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

The video that gives Islamabad its billing as Harry’s favourite city in Pakistan, 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 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
• Pakistan
• Lahore
• Mac