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00:00let's do it Pakistan we had lots of messages from people saying like you
00:04shouldn't go it's super dangerous
00:11and our first sight of Pakistan
00:17mcdonald's there's two options on yango you can pick comfort or standard and i
00:21just picked the quickest one which is standard i think that's why the case
00:25can't go in the boot
00:30we've crashed i kind of don't feel safe staying here it's okay what a first day
00:39good morning from abu dhabi international airport after spending a few weeks relaxing
00:46in the seychelles it is time to get back in the saddle and start a brand new adventure we are
00:55finally heading to pakistan to karachi the city of lights the largest in the entire country home to
01:04more than 20 million people and i can't blooming wait we're going to spend at least the next month
01:10exploring the length and breadth of the country from the south and the coastline to the north and the
01:17mountains and perhaps a couple of restricted areas that foreigners can't really go to
01:27are you ready for a pakistani adventure i am i'm excited but i am a little bit nervous when we
01:34actually checked in the lady was like why are you going to karachi she was so shocked and we were
01:39like
01:39well why not and when we mentioned where our next destination was we had lots of messages from
01:44people saying like you shouldn't go it's super dangerous especially for women but we have been
01:50traveling long enough to know that you can't judge a book by its cover and we're sure that people are
01:56going to be super friendly and very hospitable and yeah basically i just can't wait
02:04we're actually going to be flying with etihad today over from abu dhabi to karachi and i believe it is
02:10only a two hour flight you really can't go wrong with the middle eastern airlines but i feel throughout
02:16this trip we are going to be comparing it to its neighbors to india and to bangladesh but removing
02:22the politics back in south asia
02:27it's molly thank you hello good morning good morning how are you good how are you so far so good
02:33good good thank you very much my friend cheers thank you take care here we go the time has come
02:44boarding to pakistan i think this is actually our first time flying with etihad and of course we are
02:51so far the only two foreigners or two foreigners that we will presume will be on the flight to karachi
03:05good morning hi hello thank you very much thank you
03:14it looks like it's not going to be a good flight
03:17we can't be pretty pleased with but what i have noticed is that apart from the other
03:20stresses i'm one of the only winners on this flight
03:51Thank you, bye-bye.
03:56And just like that, we have made it to Karachi, Pakistan.
04:01I would love to tell you all about the flight, but as soon as we got on, I was asleep.
04:07But I woke up just as we were coming into the city and you can see just how vast the
04:12coastline was.
04:13It goes all the way along from Karachi into Balochistan and then the city itself, the concrete jungle.
04:20We now just need to get through immigration, grab our suitcase and the month-long trip begins.
04:34I was expecting to land in Karachi and the airport to be like really, really busy, really chaotic.
04:40It's actually pretty chilled out. We're walking to immigration now.
04:44I would think we'll probably be through straight away because we are the only foreigners that I can see here
04:50at the airport.
04:51And the visa process was actually quite easy for us being British.
04:55We're very lucky again. It took about an hour to do online.
05:00It was free of charge and then the next day we were presented with our visa that gave us three
05:06months entry into Pakistan multiple times.
05:10So we could go in and out.
05:12So it was a really, really easy visa process.
05:16Let's just hope it's really, really easy at immigration.
05:21And we are through. Honestly, that was so quick. It took about five minutes to go through a health screening.
05:28And then we went through immigration, had our fingerprints taken, the visa was all good.
05:32And then we've become a package. It's so efficient and definitely not that hectic.
05:36You've come outside, there's a nice heat breeze coming through.
05:40We have a few things we need to sort out.
05:42Firstly, we need to sort out some internet, we need to get some cash, and then we need to work
05:47out how to get to our hotel.
05:48Now this looks more chaotic.
05:50Well, this has turned out to be one of the easiest arrivals to a country ever.
05:55The ATM is right outside and we do need to get some money for the taxi and anything else we're
06:05going to need.
06:05Because I don't know if you can pay by card everywhere.
06:09I think 350 Pakistani rupees is one English pound.
06:14So I think we're going to go for 10,000.
06:20And hope for the best.
06:21Please enter the multiples in 500.
06:23Please select to confirm.
06:2510,001.
06:27Oh, oh, oh, oh.
