Welcome to Day 1 
Before we started the trip, we all knew about the forecast of coming week which was not promising at all and infact, 13-16 was a severe monsoon spell which was casting shadows over the start of tour.
We booked 11 seats in Daewoo for Lahore - Abbottabad journey for Rs. 1,390 / ticket. Time was 11 p.m. on 12 Aug night.
We all were there earlier as time given was 10:30 p.m. 
When we started to put the luggage in the bus, it was revealed that we were carrying 26 individual bags for a group of 12 which was kind of shocking :S But it was my mistake as i forgot to mention during planning phase that only 1 bag per person is allowed and max addition should be sleeping bag. Anyhow, now we had to travel with this load so took 26 tags from Daewoo personnel and started the Grand Trip of 2013
No shots during night journey and when we crossed Islamabad, the rain spell started. Chotey Hafiz sahib had to join us in Abbottabad as he was already in Nathia Gali with family. He reached there around 5:30 a.m. which was our expected arrival time but we were late by 1 hour due to rain. As we got near to Abbottabad, the rain got heavier.
I was continuously in touch with Rashid bhai @emmaar and Asif Raza @asifraza81 who were on road as well. Rashid bhai was ahead of us few hours while Asif Raza and company had started from Karachi and were in Multan yet due to some delays.
Finally, we reached Daewoo bus station in ABT around 6:30 a.m. and unloaded the luggage in heavy rain. Now next task was to arrange for ABT - Mansehra journey. Shuttle service of Daewoo charges Rs.20 per person but it doesn't have any luggage carrier which created trouble for us and our 26 bags.
Another issue was other passengers who also wanted to go to Mansehra but somehow we agreed terms with Manager and he allowed us to use one full shuttle service. We hired Bolan as well for the luggage and departed for Mansehra in continuous rain.
By now, another breaking news had reached us that one of the drivers was missing and had not reached yet at Mansehra Daewoo stop. And it got confirmed that he had ditched us and was making money somewhere in Naran. I kept calling him for 2 days but he never picked my phone. One driver was there since 6 a.m. and now we had to find another jeep in this rain so we decided to go to Balakot to arrange second jeep as there was no chance to find anything in Mansehra in this rain and that too in Eid holidays when everyone was going to Kaghan.
Balakot turned out to be a very long stay as we could not find a jeep for hours. If anyone was available then rates were unbelievable in the range of 4-6K per day without fuel :o
We again took help from Qari sahib and after 1.5 hrs got a call from him that he has arranged a person who is right now somewhere in between Kaghan and Paras and will contact us as soon as he reached Balakot. We gave our numbers and location and started waiting for that person from 11 a.m. onwards.
That dude never came neither contacted us till 3:30 p.m. and then we started to look for a jeep again as now i had lost hope that this person would ever come to Balakot. Besides, we were getting late and had already missed the opportunity to reach Chilas so now target was revised to reach Besham by dinner time.
Atlast, we got a jeep from Balakot for Rs.2700 / day without fuel and immediately started to pack our 26 bags
The departure was around 4 p.m. We got the diesel tanks filled at Balakot and started today's ride till Besham. We decided to use Jabba Pass in order to avoid traffic of Mansehra. The initial road of Jabba Pass looks like newly built with double lane. However, in second half, the road gets so narrow that it becomes village street and passes through residential areas of villages of Shinkiari.
We were at Shinkiari by 5 p.m. and started our journey on KKH. The rain stopped while we were in Balakot but started again as evening was approaching. We reached Besham at 9 p.m. while it was still raining.
Dinner was ordered and rooms were taken in hotel. It kept raining whole night and in the morning as well. We had some chit chat and group pool was initiated with first collection of funds
Night stay in hotel in Besham in continuous rain
