A week ago my family heard about the stories of heaviest snowfall in Muree in years but instead of going to muree we decided to take a road trip to Kalam instead, things generally most people won't do due to dangerous slippery roads and below freezing temperature. The fleet of cars we had were BMW X5 (3.0i petrol), Honda city MT (2014), Toyota corolla SE Japanese import (2002) and a Honda civic Vti (1997).
Anyhow we decided to pack our bags and leave for Kalam here's the breakdown of what we did:
Lahore: Left Lahore at 4:30 am after breakfast for Peshawar and reached Peshawar around 10:00 am generally small stops (3-4) 5 mins each. Reached Peshawar toll plaza by 10:00 am Google Maps was weird and guided us wrong so we took a uturn and took an exit from mardan interchange.
Mardan - Swat : the time we were travelling was almost the mid day and traffic was on peak so we drove 60-70kmph and reached swat around 3 pm.
Swat - Mingora: we started our journey for malam jabba from swat started to drive on hilly area and just when we reached near mingora we decided to have our lunch because it was near 5pm and we were all hungry anyhow we stopped had food took an hour rest and started our journey. Almost 12 hours of driving we all were extremely exhausted we dropped the plan of going to malam Jabba but instead we drove to mingora city took a room at swat serena for overnight. Room rent (9000/day breakfast included) since I'm a corporate client the rates we agreed upon were 4500 a night instead.
Next day decided to see what mingora really is because the weather was rainy and very pleasant minus the mud ofcourse, so we went to bazaar and man I was amazed tons of traffic and noncustom paid cars rolling around lol then we went to a workshop because the civics steering belt was making noise, the mechanic I went to was a pathan, roadside and extremely talented talked to me that where am I visiting from and all. I replied from Lahore and want to go to Kalam, he replied on this car I said yes we intend to take it with us there. He Said let me fix it for you upon 15 mins of work he made the car soundless and said promise me you'd drive slow and InshaaAllah Allah would save you I replied "yes I promise". I asked for the bill he said "kocha mehmaan Ho tum hamara, hum mehmaan say paisa nahi Leta. Punjab gaya to lahorio ney gardan per churi chalaya, ao hamaray Saath nashta karo" translation " you're our guests, we don't take money from guests. Lahories are thugs, come have breakfast with us". I replied " chai pila dain" translation "let's have tea instead" we had tea and I left for our hotel in mingora to reunite with my family.
Mingora - Malam Jabba: Upon a lavish breakfast that morning everyone decided that we would leave for Malam jabba and stay there overnight and leave for Kalam tomorrow. We checked out and left for Malam Jabba. Left at 12:00 we started our journey passed the city entered onto the road of Malam Jabba which was rough as hell took us 3 hours to complete the distance of 40 kms. Just when we reached the army check post of it army requested us to go back as Malam Jabba is a threat these days and they can't allow us. We all were heart broken but we couldn't do much at all so we left the area and sat at a dhabba for tea and decided to leave for kalam now.
Malam Jabba - Bahrain: we were on mingora road again had tea and left that place around 4pm for Kalam. Crossed first checkpost taken blessings from army and moved to other there were three in total at the last of checkpost army asked us where we were headed too we said to kalam. They said us to go to Bahrain only and not go further as they can't guarantee our safety there and the roads are blocked due to glaciers melting now and then. Heartbroken again but we decided to stay on course and at least make it to Bahrain and then take it from there. Had a small stop at some town on our way for lunch and had freshly made aloo samosas and pakoras with chay, half an hour stop here . Samosa 10rupee each and pakoras for 200per kg amazing taste. We left the town continued our journey. Stop over to madyan to use the ATM as it would be the last one on our way to Kalam. Reached Bahrain by 7pm and concluding that we were too tired to drive further we made our stay searched for a hotel to stay. Kings hotel it was booked a room parked our cars and then went out for dinner. Found this really nice dumba (lamb) Karahi restaurant there and ate here, hands down the best food. Total bill 3000rs for 3kg karahi rotis and raitas drank chashma water though absolute delish. Room was 1500 a night with heaters, blankets, isolated geysers and car parking. Early morning woke up at 7am and decided to take a walk on Bahrain road and see things, temperature was below 2° and it was amazingly rainy. Met these really nice police officers and had a small talk with them they told me to leave the cars here and hire jeeps with drivers and the roads are open for us to go I was skeptical at first but family decided to take jeeps instead of cars as they are not meant to be driven on rough roads specially our sedans bimmer no offence but if broke down will be a hassle itself.