06:29And to use it, you get charged 850.
06:31So just over two English pounds.
06:37There we go.
06:38Just like that, we now have 10,000 Pakistani rupees, which is about 25 English pounds.
06:48We haven't managed to get the SIM card, but the airport actually has free wifi.
06:52So it means I can order a taxi on the local app called Yango.
06:57So I think they can pick us up from here and it will cost a thousand rupees, which is how
07:02much?
07:03Like three English pounds?
07:04And I think it's like a 30 minute drive.
07:07It is nearly November here in Karachi.
07:10This is supposed to be the colder time of the year, but it is absolutely scorching.
07:17We're just walking to meet our taxi driver now.
07:20And our first sight of Pakistan, McDonald's.
07:26So much for everything being easy.
07:28It says he's here.
07:30And he's not.
07:31How are you, man?
07:32Hello.
07:32How are you?
07:33How are you?
07:35How are you?
07:36We're looking for our taxi.
07:38Can you help us?
07:39Taxi.
07:40Taxi.
07:41Oh, we have Yango.
07:42Yango.
07:43Yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:44Yango.
07:45Yango is good?
07:46But he's not here.
07:47Yeah, yeah.
07:48Where is he?
07:49This.
07:50This is Yango.
07:51Yango.
07:51F parking.
07:53F.
07:54This.
07:54F parking, yes.
07:55F.
07:56Okay.
07:58E.
08:00This is E.
08:01This is E.
08:02This is E.
08:02Oh, yeah, I see.
08:03Okay.
08:04This is E.
08:05This is E.
08:06Okay.
08:06Shukriya, Shukriya, Shukriya.
08:08Thank you so much.
08:08Thank you, my friend.
08:10Well, that would be why it wasn't so easy.
08:11That makes sense.
08:12We were in F.
08:13Our driver is in E.
08:15And I believe this is where all of the Yango taxi men stand around.
08:26Salaam Alaikum.
08:27Salaam Alaikum.
08:29Okay.
08:30We found it.
08:34You okay?
08:35You do.
08:36Okay.
08:37In the bag or in here?
08:39Okay.
08:40Put it in the bag.
08:40Okay.
08:43Shukriya.
08:43There are actually two options on Yango.
08:46You can pick comfort or standard.
08:47And I just picked this one which is standard.
08:50I think that's why the case can't go in the boot.
08:58And we are off.
08:59I think it's about a 20 to 30 minute drive to our hotel.
09:03And we are now getting our first glimpses of Karachi city.
09:08You know what?
09:08I was expecting there to be a lot of traffic.
09:10I haven't seen any traffic so far.
09:12I was expecting chaos.
09:14I haven't seen any chaos so far.
09:16The airport experience was smooth.
09:20It was pretty easy to find our taxi driver in the end as he was in departures.
09:25And we are just coming past.
09:26You can see all the new build apartments there.
09:35This is crazy.
09:36Look at that bus.
09:40Every single colour you could think of was on that bus.
09:48I take it back.
09:49There probably is a little bit of traffic.
09:58We've crashed.
10:00Jesus.
10:01We've crashed.
10:02We've crashed.
10:02I felt that in my back.
10:04They're just inspecting the damage and then we'll see.
10:07Too much.
10:08We've been in the country five minutes.
10:10Ow!
10:11That actually hurt my back.
10:14I didn't have a belt on.
10:18As you can see.
10:21They're now inspecting the car.
10:24They're just smacking it.
10:26I kind of don't feel safe staying here.
10:29Is it okay?
10:30Maybe not okay.
10:33Oh my god.
10:34Did that hurt your back?
10:36Yeah.
10:38Welcome to Pakistan.
10:44It's okay?
10:45It's okay?
10:46It's okay?
10:47It's okay?
10:47No problem?
10:48You okay?
10:49I'm okay.
10:49I'll get to it.
10:53I feel really bad for it man.
10:54The car just went smashing straight into the back of his car.
11:06You got the money?
11:08Get it now?
