English, Spanish & French subtitles available in the CC options
So by now...
I guess most of you know how this works.
I show you some news clips about the country in question.
Breaking news out of Pakistan!
There's a crisis in US / Pakistan relations...
Mixed messaging coming from Pakistan...
Pakistan settle your own problems...
World leaders are urging Pakistan and India to take some deep breaths...
And then I go there...
And see what it's like behind the headlines.
But wait a second,
I think this guy has some things to say...
There's one place once described as the world's most dangerous country
that's offering up a pleasant surprise...
Pakistan.
So should we see if we can find that pleasant surprise this man is talking about?
I'm confident we're going to find something.
♪♪♪
More of the Pakistan that I was expecting to see...
Everyone should come in Pakistan...
There's nothing wrong with it...
Wonderfully peaceful now...
So we just arrived at some form of bus station / market.
We got to find a bus to get to...
// Native language //
Find a bus to Mansehra,
which is a few hours north, in the mountains.
So it would be cool to get the combination of the mountains and the city life.
Yeah, very chaotic here.
Shahbaz is trying to suss out the tickets.
We just grabbed a coffee in this super developed area.
- Hello. - Hello.
- How are you? Good? - I'm fine.
- Nice to meet you. - Thank you.
We just grabbed a coffee in this super developed area.
I'll show you a clip of it.
So you can see it’s super westernized kind of place.
I just wanted to show you that so you can see but...
- Hi, how are you?
- Nice to meet you. - Your name... What's your name?
- Nick, I’m Nick. - Nick? You make YouTube Vlogs?
- I do. -You put me in the vlog, sir?
- Yeah, you're in the vlog. - Hey! What's up?
- All right. - So, are you traveling in Pakistan?
- Yeah, we've got to Mansehra now.
- Nice to meet you. - Thank you, sir. Thank you.
- What's your channel, sir? - Indigo Traveller.
- Indigo Traveller? Oh! I think I see your videos. - Yeah, yeah...
- Maybe Afghanistan or... - I'm not sure.
- But I will see now... - Leave me a comment and say "hi".
- Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. - Nice to meet you.
- Media? - No, a Youtuber...
Okay...
So what's up?
- So, there's a minivan that goes to Abbottabad... - Okay.
And Abbottabad is like 20-30 minutes of driving.
- And then we go from there... - In another bus.
Okay.
- Where are you from? - New Zealand.
- New Zealand? That's good. - Yeah. Nice to meet you.
- Is it... - Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- 600 each? - Yeah.
Or for both...?
Got sucked into a bit of chaos there.
It's a very happening place.
Lots of people wanting to chat and...
Or either just for fun or to sell you things, or...
Yeah, lots of combinations.
Yeah. So, I just wanted to show you that coffee situation,
just to show you both sides, right?
Now you can see it's ultra-chaos,
kind of what you imagined in your mind if you thought of Pakistan
but there's also that other side.
Anyway, we've got the bus tickets,
which were 600 rupees for two peoples, or 300 each. (300 PKR = 1.80 USD)
And that's going to take us to another city,
and then at that city we get off and get onto another bus.
So, yeah... It's a good way to wake up.
Still got a bit of time to wait for the bus, so...
Might look around this area and then jump on and head out to the mountains.
♪♪♪
So much going on right now...
Shahbaz, my friend, is grabbing some food
and then we will jump on the bus.
But let's see what he got.
There's some interesting restaurants and things.
Obviously a lot of little convenience stores
where you buy chips and drinks, and snacks, and things...
And then there's the more restaurant style places
with lots of people in them...
Enjoying some lunch.
And then the tables where people enjoy their food.
A super busy main road over there.
Bus station.
Street sellers.
Street food.
Leather sellers.
There is another street food store there.
// Native language //
I really must say
Pakistan's being one of the easiest countries in terms of having the camera.
People might look at it a little bit
but they...
They're not really scared of it and they kind of welcome it
and they don't, you know... They're not shocked.
And as i've said in past videos.
I understand people who are a bit taken back by the camera,
it's very intimidating setup with a microphone and everything.
But the cool thing is being here is that people are very accommodating towards it
and they just, you know... They're interested.
They ask me what about to and things.
♪♪♪
// Native language //
So we just saw this man cutting hair on the side of the road here, so...
I'm going to ask him a few questions.
It's a bit of a character.
// Native language //
He's like: I've been working for 60 years now here.
- 60?
60 years, yeah. I've been doing this for 60 years.
// Native language //
He's like: I'm doing my hard work, earning money and sending it back to the family.
- Has it been the same spot for 60 years or has he moved?
// Native language //
He's been working out of here like for 60 years
but probably in different spots,
like probably spots around the area.
So he have this... He just takes his things and just move around, you know?
In this area.
// Native language //
He's like: America should send money for me.
- Is he happy?
// Native language //
While I'm running my own things, I'm happy.
I'm earning on my own, doing my own thing.
♪♪♪
We're just going to jump on this bus here, behind us.
I got the front seat so hopefully capture some views on the way.
I met a gentleman in the back who is quite an interesting character
and speaks good English, so...
I might ask him a few questions when we arrive
but for now let's head out.
♪♪♪
So we've arrived in Abbottabad
and we've decided not to go to Mansehra.
We're going to base ourselves here for a little while and explore,
and you can go to surrounding villages, and things...
And this is another happening place, as you can see around me.
