Little America in Pakistan

Today I'm on my way to the ultra-conservative city of Peshawar I'm really looking forward to seeing the difference between the more modern city of Lahore and Islamabad compared to Peshawar. Peshawar is known as a place which is not so safe for foreigners. On the New Zealand government travel advisory website, it's listed as a place of extreme risk and that foreigners should only go if they really need to. But I've got some friends there so I'm not too worried about the security situation. and I'

ve talked a lot of people who have been there And they've said, you know, it's going to be fine. We're coming from Lahore to Peshawar, and every 50 kilometres on this massive motorway they have, they have these big truck stops, and these truck shops have everything you could imagine. There's KFC, there's McDonald's, there's Subway There's a diner, there's multiple gas stations. There's food courts. There's... There's so much stuff at these places and they replicate it on both sides of the roads

and no matter which way you're going you're going to find a McDonald's on the left and the right side of the road it's kind of weird It's like it's like a mini America kind of I'll show you what I mean. Gloria Jean's over there You've got McDonald's it's been a big food court and it's got a KFC and it's got this place called Simply Sufi which is kind of reminds me of a KFC At the end here you've got Hardee's and I think that's meant to be Carl's jr. But for some reason It's got a- It's got anoth

er name here in Pakistan Got a bakery. I mean over this side. You've got a Pakistani style 'dhaba' a supermarket and Subway It's basically a truck stop with all the American restaurants you could ever imagine. Did I mention Dunkin' Donuts too? I haven't had a beef burger in a really long time So we're gonna go and hit up McDonald's. I just want to show people, you know, the difference because um Here, it's more closer to America and in India, McDonald's is terrible there, really terrible. We're

halfway to Peshawar now And we're kind of stuck in these mountains, it's just just driving through One thing I noticed in Pakistan is that the motorways are amazing. They're so well built and maintained They're really world-class and what's surprising is that on these motorways? You'll find everybody driving in their lanes not speeding and indicating as they change lanes And that's because the motorway are crawling with traffic police who enforce the law And you can't bribe your way out of these

so everyone obeys traffic laws on these motorways We made it to Peshawar. It really reminds me of kind of any Muslim suburb and Delhi like Nizamuddin. It's not so different to that.