$1 Theme Park Islamabad 🇵🇰

An afternoon that goes wrong in a useful way. Harry and Mac set out for the lake and dam area outside Islamabad on a friend’s recommendation, and their driver puts them down at a boatyard in the middle of nowhere — the right lake, the wrong side of it.

Getting to the actual attractions takes two lifts on the back of an overloaded motorbike, four up at one point on a main road, which Harry describes as the safest he has ever felt while being unsafe. Neither rider takes anything for it. The second one’s answer to being offered a tip is that it is his duty and they are his guests.

The payoff is a carnival by the water: 20 rupees to get in, and about $4 each for the two rides worth doing. It is also the first leisure venue in the country to let them in — they have now been refused twice for not being a family, and get through here by explaining that they are brothers.

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

Key moments

• [00:00] A local’s opening claim, which Harry doesn’t argue with: Islamabad is the second most beautiful capital in the world (from video – unverified).
• [01:01] The boatyard they were mistakenly dropped at, and a rowboat out among the fishermen. It is the wrong place and he likes it anyway.
• [03:02] Four people on one motorbike on a main road, then a second lift the same way. He is open about how unsafe it felt.
• [06:14] Neither rider will take money. The answer to the offered tip: it is my duty, you are our guests.
• [09:50] The third family-only test. He states it plainly — two theme parks have already refused them for not being a family — and they get in here by saying they are brothers.
• [10:21] 20 rupees to enter, camels and horses at the gate, bumper cars, and a park that turns out to be built for young children.
• [11:53] 900–1,000 rupees for two rides, about $4 each: a zipline and a Ferris wheel.
• [14:32] The zipline: he puts it at about 50 metres up and 450 feet long, run in the dark, with a hole in the ground at the landing he makes a joke about and doesn’t entirely mean.
• [19:10] From the Ferris wheel: four or five separate small theme parks in the same area, no large ones, the lake in one direction and the city in the other.
• [20:12] Rainwater still sitting in the Ferris wheel car, which suggests he is the first person on it since the weather cleared.

Extracted pages

• Islamabad
• Pakistan
• Mac