FAISALABAD THE CITY OF BAZAARS & TEXTILE | STREET FOOD, CULTURE & HISTORY | LYALLPUR
Assalam Alekum and Good Morning Everyone from Faisalabad. The third largest city in Pakistan. It's famous for its textile industry all over Pakistan and worldwide.
This city was built in 1892. It was the first planned city in British India. During that time, the Governor of Punjab was Sir James Lyall.
The city named after the Governor was called Lyallpur. Pur means city in Sanskrit. This whole area used to be a forest with river Chenab on one side and Ravi on the other. Let me give you a brief overview. You can see the clock tower behind me which is the main attraction here.
This is the famous clock tower. And there are 8 bazaars around it. Each bazaar has a different type of items on sale. For instance one of the bazaars have mobile phone shops whereas another deals with clothes. The one in this direction is known as Chiniot bazaar. Because it goes towards the Chiniot city.
This one here is Rail bazaar as it leads to the Railway station. The one in this direction goes towards city courts. You can say that each bazaar is named after the place it leads to. Over here we have a small monument by the side of a gate called Kaisari Gate. These were all built in the British period. The small monument was built for the visit of Queen Elizabeth.
We have come to Treats Lounge for the breakfast which is a famous breakfast spot here. Especially the Muhammadi Nihari and Hafeez Puri and Nihari. We are at Hafeez Puri and Nihari. That's where we are gonna have our breakfast. The motorcycles behind me belong to a Faisalabad biker group, Boys on Wheels.
They are my hosts for this tour. I'm gonna explore Faisalabad with them. Let me give you some shots of how they make the breakfast. And then we will proceed with the meal. Please tell us about the food.
This looks like chickpeas. This is our special chickpeas curry. And this right here is Nihari.
This is chicken nihari. These are goat trotters. We also have goat brains. O you sell the brains as well ... A guy is make puri on this side. This is our special puri.
People here didn't like puri before. But we have made it in such a way that it's easily digestible. We make this by a carefully mixed batter of wheat flour and dough.
It's really crispy. People just love it. And also our chickpeas are especially made with black pepper. Thank you very much. I'm gonna try it now. Sure. Welcome. Let me give you a brief intro of our hosts. These are the guys from Boys on Wheels. Why don't you introduce yourselves ...
I'm Muhammad Mansoor. I'm Asif. Imran Muhammad Usman Azeem So our breakfast is here. Grace be to Allah, our whole table is full with some delicious stuff. I'm not sure if we'll be able to finish all this. Special naan bread.
These are goat brains. I'm told that it's the best in Faisalabad. Then we have chickpeas .. and Halwa. And then we have ... Trotters ... I almost forgot about them. Have a look at this guys.
This is Nihari. I'm back at the Clock Tower square after the breakfast. The breakfast was really delicious.
It's quite rare that the food at some place is as good as their reputation. But here, the food was actually delicious and it wasn't too expensive. However, we didn't drink the lassi from there.
The most famous lassi in Faisalabad is the Bengali Lassi. It's in the Clock Tower square. They have different types of lassi with different flavors. But I'll prefer the simple one.
So let's go there and grab a glass of lassi. I'm standing beneath the Clock Tower which is literally the center of this city. It was built in 1905 by the locals. It was constructed as a token of thanks to Queen Victoria. You can notice the 8 bazaars that I talked about in the beginning. Now if you bring the British flag, or Union Jack, to your mind.
You can see 8 stripes in the exact same shape as these bazaars. With the Clock Tower at its center. That was inspiration for this design.
Let's go and see it from the inside. I'm fortunate that the father of one of my hosts, Azeem, has the keys to this tower. So they invited me to show this from the inside.
I don't remember having seen it from the inside in any other vlog. So, naturally, I'm quite excited. Shall we go upstairs ...? We are inside the famous Clock Tower right now and I don't know much about its mechanism.
We have Azeem with us and hopefully he can tell us about it. Over to you Azeem. As it's a design of the British period, so it's mechanism is from that era as well.
There are pendulums and wires back here which make the clock hands go. But it's maintenance was quite difficult. We even had to call experts from other countries. So the local government decided to turn it into electrical clock. And so it was switched to electrical. However, that's only the internal mechanism. It's shape and hands are still unchanged.
Okay. Thank you Azeem for giving me a chance to see this monument from the inside. Just to share with you that it's not open for public. One can only see it from the outside. This is Jinnah Park, also known as Central Park. It's definitely one among the most beautiful parks in the country.
