We made it to Saidu Sharif without a hitch. We checked into the beautiful although empty Swat Serena hotel and fell in love with our amazing room with beautifully laundered clean sheets, fresh smelling bath towels and decided we’d be happy to stay put for a couple of days – even just to get clean again! After lunch we headed out to the Swat Museum and Butkara with a great guide who gave us the history of the area over a cup of tea and a tune on his sitar. It was extremely interesting, the history of Buddhism mingled with conquerors mingled with Islam. We made it to the museum with only 5 minutes to spare and thanks to Hatam we managed to convince them to let us in and have a quick look. There was a curator in front of us turning on the lights in the display cases, and a guy behind us turning the lights off again as we passed….

The early evening we decided not to let the guys out of our sight. Normally they would go off for a couple of hours before dinner and do whatever it is that they did while we wound down and showered ready for dinner. This night we decided we would hang out with them and see what they got up to. We didn’t want to make any decisions, just go where they went and just hang out. So. Off we went to Mingara. First stop was the garage, the part of the bazaar that contained mostly garages and things to do with cars. We parked the car outside, Asghar made the arrangements and they set about changing the tyre. Across the street was a stand cooking some kind of meat with a few tables. Asghar wanted to eat some dinner there, he didn’t want to join us in the hotel that evening (I don’t blame him, the staff were a bit snotty) so we wandered over and sat down to wait. Michelle started taking pictures, Asghar got his food, and Hatam dashed off next door to make an appointment at the barbers.

It was a lot of fun. I don’t think 2 women turn up very often in this part of the bazaar, we became a bit of a spectacle. While Hatam was having a shave at the barbers, Michelle was filming him inside, and I was standing outside looking in. At one point the barber started getting a little agitated, he had a big knife in one hand and he didn’t look happy. He was telling Hatam something and then Hatam had Michelle call to me to come inside. I couldn’t understand why? Michelle was motioning frantically for me to come in, when I didn’t, she told me to turn around…. there were about 25 men standing in a semi-circle around me just watching. I had on my lacy red outfit (originally for the mela night of the wedding celebrations) and must have looked so out of place they were just all stopped in the middle of the road. I was causing a traffic jam.

The barber was upset, Hatam & Michelle were laughing and I quickly got myself inside. It wasn’t scary, I think they were just curious as to what we were doing there… anyway, that was enough excitement. Shave finished, dinner finished, new tyre on the car and we were off. Next stop, the river bed to wash the car. Free water? Free car wash….