Lahore: last days in Pakistan

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On October 2nd, I decided to leave my cell-like room of Islamabad's Youth Hostel, probably the most soulless hostel I've ever been. Before leaving, as I was still sick, I popped an immodium in the hope that it would last 5 hours. I took a cab to the nearest bus station and got a ticket to Lahore. The bus left immediately and it took a whole 5 hours to get to Lahore, through the Punjabi plain. The land seems very fertile, it is no surprise that the majority of Pakistan's population live in Punjab.

The bus station was at the outskirts of Lahore so I had to take a rickshaw to downtown but he got lost and we got stuck in traffic so it took almost an hour. First impressions of Lahore: HOT, very polluted and dusty. After about an hour in the city, my nose started running, probably because of the pollution from all those 2-stroke engines. After walking around for another 30 minutes I ended up finding what I was looking for: Regale Internet Inn. This was the hostel everyone stayed at in Lahore because everyone stays there, and the owner, Malik, is a grand bloke.

I spent the day talking with the backpackers in the place: adrian, a fellow canadian who gave me the bad new that an iranian visa just wouldn't happen for canadian, ana a kiwi girl who just arrived in Pakistan, rod a kiwi cyclist, robbin and erika 2 scottist cyclist who have a blog on this site: Banchory to the Bosphorous by Bike, a freelancer american waiting for his embedding in a NATO troop in Afghanistan, a swedish guy who had just landed but that didn't have his luggage because the airline lost it, a dutch couple with whom I exchanged books (got "The Kite Runner") as well as a few others. Beat arrived at the hostel shortly after me (it took him 2 days to go from Islamabad) and he joined in. It was like a perfect hostel. You always have someone to talk with and they're all very open-minded and knowledgeful. It was funny when I started talking with Erika. She mentioned that they were scottish cyclist so I guessed her name, then told her I knew her blog. She was pretty happy to be so famous. Great blog by the way, you should give it a read.

I had a very interesting conversation with the freelancer. He had covered the riots following the Danish Cartoon contreversy. He said he almost got killed once because he got the idea of printing the cartoons and bringing them to a process to ask the reactions of the people there. A pakistani journalist stopped him before he got out, told him if he'd do that he'd get killed: "There's a law against blashphemy in this country and with this you'd get prosecuted, but 95% of the people who do blasphemny in this country never reach the courts, they get killed by crowds on the way and I can assure you you won't even have time to get charges brought against you, they'll kill you on the spot". As he was saying this, the journalist, a very westernized man who received his education in a western country couldn't look at the cartoon, he was looking away in a desperate effort not to see them. In the end he told him: "Burn it, if anyone learns that these cartoons are in this office, they will come here and burn the building".

He was also following the editorials in Pakistani newspapers at the time. Here's an example he mentioned, a perfect example of logic: "We all know that all governments imprison and kill journalists that say things they don't like. That's a fact. It's been one month since the cartoons so the governments had plenty of time to kill those journalists if they didn't like what they drew. Yet how manyof the people that drew the cartoons have been killed? Not a single one!. How Many have been imprisoned? Not a single one! That's a proof that the US and EU governments started the whole thing. It is a CIA operation to weaken, humiliate and destroy the islamic world from the beginning.". I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that. And that was coming from an editorialist in a national Pakistani newspaper who was good enough in english for that job, not some guy who can't read and write on the street. An educated man. It's hard to have a dialogue with these kind of people.

That's how I spent Monday and Tuesday. I was still too sick to leave the hostel for more than 15 minutes. It was good, however, to be with backpackers again. It's not too bad to be sick when you're surrounded by nice and funny people. It is so hard when you're alone.

On Wednesday the 4th, erika, robbin, ana, me and the swedish guy decided to go see the Mosque/Sikh mausoleum/Fort area in the early morning.

We took a cab to the Old City, then somehow made our way through the Old City to the Fort area. I'm not sure how we found the way but we did, without getting lost. The Old City was lovely in a sub-continental kind of way (as in, very dirty but still beautiful). We first went to the Badshahi Mosque. We had to leave our flipflop at the entrance. The Mosque is amazingly beautiful and we wandered around for at least an hour. I found it funny when an Imam accompanied by a young boy (religious men like 'em young) stopped dead in his track and asked us our religion. I said christian (even though agnostic/atheist would be a better description). He pondered over our answer for like 15 seconds, then left to the inner Mosque.

When we left the Mosque and went to get our shoes back, the shoekeeper told us it was 20Rs each. Adrian had warned us that they tried to rip off foreigners when they weren't accompanied by a local, the real price is 5Rs. Erika and Robbin paid 5Rs each and stormed off but I stayed a bit to argue, telling them that they weren't honest. In the end another shoekeeper told us: 10Rs foreigners, 5Rs locals. That was bullshit, the other one tried to get 20Rs so he was definately not honest even if there is a rule (which I doubt that says foreigners should pay 10Rs). I gave him 5Rs and left.

