It is illegal in Afghanistan for Afghans to purchase, possess, transport, pour, or serve alcohol. It is not illegal in Afghanistan for expatriates to do any of these things.

You can, therefore (and contra yesterday - though we did cheer), find liquor rather easily - if you're an expat: most restaurants that cater to the expatriate community have at least a selection of wine and beer, and there are a few bars in Kabul. However, as most of the workers in these places are Afghan, actually ordering a beer forces your waiter to break the law. Not that this consideration stops anybody.

There is a black market in liquor among Afghans, but how large is difficult to assess. Much in the way drug dealers used to whisper in my ear when I was a longhair, I've been offered "wine, whiskey, vodka - anything you want". And I'm told that the musician community acquired a serious taste for vodka during the Communist era, so serious that musicians too young to remember the communists insist on taking part of their payment in it. Is that true? I have no idea. I've now seen Afghan musicians twice and didn't see them drink anything other than tea.

I am also told that if you drive out of the city toward Bagram, there is a store that only allows in expatriates. They apparently stock every kind of liquor and luxury food that dreams of paradise demand. No one who has waxed lyrical to me about this elysium has ever been there though. Perhaps this is the sort of legend lonely, homesick, hungry people need to go on. If I really wanted a taste of home, they say to themselves, I could hop in the car and head to the supermarket . . .