Survival & Maintenance
Dress codes – to Bling or Not to Bling?
Exercise opportunities, tailors, dry cleaners, hair & beauty salons, travel agents, airport transport &, travel tips
Dress codes: long (ie full length) skirts and longsleeved, loose tops plus a headscarf for women. Trousers are ok if worn with a long tunic (the idea is not to even show the outline of a leg….), but long skirts are optimal.
Men should not wear shorts even while jogging or exercising. And women should not even contemplate it.
Fitness Centres and Beauty Parlours
Basically, get through it, enjoy, and do the maintenance elsewhere in the world. However, if you feel the need….
There is a fitness centre at the Intercontinental Hotel – membership only. Currently the swimming pool is only open to men.
Rokhsar Beauty Parlour Flower Street. This is one of the better beauty parlours in town (all-women), and slightly pricier than the run-of-the-mill ones. Waxing, threading, make-up, hair styling, washing and cutting, manicure, pedicure and henna.
Thai Traditional Massage Tel: 070 29 7557. The Thai massage service is offered by one of the women working at Lai Thai restaurant. The traditional Thai massage incorporates acupressure and joint-loosening techniques, and is done through clothing. The expert masseuse, who has more than ten years’ experience, uses her weight to manipulate the body; the end result purports to improve blood circulation, boost the immune system and flush out toxins caused by stress.
Wahida Assa 2 Guesthouse, Shahre Naw; tel: 070 28 7360. Wahida runs a beauty parlour at this guesthouse, and also describes herself as a ‘mobile beauty parlour’ for women only at their homes. She only uses imported beauty products, offering facials, pedicures, manicures, hair cuts and blow dries, waxing and massages.
A professional massage is also available, by appointment only (tel: 070 28 8208) at Ming Ming’s, off the Kolola Pushta main road pass the UNICA Guesthouse.
Laundry & Dry Cleaning
The Serena Hotel
Communications
Local GSM Mobile phones and top-up cards can be bought at the airport, central post office and Intercontinental Hotel. Handset and SIM card ready to go costs about $300. The quickest place to get more minutes on your phone is at the Intercon. Approximate costs of calls at time of writing - local calls 10 cents a minute; 56 cents a minute to call the US and Canada; 58 cents a minute to call Europe; and 64 cents to call Pakistan. Quite different from the early days of Sat-phone monopoly. www.afghanwireless.com
Check your email at the AWCC Internet Café in the basement of the Intercontinental Hotel, with its high-speed connection, printing and scanning facilities. Open 07:00–21:00 daily for (at time of writing) US$5 an hour and US$3 for half an hour. Printouts will cost you about a dollar a page.
Courier Services
DHL (http://www.dhl.com) Wazir Akbar Khan, Street 10, House 310; tel: 070 27 6362/63, 020 2101891; .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Open 08.00–18.00 every day. There’s also a DHL office at the Mustafa Hotel and at Bagram air base. DHL have daily flights to Afghanistan.
Federal Express (http://www.fedex.com) Karte 3, Khai Street, House 326; tel: 070 28 6028/29, 020 2500525. Open 08.00–18.30, closed Fridays.
TNT (http://www.tnt.com) Turabaz Khan Crossroads; tel: +93 70 27 6503, 020 2200266. Open 08.00–17.00, closed Fridays.
Signs of Hope, Roadside Market Preparing for Eid
Photo by Kerry Saner and Palwasha Kakar from IRSS-USA
Traveller Tips
• Bring dollars but pay in Afghanis.
• Expect planes to leave late.
• Allow extra time to get through airport security.
• Make sure you have all, and the correct, required exit permits. You will not be
allowed to leave if not.
“Comfort Blankets & “Clutching at Straws” – there are times for even the most seasoned of travelling International Citizens, when you yearn for the familiar, in a sea of stress and obligations…..
(Question: is the number of comfort blanket spots correlated to the difficulty of living in a place – or an indicator of its sophistication?)
• KitKats and whisky – wherever you can find them
• Home made icecream in summer along the Kabul river is among the best
handmade ice cream ever. The taste of khawa and ginger, and superb for
Kabul’s hot and dry summer.
• Baguettes and raisin bread from the Asree Store and Bakery, half way down
Flower Street next to the Marco Polo Blue Palace Store.
• And of course, the Serena Pastry Shop, for freshly baked pastries and bread,
from 7am till 8pm, in the Serena Hotel, Froshgah Street 0799-654000 ext.
4560
• International newspapers from Hamid Iqbal Co Ltd, Street 14, Number 4, in
Wazir Akbar Khan (tel: 070 27 7629), who can deliver international
publications to your door.