islamabad might not have mountains such as say in Kashmir/Northern Areas, but the margalla hills are still very scenic., and if you want a city lively in nature(as you implied by saying 'no river sea, ocean or mountain'), then islamabd is THE city. Much of Islamabad is still heavily forested providing great trekking opurtutnites, and if you ar elooking for more adventrous hiking then say trail 3 at margalla hills, you can go to one fo the hills which are not as well known and devleoped and do some pretty nice hiking. Also, alot of people dont know that that if you trek throught margalla hils you can start in islamabd on one side of the summit and be in NWFP on the other side! And btw. Islamabad has probably the easiest access to full fledged mountains than any other major cities in Pakistan as flights operate from Islamabd to chitral, gilgit etc almost daily.
I found an awesome video/pictorial about islamabad on google. In some of these pictures, it looks even better than European and American cities. Its hard not to fall in love with this city after watching this video. Check it out at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7463057972898318653&q=islamabad
Well this is a direct response to the question.. I personally "lived" outside Pak all my life and the only city I have visited in Karachi (about 12 times now.. cant remember the exact no.) and it's quite polluted if you ask me.. my mom been to islamabad and she too says its quiet for a busy-life person.. although I like nice calm environmentally-friendly (oh yeah i love that) places like Islamabad.. a quiet-life person won't have no difficulty adjusting there..
Thks. for all your responses-looks like we are all set to move there end of summer-and you can tell I am so excited, but it will take quite a bit of juggling managing kids in boarding schools in two different continents-our daughter in US and our son in Rome.
Once I get there I would like to meet some of you-that is if you would also like to meet me.
This article in urdu by hamid mir is a very interesting portrait of life in isb. However, it also points to a very disturbing trend: widespread robberies. Recently, we also heard that a female minister became a victim of a street crime at aabpara market when her mobile phone was snatched. So here is a question for all people who know of islamabad: how bad is the crime situation? is it as bad as karachi or lahore? is diplomatic enclave any safer? I have also heard that areas where army officers reside is much safer, is that true? What areas/sectors are considered the safest?
Jkn..