Chitral feels like a different country, in the best way. After the dark wall of the Lowari Tunnel, the valley opens up green and easy, with a river running through it and a town small enough that you know your way by the second day. Between the Shahi Fort and Shahi Mosque by the water, the hot springs of Garam Chasma, and the road over Shandur. the highest polo ground in the world - the days fill themselves.

But the real reason people come is the Kalash valleys of Bumboret, Birir and Rumbur. The Kalash are unlike anyone else in Pakistan; their own religion, their own language, their own dress, the women in black robes covered with hundreds of coloured beads and shells. Walking their villages, with terraced orchards and wooden houses on stilts, feels like being let in on a beautiful, ancient secret.

If your dates line up, stay for a festival. Joshi in spring, Uchal in late summer, Chitras in winter; days of drums, dancing and rituals that go back thousands of years. No museum will ever give you what one afternoon at a Kalash festival gives you.

Come between May and October. Buy handicrafts directly from the women who make them, ask before taking photos, and accept every cup of tea you are offered. Chitral and the Kalash do not perform for visitors. They simply welcome you in, and that is the whole magic.