Swat Valley & Kalash Valley (Chilam Joshi festival) trip - May 2014

[Xoofi]

fit pictures... aanay do aur tasveerain

Don't know why but "Aanday do" in your comment reminded me of Virat Kohli ad.. aa raha hai Pakistan.. aanay do.. and some Pakistani extended that ad to crying sound.. ai ai ai when Kohli was hurt in real match..

Aa rahi hain janab aur tasaveer

Going great Bro.... Enjoying it ....

Thanks Mansoor bhai. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Aoa
Masha Allah again thrilling tour
You r the fastest and furthermost very good and descriptive narrator
Always enjoy reading yr thread

ALLAH Hafiz

Sent from my LG-E980 using PW Forums mobile app

Thanks brother.. You reply increased my 2 liter blood

lagta hai sufian bhai ko nazar lag gaii hai..

abhi tak thread ki opening post par "THREAD COMPLETED" ka board nhi laga..

Haha.. aa jaye ga jald.. hosla rakho mere bhai

Zabar10 trip, Amazing pictures.
Also your narrations are very interesting, that i am reading all these....
A big thumps up..!!

Thanks brother for going through lengthy narrations. I kept them as detailed as possible to provide a virtual experience of my tour.

Very nice trip with good narration as usual,always inspired from ur way of expression.Thanx

Thanks Naveed brother. Your comments are the basic motivator

Mashah Allah Thread is going very well so curious to know more about those places.

Thanks brother.. Details and pics coming soon

[Xoofi]

DAY 3..

Woke up pretty late at 8 AM. It was raining slightly outside. Had a good view from hotel's balcony. After everyone was fresh, we proceeded for breakfast. Our host was busy so he couldn't join us today. We entered a hotel named "Faisalabad Punjab restaurant" in hope to get Halwa Puri (as Punjabi nashta must have these things). But we were disappointed as there was no halwa puri at all.

So we ordered regular breakfast items like Paratha, Omeletes, fried eggs, Chanay and tea. While the breakfast was coming, we had a really good view of raging Swat river from restaurant's window. The power of water was indeed too much.

After breakfast, we decided to have a little walk to bridge over river which we could see from restaurant's window.

Faisalabad Punjab Restaurant

River Swat from restaurant's window

A pigeon caught in flight

The Nashta..

[Xoofi]

This bridge provided a very nice view of River Swat and the hotels on its bank. We went to other side of river and the "Trio" climbed down the boulders to reach River's bank. The prime reason was to get photos. The locals were passing by greeting us with salam.

The drizzle was continuous and camera wasn't used much at that time.. After spending about half hour, we came back to hotel and asked the hotel guy to arrange a taxi for us who would take us to Kalam and Ushu. Mahoodand lake was out of question because we knew it won't be open by now (Thanks to Pakwheels for this general knowledge).

[Bombaywalla]

Beautiful photos!

[Xoofi]

Beautiful photos!

Thanks bro. Good to see a comment from across the border

[Xoofi]

The taxi came around 11:45 AM. And we got into the taxi.. thuss thusa ke.. This reminded us the Islamabad taxi couple of days before because taxi driver was additional in this case. It was a car but we had to transfer to a different taxi after a kilometer or so which was parked at taxi driver's house.

The rain caught us up once again and it was drizzling continuously. Soon we reached the place where we had to switch the taxi, so the switching was done. I don't know much about cars but it was a Probox/Fielder type of car with big trunk space. So Akhter chose to sleep in that place.

A random chicken shot taken from a chicken truck.

The initial taxi which took us from Bahrain to a village few kilometers ahead.

Now we had to transfer to this taxi.

[farooq05]

wow, lovely pictures with great details... will be an awesome thread i am sure

[Xoofi]

While we were shifting the taxi, I noticed that I am having hard time taking pictures from my camera. The problem which arise was that the camera wasn't able to auto focus properly. This got me a bit worried because whole trip was remaining ahead and a malfunction camera means a disaster.

Anyway, since the time was short, we proceeded right away..

Didn't take many pictures in between because I had never been a big fan of taking pictures from moving vehicle. Some shots should be left to enjoy by your eyes also

We reached Kalam at about 2:30 PM. My first impression of Kalam was similar to Shoogran (in the sense of Hotel Jungle). There were hotels every where. All type of hotels, big, small, beautifully built, guzaray laiq.. Here are a couple of pictures of few hotels in Kalam..

[Xoofi]

After crossing the bridge ahead of Kalam, suddenly the landscape changed. I could see a forest approaching from a distance and immediately recognized that its the Kalam forest which I have read about a lot.

