Lahore Day 1

Lahore Day 1

After sleep and breakfast I must venture outside beyond the gated walls to explore the block. I have managed to pre-survey the route from the house windows and guess that after a short walk I can return within 10m. The walk around the block spans the scale of poverty. I leave the courtyard and walk through time around the back of the house to free range goats, dogs, sheep, cattle and brick shells were persons live barley inside – a small wooden tent gyspy compound fills the space between new housing construction. A rags to riches walk around the block – am I surprised – no – but all in one block!!

After a 2nd sleep – which really did us well - and lunch - we are off to Old Lahore to visit family. The real driving adventure begins in the daytime when the tools of the driver must be at their best – Is it driving skill or just the orchestration of car, bike, taxi, van, rickshaw, horse cart and pedestrian which appear to weave through the street with inches to spare on every side. A timed dance of machine and horn.

We arrive at the gates to old Lahore. Our driver lets us out and we know must program ourselves as the ‘pedestrian’. I tell the boys, who are still basically asleep, ‘Walking in the Lahore markets is like playing a video game – concentration on sights and sounds – wait for the honk – move to the right – move to the left – give way – take way – no stopping – always forward.

My camera is in hand – I want to snap 100 pictures – I see a 1000 images I have never seen before – each shop front, 12’ wide each with a whole set of sub images and stories – vendors of everthing, foods, shoes, pots, pans, haircuts, spices, sweets, meat, fish, poultry, … Each vision lasting only 3 seconds as you walk past the stores. If you could be invisible you could snap the 100 pictures that would really describe the sight but as a tourist – in this place – you can only look and remember. I could walk these streets and alleys dozens of times and still find 100’s of images on each walk. The pictures I did take were posed and deliberate and unless you can walk these streets yourself and see and smell the experience it just doesn’t cut it. Maybe during Wed’s official tour I can get some more pictures.

Our family spot was excellent – meeting some long lost cousins, 2nd cousins and spouses. Their apartment/house is 3 stories in central old Lahore, 3 crook leg narrow alleys behind spot X. My mother in law, Nanny Ji, knows the way. Multi-family unit – 500+ years old, I guess, No luxuries but excellent family, food and hospitality. After lunch we take a later afternoon walk back into the market and climb the turret steps of a famous restaurant ‘Coco’ which appears pricey. We summit the turret to the roof to patio which over look the Mosque in the old City. (Name escape me – My mind is still back at the walk through the market. Some night pictures are taken and we return back to cousins house.
Foolishly I am expecting to leave with less gifts than we have brought, but they have prepared and we leave with many hugs and 2-3 more lbs for the carry on – at this point we are + on the luggage retuning home scale.

Almost back to the gate we meet our driver/van whom we have since called , parked mid market. We board and conduct a blind 7 point turn – by blind meaning just put it in reverse, make the beepy-beepy noise and hope people get out of your way. After several honks and many looks we are back into the motiorized stream back to our hosts home. Blog-ready, I rest until the morning. (gadgets plugged in……)