Days Thirty Three to Thirty Six

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The first night in Lahore was fun. We went to Pizza hut for Sinead's birthday and after Happy Birthday and For She's A Jolly Good Fellow (Australians seem to love this song) we sang Jibey Pakistan (the speeling is pure guesswork), which translates as Long Live Pakistan. The locals loved it; the waiters and a lot of the diners joined in, which I can't imagine happening to a bunch of foreigners singing Rule Britania in an English Pizza Hut.

On the second day we visited the Lahore Fort and Red Mosque, which were both beautiful. The mosque had an interesting room, where the roof was built so you could have a private conversation which someone tanding in the opposite corner.

After that we went to see the border closing ceremony at Wagha (the border with India). It was insane; our tour leader had described it as the Ministry of Silly Walks, which turned out not to be an exaggeration. The guards posture at the Indian side, puffing out there chest, pulling threatening (and very silly) poses and yell a lot.

When the flags were taken down for the night we got up to leave and all the locals rushed down to take photos. It took us a few seconds to realise that this was a case of cause and effect: they didn't care about the guards; they wanted to photograph us! It took a very long time to get back to the buses, because you couldn't walk two metres without someone pulling you over for a photo. I got chased by a really lovely girl and photographed with various members of her very large family, which was fun. On the downside, if you stand still (and sometimes while walking) random men will stand next to you without asking so their friend can take a photo. Definitely the most uncomforable part was when a guard came up to a group of men trying to get my photo (everyone got mobbed like this, most more than once) and, with zero warning, whacked one of them hard across the back of the head to get them to disperse.

The next day I was going to be wanting the random heavy handed guard back. After visiting the museum (beautiful and totally reccomended) a few of us went to the zoo with Amjad. This was a bad idea. In fact, I will go as far as to say it was a Bad Idea.

We were totally mobbed from start to finish by peole trying to photograph us, far more so than usual. Those that asked for a photo were in the minority and two absolute wankers followed me around for about ten minutes, while I was walking around, because I was turning away and covering my face with my fan. Amjad stepped in and basically argued with them until they went away. He later translated what he had said (basically: would you like it if someone photographed your daughters?) but didn't mention the other side of the conversation. I can guess though.

Still, I'm massively cheered by the thought that about a hundred Pakistani men will have gone home and been really pissed off, because I looked (as always) completely stoned in their photos.

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