Asked the taxi driver to stop at some proper place as it was a place worth exploring. The taxi wala replied: Wapsi main rukain ge, abhi time kam reh gya hai.. I know these tactics very well, they say such thing purposely because they know that while returning it would be night time or the party would be tired so much that they won't insist for stopping.

However, alas.. my rest of the buddies were not aware of these tactics and they got into taxi drivers web and asked him to continue. I tried to record my protest but to vain as you know in democracy, majority is authority.

With great disappointment, just was able to take these photos from moving vehicle. Although it was a place worth exploring. InshaALLAH I will return to this place and will explore until my heart is satisfied.. Jo kasak si dil main reh gayee hai, uska koi ilaaj nahi.. us ke liye mujhay idhar wapas jana hee hoga..

[Xoofi]

wow, lovely pictures with great details... will be an awesome thread i am sure

Thank you Farooq bhai. InshaALLAH will try to meet your expectations

[Xoofi]

After Kalam forest, crossed Matiltan and now were getting near to Ushu. Now we could see many glaciers on the way and it was also getting much colder. Also the "call of nature" was disturbing me so wanted to stop somewhere (proper). Soon we could see a hotel coming and a huge glacier ahead. The time was 3:30 PM. Stopped at that hotel and immediately did the needful. Now the drizzle started again. It was too damn cold at this place.

Here are a couple of pictures of the hotel and the bridge that connects it to the road.

[Xoofi]

I am not a pro photographer, just trying to learn and have a very limited knowledge of DSLR tricks. It was my first trip to North with DSLR and that too with basic kit lens. I tried to take a few long exposure shots which came just ok. Another minus point was that I had no tripod which is a basic in such photography. Also the lens was creating problems with Auto focus

[khanzzz]

Excellent travelogue with detailed narration and clixx Xoofi....!!!!

[ihsan]

Excellent Pictures Brother.

[Mohd.Waqas]

Chalo sarkar agey chaloooooo aap tu glacier ke kareeb hi phuss gaey ho go go

[asifcae]

I am not a pro photographer, just trying to learn and have a very limited knowledge of DSLR tricks. It was my first trip to North with DSLR and that too with basic kit lens. I tried to take a few long exposure shots which came just ok. Another minus point was that I had no tripod which is a basic in such photography. Also the lens was creating problems with Auto focus

i think these shots are good witout filter and tripod........

[Xoofi]

Excellent travelogue with detailed narration and clixx Xoofi....!!!!

Thanks bro for continuous support.

Excellent Pictures Brother.

Thanks bro. Ap ke trip ke baad aisa hee thread chaiye..

Chalo sarkar agey chaloooooo aap tu glacier ke kareeb hi phuss gaey ho go go

Haha.. Thanks for your patience brother.. Same meri halat bhi aisi hoti hai jab koi acha thread ruk jata hai to.. Glacier se aagay bhee barhtay hain janab

i think these shots are good witout filter and tripod........

Thanks a lot Asif bhai for your kind words. Really mean a lot

[Xoofi]

This point became our stay point as we could see the glacier on a distance. There was nothing to eat in hotel as their supply of chicken was finished. So we just had a cup of tea for the time being. I forgot to mention that my friend Waqas had some craze of "Halwa" so he specially bought halwa items (like suji, sugar, dry fruits) from Bahrain. He started to cook the halwa in hotel's kitchen while me and the remaining trio went to the glacier's side.

It was still drizzling and I was not using my camera much especially got worried after it started to create problem. Here are the few pictures for a short walk till glacier. After reaching this place, the rain caught up speed so camera went in the bag and I ran back to hotel.

[Xoofi]

When we were back to hotel after spending about half hour on glacier, the halwa was ready. It was a big karhai full of halwa. I don't like sweet dishes by nature so I didn't have much attraction in halwa but on the other hand, I am a big fan of dry fruits especially cashews. My friend had put lots of cashews in halwa. So I just took a couple of halwa handfuls and then only picked cashews and ate them Quite selfish

[Xoofi]

As we were eating halwa, a few kids also came who were going to do their school work. They sat on charpayee besides us and started to study. As we had quite a surplus of halwa so we shared some halwa with the kids which they accepted hesitantly. Their urdu wasn't very good but my pashto friends were talking to them quite easily which made them comfortable. Took a few pictures with them.

As we finished halwa, we saw a man coming from the bridge carrying chicken. This meant that the supply has arrived. We were still hungry so we ordered Karahi right away. Akhter helped the hotel guy in cleaning the chicken.

Study time

Akhter cleaning the chicken for Karhai