6 HOURS on Pakistan's $19 FIRST CLASS Bus: How Bad Can It Be?

a good morning from Islamabad in Pakistan and today we're taking a little bit of a road trip across Pakistan so um come with me let's um go on an adventure [Music] I'm taking a ride today than what I'm told is the best bus service in the whole of Pakistan um it's called the queue connect and it's going to take me from here all the way to a place called Lahore so I'm looking forward to it's a long old Journey so it should be a good day out my first stop today was to Islamabad bus station which on the face of it didn't exactly scream first class luxury all right then this is the bus station in Islamabad it's about 20 minutes away from downtown on the way out to the airport and this is the bus or one of them I think and I'm going to be taking today is called a q connect um apparently it's really nice inside I don't know we'll find out when we get on board I'm reserving Judgment at this moment in time I think I headed inside to check in for my ride on the bus hi good morning gags perfect thank you all right they say all checked in I've Got My Ticket it's going to take me on the bus down to Lahore and there's a little sort of Lounge area here that they call it it's more like a waiting area really but it's not too bad it's quite comfortable comfy sofas and stuff um there's like drinks and things over there tea coffee um soda and stuff like that and there's Breakfast as well but I'm not having breakfast today because um it's a bit earlier and I'm not ready for it but um I think we'll be stopping a couple of times of food on the way as well my only other experience taking a long distance bus in Asia was when I took a two-day sleeper bus across India which ends really well oh this is not a good experience I just hope that this one would be a little bit nicer I didn't have too long to wait to find out there was it was soon time to head outside and get on board my bus across Pakistan I climbed on board eager to see what the Q connect would have in store for me on today's ride across the country number three yeah thank you well this didn't seem too bad it's all the seats are in this one two configuration and they looked and felt more like something you'd find on a private jet than on a bus there were personal TVs and storage above the seats and quite a lot of leg room too all right and welcome on board the Q connect plus this is a bit better than Greyhound isn't it look at this it's like a first class C we've got TV screaming at all the seat controls I'll go through all that in a little while very very smart wow my proper reclining seat and everything as well just like amazing pretty soon everybody was on board and we started our drive out of the bus station towards the motorway heading down to Lahore all right then we are on the road out of italama bat on the cube connect but how cool is this it's in a sort of one two seat configurations even the single seats down the left side double seats on the other side they've got electric recline and everything look at this so the seat controls are all down there it's pretty cool um we've got all this it's like Emirates first class look at it and retractable blindly things um then we've got more controls here these are the lighting controls so we can do the lights on reading lamps look like that in-flight entertainment on bus entertainment we'll go through that in a little bit and then we've got just here there's like a um trade thing that pops out then we've got a bottle of water down here there is a plug down there it plugs a bit as well three pin plug and a international one as well get that back down just unbelievable we've got a um overhead Locker as well just above it so there's a single one on this side if you look at the other side they've got sorts of um overhead lockers at the seat which is pretty nice and there is a um I would I would say a flight attendant as well is not a flight 10 it's a plus attendant or having crew or whatever and the right message has been coming around offering drinks and things got us on the Wi-Fi there's Wi-Fi on the bus as well this thing just amazing and like the price that you pay for this it's just absolutely insane we rolled out of Islamabad but it wasn't too long before we got stopped at our first checkpoint so if it's an inspection point just outside the bus so they're just sort of going around checking it all over I think and then we'll be getting on his way [Music] and say why are we waiting they've come around with some juice inspection over and we were soon back on the road heading south foreign [Music] tablet really it's got all the sort of menu and everything set up on here um you've got access to the internet and stuff on here you've got YouTube yeah hey see if we can find our favorite um influencer on here I recognize that guy notifications make sure you ding that Bell there we go and then you subscribe as well by the way I still Segway I think that anyway now what else we got here we've got some few games that they've put on it and stuff not much really that you could install your own stuff there's not good App Store I think I'll use Android in a very long time I think on Play Store that's what it's called Play Store you can install your ad games and stuff on it I don't know whether it works or not but yeah it's basically an Android Tablet with a few games and stuff on it and um and YouTube [Music] here's a quick reminder to follow me on Instagram where I live Vlog all of my trips in real time through Instagram stories you can follow me at Noel Phillips dot official on Instagram we continued on across Pakistan and it wasn't too long before we were pulling off the road once again all right so we stopped again not sure if it's another checkpoint or not or somewhere on the road down to Lahore I've been going for about an hour now so not sure driver's got off I'm guessing hopefully you'll get back on in a minute and we can get on his way we won't stop for too long though and pretty soon we were back on the road again as we continued Southeast the Simi only got more and more impressive as we began to cross the salt range in the north of Punjab to the road to get a proper winding in beautiful part of the world okay let's go crossing the mountains um about two hours now south of Islamabad but wow look at that view incredible [Music] [Applause] [Music] good after we cross the salt range we crossed over the jellum river and not long after that we pulled off the road for a bit of a break where I saw this rather interestingly named bus [Music] all right then first stop at the side of the road there's the bus and we stopped to get some food and drink and stuff so let's see what