Mirage Hotel & Banquet Hall Lahore

... virtually empty. Pakistani Rangers dress in long black uniforms and have their own blustering, stomping and threatening movements as this coreographed event unfolded. It was all executed brilliantly. The Indian Army uses high kicks at intervals during their movements. When I say high kicks, I mean it. Their boots nearly hit their foreheads!. In fact there was an article in the Hindustan Times the next day that reported that the soldiers on the border were ...

... the stinkiest flight I've ever been on. <br><br>Upon arrival at the immigration booth in Lahore I was greeted by two Pakistani women wearing a sort of half chador/abaya, half black immigration uniform. They both spoke English fairly well and seemed quite surprised to see an American with a Pakistani visa coming to their country.<br><br>'Why you come to Pakistan?' one asked. <br><br>'I'm a tourist.'<br><br>They looked at each other and spoke in Urdu for a moment then the other ...

... Until the car moves on. Adnan tells me that most are organized into gangs, with some sort of Mafia / Pimp organizer, who drops them in the city, collects them in the evening, and takes a hefty cut of their earnings. It's hard for me to get my mind around the idea of Beggar Gangs. Moving on ... In New York we have pigeons and sparrows. Here, we have Mynah birds ...

... to be followed by a group of boys and shrugged it off at first but it got annoying so I doubled back a couple of times and also ducked into one of the interesting museums there. When I came a couple of security guards approached me and explained that they'd noticed the boys and had warned them to stay away but if I have any problems just to let them know - I felt very looked after. Shrine of Baba Shah Jamal - for Thursday's Sufi night. This was a weird and ...

... and the famously beautiful mountains that clothe the Northern heights of Pakistan. We accepted the 40-hour roof-top ride - on a typically beautifully ornamented Pakistani truck - in a flash. We are sad to be leaving Pakistan without visiting much of its best bits, nor really having the finest of lasting memories from the place. Nonetheless, with India on the horizon - and a good deal of medicine working hard to recall our stomachs from vacation - spirits are slowly rejuvinating.

... The ride was extremely peaceful, with farmland on either side of the road, and no motorized traffic to be seen anywhere. I went from serenity to anger a few minutes later, when the Indian immigration official told me my Pakistani visa was no good and I'd have to go to Delhi to straighten it out. When the visa had been printed, it was off center, and the expiration date was cut off by the margin. I didn't think much of it at ...

We arrived in Lahore during Eid, the three day holiday at the end of Ramadan. It is one of the biggest events in the Islamic calender and the streets are awash with people celebrating and stuffing themselves after a month of fasting. Malik, the owner of our guest house used to be media advisor to Benezir Bhutto and a journalist, but now spends his time smoking, chatting with guests and organising free trips to local events. He told us that when he first ...