inside kabul's intercontinental hotel, the wes anderson-style icon restored to its former glory

7/25/2019 Inside Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, the Wes Anderson-style icon restored to its former glory

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Inside Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, the Wes Anderson-

style icon restored to its former glory

By freelance contributor Danielle Moylan

Updated January 27, 2016 15:33:30

Photo: Mohammad Sarwari returned to Afghanistan from Australia to run the Intercontinental Hotel.

(Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

In 2006, on his first day as president of Kabul's crumbling Intercontinental Hotel, Mohammad

Sarwari was escorted to his filthy basement office.

He sat down on a dirty chair and the hotel staff filed in, applauded his arrival, and left.

Alone, Mr Sarwari, an Afghan-Australian then in his fifties and recently returned to his country of

birth, took in the layers of grime and the lurid yellow, red and black dcor.

"What is this place?" he asked himself.


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Photo: Guests checking into the hotel. (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

In Kabul's recent history, few things have been as constant as the government-owned

Intercontinental.

Afghanistan's first five-star hotel has been a dominant feature of the capital since 1969; a 200-room

symbol of luxury, high on a hill, overlooking the cacophony below.

In its first heady years, before the country lurched from coups into decades of war, it hosted

hedonistic disco parties and rooms overflowed with foreign tourists exploring a peaceful country.

Hotel neglected under Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

Like much of Kabul, the hotel was neglected during the Soviet occupation, decayed during the civil

war and rotted to the core under the Taliban.

By the time that rogue regime were chased out in 2001, only a small band of journalists, contractors

and spies braved the derelict accommodation.


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Today, still under Mr Sarwari's exacting management, the Intercontinental has been largely

restored.

Photo: The Intercontinental's concierge at the hotel's reception desk (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

It is a little faded in its grandeur, dated but elegant with marble and gilded walls, red velvet curtains

and sparkling chandeliers.

It is also quiet.

After decades of war, very few guests check in. Looking around, you cannot help but think it is

Kabul's own version of the Grand Budapest Hotel, made famous by Wes Anderson's eponymousmovie.

And equally, it is filled with characters such as the moustachioed, charming banquet manager


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Mohammad Ebrahim Zahedi, who has worked here since its beginning, along with Naser Ali, the

amiable pastry chef who walks with a limp.

Photo: Maintenance work underway on some of the hotel's interiors. (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

With no hotel experience, Mr Sarwari was astonished to be appointed president.

After returning to Afghanistan in 2004, he set up a private bank and joined then-president Hamid

Karzai's re-election team.

He admits he expected a government post with more clout.

Mr Sarwari first served Afghanistan as a diplomat in Moscow during the Soviet occupation in the

1980's.


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Photo: Guests being served at the Intercontinental Hotel. (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

He would listen to BBC dispatches detailing the daily bloodshed.

"It was always very sad news from Kabul," he said. "Our country was burning."

When the Taliban took power in 1996, he decided he could no longer represent nor return to his

country.

After a week's holiday in Sydney, at the suggestion of an Australian diplomat friend, Mr Sarwari and

his wife decided to start a new life.


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Photo: The hotel, built in 1969, has 200 rooms and sits on a hill above Kabul. (Supplied: Kiana

Hayeri) Attempt at the quiet life in Brisbane

Together with their three young children, they settled in a small flat in Indooroopilly, Queensland.

In 1997, Mr Sarwari found obtaining a refugee visa in Australia straightforward.

Within seven months, the family received permanent residency and were granted citizenship two

months later.

While his children adjusted quickly to their new life, the former diplomat found it more difficult his

English was limited and his degree was not recognised.


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But life slowly improved.

Photo: Mohammad Sarwari settled in Queensland as a refugee with his family after the Taliban took

control of Afghanistan in late 1996. (Supplied: Mohammad Sarwari)

He opened a successful import business and made friends.

"In Australia, you can get in your car and drive to Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Bondi Beach," he

said.

"When there is war, where can you go?"

In 2004, a friend implored him to come back to Afghanistan.

Guests would laugh or cry

Mr Sarwari was shocked at the state of his country. There were constant blackouts and hot water

was a luxury.

Still, he did not doubt that his future was in Afghanistan, not Australia.

"Australia is a fantastic country, very beautiful, very safe," he said.


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Photo: The traditional setting of a bedroom suite at the hotel. (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

"But this is my home ... it's my obligation to work for Afghanistan."

In 2006, the Intercontinental was in such a state that guests would either laugh or cry when shown

their rooms, Mr Sarwari said.

He threw himself into the task of cleaning up the establishment, personally showing staff how to

properly polish teapots.

Within a few years, the hotel buzzed again with foreign guests, important conferences and wedding

parties.


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Photo: A family at the hotel. (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri) Taliban gunfight at hotel

But the good times ended abruptly on June 28, 2011, when Taliban fighters stormed the building, as

guests enjoyed the warm summer evening at an alfresco party.

Mr Sarwari, who had left just 10 minutes before, watched helplessly from afar as the iconic hotel on

the hill was set ablaze and Taliban fighters traded gunfire with NATO helicopters.


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Photo: View from the hotel, including the pool area where guests at a party ran for their lives during

the 2011 Taliban attack. (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

Twelve people were murdered in the attack, including guests and hotel staff. Nine Taliban members

were killed.

Today, a large security contingent protect the Intercontinental.

"Six years ago we had around 60 police for security," Mr Sarwari said. "Now it's 140. Twenty years

ago we didn't even have one."


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Photo: A man standing with his family outside the hotel. (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

Mr Sarwari has not returned to Australia since he left in 2004.

He is acutely aware that many Afghans are desperate to move to Australia.

"There are no jobs, no security, no housing; the government is not taking care of them," he said.

"What else can they do?'


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Photo: Cleaning one of the spectacular rooms in the hotel. (Supplied: Kiana Hayeri)

He remains grateful to Australia for giving him and his family a chance.

"I will never forget that," he said. But he added: "I want to work for this country ... it's not lovely, it's

dirty and unsafe. But this is my home. I love it."

Gallery: Gallery Intercontinental Hotel in the 1970sTopics:tourism,travel-and-tourism,unre-

t-conflict-and-war,terrorism,human-interest,afghanistan,sydney-2000,brisbane-4000

First posted January 27, 2016 11:49:56

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inside kabul's intercontinental hotel, the wes anderson-style icon restored to its former glory

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