Posted Monday, November 15, 2004; 21:00 HKT
The lobby of the Mustafa Hotel in Kabul has become slightly more sedate. Gone are the "wet burqa" contests and the kind of parties where one drunk tried to open a stubborn bottle of Uzbek vodka with a blast from his revolver. The bullet holes in the ceiling—there were more than a few—are now tiled over with thousands of tiny mirrors, and, sadly, money has obviously been spent to make the place look swankier. But the Mustafa still has its wonderfully exotic clientele of rugged journalists, down-and-out mercenaries, and war profiteers. Spend five minutes in the lobby and you'll see more tattooed muscle rippling past you than in a day at a Californian beach. The whole place embodies a strange mix of violence and hospitality that's typically Afghan—and American, too. As human theater goes, it's far more captivating than potted palms and string quartets.

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October 11, 2004	July 26 - August 2, 2004	April 26, 2004