Is Afghanistan just a cool place to tell people you've been or something good to see? It's one of the raging topics on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree website where travellers share information on places they've been or plan to go.
Unsurprisingly, that question has raised a lot of macho chest-puffing. The first answer I come across reads: 'The main reason to go is the bragging rights. While they still have a few not destroyed historical sites, mostly it's just cool to be in a place called "Kandahar".'
Another traveller who had spent a month in Afghanistan replies: 'Everybody is armed and dangerous. I missed the bomb in Kabul's old bazaar by a few hours. It exploded outside the hotel where I stayed. Dust, rats, flies and heat. I didn't see any other extreme tourists, but I heard of a few.'
Others warn of landmines: 'If you see rocks painted half red and half white, stay on the narrow path marked by the white sides, you are standing in a minefield.' Another boasts of 'almost' being kidnapped, while several go on about how fantastically cheap everything is, from 70p 'for a huge hearty lunch' to a day's taxi hire for £10.
There are few things more irritating than the extreme traveller. 'When I was almost shot in XXX.' 'How I was poisoned and hospitalised in XXX.' 'How I escaped the earthquake in XXX.'
You know the type. The more dangerous the destination, the more compelled they feel to travel there. Their holiday destinations (such as Afghanistan) have to be on the Foreign Office's 'don't go there' list even to be considered. Any other form of travel is for those they sneer at as 'softies'.
Like extremists of any kind, the extreme traveller is the most selfish and despicable of all. Aid agencies in Afghanistan have complained that extreme travellers are taking up valuable resources - blagging their way on to aid planes and trucks to get around a country plagued by lack of infrastructure.
Maya Catsanis of Lonely Planet says the company has decided against publishing a guide book to the country because now is not the time to encourage tourists to go there.
It is also dangerous. The tourism minister was assassinated at Kabul airport earlier this year - not exactly a good advert for going there right now.
'Extreme travellers are taking a big personal security risk and could be having a negative impact on the communities they visit. While they may simply be curious, their adventure could be sapping resources which are badly needed elsewhere,' says Maya.
If you want an adventure, go to Pakistan, she suggests. But leave the Afghans a year or two to recover from war. Then take your holiday dollars there.
To follow online discussions visit www.lonelyplanet.com/thorn/branches.
· I'm disappearing from this page for the next four-and-a-half months on maternity leave. (Before you ask, it's a boy and he's expected in four weeks!) Deputy travel editor Joanne O'Connor will be stepping into my shoes while I'm away and Jane Knight will be doing Joanne's usual job. See you again in early April.
