---
type: Video
title: "First Impressions of ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (My Favourite City) 🇵🇰"
description: A planned capital of lettered sectors, banned tuk-tuks and swept roads — plus a copy-goods back room, an argument about Lahore, and a troop of monkeys between Harry and the Faisal Mosque.
tags: [pakistan, islamabad, city-planning, haggling, mosques, monkeys, security]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfLFIsSP860
video_id: VfLFIsSP860
upload_date: 2021-12-23
duration: 1477
---

# First Impressions of ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (My Favourite City) 🇵🇰

The video that gives [Islamabad](/places/islamabad.md) its billing as Harry's
favourite city in [Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md), and most of it is about
how deliberately the place was built: **lettered and numbered sectors** — F7,
F8, F9 — each with its own *markaz*, a central block holding that sector's shops
and restaurants. Roads being swept while he watches, parks everywhere, no
chaos to speak of.

He and [Mac](/people/mac.md) make the point that the order they did it in
matters: Karachi, then Lahore, then here. Reversed, he says, you would arrive in
Karachi wondering what had happened.

It ends badly and then well. The walk up to the **Faisal Mosque** goes through a
troop of monkeys, one of which charges him to within half a metre; a passing
local then gives them a lift the rest of the way on the back of his motorbike.
Harry's summary of the country by this point is that it plays like GTA — you set
out to do one thing and the side missions find you.

*Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles; amounts the transcript
leaves ambiguous are marked unverified.*

## Key moments

- [01:02] **The sector system**: districts named F7, F8, F9, each with a markaz
  of shops and restaurants, which he compares to a small mall per district and
  rates as the best thing about the layout.
- [01:32] **Security is visible and constant**: two police checkpoints and five
  army positions on a single walk. He reads it as seriousness rather than
  danger.
- [02:02] **Islamabad is a purpose-built replacement capital** — the capital was
  Karachi before — with parks protected deliberately as part of the design.
- [04:41] A copy-goods shop with a **back room** for the better fakes. A jacket
  asked at 2,950 goes for 2,300, about $12, against $40–50 for the real thing.
  The seller's counter-offer is a cold drink instead of a discount.
- [08:27] Lunch at an Italian place, because three weeks of Pakistani food has
  caught up with his stomach: pasta and juice for **about $9**, which he calls
  closer to Western prices and worth it.
- [13:39] **The Lahore–Islamabad argument**, conducted by 18-year-olds from
  Lahore: *Lahore Lahore hai* — Lahore is Lahore, there is no competition. They
  concede Islamabad has the better traffic and the better airport; they claim
  the people. Harry doesn't adjudicate.
- [15:38] A distinction from the same group: some Pakistanis are desi and some
  act foreign — which Harry says exists in every culture he's been in.
- [16:38] **Tuk-tuks are banned in Islamabad** because of the noise. After three
  weeks of riding them daily this is the first city without any.
- [17:41] The approach to the mosque: big houses, electric fences, mountains
  behind, and a comparison to central Europe.
- [18:11] **The monkeys.** A large troop on the path; one charges him to about
  half a metre while he films it. He is told afterwards that they attack in
  groups.
- [21:43] A local on a motorbike gives them a lift through the rest of the trail.
- [23:31] The **Faisal Mosque** at sunset, four minarets against the mountains,
  and his verdict that it beats what he expected.

## Extracted pages

- [Islamabad](/places/islamabad.md)
- [Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md)
- [Lahore](/places/lahore.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)