This pissed me off because it's extremely rare that people try to rip you off in Pakistan. In India I'm prepared to have my guard up all the time but in Pakistan I keep it lowered because people are genuingly honest. Next we went to the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, a sikh shrine. Ranjit Singh was the great Sikh hero of the 19th century. From nothing he built a Sikh empire which was able to deal with the english as an equal. Unfortunately for the sikhs, his empire didn't survive his death and the english were able to grab it piece by piece quite easily. The Sikh empire's capital was Lahore.

I immediately liked the place. An old man came and gave the men scarf to wrap around our head (the women had head scarf already) as you need something to cover your head in a Sikh temple. Ana helped me out with the scarf as I was struggling to put it on. We went inside where a man was reading from a huge book and where a few Sikhs were listening. Then we went inside the mausoleum to look at what I think are the ashes of Ranjit Singh (the old man didn't speak english). It was all very beautiful and the atmosphere was very relaxed.

Then we went outside and a very jovial sikh man with a humongous beard started talking with us in english. He gave us a guided tour for a few minutes then went away. We went in another temple with the old man but then again we couldn't understand what he was saying. It was really wierd though. The inner chamber of the temple is superbly decorated but they put these wierd shinny little things which I associate with chritmas decoration everywhere. I asked my Sikh friend about it later and she said they loved it and that it was the "standard thing to do" for sikh temple now. Needless to say, we foreigners didn't like the decoration.

But overall I loved my visit in the Mausoleum and looked forward to see the Golden Temple in Amristar, the holiest sikh temple, near the border in India. The thing that was missing were the Sikhs. Sure there are a few, but not many. Lahore used to be their capital, the heartland of the sikh world yet today there are probably less than a thousand left in a 6 million city. Where did they all go? When India achieved Independance, it was separated in 2 countries: India and Pakistan (at the time Pakistan also comprised Bangladesh). There followed a massive movement of people. Hindus in Pakistan flew to India whereas Muslims in India flew to Pakistan (only those who could afford it). The sikhs decided they would be better treated in Hindu India then Muslim Pakistan so they went to India. During that mass movement millions died in communal massacres. And ever since then, the sikh and hindu temples in Pakistan have been empty. We had a chai before leaving (sikhs don't observe ramadan) and another chat with the jovial sikh man.

Next we went to the Lahore fort but we didn't want to pay the entrance fee and we had heard something about being able to slip in from the back. We gave it a try but didn't find it. Ana and I didn't want to pay but the other went. So we waited in the grass for more than an hour. At first some little kids were annoying us but they eventually left. We talked about travel, India, diarhea (Ana been sick for 2 months, on and off) and how all asia is becoming so westernized.

We got a bit sick of waiting so we decided to leave but stuck around the gate for a few minutes. A christian Pakistani studying divinity at university (what is that?) talked to us. He was a friendly bloke and allowed us to wait a few more minutes, during which the crew appeared. We got a rickshaw back to the guesthouse. That's when we saw the lift transporting the car on the street. I thought it was the strangest thing ever.

The rest of the day I spent around the hostel, chating with the people at the guesthouse. It was Ana's day today. Malik, the owner, has a stock of shawar kameez for women but he was running out of clothes (he just give them out to women who comes, as I said, he's a grand bloke). So he asked for a lady to go shop with him and Ana gladly volunteered. When she came back she said she was like a kid in a candy store.

At dinner time, I decided to go have a buffet in Gulberg, the expansive part of the city, with Rod (the kiwi cyclist). It was above my usual prices but I figured a fancy meal per country isn't too bad. We tried 2 restaurant before deciding for the first one as the waiter was nicer. The food was delicious (pakistani and continental). I was getting along pretty well with Rod, we talked about lots of things. Turns out Rod studied in biochemistry also, but ended up working in a software company for 10 years.

The restaurant was interesting. The service and the food was definately high class but the furniture/chairs were the kind you'd get in a Pizza hut. Clean but not impressive compared to the food and the "feel" of the place (felt very high class). The customers themselves were definately high class. Most women had no scarves and men wore expansive suits. We felt a bit out of place there (Rod had a tshirt with chain oil stains on it as he'd been working on his bike today) but the main waiter made an effort to make us feel comfortable. We left him a generous tip.

On Thursday the 5th, Beat and I had a wonderful task on our hands. Pick up our Indian visa. Sounds easy? Well it is but it is just a pain in the ass (pun intended) because the embassy is in Islamabad, 5 hours away. We had to pick up our visa at 4PM and we wanted to be back in Lahore the same day to go to the Sufi nights (a night with sufi mystical music) which are apparently amazing.

