Ibrahim.

I just finished traveling for 6 weeks in Afghanistan. I made the decision to use a guide so that the logistical requirements, such as permits and transportation wouldn’t be a daily stressor for me or consume a large majority of my time. I have traveled without guides in many countries around the world and I am aware some people enjoy the process of figuring everything out alone. I will tell you right now that my choice of using a guide in Afghanistan made my entire experience not only more enjoyable, but gave me access to parts of the country that would have been impossible if I was not in the company of a local. Although I used a few different local guides in different provinces of the country, I spent the majority of my trip with Ibrhim Ibrahim Mahrad. I spent a total of 31 days with him and traveled to 5 provinces with him. Ibrahim is from Ishkashim District in Badakhshan Province and is an expert in the mountains. At the time of my trip, the Wakhan Corridor was closed so Ibrahim and I spent 8 nights going into several remote villages throughout the province. Ibrahim was able to get us permission to camp every night in every destination we traveled to. The route we went is not heavily traveled and is new to tourism. This was an incredible experience and if you want a new unique trip I highly recommend it. The Wakhan Corridor is now open again and Ibrahim is experienced here as well. As great as he was in the mountains, what makes Ibrahim such an incredible guide, and was my reason for choosing to use him as my primary guide for all of Afghanistan, is his character. Ibrahim is an amazing person. I truthfully believe he is the most honest, kind, caring, selfless person I have ever met in my entire life. Not only did he make a huge impact on my trip, but my time with Ibrahim changed me as a person and has given me a new goal of how I should try and live my own life. One of Ibrahim’s best qualities as a guide is the fact that he is willing to admit that he doesn’t know everything about everywhere. With that said, what he does bring to the table is an unwavering determination to find out how to make anything possible. We went to several locations throughout the country that required a significant amount of behind the scenes logistical work by Ibrahim. I can tell you truthfully and honestly, that every single destination that I asked to go to, Ibrahim was able to make it happen. He constantly communicates with other guides, officials and locals to ensure that you have the proper permission, and in some cases when required security, to ensure your trip operates smoothly. This is not something I feel that I could have accomplished on my own even if I would have had 6 months instead of 6 weeks in the country. Another amazing quality of Ibrahim’s is his ability to be flexible and adapt to any change, at any time, that fits your needs and can improve the quality of your trip. Going into my trip, I had a rough itinerary of what I wanted to do. As my trip progressed, major changes were consistently needed and Ibrahim was truly happy to change anything to my liking. This is not the experience that I had with every guide in the country, or other countries as well. And again, a key point here is that he was truly happy to change at any time. Ibrahim wants to ensure that you are happy and having the experience that you want at all times. No matter where you are traveling in Afghanistan, whether it’s on the main tourist path or a brand new untraveled destination, if you are looking for a guide I could not recommend anyone more strongly than Ibrahim. He is a native Dari speaker, can effectively understand a good amount of Pashto, has great English speaking and writing skills and equally important, he is able to communicate with the local authorities extremely well. I will provide his WhatsApp number below. Shoutout to Azim Ziyahee for connecting me with Ibrahim. Azim was busy with other clients at the time of my travel and gave me the privilege of traveling with Ibrahim thought Badakshan. From there I requested Ibrahim to continue traveling with me independently.