Author:  Munir Mehraban
Photo credit:  Munir Mehraban

On an official training trip to Kandahar on September 2017 for a week, I booked a room in a hotel located in the old bazaar of Kandahar City. The hotel, named Royal Hotel, is a five star hotel, as per hotel management. The hotel’s cost was $70/night. Royal Hotel has three floors, with a total of 42 rooms; two game-zones, a coffee shop, and four conference rooms. It was an amazing experience for me as there were both local and foreign guests and I enjoyed their company. There were also 6 waiters and 3 gate guards, a receptionist, manager of the hotel and a cook.

While I was staying at the aforementioned hotel, I made a new discovery, one that pertains to my own culture: I noted that people were coming and going to the wedding hall of the Royal Hotel for attending their respective wedding parties during the days and evenings, so I asked the hotel manager about this observation and he told me that per month, people book 10-15 wedding parties at the Royal wedding hall and that each wedding party is attended by nearly 400-500 male and female guests.