---
type: Video
title: "First Impressions of SWAT, Pakistan 🇵🇰"
description: The four-hour drive north out of Islamabad to Swat — an ancient Buddhist site the Taliban damaged, a museum that charges to film, and a day spent unable to get cash out of any bank.
tags: [pakistan, swat, road-trip, atms, money, buddhism, museums, hotels]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0XqPK6RRM0
video_id: t0XqPK6RRM0
upload_date: 2022-01-01
duration: 1293
---

# First Impressions of SWAT, Pakistan 🇵🇰

The first day of the seven-day northern tour: an early start out of
[Islamabad](/places/islamabad.md) with [Mac](/people/mac.md), a guide
([Akram](/people/akram.md)) and a driver, and a four-hour drive up to
[Swat](/places/swat.md) — the valley Pakistanis call the Switzerland of
Pakistan, and which was under Taliban control between 2007 and 2009.

The sightseeing is an ancient Buddhist site on a hillside above the town and
the Swat museum, but **the day is really about money**. Harry and Mac arrive
with no cash, having assumed they could withdraw on arrival, and spend the
afternoon working through banks that will not take a foreign card. It ends at a
Western Union counter changing Mac's emergency dollars, where half the notes are
refused.

*Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles; amounts and dates the
transcript leaves ambiguous are marked unverified. The tour operator whose
booking links appear in the description is not named here — see
[Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md).*

## Key moments

- [00:30] The team for the next seven days: a guide and a driver, and a
  forecast for Hunza of **−6 or −7°C**.
- [03:09] **Swat was under Taliban rule from 2007 to 2009**, per the guide, and
  there is a passport check on the way in — the American passport gets the
  attention, politely, as usual.
- [02:37] New roads and tunnels through the mountains; Harry rates the
  infrastructure. Moments later they pass a truck that has rolled off the side.
- [03:39] Bottled water handed to them by a shopkeeper, which Mac stops him
  drinking — "probably safe, but you can never be too sure", and Harry has
  already been ill once on this trip.
- [04:09] Roadside breakfast: **omelette and paratha**, oily and salty and good,
  eaten Mac's way with the two mixed, plus a strong sweet chai.
- [06:22] The town seen from above is **linear and very spread out**. Asked what
  people do for work, the guide says farming and transporting goods.
- [06:53] The hilltop site — a Buddhist stupa identified by colonial-era
  archaeologists. Harry reads the sign out and admits he can't follow it.
- [09:30] **The Taliban damaged it** during their control of the valley, the
  guide says, and the damage is still visible.
- [11:02] At the museum, a memorial carrying hundreds of names of people killed
  in the fighting.
- [11:34] The galleries: grave goods from around **1700 BC**, then Buddhism,
  then the Muslim and Wali of Swat periods. A model shows how completely the
  hillside site has been remodelled since.
- [12:05] **They are told to stop filming** — filming is allowed but costs
  considerably more, so they pay the ordinary entry and walk round instead.
- [13:07] **Entry about 200 rupees a head**, one to two dollars.
- [13:37] **No bank will take their cards.** The same problem as Lahore: only a
  couple of international banks work, and outside the big cities there are
  fewer of them.
- [14:38] The hotel, on a rise with snow-capped mountains in view, and cold
  enough inside that Harry keeps his jacket on while trying to work the heater.
- [18:21] His summary of the mistake: **come to the north with cash already
  drawn in the cities**, and know which banks take your card before you leave
  them.
- [19:23] Mac's emergency dollars save the day. **$400 handed over at Western
  Union, $200 refused as not eligible** — they leave with half what they asked
  for. Harry's note to self: always carry some of your home currency.

## Extracted pages

- [Swat](/places/swat.md)
- [Islamabad](/places/islamabad.md)
- [Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)
- [Akram](/people/akram.md)