11:14this one only eight four one take take one five for you thank you my friend thank you so much
11:26i'm stuck
11:35thank you is your car okay
11:40i'm not so sure i think they're chatting about it now let me see ah he has little dent
11:48assalamu alaikum assalamu alaikum how are you thank you very much
11:56oh that was uh that was a little chaotic a car crash five minutes into our time here in pakistan
12:05but we are about to check in to our hotel locale and this is what 50 a night gets you
12:12in karachi
12:13pakistan thank you hello hello hello hi how are you nice to meet you ah thank you shakriya
12:24thank you very much oh you don't need the key it's like magic thank you so much thank you very
12:42much
12:42shakriya and welcome to local this is their flagship hotel here in karachi and it is really really nice
12:51it's a boutique quite a small hotel and it seems as though they've done it in the style of a
12:56boho
12:57hotel like a boutique yeah they've got huge double bed with local on the back the little boho rattan
13:04light which i love photos on the wall apparently the photos and some of the furniture comes from local
13:11communities and handcrafts here so they really try and support the people in the area we have our
13:16storage and a wardrobe we have a little clock which is super cute we have i don't want to step
13:23in
13:23everything but our open shower room and i'm going to just quickly open up this blind because does it
13:31open it does we have a view of our area does it open yes we've got to be careful of
13:37the sand
13:38but look at this this is the developing area here i think it's called dha but yeah welcome to karachi
13:46for this price i seriously wasn't expecting the quality to be this high you even get this little
13:52barcode on the side and if you like the smell of the room because it smells really nice you scan
13:58the
13:58barcode and then you can buy the scent when you leave but this is the dha area of karachi which
14:06is an
14:06upscale new sort of neighborhood but it is vast it is separated into like phase one two three four
14:13five six seven eight so at the moment we're a little bit lost so we're gonna head out we're
14:18gonna have a wander get some food i'm very tired there's some kids down here playing cricket of course
14:25and just take it in and acclimatize it's a karachi
14:34i still can't quite believe that we were in a car crash today in pakistan my back is actually
14:42quite sore but the plan for the rest of the afternoon because it's getting quite late now
14:47is to just walk around our neighborhood because we're pretty jet lagged get some food a drink go to
14:54the supermarket and check out dha which is uh an interesting place it's definitely up and coming
15:02it's got these giant boulevard lined with trees and then every now and then you'll have this sort of
15:08high-end restaurant or hairdressers it's probably where the money is in karachi there is a huge queue of
15:17men standing waiting to buy what i think is bread and it looks interesting i want to go over so
15:22i can
15:22smell this breast bread salaam alaikum what is this you speak english english no english what is this this
15:31is bread right roti roti okay and he makes the roti you can see the gentleman here is making the
15:40roti in
15:41front of us and he's putting it in to the tandoor how much is one piece kitna one piece 25
15:4825 can we
15:49take one piece please thank you now i have to work out what the money looks like 100
16:00i love the fact that they're going to be giving us bread and do you remember the yellow pages
16:03i think we're taking four now just one this one is okay yeah yeah please do you remember the yellow
16:10pages where they would like have their businesses in a page thank you shukriya i think i'm getting
16:15my change now look at this it's so cute thank you so much bye everyone's very intrigued as to why
16:23we pour one bread okay the gentleman's actually up here it's okay invited me into his shop to show
16:31look at that tandoor oh he's got skills he's in here every day he puts the water on the side
16:38chucked the dough in and then you'll get the bread like this and all the gentlemen here
16:43have come to pick up the afternoon thank you shukriya shukriya oh amazing hospitality
16:51we just can't stop buying food at the minute they have these really aesthetically pleasing
16:54fruit shop so i would like to get some bananas bananas are like one of the best fruits to get
16:59because
16:59they have their own cases um salam alaikum uh how much is your bananas 12 pieces for 200
17:0612 pieces for 200 you have you have less i can do half is that okay yeah so half for
17:12100 yeah oh great
17:14this is your shop your shop ah it's very nice so many different fruits very colorful
17:21papaya it's a big papaya it's massive wow look at the size of that okay we would use these bananas
17:27so 100 yeah okay thank you my friend shukriya i love this just buying fresh food fresh bread
17:34country england yeah and you from karachi ah peshwara uh we go in three weeks to peshwara yeah
