One's destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things.

Balakot is one of the famous mountain cities in Mansehra District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a stopover while on way to the northern areas in Pakistan. However I stayed here overnight and explored a bit. This is one of the places I have been to in my childhood multiple times and having many memories. A beautiful city alongside river kunhar, a bit simple yet a lot of restaurants available at roadside along river kunhar. We choose to stay at a resort I will share the pictures in this post. Very easily accessible and located on main balakot kaghan road and that is Cordillera  resort.  Access :  Balakot is easily accessible via main mansehra kaghan road as well via hazara motorway. In fact it's located on the main road. For watching a full video click on my You Tube link  Balakot Historical places:  It is famous for Mazar of Syed ahmad shaheed, the battle of balakot fought in 1831 between the forces of Mahraja Ranjit Singh and Syed ahmad barelvi. In main local bazar of balakot , ther

Swat is a beautiful valley with some captivating views, located in Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. I remember in childhood, we used to visit swat via mardan, takht bhai via old routes in back 90's. Now it was such an amazing trip to watch so many fine roads, motorways that are  hassle free and so convenient while on way to swat. Swat Motorways M16 has undoubtedly made the tour more beautiful. Historical background: It used to be state in back 1849, established by Muslim saint Saidu Baba. In British Raj it was recognized as a princely state between 1918 to 1947.  However today I am going to travel swat and it's capital city "Saidu Sharif" including stay at Serena hotel, "Marghazar white Palace" & a stay at  Rock city resort fizaghat, Swat shopping mall and  "Malam Jabba" . In recent times it becomes more famous for it's winters sports festivals. Especially in snow fall season " Malam Jabba" is considered the best ski reso

It was such a wonderful experience of visiting a tea garden in Mansehra, Pakistan.  National tea and high value crops research institute (NTHRI),  is located in Shinkiari Mansehra and it's the first and the largest project of tea in Pakistan.  Basically it's a research center with a beautiful tea garden, however visitors are allowed. I must suggest that this beautiful, scenic garden must be visited by every tourist or at least by those who have some interest in plantation. This tea garden reminds me a visit to a  Tea garden in Cameron highland in Malaysia .  I missed one thing at Mansehra tea garden, is that they didn't made any effort for the provision of daily visits to tea factory and providing fresh tea to the visitors to taste. I asked the guard on the gate and he had a few packets of green tea that I brought. Though I wanted black tea and wanted to taste it on the spot but there was no such arrangement for visitors. So I will suggest them to introduce it as a " T