Welcome to Hotel Silk Road

A Japanese woman journalist brings delicate Japanese cuisine into the ravaged and beautiful landscape surrounding the historic Bamiyan Valley where once the great Buddhas stood

Aunohita Mojumdar Kabul/Bamiyan

It was the famous potato crop of Bamiyan's valleys that helped Hiromi Yasui build her hotel. The central highlands of Afghanistan produces little other than a good crop of potatoes and almost everything she needed to build her hotel in Bamiyan town had to be imported into the province - building materials, furniture, and furnishings for the hotel that now looks across the potato fields onto the famous Buddhas  - or what remains of them in the crumbling niches in the sandstone cliffs.
 
Transporting the goods was no easy task. Though the distance between Kabul, the capital, and Bamiyan town is a mere 237 km by the safe road across the Shiber pass, it is a backbreaking journey of 10-14 hours in a four- wheel drive, across a rutted track that jolts you up and down. The other southern road, through the Haji Gak, is shorter (177 km) and has seen many ambushes. It is used only by the brave or foolhardy. Neither road is asphalted, but is cratered, pitted and often stony with enormous wear and tear on the vehicles. Carrying materials into Bamiyan is expensive. To get concessional rates, Hiromi hired the trucks carrying potatoes to Kabul which would return empty to Bamiyan. Even so, it took all of four years as Hiromi and her husband scraped together the funds to build their dream hotel. And even when the furniture did arrive in the last year, most of it was broken, unable to survive the back-breaking drive.

Though put squarely on the international map by Taliban's decision to blow up the enormous Buddhas in 2001, Bamiyan remains an impoverished area with little in the way of development. Populated largely by the Shia Hazara community, who have traditionally faced social segregation, political marginalisation and economic deprivation, Bamiyan has no industry and till recently did not have even a kilometer of asphalted road. While internationally it was the destruction of the Buddhas which drew opprobrium, the Hazaras of Bamiyan's valleys had faced horrendous violence at the hands of the Sunni Taliban who were intolerant of the Shia community. There were several brutal massacres in which hundreds of Hazaras lost their lives and had their entire villages burnt down. Today, several mass graves stand mute testimony to those events though they attract little attention.

Post 2001, there have been plenty of projects for economic development, but the lack of an economic base and infrastructure due to years of neglect has meant that these small projects have remained limited in their contribution. However, Bamiyan continues to draw tourists and the provincial government has been keen to develop eco-tourism for some economic benefits for the local population.

The Buddha niches are still the main draw for international tourists. Though the graph of violence in the country has seen a sharp increase with the resurgence of the Taliban and other armed anti-government groups, Bamiyan remains relatively safe and largely insulated from the ongoing conflict. Combined with a local culture that is far more accepting of outsiders, Bamiyan allows foreign tourists a relaxed holiday and has become a must-see on the itinerary of foreigners working in Afghanistan or the small number visiting the country purely as tourists.