there is to do here at this little Sub Station okay this is quite nice little service station at the side of the road they've got a McDonald's and everything here and some little shops with like snacks and stuff like that I don't want McDonald's I'll come all the way to Pakistan to eat McDonald's I know who am I what have I done with an old right we can't have McDonald's in Pakistan let's find somebody else to eat the trouble is with these rest stops you never know just how long you've got to eat before getting back on the bus I didn't want to risk going into a restaurant and missing my bus ending up stranded at the side of the motorway in rural Punjab for this reason I popped to the snack shop and picked up some Christmas can I get some potato chips please yeah curlies and some water please two water please please thank you thank you have a good day all right back on board just got myself a bag of crisps and some bottles of water should do me through we've already got another well we sort of two and a half hours into the journey I think we're about a third of the way through I don't know so hopefully stop again in a bit I'll get something else if we don't that'll last something when we're getting no biggie really um but um yeah let's get back on the road [Music] back on the road didn't they just come around to give it out drinks have a spot of coke on the bus um and we're back on Route heading down to Lahore [Music] and then we are now about 45 minutes from Lahore um still on the motorway still heading south and one thing I do have to say actually the roads here if we stand are just so smooth compared to all the places that I've traveled on buses around the world um the motorway is just really smooth it's in proper decent condition and it's been a really comfortable ride actually this is a little bit sort of on the rattles side it's a suspension really on the bus but I mean you can't be in this comfort really and if I tell you how much this bus has cost as well 19 US dollars for a trip from Islamabad to Lahore in this level of comfort 19 books absolutely insane um just really really excellent value for money really and this is one of the more expensive buses here in Pakistan you can travel cheaper um and end up on a kind of more packed more busy bus or something with less communal seats I guess but I mean this the 20 books man you you can't complain about this it's just amazing [Music] thank you [Music] not long after this things started to get a little bit more built up outside as we started skirting around the outskirts of Lahore after a journey time of about five and a half hours we pulled up in a supermarket car park on the outskirts of Lahore thank you [Music] foreign the second biggest city in Pakistan I've quite enjoyed that same right on the bus actually on the Q connect bus um I've got to try and get to a hotel now we've sort of been dropped off here in the car park of a supermarket so I'm going to try and get an Uber or something across to me Hotel let's go I bought myself an Uber and pretty soon it turned up we started on our way to the hotel but pretty soon it became clear that all was not as it seemed when the driver told me that I'd have to pay cash for my Uber so I'm in the Uber headed to my hotel but I'm a bit concerned what's going on because he's saying that the amount that Uber shot in isn't enough and he wants extra he's not getting extra when my Uber ride has just been canceled in the app apparently so everyone this is going to be interesting isn't it we got to the hotel where the fun and games were about to begin I was told that I needed to pay cash and what's more surge pricing had now conveniently kicked in and the price was now more than double the original rate Quick Cash [Music] 23. no no no no one thousand I saw what you did you put no no there was no peak it was 1016. search pricing ah you added that on right now 1000 I'll just pay through the app then give me that back I'll pay through the app thank you I do it through Uber thank you you don't speak English now ah okay that's funny isn't it okay can I get my bag there thank you for Uber [Music] that's not what mine says thank you so your Uber app says it's 2 000 rupees my Uber app says 1 000 rupees okay [Music] through here yeah [Music] today that's convenient okay let me call Uber I call them yes fine I can call you but now all right my driver is I started a conversation with Uber support which seemed to have the miraculous effect of ending the search pricing and the driver was now able to accept the original rate but in cash only [Music] one thousand back [Music] fine I've asked Cuba for help and Uber support yeah one thousand yeah one thousand one thousand rupees yes one thousand all right thank you good evening how are you so he was trying to scam me so thank you now it's worth mentioning that although starting a support chat with Uber was enough to make the driver accept the original rate albeit in cash Uber support really were not helpful at all in this instance they said that because the ride was canceled by the driver it wasn't technically an Uber ride and as a result they couldn't do anything with this drive so be aware of this scam if you're getting an Uber in a foreign country it's possible the same thing could happen to you Uber you really need to sort out this loophole though because people book Ubers for the Safety and Security aspect and they could easily get scammed with no comeback or support through Uber at all right then welcome to Lahore and the second biggest city in Pakistan what review have you got out of my room let's have a little look what we've got out here oh you can't quite see it oh there you go just if you're over a street there it's not too bad um yeah a great trip down to um Lahore from Islamabad on the Cucina that was nice the um first impression of Lahore with the um Uber driver trying to scam me though that wasn't quite as nice but never mind these things happen it's not the end of the world um and yeah I ended up only paying what the rate was in Uber anyway um but um never mind so anyway here in um Lahore here's me room for the night we've got one night here in Lahore and then tomorrow continuing on on the next part of my Pakistan adventure and I can't wait to share it with you so hit that subscribe button so you don't miss it in the meantime thanks for watching take care and I'll see you next time bye for now

Channel: Noel Philips

Views: 309,070

Keywords: noel philips, first class bus in pakistan, first class bus, qconnect, qconnect bus, qconnect islamabad to lahore, q connect bus review

Id: -GGE6R-A__8

Length: 17min 16sec (1036 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2023