[yrwagh]

Very nice thread ! One thing I noticed, in couple of pictures I was a Isuzu V cross like pick-up truck. Interestingly we dont see those many in India. How did you find the overall automobiles differentiation there ? Like us dominated by Marutis, hatchbacks or SUVs on the other hand ?

[fhdowntheline]

Your travelogue rekindled my memories of Pakistanis I have interacted with back when I was in the USA. As mentioned, all very friendly, and they seemed to want to 'emphasise' on their 'desi' connection more than Indians actually.
I remember an occasion when I went with a colleague of mine who had recently arrived in the US, to a used car dealership from across our office in Barrington, IL (suburb of Chicago). The elderly gent at the dealership seemed Indian, with a little extra polish in his overall mannerisms. During the informal chat, I happened to glance at his photo on on his office desk- he had been in the Pak army in his heydays!. So when I enquired, he did mention about his military background-but (perhaps sensing our hesitation), he immediately cajoled us- saying in Urdu/Hindi " Let us leave all that Indo-Pak politics back in Asia". Here we are just "desis", are'nt we ?" . We had a good laugh, and well, my colleague indeed closed a deal on a decent used car later.
And oh, cant forget our bachelor weekends back in Chicago. Some good movies from blockbuster, and a delectable biryani and choice of hard/soft drinks. The delectable biryani was from the neighbourhood store "Asian Island" run by a Pak-origin lady. All we had to do was to call her up to say that we are collecting biryani at a specific time- and she used to keep it ready for us, straight from her kitchen!
And I may also add- I had actually failed my first driving test in the USA for being too cautious. So I took the services of , guess what, a Pak-origin middle aged lady who ran a driving school . She straightened out my confidence (or the lack of it) especially on the freeway merges and exits.

My parents too have memories of pleasant interactions with Pakistanis when they were in Bahrain.

[TOINGPOING]

Awesome! Wish you had posted more snaps of Lahore as well as Islamabad.

[bigDaddy_In]

Roads look stunning! I had a notion that it is not that great(thanks to Bollywood/Hollywood).
I wish we had a better relationship with our neighbour. Pakistani hospitality is the best that I've come across on youtube through innumerable vloggers.
How easy was the VISA process?

[the_real_slager]

Beautiful travelogue. It was really eye-opening reading this and getting a whole new perspective about our neighbour. Thanks for sharing.

Meanwhile, in one of the images, I think I could spot a Nissan juke. If it is and if it was not an import, I am surprised that nissan brought their newer models there and not to India.

[srishiva]

Thanks for the thread. One of my close friends is a Paksitani. His one wish was to become a American citizen so that he could visit India ! I have sent the link to this thread to him.

Islamabad was city built with plan like Chandigarh or Lutyens Delhi. I hope we dont believe complete pakistan is like what shown here. Also, hope they dont use this thread for their propaganda

[DCEite]

My late grandfather too came from Sialkot and he studied graduation in what he described as "Murray College".

Would love to visit the country once, specially my roots, some day.

[ptushar]

Originally Posted by avishar

Here some driving videos of the areas which OP visited, so we can get a sense of what he experienced.

A Motorway Drive. Very well designed, particularly note the shoulder in the median too and a concrete median.

Thanks for sharing this. Had it not been for this thread, I wouldn't have bothered myself with watching Pakistani road videos. And now after this thread I am somewhat of a fan of Pakistani roads.

Some observations from the video:
1. The roads are spectacular. Just awesome.
2. In the first video, this person had ample opportunities to overtake from the left most lane. And he never did. Those who have driven on the Mumbai Pune Expressway (MPE), you know what I mean.
3. The buses and trucks are in the left most lane. Not even in the middle lane and most certainly not in the right most lane. Again - those who drive on MPE - don't watch. This will be a major burnol moment.
4. The roads of Islamabad are like wow. But to be honest, so are roads of Delhi. The difference is the lane discipline, didn't see people jumping traffic lights and only one instance of a two wheeler on the wrong side. Those who drive in Pune - stay away from this video. It could cause a major heartburn for you.
5. Okay - but the part at the end where we have people hanging out of the car windows was a bit of a scare. Not sure what they were celebrating, but that was outright dangerous.
6. And at the end when we finally see a traffic jam, we notice the same behavior as in Indian traffic jams. People cutting across whatever available space and surging ahead. Don't know why, but a part of me felt nice. I know

Overall, I am impressed with the quality of their roads.

What an irony it is; we have great cars but poor roads and poorer road discipline. They have decent road discipline, superb roads and such outdated car models. Well, God has strange ways of maintaining balance in the region.

[sameer sultan]

A very unique and interesting travelogue this one! Thank you np23. Keeping with the essence of Team BHP you have written exclusively about the road scene you experienced on your visit to Pakistan.

I did a road trip from Lahore to Islamabad in 1998. The Motorway was newly opened and the traffic was sparse. It was a pleasure travelling and an experience which I cherished for a long time. Your thread np23 brought back those memories.

You have pointed out the toll collection on their Motorways is at the exits which makes sense as it gives unhindered passage on the Motorway.

Another thing is their Motorways are constructed as a completely new project without expanding or altering the existing Lahore-Islamabad highway. The Motorways are fenced and 2 wheelers are not allowed.

[Allterrain]

Good thread. We are overwhelmed by stereotyping descriptions. Reality could be different.

[harshad9493]

Thank you for the pics and narration. Brilliant pictures and vivid descriptions. I'm 72 now and hole one day I can visit Karachi as it was our forefather's town before partition.

[71Convertible]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Thanks for the thread. One of my close friends is a Paksitani. His one wish was to become a American citizen so that he could visit India ! I have sent the link to this thread to him.

Islamabad was city built with plan like Chandigarh or Lutyens Delhi. I hope we dont believe complete pakistan is like what shown here. Also, hope they dont use this thread for their propaganda

Unfortunately, becoming a US citizen will not make it much easier for your friend. I had pakistani origin us citizen colleagues who had a tough time getting an Indian visa.

Many forget that there was a time 60s-70s where Pakistan economy was growing faster than India. Wonder if infra improvement started from there and the current generation of drivers grew up with the proper rules.

Another thing - 90+ pct of Indian drivers are probably first gen drivers.

[Fordlover88]

Thanks for sharing this lovely thread. I have a long time wish list of visiting Pakistan but have heard stories of Pakistan being almost impossible for us to visit. Your TL gives a glimmer of hope to us. I had a completely different notion of Pakistan but your beautiful snaps have changed my notion. Pakistan is beautiful indeed & their motorway's look a delight to drive in. Wish to visit Pakistan soon.

[QuilonSpitfire]

Wow! I have a few Pakistani friends and they always told me that they have better roads there in Pakistan than some parts of Canada. A little addition on what kind of cars they have for sale there would have been nice. Have seen quite a few LHD cars in some videos, is it a very common thing there

[srikrishna717]

Thanks for sharing, this is indeed a unique travelogue. Whatever pictures you have shared, they depict a beautiful Pakistan in terms of roads, greenery etc. I happened to watch two pakistani serials in Netflix namely Humsafar and Zindagi Gulzar hai. Both of them gave a wonderful picture of Pakistan of life, roads, people, greenery , beautiful houses etc. Your travelogue kind of re-established this for me.