(upbeat music)
- Okay, welcome to northern Pakistan
this is a vlog series sponsored by CPIC Global,
so, big love to them. They brought us up to Pakistan
to show you that hey, while there might be some
negative stories in the media this country's amazing
and quite exciting travelin.
We're in Khairabad right now,
our itinerary's quite packed today.
We're gonna go see Baltit Fort as well as Attabad Lake.
But first, it's time to shop.
One of my favorite things, kind of.
(upbeat music)
- This is traditional hat from Hunza.
You can see it has a hemmed brim
and it has a seaming here.
So, you always have to keep the seam towards your back
because they say in old days, I heard this
from a learned people that if you by even by mistake
if it comes in front,
then you are going to fight with someone.
(laughing)
We're not going to fight with someone today.
Sometimes when you are tired, you put it like
this is called (foreign language)
you know the slightly backwards
and if it is too much towards the back
then it means you are not in a good mood.
- What do you think, man?
- I think it's very fascinating that just one hat
can say so much.
(laughing)
Basically, you're like profile update, right?
How your mood, how you feelin.
(laughing)
Check my hat.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, after a little fashion show,
with this man right here, we've settled on some hats.
- They go for like 350 each, like four bucks,
4 Canadian dollars, so like 3 US dollars.
I think that's a steal.
(upbeat music)
All right, Anushae,
what do you have on your head?
- I have the local tribal attire as I've just been told.
And they wear it for special events
and different occasions here and it is really beautiful,
but it is very heavy and my head is slightly tired
wearing this because it's so heavy on the top.
But look at the back, it has a train.
And this dress is literally just sewn in like every single.
This looks like, look like coins even,
and they're all sewn in the dress.
And it's really beautiful, I think but--
- It looks like medieval chain mail.
- Yeah
- It's like all metal and seashells.
- I wouldn't, I don't see the practicality of it
like on everyday basis, but if people wear it everyday
I salute them.
(laughing)
Good job.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
- I was trying to explain what (mumbles)
So this, this right here is a rock
that they find in the mountains and you grind it up.
I guess into a little powder and you can put it in milk.
A very, very tiny amount
because too much is not good for your body.
And it's probably full of minerals
and it gives you a lot of energy.
It's good for your health.
- Yeah
- It's the local Viagra.
(laughing)
- The local, local Viagra?
- Yes - All right.
- It's medically scholars as fultium.
It has many medicalists,
no, medicinal, yes.
Many, medicinal.
- But it's actually a rock, you drink a rock.
- You process it, no, you use other materials from it.
And then this is the end product.
- Wow, okay.
- And you take just a tiny grain.
You mix it in a glass of milk.
It's very bitter, you can't swallow it otherwise.
- That is one of the craziest things I've ever--
- Okay, continuing our way up to the fort.
We were pointed to this ancient mosque
that was carved from wood from some private family.
That's cool and all but then you will notice down over here
in the ditch
(laughing)
is something very interesting
happening with the water.
- So, it's like magic water and the mud is looking like
it's, it's full of these really shiny minerals.
- Iridescence, kind of--
- Yeah, like a lot of quartz in the rock or something, but,
I've never seen water naturally do this.
- Me neither, it almost looks like smoke.
Thick smoke.
(upbeat music)
- Hey ladies, hi!
- [Girls] Hi!
- How are you?
- [Girls] We are fine, thank you.
(laughing)
- Where are you going?
- [Girls] Going to home.
- Going to home?
- [Girls] Yes.
- Well, you live in a very beautiful home.
(laughing)
- Well enjoy, enjoy the walk back.
- Thank you, nice to meet you.
- [Girls] Bye!
- Bye!
(laughing)
- Lexi's struggling.
- It has been, it has been quite a hike from the bottom,
But, hey we're here.
Baltit Fort Hunza.
And the mountains are pretty nice.
And here, we come.
(dark music)
(upbeat music)
- Welcome, to the secrecy planning hall.
I'm not even joking.
That's what this room's used for.
(laughing)
Actually, a couple cool, interesting things in here.
So there's Tibetan carved pillars
and trimming along the walls.
