Why I want to visit Swat Valley Again and Again!

[thesohaibkhalid]

This story began when I was not even born. It was the most loved place for my parents. I was just two years old when they took me to this place. It was their late honeymoon with their second child in 1987. They did not forget to capture some best moments of this trip. See one of my pictures below, my mom used to tell me that she was very nervous while catching this picture because I was not fully trained to sit on rocks till that time but when I sat there, I enjoyed it a lot and gave my parents the confidence to capture those moments easily.

When i visited Swat in the age of two.

One of my father's best friends lived in Mingora, Swat Valley. We used to get the invitation to Swat Valley almost every year. I personally observed many times that the people of this Valley are great in hospitality. I love eating fresh fruits, dry fruits and trout fish for which this valley was famous already.

From 1987 till 1998, I visited this place with my parents.

1993 - Me at no. 4 from R to L1996 - Me at no. 3 from R to L

Then after a long break due to my father's illness, I visited this place in 2007 with my Uncle. It was a very adventurous trip when we misplaced our luggage. We had to buy local dresses and needed to survive with a small amount of money. Later we witnessed great support from locals in that difficult time during this whole trip.

2007 - In Local Dress2007- In Ushu Forest2007- Ushu Valley

From 2017 to 2018, I visited Swat valley twice with my wife. She visited Swat Valley in her childhood. We both had our wonderful childhood memories for this place and shared a lot of them during our trips. We also observed some immense developments in Swat Valley like...

• Roads and other infrastructure had been improved a lot. Swat Motorway was about to inaugurate as well as Road from Bahrain Valley to Kalam Valley was under construction at a rapid pace.
• A lot of Schools, Colleges, and Universities had been developed especially for Women.
• A Million Tree Tsunami project had made this area more green than ever.
• A lot of New Hotels had been built, One of them was Burju-ul-Swat in Fizagat, Swat.
• Malam Jabba Chair Lift was in working as well as Five Star Resort was about to inaugurate that attracted a lot of local and foreign Skiing lovers to this place.
• Living conditions, Trade and Business activities of this area had been improved immensely.
• A lot of small hydro projects had been constructed already and many more were in the last stages of developments like the Matiltan project. These projects were fulfilling the energy needs of this area significantly. 

Feb 2017- Hotel Rockcity Resort Feb 2017- Hotel White Palace - Marghzar Feb 2017- Road to Malam JabbaFeb 2017- Hotel Rockcity Resort

The government of KPK as well as the federal government are doing great things to boost the tourism of this valley but this place will always be on my wish list due to...

• The mesmerizing beauty of Swat Valley, plenty of waterfalls, and Lakes.
• Our Childhood memories 
• Plenty of options in dry and fresh fruits 
• Trout fishes from the freshwater of river Swat
• Great hospitality by the people of this area always motivates me to come here again and again. 

Sep 2018 - Swat MuseumSep 2018 - Kalam ValleySep 2018 - Hotel Marco Polo - Kalam ValleySep 2018- Ushu ForestSep 2018- Mahodand Lake

In 2019, We had to visit Saudi Arabia for Hajj (Pilgrimage) that is the dream of every Muslim around the world so we had blessed with this opportunity. 

We had planned to visit Swat Valley again in the 2020 summer but due to covid-19, we couldn't make it but later when the situation became quite in control we decided to visit Malam Jabba and Kalam valley in November 2020. 

Our main purpose was to witness the latest development in Malam Jabba like Chair Lift rides, Visit PC Hotel, the newly built road to Malam Jabba and other hotels, etc. 

Malam JAbba Skiing Area

 

View of PC Hotel Malam Jabba

Malam Jabba Chair Lift

 

We noticed many new hotels like Frontier Hotel with a great scenic view, Samsung Resort, Markhor, and many others were under construction. 

We stayed for one night at Swat continental which was in the main Mingora Bazar, We enjoyed the food of this hotel, it was easily accessible for the main Mingora Bazar but as it was very noisy, we couldn't sleep almost the whole night so it wasn't in our recommendation to anyone who wants to visit Swat. There are many good options now on main bypass roads like Swat palace or Hilton palace, Burjul Swat, etc. 

Our next plan was to visit Kalam Valley to witness the road condition from Bahrain to Kalam. Luckily it was built except few patches mainly bridges that were under construction. 

View of Falak Shair peak and Ushu Forest from Tehsil Road Kalam

We wanted to stay at Hotel Honeymoon which is very famous with a good rating on google map but unfortunately, couldn't get the room so stayed at Daryal Hotel which was newly built. Our experience at this hotel was not good. We complained about the food, unavailability of warm water and warm blankets which made our one night stay very hard in winters. New Honeymoon hotel and many others on Tehsil road were under construction so we thought sooner there would be plenty of good options for tourists for this place.

 Daryal Hotel Kalam Valley

During our visit in September 2018, we observed peach and Apples but in November 2020, we saw many gardens full of Amlooks (In local language) Japanese fruit. This is the beauty of Swat that in every season, You will find a different variety of fruits. 

Japanese Fruit Trees ( Amlook local)

In 2021, My family visited Swat valley, Kalam Valley, and Mahodand Lake, My friend Hussain bhai showed great hospitality towards my family that I admired.