I hope you all are doing fine. As the winter season in Pakistan is towards its end so my hunt for snowfall also increased, i previously visited the points like Mushkpuri topand Chitral, kalash to see live snowfall on my face but i was not successful in that, this time a confirm report was delivered through a tiktok video that MALAM JABBA, SWAT is providing heavy snowfall for the visitors. I upon listening, started searching for any society organising the tour.
One of my friends told me about a society who were arranging a one day and night tour towards SWAT. I immediately contacted the president of that society and booked my seat along with some other friends. That was a nice company i was going to pay a visit to SWAT and also was going to witness the snowfall (as the tiktoker mentioned), so i was quite happy.
The ride was quite comfortable and we enjoyed a lot as everyone was energetic in the bus. As we reached the point MINGORA (A place just before the main point MALAM JABBA) we asked the driver to stop and let us examine the whole situation if roads are slippery or not. But it was totally clear and even the sun was sunning on its peak. Lol. So i went a little further to check the place more comfortably.
The MINGORA point was also quite beautiful with some snowfall visible from there too. I was having anxiety as i was pretty sure that i will witness the snowfall this time and my hunt for it will come to an end in the last days of winter. I saw some single room hotels there for the visitors but they were really expensive even for one night. I asked the incharge for booking (just to know) and he replied we don't have any bookings available (damn!). Means people were booking it no matter how expensive it was.
It was actually worth it as the beauty there was describing it. I wondered about the booking rates of restaurants which were up there on the main point. There were some huts type houses there below the ground. They seemed to me like the bankers which are used to hide when there is a war going on.
Witnessing the beauty at mingora we parked our buses and coasters in a parking area nearby and started to explore the beauty of snow covered mountains (partially covered). Here you can see my selfie which can show how cold it was that a guy who loves his hair styling is wearing a cap out of cold 馃槶.
Even though the sun was full still it was unable to provide us any kind of heat. The coldness was everywhere but our energetic moods lead us to the upper area which is called MALAM JABBA (one of the main points in SWAT).
I saw rocks placed on some dunes like heights where people like to climb just in order to have some cool pictures of themselves. The only question i was left with if the people themselves placed them or the authority there did that. Anyways, looking at the snow, people giggling, cars parked, i proceeded further.
Ah man, that's where something alarming hit me. I saw land covered with snow, mountains covered with snow, roads were clear too. So, it means, the snow already did the work and now has left the place? Nooooooooo 馃槶. This might be my last hunt as my finals are approaching and then i have to waste for the next season in order to witness the snowfall live.
Anyways, i immediately neglected the regret and focused on the positive things like people happily enjoying in the snow lands, making snowmans, playing with snowballs, clicking pictures. I wanted to go there but we had limited time as we had to go to the top point too. So i continued my hike.
Here we go, MALAM JABBA was reached in about 15-20 minutes of hike. The situation there was really buzzy, people everywhere, talking to eachother, some deciding to buy tickets for further proceedings, some deciding to go back, some standing there just to enjoy the whole situation. Some looking upwards as any zipliner passes by, as it goes over the exact area where i was standing. I tried to capture a panorama there which looked like this.
Look at the restaurant on the back, that's considered to be the most expensive restaurant there named as PC hotel MALAM JABBA. I wanted to go there but the security stopped me on the entrance saying where is my card, lol. I just came back without any arguments.
I started looking for the further entertainments, as there were some other points to explore too which you were provided different options to reach with. If you want to do it through hike, you can go for simple entrance or you can go through chairlift, so i decided to go through chairlift as the hike would have been too exhausting, and also i had short time for it.
A long line was waiting for me but somehow i got the ticket for chairlift and started walking towards the departure point, lol. Security was tight and noone had any chance to get through without the entery card. We took some pictures at the spot where it was written MALLAM JABBA in big letters.
I first decided to write the complete blog but it was going to be too long for readers, so i decided to divide it into two parts, if you are interested to see what happens next, just wait for a day or two and i will tell you about what happened next.
Well, that's all from my side.
GOODLUCK AND BEST WISHES 馃憣