HERAT, Afghanistan -- Car bombs, chaotic airports, and the prospect of evening tea with a warlord might make most tourists a little queasy. Not Gertrude Lysinger.
''It's been interesting," said the 84-year-old grandmother from Philadelphia as her tour bus whizzed through western Afghanistan, passing murals of Mujahedeen martyrs and an abandoned fighter jet. ''Very interesting."
While thousands of US soldiers are scouring Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden and Taliban insurgents, a tiny group of Americans is crisscrossing the country on a more peaceful adventure.
For the past fortnight, a dozen tourists -- average age 74 -- have been touring Afghanistan by bus and plane. Moseying along the Silk Route, marveling at mosques, and poking around ancient ruins, the plucky pensioners have spurned warnings from friends, family, and the US State Department, whose sternly worded travel advisory speaks of possible kidnappings, assassination, and a general ''critical" threat to American lives.
''My kids think we are nuts," acknowledged Richard Glenn, 79, a retired community college president from Ojai, Calif., over breakfast one morning, sitting beside a table of Turkish construction workers.
''My daughter said, 'You're flying into a war zone. I'm never going to see you again'," said Mary Lloyd, 66, a housewife from Phoenix. ''She asked for my last words."
Never mind the perception that Americans prefer to stay within their borders, these unflappable tourists are seasoned travelers. Some have more than 90 countries under their belts from ''soft adventure" tours. They are not, in Glenn's words, ''cruise people."
''It's a waste of time," he sniffed. ''You sit on a boat and eat, and never see the country. We want to see Afghanistan before they start putting up Hiltons and McDonalds. We want to get out and smell the land."
Still, few have holidayed in a land as turbulent as this, and a busload of Americans would surely make a juicy target for bin Laden, who has long been rumored to be hiding out near the border with Pakistan.
Instead of hostility, however, the group has encountered only the warmest generosity from ordinary Afghans. One stranger approached them in a bazaar with an invitation to eat in his house; others have offered countless cups of tea -- the traditional mark of hospitality.
''We make quite a stir wherever we go," said Dick Bogard, 66, a retired computer salesman from San Francisco and grandfather of 10. ''It's been very touching."
Nonetheless, they have not been spared perils. On the second day of their tour, a massive car bomb exploded half a mile from their Kabul guesthouse, killing three Americans and at least nine others. ''That was scary," Lloyd said. ''It sounded like it was just outside the wall. I thought they were coming to bomb us."
Later, they traveled west to Herat, where they discovered this city nearly had been engulfed in a battle between the governor and a rival warlord just two weeks before. Undeterred, the group visited the beautiful blue mosque, its crowded bazaar, and then had a late-night audience with the governor himself, Ismail Khan.
''He told us he didn't want to be called a warlord," said Bogard. ''It was a very powerful experience."
Transportation, not terrorists, was the group's greatest challenge, according to tour leader Gary Wintz, who last visited Afghanistan in 1978. Airports were chaotic, hotel bookings mysteriously disappeared, and he once had to buy 13 stools after a flight was delayed for hours. The director of tourism in Herat presented them with his latest brochures, which had been printed in 1977.
''This is one of the most difficult countries on earth," said Wintz, 57. ''But I think this is an exceptional group."
The tour also prompted reflections on America's image abroad. Connie Pencall, 75, a retired high school teacher, wore a ''Kerry/Edwards" badge everywhere she went.
Although other nationalities have toured Afghanistan since the Taliban fell in 2001, Janet Moore, a Briton, had the idea to bring the first Americans. Inspired by Afghanistan's rich heritage, the California-based tour operator was also drawn by family links.
Her stepfather, Peter Sanders, was a colonial officer who lost an arm fighting Pashtun tribesmen in 1939. After his death last year, Moore traveled to Afghanistan, accompanied by her 70-year-old mother and 5-year-old daughter.
The three were overwhelmed by the hospitality of the people and the ''magic" of the place, Moore said in an e-mail: ''Almost nothing went right. . . . But the trip was extraordinary. There is no other word to describe it."
After initially filling 20 places for the Afghan tour, at $6,340 each, eight people dropped out as violence escalated in the run-up to the scheduled Oct. 9 presidential election. The others, fully informed of the security situation, insisted on traveling.
''This is my first visit, and it's probably my last," Lysinger quipped.
The determined dozen's Afghan adventure ended Sept. 11. After flying over the spectacular and legendary Khyber Pass, the group entered Pakistan; they flew out of the capital Islamabad on Sept. 15 and arrived back in the States the next day.
''Don't worry," Wintz had said before they left. ''We'll be OK. And if we pass Osama, we'll give him a ride -- and then turn him over to the authorities."
Declan Walsh is a freelance writer in the Afghanistan region.
