Afghanistan

How many pills could you fit into a rucksack for barter?

Some years ago travelers were making money by buying up cheap Viagra in places like India and smuggling them back to the West for sale. The demand proved to be as inelastic as that for other drugs and it was a profitable scam for a while.

Now news has hit that the CIA gives out Viagra to Afghani warlords in exchange for information on the movements of the Taliban.

‘Whatever it takes to win friends and influence people’, a CIA agent was quoted as saying.

For the aging warlords with 4 wives to maintain, the pills come as a godsend and, in the words of another official help them get ‘back in an authoritative position’.

So then we thought, what if travelers were to carry Viagra with them whey go wandering the remote hills of the Yemen, Uzbekistan or the jungles of Africa? They could hand out the pills when arriving at new villages and win the respect and hospitality of the locals in a 21st century cultural exchange.

Road junkies could even mash the pills up in some banana paste and set themselves up as virility shamans, getting dramatically better results than the resident witchdoctors. Virgins could be demanded in payment, a large hut with food and marijuana laid on.

And when supplies run low, villagers could be told it was time to ‘commune with the gods’ while you jumped on a bus to the nearest big-city pharmacy.

The Lonely Planet has long told travelers to carry sweets and school pens with them to give out to kids (and now we suffer the excited screams of gangs of kids desperate for biros and bonbons) – so why not take a little extra something for the elders, too?

As travelers we’re often too concerned with what we can get from a place. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about what we can give…

Tom has been traveling non-stop since the age of 18 and co-founded Road Junky in 2004. Follow him @tomglaister

He’s the author of Hand to Mouth to India, an account of hitchhiking from England to India with no money and which will soon be rereleased by Road Junky Books.

Tales of a Road Junky featuring tales of breaking people out of jail in Delhi, selling fake Rolexes in Japan and other adventures in Israel and Brazil will be out later this year.

He also writes fiction for anyone who never really grew up and his latest novel is Bozo and the Storyteller – download the audio book for free or even buy a copy…

Back to Top - More Afghanistan Articles - Print this page