Our driver almost had a fist fight with locals in Peshawar

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”

Charles Swindoll

Peshawar is located west to Islamabad. It is almost an hour-plus drive from Islamabad. It has been famously known for its large population of Afghans as it is located near one of the main border of Pakistan and Afghanistan i.e. Torkham.

During the Afghanistan crisis, Peshawar was considered as a hot zone due to its proximity to Afghanistan. As the western propaganda has ended, these days, the city has been peaceful. These people, like all the other people either in the west or east, love peace and stability more than anything.

We decided to detour to Peshawar on our way back to Lahore from Islamabad. We wanted to visit the famous Qisa Khwani Bazaar and also the Karkhano Bazaar here.

Both the famous food bloggers Mark Wiens and Trevor James have visited this ancient city.

Shabbir, our driver, drove us here for a day trip. For most Malaysians who have not visited Pakistan, they have the image of Pakistan as a country whereby all the man wear the topi (Islamic hat or skull cap). This is because the salwar khamis that is worn normally by Pakistani is considered as an Islamic dress by Malaysians thus they assume those wearing salwar khamis are religious and would wear the topi.

To my amazement also, within the Lahore and Islamabad city it is a rare sight to see a Pakistani man wearing the topi . However, Peshawar was different. Most of the man wears the topi routinely. As we entered Peshawar, i told to myself that this is the Pakistan image that I had in my mind all this while. Though the city looked like any other city in Pakistan, the people definitely looked different. Peshawar is mostly populated by Pathans and they speak a different language known as Pashto. In Lahore and Islamabad people mostly speak either Urdu or Punjabi. I would not consider Punjab as a different language rather it is just a slang within the Urdu language. However, Pashto is totally a different language altogether.
Imran Khan the current Prime Minister of Pakistan is Pathan.

One of the unique feature of the city is that even the common man on the streets look very handsome. They have very bright skin and distinctive-colored eyes.
As we arrived at the city, we decided to treat ourselves with Afghani food. We visited one of the famous local restaurants, Habibi restaurant. After browsing the menu for 15 minutes, everyone was looking at me. They always do this to me. They expect me to do the ordering, claiming that, as I look like locals, I know best what to order. It was four of us. I decided to order the 2-to-3-person-platter. Based on our previous experiences, as the portion will usually be large, we expect that the food will be more than enough for the four of us. Just beside our table, there were two locals and they also ordered a similar platter.

When the platter arrived, we were shocked to see the size of the servings. It was too big even for four of us. We dug in and started eating and tasting all the variety of menus offered on that platter. We tried to finish as much as we could, but we could only finish three-quarters of the platter. To our shock, the two guys who ordered similar platters had no leftovers on their plates. I was telling myself maybe this is why most Pakistanis have large build-up.

After lunch, we proceeded to the Karkhano Bazaar. Our schedule has slightly been disturbed due to the long lunch that we had. We had to rush to the Bazaar, spend just one or two hours there and head back to Peshawar city center and then return back to Lahore. As we arrived at the bazaar area, Shabbir spotted the parking area and headed towards an empty parking spot. As he was entering the parking, I saw another car adjusting to enter the parking spot that Shabbir was heading to. I knew Shabbir noted the vehicle was adjusting to enter the parking spot, but as no other parking available there, he quickly sneaked into that spot before that car. I pitied the other driver. As we were checking our things, and preparing to get down, I can hear commotion outside. The car owner and some of his friends confronted Shabbir and I assume the argument must be because of the parking. It looked like a heated argument—I was worried Shabbir being an outsider will be beaten by these guys who looked like local Pathans. I was also informed of the sentiments that these two groups have against each other.

We quickly approached Shabbir and asked him what was the problem.
Even before Shabbir responded, I was shocked to see their reaction towards us.

Continued in part 2.