$8 Designer Shoes in Northern Pakistan 🇵🇰

A morning at Altit Fort above the Hunza Valley with Mac and their guide, and an afternoon in the bazaar at Karimabad on a repair errand that does not stay a repair errand.

The fort tour is the substance: a kingdom that was separate from Pakistan until it wasn’t, cooking pots carved from stone because there was no metal in Hunza, and seven of the region’s highest peaks from the roof. The bazaar half is Harry’s favourite kind of transaction — a handyman fixes his broken jacket zip on the spot for whatever they feel like paying, then sells him a pair of trainers he did not come in for.

Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles. Harry corrects himself in the description about the shoes: he calls them Balenciagas on camera and says afterwards that, having looked properly, he doesn’t think they are. Both his statements are recorded here and neither brand claim is repeated as fact.

Obs: which of Hunza’s two forts this is cannot be settled from the sources — the description says Altit and the transcript points at Baltit. The bundle follows the description, as it does for the previous day’s video, which names the other fort. See Altit Fort and Baltit Fort; the discrepancy is recorded in the log.

Key moments

• [00:12] Breakfast is omelette and paratha again, which by now he calls the usual and says he wants to learn to make at home; plus a sweet of dried fruit and nuts, chai sweet enough not to need sugar, and mango juice.
• [02:50] The repair mission: his jacket has no zip and Mac’s sleeve is coming off.
• [03:20] Glaciers visible from the road, and his note that once you are moving it isn’t actually that cold.
• [04:04] Karimabad bazaar, quiet at nine in the morning, and four or five police cars that may be another escort.
• [05:24] The fort is 800 years old and, the guide says, reflects Hunza’s military dominance of the region.
• [05:57] Seven languages are spoken in the Hunza area — and, Harry is told, people here know all seven.
• [06:29] A cannon used against British troops in 1891. Apple and apricot trees below.
• [06:59] Wim Hof breathing on the terrace, which he invites viewers to do with him.
• [08:01] Inside: wooden grain scales in half, five and ten kilos, and a black stone cooking pot the guide calls the ancient pressure cooker — because there was no metal in Hunza, and brass and metal only arrived through travel to Kashmir and China.
• [09:32] 2,500 m, 8,000 ft, and in clear weather seven of the highest mountains from the roof — Rakaposhi across in Nagar Valley, Diran and Sumayar, Golden Peak, Ultar under fresh snow, Lady Finger and Hunza Peak.
• [10:34] The kings. Mir means king; the first portrait is of Mir Ghazan Khan, who fled to China when the British came in and died there. His younger brother took over, then a line down to Jamal Khan, the last king — whose son is still alive at 75.
• [11:04] The summer bedroom, where the family slept on the floor. Around 80% of Hunza still sleeps on the floor (from video – unverified).
• [11:34] The lookout for watching polo, and the first currency used here.
• [12:06] Hunza was its own kingdom before Pakistan took it over, and the royal family still lives in the valley.
• [12:36] Population about 120,000 (from video – unverified — Harry says “I think he said”), against 4,000 in the king’s day.
• [13:06] Chinese, Tajik and Pakistani culture have all spilled into the valley, and several religions have been here — the Hunza people count themselves separate from all of it.
• [13:38] Almost no police in the town, which he reads as the plainest evidence yet that the valley is as safe as everyone says.
• [14:08] The zip fixed on the pavement in minutes, the handyman trying several sizes until one fits. The word for the work is jugaar, which Harry is told means options.
• [14:38] The upsell. The same man notices the hole in Harry’s shoes and produces a pair of red trainers: 1,200 rupees, about $7.
• [16:11] Harry’s own summary: came to get my zip done and I’m walking out with designer shoes — this guy knows how to upsell.
• [17:13] He says on camera he doesn’t think they’re real and doesn’t mind; he needed shoes.
• [18:14] The repair was priced at nothing — pay what you want. Mac gave 500.
• [18:14] School finishes at 2:20 here.
• [19:15] The drone goes up, semi-successfully; it has been giving him trouble all over Pakistan.

Extracted pages

• Altit Fort
• Hunza Valley
• Pakistan
• Mac
• Akram
• Try the street version of everyday services