Kabul

Capital of Afghanistan. Dervla Murphy’s base for weeks in Full Tilt.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Full Tilt	Dervla Murphy	setting	Her Afghan base: permits, embassies, a sheepskin coat and rest for broken ribs.
On the Hippie Trail	Rick Steves	setting	Chicken Street and the Sina Hotel: Rick explores alone, sees the revolution’s signs and talks with a professor.

Full Tilt — Dervla Murphy (1965)

Source: Full Tilt - Ireland to India With a Bicycle · Original · Readwise highlight

Kabul reminds me of Sofia in that the traffic is virtually nil by capital city standards; you can cycle happily around with only camel caravans, herds of pack-donkeys and droves of fellow-cyclists to impede the way.

• Role: setting
• In the book: She arrives by bus at 10 p.m. after another road block. She spends weeks here: registering with police for permits, meeting embassy staff, buying a sheepskin coat, being photographed for the Kabul Times, changing money in a back-alley bakery, and later resting her broken ribs. She leaves for Jalalabad on 10 May.
• Why it matters: Kabul is her base in Afghanistan, from which she plans the Bamian trip and where she reflects on Western aid, foreign colonies and the Afghans she has met.

On the Hippie Trail — Rick Steves (2025)

Source: On the Hippie Trail · Original · Readwise highlight

We took a cab to touristy “Chicken Street” and found the nicest hotel we could—the not-too-nice, but ok, Sina Hotel.

• Role: setting
• In the book: They take a cab to touristy Chicken Street and stay at the Sina Hotel. With Gene ill, Rick explores Kabul alone, sees signs of the recent People’s Revolution, shares a meal with a professor and reflects on ethnocentrism.
• Why it matters: The source of the book’s lesson that “we’re all civilized just the same”.