I am very fond of travelling and I love to explore new places. Visiting different places is my hob by and my father always helps me in arranging trips despite his busy schedule. I have seen many places in Pakistan but the trip to Swat valley is nothing less than a beautiful dream for me. Today I wish to share with you an interesting and enthusiastic journey to the beautiful Swat valley. My excitement knew no bounds when I learned that we were going to Swat. To add fun and to lessen our tension, we planned to travel in our own car.
We started our journey at 5:00am from our city Layyah, in southern Punjab. After an exhausting journey, we reached Kohat, a city in NWFP, to pick my younger brother from Cadet College Kohat. We then proceeded towards Peshawar, the capital of NWFP.
We reached Peshawar at 3:00 in the afternoon, and proceeded to the hotel. The next day we resumed our journey to Swat valley. Our first stay was in Mingora, a small city of Swat valley. On the way we passed from the cities of Chasadda, Mardan, Dargai, Bat Khela and Bari Kot.
Besides being a beautiful valley, Swat is historically interesting as well. It offers hundreds of archaeological sites spanning 5000 years of history. For the sportsman and trekkers, it offers good fishing and hiking opportunities.
Saidu Sharif and Mingora are twin towns, two kilometres apart. Saidu Sharif is the administrative capital of Swat division while Mingora is the district headquarters and main bazaar area. Both are 990m above sea level.
We reached Mingora after a five-hour drive, and proceeded towards the hotel, which is at a distance of 2km from the main city. The hotel itself was very beautiful and worth seeing building. The building was very old, built in the 19th century. The hotel has a small zoo and some shops of its own. We had lunch there and then I went out with my mother to buy some items from the shops.
We spent the whole day there and the next day we went out for our next point, Kalam. On the way to Kalam, we saw Swat Museum which is on the east side of the street, halfway between Mingora and Saidu. The museum is a worth seeing place for visitors especially for history lovers.Mingora’s main market is a nice place for shopping. It’s just like shopping malls in big cities like Karachi and Lahore.Afterwards, we visited Islampur, which is a village two kilometres off the main Saidu-Marghazar road, where visitors can see handloom weaving and buy hand-woven shawls and blankets.
At 12:00 noon, we reached Kalam. On the way to Kalam, a road turned to the most important ski-resort of Pakistan, Malam Jabba. We reached there after a three-hour drive from Mingora. The road of Malam was very dangerous for driving, especially for untrained drivers. I was very scared during the whole journey to Malam Jabba.
The next point or small town on the way to Kalam is Khwazakhela, which is about 30 km from Mingora on the east bank of Swat River. Khwazakhela is the largest commercial centre in this part of the valley. From there the view of Swat River is too beautiful.After that we reached Miandam — a small summer resort at 1,800 metres, 10 kilometres up, a steep side valley and 56 kilometres from Saidu Sharif. This is a good place for walkers. The most attractive thing for visitors is the orchards of apples, pears, honey and other fruits.
Another resort we visited was Madyan. It is a tourist resort on the Swat River. At 1,321m above the sea level, it is not as cool as Miandam, but it expands over a large area and has many shops. Antique and modern shawls, traditional embroidery, tribal jewellery and carved wooden items are sold along the main street.North of Madyan is Swat Kohistan where walking is not recommended without an armed guard.
From Madyan, we went to Bahrain, which is 10 kilometres north of Madyan and only slightly higher, at above 1, 400 metres. It is another popular riverside tourist resort, with bazaars worth exploring for their handicrafts. It is about 29 kilometres away from Kalam. The road was dangerous, so we hired a taxi from Bahrain and left our car at the taxi stand there. Then we started our journey to Kalam. We reached Kalam in one hour. We saw many waterfalls on the way to Kalam and I captured most of them in my camera. Kalam is about 2,000 metres above sea level and the valley provides rooms for a small but fertile plateau above the river. We reached there in the evening and checked in a hotel. As our hotel was situated in the main market, after having dinner, I went to the bazaar with my father. We came back at 11:00pm and went to sleep.
The next day we planned to go to Ushu River, I had heard that the place was very beautiful but the way to the river was very dangerous, as after Kalam there was no metallic road, but I persuaded my family to go there at the cost of our lives.We hired a jeep and went for Ushu River and a waterfall there. Thank God we didn’t meet any accident in our whole journey.
Beyond Kalam the road divides. A dirt road follows the Ushu and Utrot rivers. All was going well, but we all were afraid as well as thrilled which increased the fun of the journey. Anyways after an hour, we reached at a glacier. There we spent some time and then decided to go back to avoid further risk of the dangerous journey. We came back to our hotel in the same jeep.
This ended our beautiful journey and the next day we departed for our hometown bringing with us the beautiful memories of the Swat valley. ?
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