Hi guys I’m Ava over the last few weeks
I’ve been traveling all around Pakistan
but I’ve been spending most of my time
in Islamabad now before I came to
Pakistan I kind of imagined Islamabad to
be kind of like sandy-colored with a lot
of sand with a lot of animals walking
down the streets and not much going on
otherwise basically I kind of believed
the same image that most people out in
the West believe Islamabad to be but of
course having spent time here I realized
just how wrong I was
so today in this vlog I want to show you
my style but this offer that I know and
that I have come to really really really
like so yeah let me take you on a tour
of my Islamabad chalo let’s go
before we actually begin I want to take
you out on a coffee with me because it’s
morning and I am NOT had my fix of
caffeine yet which is very bad I cannot
function without it so I’ll take you to
one of my favorite coffee spots in town
this is key he’s not an actual husky and
a little coffee run I just want to
preface this by saying that Islamabad is
really surprising I think the thing that
surprises people the most when they
first arrive in Islamabad it’s just how
green it is everywhere I mean there’s
trees there’s hedges s plants it’s it’s
extremely lush in that way and it’s
actually one of my favorite things about
the city that feels like you’re living
in a village or in the countryside and
the city itself alright we’re just about
to arrive ourselves a parking spot
this part of town is called cruiser
market and is this tiny cute little
oasis in the middle of f6 or m7 in a
flower and most of the people that I
know here in the city pretty much
through a favorite hangout spot and also
a mine that we’re here to get coffee and
not wax lyrical about kusa market so
let’s go into that
yep I’m a high functioning individual
but I’m a little actually I need to
go to the shop very quickly sir so let
me just take you guys along and we’ll be
on our way
versus of course most places in Pakistan
are not like this but in this vlog I
want to show you just how Western it can
get and that’s why I’m taking you to the
most Western shop in town there’s a lot
of coffee here ladies and gents actually
probably more than in my local Tesco is
back home in London in fact I shamefully
admit that I don’t recognize most of
these American products anyway armed
with my Fairtrade coffee I had to keep
going because this next place I’m just
about to show you is really cool and
hides a key to the history of Islamabad

• this is sad poor village one of the
  most historic and probably Instagram
  abilities in all of this Lama bar and
  there’s a couple of places in here that
  I really want to show you first of all
  the little Museum here is where you can
  come to learn about the history of
  Islamabad just in case you can’t make it
  though let me give you a rundown super
  quick lesson in the history of the
  starboard basically this city doesn’t
  have
  hi as rich and centuries-old as that of
  Lahore Multan Slava didn’t actually
  exist about a century ago following the
  partition between India and Pakistan
  Pakistan was looking to have a new
  capital that was a bit more central than
  Karachi the previous one so they picked
  a piece of land in the middle of the
  country they hired Greek architects and
  urban planners and they decided to build
  a city the new capital it’s called the
  stahma but coming from Islam which is of
  course the dominant faith here and Abad
  which kind of means City I think in
  Persian so in the 60s this beautiful
  capital was created pretty much from
  scratch and here we are now for a
  culture vulture like me the newness of
  Islamabad means that I don’t really get
  my history fix here but as with
  everything he can find it if you know it
  look but that’s not all another thing I love
  about sad poor village is that it’s very
  diverse at least historically so this
  here is the Sikh temple and that over
  there is a Hindu temple one of the very
  few remaining in Pakistan if you’re in
  is new I’d then you probably think that
  sad poor is a bit touristy that’ll be
  cute but touristy as a tourist I’m
  pretty sure that you will absolutely
  love it so yeah that’s sad poor kind of
  for me the last remaining historical
  part of the city as for the rest well
  this is where the really western part of
  the vlog begins and I want to show you
  all of this because this is the side of
  Islamabad that most people in the West
  don’t realize exists let me show you
  what I’m about to share with you now is
  actually one of my biggest sources of
  anxiety before coming here longer-term
  basically you know other european go and
  I like my European food and from the
  kind of image of Pakistan and asada that
  was sold to me by Western media I assume
  that you know I would be sitting here
  bathing in nihari and chicken karahi and
  samosas well it’s actually turned out to
  be one of my biggest sources of surprise
  and delight in the end and here’s what
  example it turns out that Islamabad has
  a European
  that’s run by a Polish babe honestly
  most of these can compete with what you
  get in Europe I swear no exaggeration
  there’s even a Belgian restaurant and in
  English teahouse serving scones andHardee’s serving burgers and the
  dominoes serving well anyway you get the
  gist all of the big food brands from the
  West and for the Wizards out there
  there’s even a Harry Potter cafe
  so it turns out that it’s not about has
  all these Western and American brands
  that you probably don’t even see in most
  European capitals so that really caught
  me by surprise you know I just had
  completely not see it coming and
  actually most of my Pakistani friends
  complained that in Islamabad there isn’t
  enough choice of authentic Pakistani
  sort of desi food but I find a pretty
  good cup of chai if you know where to
  look or if you can handle it Kashmiri
  chai and there as my which is a
  ridiculously sweet please don’t judge me
  for making really irresponsible food
  choices and stuffing myself with sweets
  it’s just how I am so you know some of
  that is a pretty modern new cities of
  course it doesn’t have the same cute
  linaria traditions that Karachi Orlando
  might have because if you want the set
  of desi touch in a sour bud you can also
  find it and I get it all the time with
  things like food shopping for example
  when I go to little tiny stores to get
  my fruit just like this I used to think
  it was super annoying to have to drive
  halfway across town just to get some
  fruit from a shop where before I would
  just go downstairs to my local
  supermarket and get it from there in
  London but actually I realized then that
  nothing compares to the personal
  attention that you get while shopping
  here you know the great thing about
  shopping for free
  Pakistan is that it is mostly hyper
  seasonal so anything that you get like
  pomegranate which are currently in
  season is gonna be fresh as an
  absolutely lovely and actually something
  that I don’t miss about back home and
  yeah or you know all that processed food
  have you ever seen pomegranate this red
  anyway as soon as I stop obsessing over
  this pomegranate let me show you
  something else
  it’s a hands-down the best thing about
  Islamabad is the weather and the nature
  it’s easily the greenest capital city I
  have ever been to in my life and that
  means that every morning when I wake up
  and I go out onto my balcony I get to
  see this those hills they are
  technically called the mug galas but
  actually they are the foothills of the
  Himalayas which means that if you live
  in a sauna bar then technically you get
  to see the Himalayas every day I guess
  that’s a fact right but you can get even
  closer to the Margalla Hills actually
  you know you could hike up on one of the
  many trails here in a Sabha or like you
  can take the easy option and drive all
  the way up there having seen so much of
  Pakistan I of course realized that many
  cities here have a problem with
  pollution and they have very limited
  green spaces but Islamabad is not like
  that Islamabad enjoys all of this
  pristine nature that really surrounds it
  from all sides and this is probably the
  most beautiful drive in the city I mean
  just look at these vistas isn’t it pure
  magic so that’s it guys that’s my
  version of Islamabad thank you so much
  for watching this vlog and if you’ve
  enjoyed it
  it would mean the world to me if you
  subscribe to my youtube channel or any
  of my other social media channels
  did in the description box but thank you
  again and I’ll see you next time
  the best thing about Islamabad it’s that
  it’s it’s that it yeah wasn’t it
  particularly but Islamabad is.
• Credit to : Eva zu Beck