Exchanged for a bride's visit to the dentist!

On my overland trip to Nepal in 1992 we drove to the far north up the Karakorum Highway to Hunza (see map) - the most unspoiled area of Pakistan - where the locals resented the intrusion the KK highway had brought to their lives.

I was taken to this old lady's house where we found her on the path sitting with her grandchildren cracking apricot stones with deadly accuracy using a rounded rock.

She wore an exquisitely made hat decorated with minute cross-stitch patterns. What made it all the more amazing is the fact there was only a small oil wick lantern to work by as all the precious daylight hours are spent working outside.

There was to be a wedding in the family and the bride was in great pain with toothache and I saw she had a huge hole in one of her back molars. The dentist was in a village two valleys and a day's trek away and was going to be beyond their means so the old lady and I made a bargain - she gave me one of her hats and I gave her money for the dentist and an aspirin to tide the bride over. I heard next day that the aspirin was so effective she almost put off going but the family persuaded her otherwise.