ISLAMPUR VILLAGE SWAT Local life in Swat Pakistan Vlog

The village is famous all over Pakistan for its textiles and they pride themselves on having 100% employment here. Basically anybody that wants to be involved in the industry can be. The gentleman behind learnt the skill from his father. It took him two years to be as skilled as he is now. And he said he's going to pass on the skills to his children as well so they can also work in the same industry. So the start of the weaving process and the initial design is usually done by the men. And then the ladies join in later on and they do the finished designs, the intricate flowers, pretty patterns and things like that. So I've been told that actually a lot of the wool has been imported from New Zealand. And this isn't just because of a supply thing, it's also because apparently the New Zealand wool is some of the finest wool that you can actually get on the market. And of course in Islamabad and Lahore where it's very hot, people want good quality, very fine wool for their shawls. Actually the electric machines like that aren't very common. Obviously they're very expensive to start with. But secondly with all of the power cuts and the electricity shortages, they're a little bit difficult to use. So this home here actually has its own generator to try and solve that problem. So pretty. So this is the main wholesale market in Swat and it's where all the restaurant owners and shopkeepers will come and buy their wares. I'm always fascinated particularly by the spices at the market. I really think it actually makes you more in touch with your food if you can come and see it in this form, recognise what you're putting in your food. So for example, this one here, this is turmeric. Of course when we're going to our shops in the UK we're only ever getting it in a little pot, ground down. Thank you. Yeah, there you go. So there's the turmeric, that's what we see it in. In England we have it like this. This is very thick actually. Perfect. So my final stop on the market tour is to try some of this fresh jaggery juice. So the jaggery that we saw in the rock form is heated, mixed with water, cooled over the big blocks of ice and then mixed with fresh lime producing this very refreshing drink. I think perhaps because alcohol is not so common here they've made a big effort to have a really big range of fresh juices. It's actually nowhere near as sweet as the sugar cane juice I tried the other day, but just as refreshing.