Day-1 Tuesday 17-June-2014
Left Islamabad at 6.00AM via GT Road to Hassan Abdal, no major traffic encountered on GT Road or Hassan Abdal
7.15AM reached Haripur till then no usual city traffic -sailing through dense areas quickly
8.00AM reached Abbotabad and had a tea break -we brought tea with us, stopped at road side at one of the scenic place before city and enjoyed tea
9.30AM reached Mansehra, didn't take the City By-Pass because we needed to take KKH, we caught city traffic in Mansehra and lost about 20-30 minutes in busy bazars/mandies
10.40am reached Shinkiari
11.15am reached Battal
11.20 reached Chatter Plain we saw a PTDC Motel board there (anyone having experience?)
12.10pm reached Batgram, this is where the tribal (lawless taste) started.
12.55pm reached Thakot
2.15pm reached Besham PTDC Motel -weather was hot, we went for Continental hotel there. Rate was 1,600 per room, we found local pushtoons groups turning TV volume full up and playing pushto songs and dancing -quite noisy so we made complaint to hotel management who some how managed to mute the noise.
night at besham was hot, no electricity, generator at hotel didn't function properly but we manage to fresh up and started journey next day early morning.
besham comes under Swat area so we witnessed traditional pushtoon culture, no females visible and if one is sighted they all look shocked
