The U.S. has simple advice for any American contemplating a trip to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran or Venezuela - "do not travel.”
But U.S. teenager Arjun Malaviya (@arjunmalaviya17) revealed to The Independent that these countries yielded "the most surprisingly positive experiences" during an epic globetrotting adventure that saw him give English lessons in Iraq, take tea with the Taliban and become the youngest solo traveler to visit 100 countries.
His goal hadn't been to break records, though.
Arjun, now 19, set off from his home in Westlake Village, California, on his 17th birthday in July 2023 with the aim of "seeing the world alone, before turning 20".
"The biggest thing was just to go explore different cultures, see different people, learn about the world and develop my personal skills,” he said.
Arjun funded the trip by working as an administrative assistant and giving tennis lessons to local juniors, saving up $22,500, enough to clock up 118 countries over 13 months. And his parents were supportive of his plans, that saw him visit various regions and check off as many countries as they could.
"So, my last region was the Greater Middle East, countries like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria,” Arjun told The Independent. “I felt like at that point, I had to use all the skills from the first 10 months for those last three months of travel, to be able to not only survive, but to appreciate those places."
These are undoubtedly challenging regions for any traveler, but what lay in store for Arjun turned out to be a series of unforgettable experiences, including amiable chats with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a country that proved to be remarkably straightforward to enter.
"Everything was very simple for Afghanistan. For my June 2024 trip, I got a visitor's visa in 15 minutes at the Afghan embassy in Peshawar, Pakistan, because the visa has to come from a Taliban-controlled embassy,” the globetrotter explained.
"When they saw that I was American, I had to meet with a Taliban official, who asked me why I was going. I told him I wanted to explore the culture and see the nature, and he said 'OK' and let me in."
Arjun stressed, though, that his aim wasn't to hang out with a terrorist organization.
"I want to be clear. When I went, the goal was not to meet with the Taliban,” he said. “I acknowledge them as a terror group. I don't support what they do in any way. I think morally, they're bad people.
"But I came to realize that the more extreme people are higher up in the Taliban, and that for a lot of Afghans being in the Taliban is just a day job like being a police officer would be for an American or Brit.
"So, they don't have crazy views. They have wives and daughters and want them to be educated.
"When I spoke with them, they said they're doing it for financial purposes, because there aren't many other opportunities."
While the U.S. government warns that Americans face the risk of "wrongful detention and kidnapping" in Afghanistan, Arjun found that those he met there were more interested in finding out what his life was like in America than holding him hostage.
"They were curious when they saw me. They'd say, 'Hey, you look different. We see you speaking English. What is your daily life like? Why have you come to visit?'"
Arjun also pointed out that it's more or less impossible to visit Afghanistan and not meet the Taliban.
"They're everywhere. There are at least four of them on every block. You cannot escape them,” Arjun said.
Chatting with them and accepting their offers of tea was out of fears for safety and, as Arjun explained, he “wasn’t going to use those opportunities to protest against what they do morally.”
“I just went with the flow, for lack of a better phrase, for my own safety, because I didn't know what would happen if I said no,” the 19-year-old said. "But of course, my main mission was to interact with the common people, the locals."
Afghanistan wasn’t the only country he visited that has a rocky relationship with the U.S. Recalling his trip to Iraq, Arjun described it as a "wonderful seven days." He explored Saddam Hussein's palace, ate "extremely fresh and cheap food" and "walked around Baghdad at three in the morning without feeling unsafe."
Venezuela, meanwhile, was a "wonderful experience," though Arjun recalls that he had a scare at the airport, where he was detained by security officials who thought he was "fleeing parental control.”
Arjun explained: "This is the reason they gave me. I don't know how many Americans they've held as political bargaining chips, if that was also part of the reason. They held me in a windowless locked room for two hours, but released me when I asked them to check the CCTV footage showing that I'd arrived on my own, too."
The other out-and-out scare Arjun experienced was on November 22, 2023, when he took a day trip from Moldova to Ukraine, where he had to shelter from a Russian missile strike.
The intrepid teen booked a 4 a.m. bus to Odessa, Ukraine, and was told to download an app that tells you the closest bomb shelters.
The alarm sounded when he arrived and he spent four to five hours taking cover in the Odessa Opera House, but then "went sight-seeing for the rest of the day."
His father said: “This was the only time in his travels where we had to have a conversation with him and remind him about taking calculated risks.”
If you're getting the distinct feeling that Arjun always looks on the bright side of life, you'd be absolutely right.
He even enjoyed sleeping on the floor of a hut in a Papua New Guinea fishing village that he booked through Facebook, and he revealed he "woke up with two crabs on the bed" in Tonga — a "lovely experience, no issues at all."
"I slept a few nights in Australian airports because the hotels were far above my budget. I would go sight-see and come back to the airport and sleep in the terminal. Stuff like that was interesting,” the teen said.
When I pushed Arjun to name the "least welcoming" countries, he wouldn't be drawn, claiming that "if a place seemed like it wasn't welcoming, it was because the people just didn't know me."
He added: "There was not a single country where I felt like they were just staring at me, where I felt like an outsider."
Arjun confessed that there were some disappointments.
"I was disappointed with some places that were too touristy, because I didn't find them interesting,” Arjun recalled. "Singapore, Colombia, Thailand… when I went to the grocery store, every brand was American. I felt like I was in the U.S."
Back in the States, Arjun reflected that the odyssey had changed his perspective on life and inspired him to motivate others to follow in his footsteps.
"After visiting 118 countries, I noticed people are more similar than different. They could be Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian… but if you leave religion and politics aside, I noticed a lot of people want the same thing. They want food, water, education, work, a better life for their kids than they had for themselves," the globetrotter said. "They want to be able to explore either their own country or another country. They want to meet new people, have conversations, grow as a person. So that really changed my outlook."
Arjun's message to anyone keen to explore but feeling nervous about the prospect is that they'll reap benefits from doing it for years to come.
The traveler believes that his global roaming helped him "feel comfortable being uncomfortable," aided his negotiation skills (in Venezuela, for example) and his situational awareness.
"Traveling will help you live a more wholesome and purposeful life. It's like investing in something to get a better return," he said. "You spend a little bit of time traveling and exploring, developing these skills, and it's going to help you throughout your life to have more purpose."
And what's next for Arjun? That would be a visit to Russia.
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