We left at around 9:20AM, got a rickshaw to the bus station, got to Islamabad by around 2:30PM, took 2 minibuses to the shuttle service of the embassy where we met 2 swiss motorbikist who Beat knew and who were also picking up their visa. We reached the embassy by 3:45 and I got my visa almost immediately. I initially got a 1 month single entry, which was not enough. I argued and he finally agreed to 2 months single entry which was alright, but when I looked in my visa it had been changed to 3 months! Well, not all bureaucrats are bad. Beat managed to get a 6 months double entry visa, no doubt because he managed to charm the lady who picked up his application.

We left the embassy before the other swiss because the official had lost their passports and asked for 15 minutes and we were in a rush. We got to a market for a food stop because Beat was hungry. I wasn't and I was feeling worse by the minute. I had taken an immodium before leaving that morning but it was wearing off. I was getting a headache and a fever also. Not feeling well at all.

We got a cab to the bus station, got on another air-con coach. The ride was though because I wasn't feeling well (but thank god the bus stopped JUST in time at a bathroom stop!). We reached Lahore by 10:20 and the guesthouse at 10:40, with still about 2 hours to go to the Sufi night!

Beat was getting directions to the place by Malik's son while I went upstairs to take an aspirin. When we came back, Malik's son told us the bad news, the night was cancelled and everybody was coming back. Apparently some religious authority cancelled the night saying there should be no dancing/singing during Ramadan. That's an example that shows that the fundamentalists are trying to impose THEIR vision of islam in a society where a lot of people think different ways.

People started trickling back to the guesthouse with their stories. They were hanging out in the Shrine where the night was supposed to happen. The place was packed and everyone was getting into it (I'll give you a hint, there's no alcohol allowed in Islam and marijiuna is dead cheap in Pakistan) when the police arrived and told everyone to get out. No one had any idea what was going on.

At first the rumor was that the musician would come at the hotel to jam on the rooftop so we waited around the roof for them. But then word came around that the sufi night did indeed happen. The fundamentalists didn't win this one and the sufis were allowed to start in the srhine, albeit later. Malik told us later that it was the first time in 6 years this happened.

After a while of waiting on the roof, mostly talking with Rod about internet music pirating, I was too tired to wait and just went to sleep. Rod wanted someone to talk to because his flight was at 5AM and he was planning to stay awake until he'd get on the plane. After 6 months on the road his trip was over, he was flying back to Geneva to find his love.

Friday the 6th was a resting day as the day before had drained me. I was still sick but not as much but still I felt I had no energy. I talked with some newcomers, a couple of frenchie (Shirley and Genet) who had been in Pakistan for 2 months. I got along with them really well. Then another french couple, chloe and olivier, (cyclist this time: www.bicyclettesnomades.com) came along and I also got along with them really well so I spent the majority of the afternoon chatting with frenchies! I had a really interesting conversation with Chloe who tried to talk religion with pakistanis she was staying with. They were university educated people. But yet, she mentioned how dialogue was impossible because they simply seemed not to be able to use critical judgement or see the situation from another perspective. She tried to tell them how they were muslims not because they chosed it but because they were born in a muslim society, where everyone is muslims and hence they do like everyone else and stay muslim. But for them that was unacceptable. They had decided to become muslims out of a long and thoughful process which lead to the inevitable conclusion that islam is the only proper religion. She mentioned that in Iran it's different, people there are more open-minded and more westernized than Pakistan. In Iran they could talk with people and understand them, have an interesting philosophical conversation. In Pakistan that was impossible, even with the most educated people.

I had a huge 3 hours nap during the late afternoon. Then I went to the "food street" with the swedish guy (who still didn't get his luggage back from the airline) and adrian. I was feeling alright and hungry before we left, but by the time we reached "food street" I was feeling too sick to eat so I just had a coke. I really had to get out of Lahore by now. The place was too hot and too polluted. Not a nice place to be sick in. I needed some mountain air.

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Photos

Street life
In Lahore Old City.

Inside Badshahi Mosque 2
That cute little kid was looking at me and smiling while his dad was busy.

Ranjit Singh Mausoleum
Sikh shrine

Flying car
At a red light. Notice something unusual?

Badshahi Mosque
I personally found it mindblowing.

How to destroy a temple 101
Do it like the Sikh. I thought it was hilarious. Apprently they love these things. Ahh well, whatever floats their boats.

Pakisani bus
They did learn something from the hippie who travelled there in the 70s.

Pakisani bus 2
And that's not a Pakistani woman, the dress is way too "revealing" of the body curves. It's Ana.

Flying car 2
Slightly better view but rickshaw is sill hiding the vehicle that is holding the car.