When I went to the Super Market, Islamabad for souvenir shopping, I heard many shopkeepers speaking fluent Chinese and Japanese besides English. A few foreign friends in Islamabad confessed that foreign language acquisition of Pakistanis is very good despite no schooling in some cases. They also said that Pakistan is by far one of the cheapest country in the world. Services and prices are good however, one must bargain hard.
It is a heaven for carpet lovers, fabric lovers, Buddhist artifacts, antique furniture, semi-precious stones and handicrafts etc to name a few. The variety is huge.
I bought some antique silver jewellery, paper silk scarfs, onyx and papier mache boxes.
Some of the shops were filled with foreigners buying souvenirs from Pakistan in wood, onyx and marble. Carpets were selling well too. Pakistani carpets are one of the best in the world. I remember, when we were in France and people asked where we have come from? On hearing Pakistan they said: very good carpets from Karachi but then this is pre 9-11 days and a lot has changed.
There is so much stuff and everything is handmade.
Marble carved into vases, tea sets, wine glasses,decoration plates was beautiful.
and some looked like this below:
Brass and metal carvings were intricate
Sindhi emroidery shirt was very pretty
A Kashmiri embroidery long shirts were selling for 500USD each. Very intricate embroidery was done on them.
A Swat's emroidery is below in the form of bag:
I saw a nice, traditional Pakistani casual wear for women. The good news is;the shirt is NOT crazy long. I don't like long shirts where a shalwar (traditional trouser) almost disappears and women gives a look of a malang. We don't have to compete with Vietnam in terms of the length of women's shirts.
and another window fashion in Islamabad
A wall hanging that you can find everywhere.
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