A Brit tourist’s terrifying encounter with the Taliban left him “s*****g” himself, he admitted.
Ben Frier’s dangerous journeys to Syria and Iraq made his family worry and call him an “idiot.” Now he says he understands why they were so against him travelling to such high-risk destinations.
It comes after the 31-year-old caught the travel bug in 2018 following a trip to South East Asia and Australia. It gave himn a taste to explore the places “people don’t want to go.”
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But a run in with the Taliban in Afghanistan left him feeling less than brave.
(Image: Ben Frier / SWNS)
He said: “All of my friends and family told me I was an absolute idiot for going to Afghanistan, and for once I do get it.
“Obviously with the political stuff right now it’s very tricky, and people there weren’t used to foreigners so the Taliban guards were very sceptical and don’t speak English – it was very dangerous.”
The YouTuber, who shares his adventures with his 180k followers, explained that when he arrived in Afghanistan, he had to visit the Taliban offices to get a permit to travel within the country.
“It was pretty scary, we were there for three or four hours and things go through your mind,” he said.
“The UK have been fighting Afghanistan for many years, so although most of them were friendly, they all had guns and were just staring at us.”
(Image: Ben Frier / SWNS)
He called meeting the Taliban “one of the scariest moments” of his life.
But, Ben, who’s been jetting off to dangerous destinations since 2021, insists that most of the people he meets during his travels are “lovely.”
He said: “I wanted to see what it was really like, and see for myself how life is out there.
“The first place I went to like that was Pakistan. Everyone goes to India but no one goes to Pakistan, because we’re told it’s really dangerous and there’s lots of terrorists.
“But it was the opposite – they were the friendliest people you’d ever meet, I had a great time and I’ve been to Pakistan twice now.”
He says he wants to show people a different side to the locals on his YouTube channel ‘Backpacker Ben’.
“I go with an open mind and know for a fact that 99 percent of people in these countries are normal.
“They want to live normal lives but unfortunately grew up in a warzone.
“The places themselves are absolutely beautiful too.”
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