This week’s dream: meeting the Kalash people of Pakistan

If you’re tired of “the usual August diet of Mediterranean villas and Tuscan pools”, try a trip to the Kalash Valley on Pakistan’s North-west Frontier, says William Dalrymple in the FT. Set high in the “stunning” Hindu Kush mountains, this bucolic oasis is home to the pale-skinned, blue-eyed Kalash people, whose unique religion is arguably the most ancient in south Asia. Some say the Kalash are descended from Alexander the Great’s generals, others that they are the last survivors of the Aryan tribes who wrote the Rig Veda in the second millennium BC. Once, they lived across Pakistan’s northern territories, but in the 19th century they were persecuted at the instigation of Wahhabi mullahs. Now, they live only in three remote valleys.

The road north from Islamabad takes you through the beautiful Swat Valley, which spent two years under Taliban control from 2007 and bristles with police and army checkpoints. Along the way are some of the world’s most “intriguing” archaeological remains, including hilltop citadels once stormed by Alexander, and “extraordinary” Gandharan Buddhist monasteries with Hellenistic stupas. Beyond Chitral, with its famous fort, there are no good roads, but the tour operator Wild Frontiers can arrange jeeps, a cook and accommodation in a “beautifully carved” house in the Kalash village of Rumbur.

Timber-framed houses tumble down the cliffsides of the narrow valley, and from every balcony there are views of terraced fields dotted with mulberry and fig trees. Watermills “straight out of a Bruegel canvas” rise above a mountain torrent. The local Qazi, or priest, will tell you about the Kalash’s face tattoos, shamans, religion and supreme god, Khuda. The Foreign Office advises against travel here, but Wild Frontiers (020-8741 7390, www.wildfrontierstravel.com) says the route is safe and offers full insurance. A 16-day private tour costs from £2,685pp, excluding international flights.