Most people visiting Phander Valley just pass through or spend one night there. I ended up spending 5 nights there 😅
The locals I met were delighted that I was spending so much time in their village, and took immensely good care of me as a result.
One morning I wandered outside with no specific plans for the day. My guesthouse's owner saw me walking around aimlessly and invited me to come with him to a higher village an hour away called Teru.
Why not? I hopped on the back of his motorbike and we started off on our grand adventure.
He'd heard me asking about trekking trails the day before, and though his English wasn't the best he understood that I wanted to go a bit into the mountains.
Upon reaching Teru he asked everyone where the best trail up the mountain was, then led us on a merry jaunt up the mountainside through farm fields and grazing pastures filled with sheep.
We were both huffing and puffing from being woefully out of shape and walking at more than 3000m above sea level, but we laughed it off and slowly carried on.
Together we scrambled up rocky outcrops, got lost on the winding dirt roads through the village, and had tea and a very dairy lunch with a shepherdess in her hillside home.
Returning to Phander he even tried to convince me to drive us both back... then he snatched the bike back from me after seeing how rusty my motorbike skills are 😂
It restored my faith in Pakistani men. We had a fun day out as friends without things getting creepy or uncomfortable.
Days like these and people like him are what bring me back to Pakistan over and over again.
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