Word: serenas
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...mean that there's never an ideal time to visit Afghanistan, but the hardy business travelers and intrepid tourists who make the journey can at least stop worrying about finding a decent place to stay in the capital, Kabul. The city has unveiled its first luxury accommodation, the Kabul Serena Hotel (serenahotels.com), offering a sorely needed alternative to those somewhat disheveled media and diplomat haunts, the Intercontinental and the Mustafa, as well as to the dilapidated guesthouses where many visitors have had to hole...
...Costing $35 million to build, the Serena was erected over the shell of the old Kabul Hotel, destroyed in the civil war. The new property is a sealed world, insulated as far as possible from the daily difficulties of life in Kabul. At a cost of some $1.2 million a year, the hotel will run its own electricity generators?essential in a city where power often flickers on for only four hours every other day?and will treat its own water and sewage...
...Step into the Serena's marble lobby and the almost medieval street life of Kabul?with its open drains and mud-brick hovels?seems impossibly remote. The only reminders that you're in Afghanistan are the armed guards at the front door and the views from some windows into President Hamid Karzai's heavily fortified palace next door. So shiny and bright does the hotel seem in comparison with the rest of the country that locals are booking weekend stays. "We are already getting walk-in guests who are living in Kabul and feel like a getaway," says sales director...
...What they find within the Serena's walls are uncommon luxuries by local standards. The 177 rooms come with modern furnishings, marble bathrooms, satellite TV and Internet connections on demand. Guest amenities include a business center, a health club, a swimming pool and a beauty salon. There's an international buffet restaurant, the Caf? Zarnegar, and, incongruously, an Asian specialty restaurant, the Silk Route, which offers Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian and Thai cuisine...
...ever there was clear evidence of the changes in U.S. society since the time of King, it is in the juxtaposition of the photos on your front and back covers. The back-cover ad, portraying Serena Williams as the strong, empowered woman she is, could not have been rendered in King's day. Today we take such portrayals of black women for granted. But they would have been impossible if not for the efforts of King and his movement. There is much more to do, but look how far we've come. CHARLES M. CORRELL Conway, Mass...