So this city was actually founded by the British in 1883.
And they used it as a post for their military here.
And then, in the partition in 1947,
it was handed over to the Pakistanis, so...
It's the second biggest city in this region
and it's kind of the hub to get into the mountains of Pakistan, so...
Yeah, I'm gonna go check into a hotel
that our friend here sussed out for us, so...
Very lucky.
I'll introduce you to him soon,
he's gonna be hanging out with us and showing us around over the next few days.
The infrastructure is so impressing...
Here, like...
You saw those roads, you know...
Those roads could be, you know....
Anywhere in Europe they're tolled roads.
This road goes all the way to China, that highway,
by the end of next year, apparently,
it's going to cover the whole country.
So you'll be able to travel across the whole of Pakistan on roads of that smooth, so...
Yeah.
Extremely impressive.
// Native language //
This is a pretty cool little van.
- Did you enjoy that drive? - Yeah, that was a really smooth drive.
I love the views on our way here.
Interesting.
- The roads are... - Yeah.
So they have like build motorways,
is like the network motorways is really amazing how they're like
trying to connect every city.
They working on the roads,
reconstructing in that sense of connecting different parts.
So it's like easier for even travellers, tourist, you know...
Go around easily and all, like... Yeah.
// Native language //
Romantic, right?
So this is the hotel.
That Babar,
the man that we met in the back of the minibus that we just took,
he has organized this hotel for us.
He's gone home now but in the next video he's taking us on an adventure,
up into the mountains so you'll meet him.
He's a very interesting character.
Before the sun sets we're gonna go head to the local bazaar,
explore more of this city here.
It's gonna be like a 45-minute walk actually.
So we're gonna jump in the back here.
So riding local style now.
We would have taken like a long time to walk, so...
Decided to jump on one of these back of these local transport.
I'm not sure how much these cost but...
Shouldn't be too much.
- How is it in there?
Quite interesting...
I love all the things going on in here.
- Right.
That's the truck art over there. It's really interesting.
So seeing as Pakistan has had a relatively bad reputation.
You know, in the last 10 to 20 years.
When you register in a hotel in these...
A lot of these northern regions,
they notify local authorities
and they dispatch more police officers and security
because they would hate for something to happen on the very small chance that it did.
So they have these extra precautions, you know?
It is very secure but just in case because
tourism is growing quite rapidly now here,
relative to what it was before.
So it's a really good sign and they want to keep it that way,
and they want to put Pakistan back on the map as a tourist destination.
So they have all these procedures in place.
Interesting point that the hotel manager was just telling us.
// Native language //
- How much was it? - So that was 20 rupees per person. (0.12 USD)
- Okay. - For like 10 minutes ride.
- Yeah.
So you can basically find anything you need in this bazaar.
It's gigantic, you know?
School bags, clothes, wedding decorations,
carpets,
snacks,
old televisions over here,
mobile phones...
SIM cards,
banks.
There's like a washing machine, laundry,
machine shop.
I see some sports equipment here,
pharmacies...
It's like everything you need, you can find here.
There's a photo developing place over there, tailors.
- "Back in 1999..." - Wrestling.
"In the fall, October I believe, WWE had a live event in St. Louis,
which just so happens to be where I lived.
My father Cowboy Bob Orton took me downtown...
To the event, to meet a couple WWE...",
We come to this old kind of TV maintenance shop,
we met a nice local guy.
This is like a common television for this area?
Lots of people still using these televisions?
// Native language //
- People are still using this televisions, yeah. - Right.
- How long has he been repairing these televisions for?
// Native language //
He's been repairing televisions for like 25 years now.
- In the same spot right here? - Yeah.
- Has he seen big changes in the city in that time?
// Native language //
He's like: Abbottabad has changed a lot over the 25 years in terms of
how people have started using electronics, you know...
You get to see the use a refrigerator or television, it's really common in here.
Obviously the infrastructure they've been developing a lot over the years now.
- So things are moving in a positive direction...
// Native language //
He's like: Yeah, this is going towards the right positive direction.
- Does he also repair modern televisions or just the older models?
// Native language //
So he repairs all kinds of TVs, they got the modern, LCDs, LEDs, you know...
// Native language //
We come to this street food stall here
and Shahbaz is gonna pick up a little bit of a treat here.
// Native language //
So Shahbaz, what have you got there?
- These are called like Mixed Pakoras. - Okay.
Yeah, you mix all the kind of vegetables that are batter
and this is like a fried potato, it's really tasty.
So this is apparently the Silk Road.
The hotel behind me is where we're staying.
And we're told by the locals here
that this is the Silk Road here.
So...
Look at this.
I'm blogging from the Silk Road.
I hope you enjoyed that journey.
Quite chaotic
but that makes the most fun to make
and entertaining content.
In the next video, as I mentioned, we're heading up into the mountains,
going deeper with our new local friend, the Babar.
// Native language //
No, thank you.
// Native language //
So I hope you're enjoying these Pakistan videos so far.
I sure am enjoying making them.
Pakistan is growing on me by the day.
Definitely a hugely misunderstood country.
If you want to check out my Instagram for photos of the trip,
you can see some of the photos I'm getting here, so...
If you would like...
Hello, Salam!
If you would like to see the photo version of the trip
then head over there.
Otherwise, in case they don't see you...
Good afternoon, good evening and good night.
♪♪♪