Actually, no. Tourism in Afghanistan is a reality today, if only in very small numbers. But the potential is huge.

If you're old enough to remember to "good ole days" you may recall that Kabul, Afghanistan, was a well-oiled stop on the Hippie Trail. "In those days," according to an article in the Taipei Times, "the poor Central Asian nation had more than its share of long-haired Western youths who came seeking its stark beauty -- and searching for the world's cheapest high-grade hashish, sold openly on the rutted, unpaved alleys of Kabul's market district."

Tourism in Afghanistan has not died out completely. And even under the Taliban Afghanistan actually had a Minister of Tourism.

With the Taliban gone and Kabul (at least) at peace, the residents of Afghanistan's capital city hope that tourism will come again to the country. National Public Radio recently sent Special Correspondent Renée Montagne to visit the war-ravaged country. The result was a series called Re-Creating Afghanistan that aired on NPR's Morning Edition program. One of the places she visited was Chicken Street - the former hang out of the city's Western visitors back in the 1970's. Rug merchants have their shops open. Trinkets and souvenirs are on sale. And aid workers and military personnel meander up and down the street going in and out of the little one-story shops. Chicken Street's three most well known eating establishments have even re-opened to foreigners: The Golden Lotus (formerly The 25 Hour Club), The Khyber Pass, and The Marco Polo (with its Chinese decor).

Afghan exiles are also returning to the country -- some of them with money made in the West and a vision for their country's future. A former owner of the Golden Lotus now wants to build a hotel in Kabul, according to Montagne. Others see a future in trekking and skiing in the country; but of course the countryside will have to be de-mined first, and roads rebuilt. One individual -- perhaps an optimist, perhaps a realist -- put a timeframe to the process: within five years Afghanistan could again be a tourism center...

The entire series of stories by Montagne are available from NPR's archives as sound files in RAM format, just as they were aired in August. They are listed here:

• The Dream of Bringing Tourism to a War-Torn Land
• Kabul's Kharabat Street, a musical ghetto brought back to life since the downfall of the Taliban. (Hear Shahme and Nozar Akmahd perform a popular Afghan song.
• The Trials of Building a Business
• Unearthing a Cultural Heritage in a Lost City. An ancient Buddhist city has been discovered in Southwest Afghanistan. At an estimated 18 square miles, it may rival Angkor Wat in Cambodia...
• International Aid to Afghanistan. High expectations and hard realities.