17:45yeah it's good yeah thank you very much shukriya nice to meet you thank you shukriya red and bananas
17:54i honestly love how they wrap it it's very resourceful this is actually a german yellow pages
18:00german newsletter but anyway let's try the local pakistani roti bread
18:08it's still warm it's really nice i love the fresh bread this would just be so good dipped into a
18:13curry
18:14we did really want to get a chai to accompany our fresh roti but it doesn't seem there's that many
18:20in
18:21this area because it is more of an upscale place and we have found this neighborhood cafe and i really
18:27need a pick-me-up i need some caffeine thank you thank you so much shukriya cheers cheers
18:37two pounds for an iced cappuccino
18:51well that was very posh we had two iced coffees and two traditional pakistani croissants for around
18:5910 english pounds so about three and a half thousand pakistani rupees this is a lovely area like i was
19:06saying gated community almost reminds me a lot of areas in bangalore and punay they're very spread out
19:13not very walkable you sort of have to get a taxi from one phase to another but we do actually
19:19need
19:19to go into the supermarket and stock up for a few days here in karachi before we find somewhere for
19:27dinner
19:27and i'm actually very intrigued at how much things cost in a pakistani supermarket
19:35i think this is a quiet supermarket because they have prime for sale but we do actually have an
19:40audience of people watching us right now in the supermarket i wanted to find out how much is a prime
19:44how much is a prime it says one pound 79 in pakistan one well if it's one pound 79
19:51i don't know how much it is i presume it's very expensive but i think what we really need is
19:56waters waters and more waters we're getting this like bargain 90 rupees oh thank you for a bottle
20:07of water we actually needed more than one bottle of water i think we got nervous because we had
20:12a bit of an audience with us in there so now i think we're just going to wander wander around
20:16dha and
20:17then head out and grab some dinner this really is a stunning area to walk around i can imagine the
20:27high and mighty of pakistan reside here from cricketers to movie stars just look at these houses
20:35unbelievable i can't even imagine how much they cost but before coming to karachi we were a little bit
20:42nervous you know there's a lot of articles online saying karachi is one of the world's most dangerous
20:48cities it's pakistan's most dangerous city but so far do not feel it at all have really really
20:56hospitable locals that want to help you and i know we're in a gated area at the moment
21:07but i am seriously impressed
21:36so we did actually plan to head into
21:39the clock tower restaurant behind me but unfortunately it doesn't open for another hour
21:45it's crazy and all of the establishments the hotels the malls the restaurants like this the
21:50security is very tip top everyone has their assault rifle with them but i think instead we're
21:57now just going to get a rickshaw to the other side of dha to i think karachi's largest restaurant
22:06asalaamu alaikum hello uh to kalachi kalachi rickshaw rickshaw
22:13kalachi restaurant
22:19hello how are you how are you how are you nice to be you asalaamu alaikum
22:26how are you uh from england we go to kalachi
22:31you know it it's good restaurant yeah it's good good food
22:39nice to meet you all everyone in pakistan so friendly yes so friendly uh we go to kalachi for
22:45dinner our our first day today beautiful beautiful we heard uh the biggest restaurant
22:50in karachi number one
23:11one thousand is this good price
23:18is this good price one thousand
23:22five hundred
23:25we tell him five hundred
23:38five hundred
23:39now we're going to ask all of the rickshaw drivers i love this this is pakistanic
23:47functionality they've just pulled up on the side of the road to see that we're talking to someone so
23:51let me help 500 500 thank you shukriya matthew nice to meet you uh double and travel dabble and travel
23:59nice to meet you shukriya shukriya
24:04thank you thank you oh salaamu alaikum you okay my friend okay okay bye
24:12legends 500 instead of a thousand to go to karachi's most famous restaurant
24:32chalong
24:33shukriya thank you so much thank you very much
24:38and we have made it to kalachi so this is essentially one of if not the most famous
24:46restaurant here in karachi or at least the biggest we're a little bit early right now so all of these
24:52people crossing the road are actually the workers that are coming here for this evening is right out
24:58over the arabian sea we are a bit early i've never seen that many workers coming in for a
25:05shift at the restaurant i think that's absolutely insane but it is a massive restaurant and yeah
25:10as i said we are a little bit too early so i'm not sure they're gonna let us in yet
25:16thank you thank you i think we're the first people here today right
25:22thank you
25:27thank you