Bahrain - Kalam: So we were out on the road tried talking to couple of jeep owners and they all were asking insane amount. Upon some serious negotiations we got two jeeps (Prado) seating capacity of 10 adults each for 15000rupees both ways. We shifted our luggage into jeeps and parked cars at a stand 200/car/night. Just when we were about to leave one of the pathan drivers came out to be a fraud. I overheard him talking to another pathan that he will blackmail us when taking us back to Bahrain from Kalam and charge double amount. Bad luck for him good for us we immediately left the jeep and were heartbroken and happy the same time because we were saved from bad people. Anyway we took breakfast including (eggs, chickpea curry, parathas and doodh Pattis) total expense 1000 for 20 people.
Heartbroken on street we decided to take our cars to Kalam so we took cars out from stand and started driving towards Kalam, coming to roads I don't know if there were any roads to begin with oh well lol took us to an hour to cover 7kms in total and at a glance I made a decision that we are not trained for this to drive on this terrain I mean and upon all the pressure from my family I decided to not go forward and take a turn back to Bahrain, everyone understood and made a turn with me (it proved out to be an excellent decision y the way) and we were back to Bahrain it was almost afternoon almost 2pm. Wandering on roads talking to locals with every person came a different opinion we dint know what to do, just when we were planning to go back to mingora we came across a really decent pathan driver who was from Kalam himself and promised us safe trip and apologized for behavior of other locals and he agreed to take us till Kalam forest and a lake for 15500 rupees for two jeeps. We left Bahrain at 3pm and started our journey there were three checkposts on our way and then we entered at a place where temperature started to drop below 0° and we saw snow which was as white as cotton breathtaking view seriously. Bad luck was a glacier being melted and blocked the road making a huge mess of traffic and piles of snow for us to cover luckily army was there with a bulldozer to help clean the area and sort traffic both ways as the roads were congested. Saw one hiace been completely uncontrolled on snow on attempting to drive on snow, hard times. Anyway we made it to Kalam around 7pm and voila it was freezing temperature at whooping -6° later -7° at night. Phones died as soon as we reached there, also experienced short battery lives of phones. Booked us a really nice hotel there 3000/ room/ night offering multiple blankets, two heaters per room and complimentary tea. Really nice view from hotel snow was as light and soft as feather and as white as cotton. Beware there were 4feet of snow almost everywhere there. Also, no tap water since water used to freeze in pipes old school method of having water in buckets. Spent a night in room shivering with cold having three blankets to tuck in and three heaters per room still wasn't enough lol.
Kalam - Forest & Lake: next morning driver was right on time and we did some snow diving played with it jumped on it did stuffs and left to see Kalam bazaar, breakfast, forest and a lake. Taken a roadtrip to bazaar and restaurant wasn't easy at all due to snow and slippery roadways luckily we had good treking shoes with us helped a bit went to this really nice place which was built on a bank of Lake had a wooden floor took breakfast there again very cheap and continues our journey to the forest On jeeps. Reached forest at around 10am and enjoyed the views played with snow took pictures and went our way to ushu which later on got stopped because roads were blocked due to ice and then we went to that lake called lake of healing and drank it's water came back to our hotel and that night snow fall stared again resulting in a whopping temprature of -11°. Rather an extreme for us, five heaters in room and seven blankets lol that night. Took our journey back to Bahrain the next morning, Left Kalam at 11 am.
Kalam - Bahrain: reached Bahrain around 5pm due to snow on roads and traffic had a stop there paid drivers had them to eat with us, we had chappli kebabs and trout for lunch/dinner and decided to go back to lahore so left for Lahore straight away around 7pm
Bahrain - mingora - Lahore: it was a continuous drive just took a small stop on swat road for smoking and tea and then at M1 service station then at bhera. Took us 13 hours to be in Lahore straight away. Fog was found at after Hafizabad till we entered in Lahore very tiring.
Final Verdict : Pakistan is beautiful, it was my first trip to swat and I enjoyed it beyond limits drank and ate natural things which made me happy, pollution free environment and breath taking views. The reason for going in this season which is called off-season is to experience snow fall and snow itself.
Expenses: Almost 14000 each round trip for sedans and 22000 for bimmer + Almost 25000 for five star accommodations + 15500 for jeeps + 15000 for food (20 people 5 days trip to heaven)
14000*3 + 22000 + 25000 + 15500 + 15000 = 1,19,500 pkr.
