and a child walk down a set of mud stairs in Kabul.

The New York Times’ At War blog has a compelling slideshow of black-and-white shots from the window seat of a flight to Kabul. Photographer Moises Saman writes in the accompanying post: “From the air, the impenetrability of this region becomes evident.” (Via @elihansen)

An Afghan girl looks up at a U.S. Marine on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

George Packer responds to last week’s rescue effort, which freed kidnapped New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell but left his Afghan fixer, Sultan Munadi, dead: “Somehow, it’s always the fixer who dies. Of course, this is a false statement of fact on its face—at the very least, an exaggeration. But it feels emotionally true.” It’s worth reading in full.

In a long piece on the future of Afghanistan, Rory Stewart makes a point about the country’s usual image in the media:

“We are accustomed to seeing Afghans through bars, or smeared windows, or the sight of a rifle: turbaned men carrying rockets, praying in unison, or lying in pools of blood; boys squabbling in an empty swimming-pool; women in burn wards, or begging in burqas,” he writes. “Kabul is a South Asian city of millions. Bollywood music blares out in its crowded spice markets and flower gardens, but it seems that images conveying colour and humour are reserved for Rajasthan.”

It’s not the first time the author of “The Places in Between” has spoken out on the subject. (Via Andrew Sullivan)

Boys fly a kite from a crumbling wall in Kabul

Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.

Michael Yessis
A touching and hilarious story by Karen Russell, who took her 85-year-old grandfather—Disco Papa—to a cruise ship nightclub.

Rob Verger
I loved the snow in New York City on Tuesday. I watched it falling steadily from inside all day, and then late in the afternoon I stepped outside into next-door Sakura Park and snapped this picture:

Joanna Kakissis
I’m reading “Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001” by Steve Coll. In addition to exploring foreign policy blunders (and the U.S. made many of them), the Pulitzer-Prize-winning book also offers rich portraits of Afghanistan and Pakistan, two countries I’ve always wanted to experience.

Eva Holland
Last weekend I had the chance to watch the Chinese New Year parade in Manhattan’s Chinatown. I was a little surprised to see the number of insurance companies (and fast food chains) represented, but still loved
being there in the crowd, listening to the sounds of the parade going by and occasionally having glitter and silly string rain down on me.

Valerie Conners
Discovering the original, old-school version of Oregon Trail online. This has been the ultimate find, and is serving well as a procrastination tool for my Friday afternoon. It’s a trek back to 1985, my Apple IIC computer, the days of uber-pixelated screens and what was, perhaps, my very first yen for road tripping.

Jim Benning
Another great World Hum gathering in New York City. Lolita Bar’s basement was packed last night with readers, writers and travelers tossing back drinks and talking trips. It culminated in a late dinner, replete with duck tongue and rice porridge, at Congee Village. Thanks to all who came out.

Afghan students sit on the ground during a lesson at the secondary school in the village of Duhani, Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan.

The US State Department has released a report that says opium production in Afghanistan is at "historic highs." That's probably not the only thing that's hitting "historic highs" with so much sweet dope coming out of Afghanistan. The State Department says that 93 percent of the world's raw opium came from Afghan poppies last year. They also say that 14 percent of the country's population is involved in opium production. When asked for comment the junkie who uses the pay phone up the block from my house said only "ooooohhhhhhhh." [Al Jazeera]

Rory Stewart, whose book about walking across Afghanistan, The Places in Between, was hailed as one of the best travel books of 2006 by the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, began a stint as a guest columnist for the Times this weekend. His first column, which, unfortunately, resides in the TimesSelect pay-only section, addresses what he sees as the dangers of the international community’s rhetoric about Afghanistan. “Afghans, like Americans, do not want to be abducted and tortured. They want a say in who governs them, and they want to feed their families,” he writes, “But reducing their needs to broad concepts like ‘human rights,’ ‘democracy’ and ‘development’ is unhelpful.”