back to Pakistan - for the Kalash festival
I dithered over this trip for quite some time, having received an invitation to visit Chitral from the assistant guide for my day in Peshawar last year. We seemed to ‘click’ in a brief (20 minute) conversation in Peshawar, when he asked about my family and I explained that I was single and childfree – he said he was the same. Unusual for a 50-year-old Pakistani man. I’d let him have my WhatsApp number and facebook info, and then he made this invitation, said that I should visit for the Kalash festival and that he’d be delighted to host me. Finally I decided that I would go, and I booked my flights in and out of Pakistan. Once it was all confirmed, the tone of his messages changed. He told me that he loved me, that I was only the third person he’d loved in his life, that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me… My flights were non-refundable, and as this guy is (i) a very religious Muslim, (ii) employed from time-to-time by the most well-known ...