Day 18 - Lahore
A busy day today starting with a visit to Lahore Fort. We entered via the gate right next to Food Street, which in the past was part of the red light district but now contains restaurants and shops.
The fort covers an area of more than 20 hectares and contains twenty one notable monuments. It has been a residence for Mughal emperors and features a blend of Mughal and Sikh architectural styles.
A local guide joined us to provide useful information as we visited sights which included the Picture Wall, the Sheesh Mahal, Summer Palace, Naulakha Pavilion, and the Badshahi Mosque.
By the time we made it to the mosque it was starting to get quite busy, K had to put her scarf over her head so that people wouldn't approach her asking for a photo!
We then visited the Shalimar Gardens which covers 16 hectares, and is arranged in three terraces with water features and multiple buildings. Construction of the gardens was completed in 1642 during the reign of Shah Jahan, at the peak of Mughal architectural and cultural achievements.
After lunch we drove to the Wagah border crossing. We had previously seen the border closing ceremony from the Indian side in 2009, but with the border being closed due to the recent border skirmishes between Pakistan and India we were here to witness the flag lowering ceremony.
The border was quite different from our earlier visit. Last time we felt a bit sorry for the Pakistani side as they didn't seem to have much of a grandstand and the crowd was a lot smaller than the Indian side. This time in Pakistan we were sitting in a huge newly built grandstand, they had people to rev up the crowd (including a one legged man dressed and spinning like a dervish), with massive video screens and an extremely loud sound system showing videos about the Pakistani armed forces - there's nothing like clips of missile launchers and planes dropping bombs to get the crowd in the right mood!
It was still a fun show, the choreography hadn't changed much from last time, soldiers were still doing strange high kicks and silly walks and standing at the closed border gate shaking their fists at the other side, and on our side the crowd were really excited, shouting "Jan Jan Pakistan".
After the ceremony finished we headed back to Food Street, which was quite busy and we spent half an hour or so checking out the action along the street. There were food stands, shops, even a goat balancing on top of what looked like an upturned vase. We then had dinner at Haveli restaurant, sitting outside with a great view of the fort.
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