FEB 13 — After the days I spent on patrol with Malaysia’s MALCON ISAF 2 in the rural areas of Bamiyan building water filters, educating health officials and saving lives, I was glad to be back in the safety of Kiwi Base in the city of Bamiyan.

Bamiyan is actually one of the safest provinces in Afghanistan and this is due to its population of predominantly Hazarat people who fiercely reject the Taliban. They are Shiites and were terribly oppressed, hurt and killed during the rule of the Taliban. So walking the streets of Bamiyan city is really like a walk in the park compared to in Kabul.

Now that I was feeling a bit secure and safe, I wanted to do something that I had dreamed of since I was 15 years old. That’s right! I wanted to go and see for myself, with my own two eyes, the great Buddhas of Bamiyan.

I was apparently still under the responsibility of the Malaysian Armed Forces, and the commander, Lt Col Rusman Sanip, did not want to allow me to roam outside of the army base on my own (although I had spent all my time in Kabul alone before meeting up with them in Bamiyan!). He was kind enough to escort me together with a couple of security team members.

For the uninformed, the Buddhas of Bamiyan are the great statues carved out in the hills in Bamiyan way back in 507AD. Then the awesome Taliban came along and blew them up in 2001, a couple of months before 9/11. So right now, all that is left are the cavities where the statues used to stand. But I was awestruck nonetheless.

All that is left right now aside from the cavities are the feet of the statues and, of course, the rubble. The cave network around the cavities are quite beautiful too with numerous rooms that were used for prayers and meetings thousands of years ago. The walls of the rooms are filled with colourful wall paintings.

UNESCO has declared it one of their heritage sites and is now in the midst of efforts to restore the destroyed statues from the rumble that they have collected. When I was there, the rubble were already gathered and piled up according to which statue they belonged to. It all looked like piles of stones and rocks to me and I can’t imagine how they can piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle but I hope they succeed.

After visiting the Buddhas, I went walking around the area with the commander and we came upon a whole village carved out of the cliffs and caves there. We decided to stroll through the village along its extremely steep lanes and walkways. Although the village looked quaint from a distance, up close, it was obvious that the people living here did not enjoy a very good quality of life.

One of the villagers we talked to, Mohammad Musa, invited us to visit his home and to see how his family lives. His whole family of six all live in one small cave and another one outside is used as a bathroom. The living room where the whole family cooks and sleeps in is so small that I could hardly take a good photograph even with a wide-angle lens.

“My father, grandfather and great-grandfather lived here. Now I am living here. It’s like living in history,” said Musa.

Musa works as a general worker in the market in Bamiyan city. He hardly makes enough to support his family and wishes that the government would assist them in some way or other. What is ironic is that the government is offering to help the villagers by relocating them to better housing. This is actually because the area has been declared a UNESCO heritage site.

However, the problem is that the new site for the village is situated very far away from the city. And with the terrible road and transport system in the province, the villagers will face difficulties travelling to work in the city. And without work, they won’t be able to support and feed their family.

I tried getting comments from the government, but unfortunately, the governor of Bamyan, Dr Habiba Sarabi, was away at that time. I also attempted to get comments from NGOs who I was thinking would be independent. Although I met with them, no one was willing to go on the record to comment on this.

In the meantime, Musa and his family still have to struggle to live. In the winter, the temperatures in Bamiyan can go as low as -20 Celsius and he says that although they use a heater, it is no use when it comes to weather so harsh. And with no running water, they get sick very often too.

Musa shows me to the small cave that they use as a bathroom. It is half the size of the one they use as a living room and, no surprise, has no plumbing system. There’s just a hole dug in the ground that was filled with dried up faeces and waste. Water is carried up daily from a well somewhere down hill. Sometimes, the bathroom turns into a kitchen too when the smoke gets too unbearable in the living room.

“My family and I are not in the best health conditions. I have kidney problems and my children have respiratory problems. I am very sad for my family,” he lamented.

Before leaving, the commander and I each handed over some Afghanis (Afghan currency) to Musa. He smiled and thanked us. A small crowd had gathered to see what was happening around Musa’s home and when they saw that he had received some cash, they all started to offer to show me their homes. Unfortunately, the commander and I couldn’t afford to help the entire village with cash.

The next day, I left Bamiyan for Kabul to catch my flight back to Malaysia. The time I spent in Afghanistan was more than just an experience. It confirmed my belief that war and violence is something that every single person in the world should work to eradicate. I also learned that if human beings do not embrace, accept and understand the differences we have in religion, culture, history and ethnicity, the world would be a terrible place to live in.

But I also learned that people, no matter where they are and in whatever conditions they are living in, will always have hope for a better life. And with hope, I am confident that there will always be a way.

This is the final part of Zan Azlee’s "Guide to Afghanistan: The Adventures of a KL-ite." View videos of his adventures here.