Reasons Why I Still Love Islamabad

A few days back, I posted a list of 250+ reasons why we still love Tokyo. Here’s one I came up with for Islamabad.

1. The most expensive land money can’t buy
2. The subzero temperatures in winter
3. It’s safer than Baghdad
4. The grid layout of the city. You just can’t get lost
5. The Margalla hills
6. All the (disappearing) trees
7. F-9 park, 4 square-km of grass and trees
8. Hot Shots (within F-9 park)
9. The straight, almost perfect roads
10. It’s safer than Johannesberg
11. Daman-e-Koh (
12. The clean air (compared to rest of Pakistan)
13. Murree is only an hour’s drive away yet around 2000 meters higher
14. The educated citizens
15. The decent traffic
16. Wild animals that can still be seen at night
17. Rawal Lake/Rawal Dam
18. It’s safer than Karachi
19. The 40+ temperatures in summer
20. The polite police
21. Road blocks for VIP crossings
22. All the shop names with “Butt” in them
23. Pir Sohawa is only a 20 minute drive away yet around 500 meters higher
24. It’s safer than New York
25. An hour’s drive to anywhere in the city
26. Jungle Hut
27. The growing foreign community
28. Stores selling foreign goods
29. Jinnah Super market
30. Abundance of wild bhang (I’m still not sure if it’s marijuana or hemp. Someone please find out)
31. Blue Area traffic
32. Shakar Parian is only a 5 minute drive away yet around 50 meters higher
33. More foreign food
34. Less pollution, fresher air
35. It’s safer than London
36. If you ever get tired of Islamabad, Rawalpindi is across the road and in another world
37. Brad and Angelina woz ere
38. No need to travel to another city to get a visa
39. Higher chance of bumping into President Mushi (or any prez for that matter)

Feel free to suggest your own.