25:28thank you so much thank you shukriya wow it's how many people can fit in this restaurant
25:37uh 1500 people is staying wow is it the biggest in karachi in uh working people there's 600 people
25:46600 300 people in only a kitchen wow we saw everyone arriving right now there's so many people
25:51like beautiful beautiful on the arabian sea very good yeah we will stay till night time nice to meet
25:58you sir nice to meet you thank you thank you thank you so much shukriya thank you look at this
26:07this is
26:07crazy you heard how many people are working here absolutely insane um 1500 people coming here for
26:14dinner i just think that's absolutely wild it was so funny being really early because all the
26:19stars are like what the hell are they doing here the operation is still
26:22but we do actually look at this what a view thank you thank you shukriya wow what this whole table
26:37for us
26:38it's crazy this one this seems too big just for two just for us
26:45yeah okay thank you thank you so much thank you so much shukriya wow again pakistani hospitality
26:56they've given us a table that would fit a family of 10 just for us two wow this is lovely
27:03i don't
27:03think i was expecting this when we were going to come to the biggest restaurant in the city
27:08the sun is starting at tuesday and it's absolutely stunning look there's even boat trips coming out
27:13along the area i don't know if they're fishermen or it's a party boat because there's a lot of
27:18music going on and they've got a bucket that they're throwing over the side but either way we've
27:22actually just ordered our food and the guy we were trying to order two dishes and he was like no
27:27you
27:27want one the portions are big here so we've gone for a handy dish now handy is actually a traditional
27:32plate pot that they use to cook their dishes here in pakistan and it's basically a curry so we've got
27:37parry we've got two naans um and yeah a beautiful view as the sun starts to set thank you oh
27:45look at this
27:47this one is handy spicy little spicy or a lot a lot of spicy i think rice i think very
27:57spicy we got
27:58the handy is incredibly spicy and it comes in this the traditional pot lovely thank you so much
28:05our feast has arrived and this looks so good the handy made up of all the spices i don't know
28:13if it's
28:13spicy or a lot of spices but first i'm going in for this look at this cheese naan it looks
28:20unbelievable looks like a little pizza actually and i think this is actually meant to be a starter
28:27um hold on that cheese is fragrant dip it in that dip it in the handy sauce
28:40these naans are really good value as well they're only 95 rupees um but let me try the handy i'm
28:46going
28:46to get a bit of the potato in the sauce it is extremely oily but i kind of like that
28:52i feel like
28:52you need the oil for the bread it's heat hot and a little bit spice hot i think more of
29:04it is about
29:04the flavor i think you might have been saying that the spices were going to sort of like explode in
29:08your mouth as opposed to it being too spicy too spicy for two foreigners i think this spot actually gets
29:15better as the sun starts to go down you can see it's starting to get all lit up and i
29:21think i have the
29:22ultimate combination you get some rice get your handy get your cheese naan you mix it all together
29:30and you have the ultimate karachi sandwich look
29:37i'm happy what a first day by the way car crash and everything i forgot about that
29:48it's so fragrant it is so good i don't know what's in it and the cheese and the cheese
29:54none melts in your mouth always little bits of vegetable chicken
30:05pakistani hospitality how cute is that they've just brought us out ice cream after our dinner
30:10with a little sign saying welcome to pakistan you just can't beat it
30:14oh no it's just like super hard ice cream huh oh it's nice but it's got melt a little bit
30:26good morning from karachi pakistan what a first day we have had in the country we met some extremely
30:38pakistani friendly locals we had a blooming car crash and that food last night at karachi
30:45our first time trying pakistani food was exquisite in a location like that the most famous restaurant
30:52in the city it only came to 13 english pounds would highly recommend it if you do find yourself
30:59in karachi to have some dinner and enjoy the sunset by the arabian sea but we've just got up we
31:05have had
31:06our breakfast here at locale it's a fantastic hotel because really you get a lot of high-end hotels in
31:12karachi that are hundreds and hundreds of pounds but you don't get spots like this boutique hotels
31:17with great internet smart tv breakfast and they even have a blooming gym but we do have so much more
31:25coming in this country not only from karachi over the next few days but the mountains in the north the
31:33cities of islamabad lahore and everything else in between so we'll see you in the next one from karachi pakistan
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