The KINDEST City In The World?! 🇵🇰

First day in Peshawar, in the north-west of Pakistan near the Afghan border, and the video’s question is answered inside twenty minutes. The city is on the UK government’s list of places not to travel to, on the basis of extremism that Harry says belongs to five or ten years ago, and what actually happens to him is that a subscriber spots him in a bazaar and takes over his afternoon, a juice seller refuses his money, and a man he has never met takes him by the hand outside a mosque, drives him to a barber, pays for his haircut and leaves before it starts.

The other honest thread is discomfort. Walking one stretch near the mosque he finds it silent and everyone staring, and wonders whether he should be filming at all — until a man calls him over to ask where he’s from. His conclusion is put plainly: people here look intimidating, and are the kindest he has met.

Key moments

• [00:00] Peshawar: two million people, small by Pakistani standards, and the oldest city in the country — he dates it to 500 BC.
• [00:48] The BRT bus line, and warmer weather than he expected this close to Afghanistan.
• [01:58] The thing he saves until he’s already there: his own government’s travel advice says don’t come.
• [02:29] Qissa Khwani, the Storytellers’ Market. Its name comes from the Silk Road traders who stopped here on the route from Afghanistan and swapped stories while they waited.
• [03:00] Thin streets and tall buildings, which he says feel a hundred years out of date in the best way.
• [03:35] He has lost his sunglasses again — by his own count, the fifth to tenth time he’s filmed buying a pair.
• [04:09] 300 rupees, about $1.50, and the seller cheerfully confirms that the 350 he opened with included the tourist fifty.
• [05:29] A subscriber recognises him, and effectively adopts him for the rest of the afternoon.
• [07:43] The food market: kebabs over coals, juice stalls, and beef pulao piled into what looks like a hundred portions at once.
• [08:50] Upstairs to eat — shoes off, cross-legged on the floor, air conditioning on. 300 rupees a plate.
• [09:57] Fluffy rice with chickpeas and raisins and very fatty, tender beef, in a portion sized for two, for about $1.50. He calls it his favourite meal in Pakistan.
• [11:33] His companion refuses to let him pay and runs off to settle it.
• [12:07] Pomegranate juice, 200 rupees, pressed and blended in front of him.
• [13:12] The stall is a family business — father, brothers and son — selling around 200 juices a day.
• [14:20] The juice seller won’t take his money either, and gets confused when Harry pays anyway.
• [14:56] The language situation: English here is poor, and the method is to wait for the occasional person who speaks it well.
• [15:32] He makes a promise on camera to be fluent in Urdu next time, and asks viewers to hold him to it, because it would make the experience ten times better.
• [15:48] The irony stated outright — the place his own government considers dangerous is the friendliest he has been.
• [16:03] He drops money on the floor more than once, and strangers stop him each time to hand it back.
• [19:31] The uncomfortable stretch: silence, staring, and a genuine worry that he shouldn’t be filming — broken by a man calling him over to talk. His summary is that the people who look most frightening turn out to be the kindest, and that older men are usually the wariest simply because they have never seen a tourist.
• [20:02] Invited into the mosque, and told he can film.
• [22:44] Founded in 1670, Mughal-era, and currently under repair — which is why the central water tank is empty.
• [23:17] Free food and drink being handed out in the courtyard. He is full and eats anyway rather than refuse.
• [24:18] He starts asking directions to a barber.
• [24:50] A stranger takes his hand — a friendship gesture between men here — walks him through the market and drives him to one.
• [26:24] The same man pays for the haircut over Harry’s objections and is gone before it begins.
• [27:32] No shared language in the chair, so the instruction is a photograph.
• [29:51] A head massage he didn’t order, which he rates well above the Indian version.
• [31:29] A three-layer facial, also unrequested, on the grounds that he can’t wash his face properly while moving between hotels.
• [32:45] The whole hour — haircut, beard line, head massage, facial — comes to 1,000 rupees.
• [33:58] A man who chats for a while and then asks, mostly seriously, for a UK visa. Harry explains he is a vlogger, not the Home Office.
• [34:30] The verdict, with apologies to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Extracted pages

• Place: Peshawar
• Country: Pakistan
• Tips: Judge a place for yourself, Insist on paying, Learn the local language