I didn't expect to see so much greenery in Faisalabad. At the time of conception of this city, the whole area used to be a forest. The city was a properly planned city and this area was known for its rich agriculture.
And also some of the neighboring regions like Jhang and Samundari. River Chenab flows by the city. Water for agriculture was provided by drawing canals from Chenab. Right beside the park is the Agriculture University. Established in 1905, the Agriculture University was one of the biggest universities of South Asia.
A pioneer institute in the field of agriculture. It's still the biggest agriculture university in Pakistan. Students in pursuit of any degree in Agriculture come and study here. And then they return to their respective areas to reap the fruit of their education. I came to Lyallpur museum which is a very interesting place.
I must say I got to learn some new things from here. Not only historical but also from cultural point of view. They have showcased different cultures from stone age to this date.
It portrays artifacts depicting those cultures including pottery. Quite informative. And then some about the Chenab valley, that is where Faisalabad is situated. The city had Chenab on one side and Ravi on the other. Between the two rivers, a region known as Sandalbar was picked to establish this city. It started as a humble town.
But it gradually evolved to become Pakistan's 3rd largest city. You'll get this info from here as well. It contains so much about agriculture and textile and much more. It's a must visit place on your trip to Faisalabad.
Personally I really liked the museum. We are at Munna Daal Chaawal for our lunch. It's the most famous Daal Chaawal joint in Faisalabad. Well, not just in Faisalabad, but across Pakistan, there'll be only one or two Daal Chaawal joints like this.
Not just Daal Chaawal, but we have also ordered some chicken pieces. One of them is steam roast and the other is BBQ. Both of them tasted delicious. I can't pick a winner because I liked both. And I initially thought that this Daal (lentils) would be a plain one. But they have added some chicken in it as well.
It's quite yummy and very light on the tummy. You don't feel any load on your stomach. They are also famous for their naan breads. It was a great experience on the whole. Not to forget, their prices are quite reasonable. Do visit the place.
Any vlog about Faisalabad can't be complete without a visit to its Textile Industry. We are in Liaqatabad where we can see looms at work. In older times, people had hand looms in their homes. Technological advancements have brought machinery as well.
So it's more like a factory now. Half a dozen workers are busy with their work right now. They function 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I do have the permission to get in and show you.
Personally I find this environment to be really hard to work in. Man ... it's really loud in here. I hope you can hear all the noise in the recording as well. Difficult sort of an environment. Yet people work here.
Plain cloth is woven here. And all of its processes, such as coloring, takes place later. The biggest cloth market of Faisalabad is in Jhang Bazaar. It's the second biggest cloth market in Pakistan, after Karachi. in Asia? No. I think it's after Karachi.
It's the biggest on in Asia. Okay if you say so ... Are you gonna cause a lock down? Aren't you vaccinated yet? Well, I'm not old enough for that. If you are not vaccinated yourself, then Sir, you are in for a lock down. We don't want any lock down.
Please get vaccinated. Excuse me Abrar ... Please mention this on a ticker that 'Arshad wants no lock down'. Sure Better make it 'Muhammad Arshad'. Well, I don't know if it's the biggest market in Asia.
But I'm sure you will get the famous Faisalabadi humor here for sure. I don't think I ever felt so uncomfortable making a vlog before. I'm in D Ground at the moment where we had planned a small meetup. A lot of people came to the meetup.
I didn't expect so many people to be there. Many thanks to all those lovely people who came to see me. We just want to have a nice meal at some decent place now.
I can see a number of fast food restaurants here. Azeem told me about some really good places in the Koh-e-Noor area. One of them is Baba Tikka. After having our dinner and a cup of tea, we are back in D Ground. The food was great and so was the sitting area.
There is a place called Bambino Paan Shop in this area. So I thought to give their famous paan a try. Although I am not a huge fan of paan. But my hosts insisted that I try this page. So I'm gonna try it and then I'll share the result with you. There's no harm in trying.
After trying the Bambino Paan, it's time to finish this vlog. I tried to show you Faisalabad to the best of my ability. It's quite possible that I may have missed a few things. That can be left for our next visit.
This vlog could not have been possible without my hosts. You can see the 'Boys on Wheels' behind me. Thank you very much guys for having me here. I hope we'll meet soon again.
Together we can explore the area once more. We also have another friend here. Munawer. What's the name of your channel? Comfort Rides. If you liked this vlog, a lot of it was because of Munawer's help.
I hope you guys will like his channel as well. Please do take a look. And don't forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE my channel as well. Hope to see you again. Allah Hafiz. Remember me in your prayers.
2021-10-12 01:47
