The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet review a monument to Afghan resilience

"As recently as the early 1970s, at the height of the hippy trail, as Afghanistan filled with travellers high on weed and low on cash, Kabul was still known as the Paris of the east. Memoirs of the time describe a world of miniskirts, jazz clubs, bowling alleys and ice-cream parlours. This world was linked to a poor but extremely beautiful rural hinterland where life revolved around the vine harvest and the annual arrival of nomad caravans from the Wakhan corridor."

"Most poignant of all are images of the priceless treasures of the Kabul Museum, almost of all which are now missing or destroyed, after looting during the mujahideen takeover of Kabul in the 1990s and the smashing up of what remained by the Taliban in 2001. In such guidebooks, there was only one place to stay: the InterContinental. This is the finest hotel in Kabul of foreign correspondent Lyse Doucet's charming and often surprising memoir."

Mughals regarded Afghanistan as more refined than India and as the source of the region’s greatest poets, artists, calligraphers and miniaturists. As late as the early 1970s Kabul was known as the Paris of the East, hosting hippy-trail travellers and offering miniskirts, jazz clubs, bowling alleys and ice-cream parlours. The countryside remained beautiful, centered on vine harvests and nomad caravans from the Wakhan corridor. Guidebooks show royal levees, fashion shows, restaurants, tourists hunting Marco Polo sheep and fruit markets. Many Kabul Museum treasures are now missing or destroyed after looting in the 1990s and further wrecking in 2001. The InterContinental served as the city’s premier hotel with boutiques, salons and singers.

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