A daring Brit YouTuber known for venturing into “the places you probably shouldn’t” admitted fearing for his life when Taliban fighters examined his backpack during a precarious Afghan excursion.
Backpacker Ben, a globetrotting former personal trainer, has visited everywhere from Ethiopia to Peterborough in his quest for boundary-pushing exploits.
Yet it was his meticulous emergency preparations on one particular journey that almost brought his world crashing down.
Narrating his ordeal to the Grapplers’ Perspective Podcast, Ben recounted his harrowing experience in Afghanistan: “We landed in Kabul …and I was thinking ‘What have we done? There were Taliban everywhere. They were walking around with RPGs, guns you name it. Their flags were everywhere.”
Despite initial fears, his first day unfolded without incident. However, the situation escalated on the following day amidst the rugged Afghan mountains where Taliban insurgents conducted a thorough search of the visitors’ belongings, peculiarly mistaking Ben’s hairdryer for a potential weapon.
But the tension peaked due to an incidental prank. Ben shared the mishap that occurred after he jokingly placed a condom in his friend’s backpack: “They were going through his backpack, and they looked at [the condom] and start shouting ‘Haram, Haram!’ [forbidden].
“I thought ‘S***, I hope they don’t know what it was,’ but they knew what it was. We were all s******g ourselves. Eventually after about half an hour, it all calms down we drive off and go to the next town which is in a mountain region.”
Ben and his companions, including their Afghan interpreter, found themselves in a former US compound now under Taliban control, recounting: “There were armed guards everywhere …they are all staring at us they’ve all got RPGs, massive beards, guns …and we get led up to this room.”
At this juncture, Ben was bracing for a decade-long stint in an Afghan prison, yet remarkably, amidst formidable language hurdles, he and his friend managed to assure a formidable Taliban commander of their non-journalistic intentions.
Following this precarious confrontation, they not only won over the commander but also obtained passes that allowed for smooth sailing through checkpoints during the remainder of their journey.