And he was pointing out some interesting things
about these carpets. He was saying that,
the guy was saying this was 100 years old.
And he also said it was dyed
and it made me realize something that just recently
we can go and we can purchase any color we want
but just 100 years ago you had to go create dyes,
you couldn't just go buy something red.
For example, this pigment here, this red pigment
is actually crushed beetle shells.
And it was only found in Europe.
So, here we are in Pakistan
and they had to be able to get that red pigment
from the crushed beetle shells.
This blue here, as well,
the blue is from India from Indigo.
Another color, and to have carpets like this
you had to be rich because a lot of work
goes into making something like this.
All handmade, dyed with various substances
from different parts of the world.
Pretty wild thing to think about, right?
We come up the stairs here,
and this is the reception room, the meeting room,
the mud room we'd call it in Canada.
The place where you come first
before going off into any of the other rooms.
It's an amazing fort, though.
He was saying it was just renovated recently,
but it's almost 900 years old.
You walk in these places,
and you can almost feel the history.
The royal kitchen,
is right here.
Some of these things are beautiful,
I don't know how practical they'd be these days, but.
He was saying these old pots are
made of a kind of soft stone
almost like a clay, and they retain a lot of heat
so if you wanna cook something for a long time,
like a stew, kind of like a cast iron, very useful.
This here, I'm gonna guess this is
an ancient mouse trap.
Pretty wild, right?
Okay, we lost the group.
I think they're upstairs.
Okay.
Wow.
Shoot a drone from here.
(upbeat music)
Look around these mountains, yeah,
I have to tell you something I just learned.
There are 142 peaks in Pakistan that are over
7,000
meters.
That's like 22,000 feet.
There's 142 of them in this country,
making it the country that has the highest of mount,
highest mountains, if you get what I'm trying to say.
(laughing)
The reason for that is because India used to be an island.
And what caused the Karakoram mountain range
as well as Himalayas
and the third one, I forget the name.
(laughing)
Is it's smashing, two continental plates smashing together,
as India ruptured into the side of central Asia.
That's why here in Pakistan,
are the highest mountains in the world
and a lot of earthquakes.
BOW! That's the fork.
Now, lunch time.
Hey, do you mind showing me.
(laughing)
- I can't believe how long it is
Isn't that amazing?
(laughing)
How long, how many years?
- 22
- 22 years?
- 22 years.
- So in 22 years, maybe 21 and a half years,
I can take my mustache
and wrap it multiple times around my ears.
(laughing)
But I missed it,
actually, I was flying the drone earlier and I missed the--
- You missed the whole interaction with him.
- You learned something about it.
- (mumbles) What was it about the military paying to,
paying, him to grow his beard that long?
- You know, there is a word, there is a terminology called
(foreign language) is in military
who usually take care of the entrances
into military installations,
they have beards like, beards and mustaches, like him.
And for that, they get a special allowance.
- A special allowance - Yeah
- That's what it was.
- So they get paid to grow their mustaches out that long
- Yeah, yeah
(laughing)
Okay, here we are at Cafe, Cafe De Hunza.
We were told that there is one special thing
you have to try when you're here.
It is a walnut cake.
So, the famous walnut cake.
We have Lexi up first, the dessert master.
(background noise drowns out other sounds)
(laughing)
- It's a lot of walnuts
(laughing)
- Ready?
All at once like sushi.
- First impressions?
- As far as taste goes, it is kind tastes like honey.
There's not much to it.
The walnuts are a little bit,
cooked. They're not as crunchy as you'd think.
Honestly, this tastes like you are eating walnuts.
I give like a eight out of ten.
(upbeat music)
Okay, Attabad Lake.
Wow!
(upbeat music)
Okay, and that's a wrap for another day exploring Pakistan.
If this is your first vlog, you've seen on the channel
to play this on the top, to catch up.
My name is Mike, of Fearless and Far, you can subscribe,
and I hope you enjoyed this one.
There's another great one coming up next.
Experience or possessions.
Catch you next travel vlog.
Peace.
(upbeat music)
What's up? Show us the floss?
(laughing)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
That's it, that's it.
(laughing)