Lahore

That in Pakistan it was super hot we knew it already, what we weren’t expecting was such an incredible hot weather like the one that was waiting for us in Lahore, or even worse, on the highway between Islamabad and Lahore!
Everybody told us that motorbikes cannot take the highway, but the prospect of 400km under the sun on the GTroad (the ancient road that links India to Pakistan) was not particularly tempting. So we chose to use the technique “pretend you don’t know and everything is gonna be ok” and everything went ok. Right at the beginning of the highway cops stopped us and checked if we had appropriate protections (and an appropriate motorbike) and let us go.
We decided to try to reach Lahore as fast as possible considering that every stop was ending up in a puddle of sweat with all the people looking at us wheezing…

 
In Lahore two new friends, met in Shogran a couple of weeks before [ link ], where waiting for us: Usman and Rashid that hosted us, showed us around and especially made us die laughing for the all week!
Thanks to Usman, to whom we have told our love for gastronomic tours, we tasted most of the local delicacies, all enjoyed in the Lahore traditional way: inside the car with the air condition on full power honking the horn whenever you need the waiter to come!

Wins the prize for the “Best Dish” one of the heaviest food of the history of Pakistani cuisine: a dish made of buffalo meat cooked and over cooked into ghee (clarified butter) inside huge pots and served by a man nestled on a shelf next to the fire.

On the other hand, wins the prize for the “Wicked Dish” the Pani Puri served by a street vendor in the shopping neighborhood. Pani Puri consists in small kind of doughnut (Puri) filled with chickpeas and not better specified spiced water (Pani). Time to digest them and Agata run to the toilet while Thomas to the hospital for a throat infection (everybody has a weak point).

The city of Lahore is a disaster. Traffic is beyond westerners comprehension: junk cars, small motorbikes, carriages pulled by bulls, people walking, people pulling small carriages and bright colors and piquancy smells. People live the streets, and this is amazing.


But there’s also another video that properly shows the mood of Lahore, we entitled it “Motorbikes & Guns”… enjoy it!  [ Video ]

And then, hidden, Lahore presents corners of pure peace, silence and contemplation; like the pink Mughal Fort that seems popped out from the cartoon Aladdin and the huge Badshahi Mosque in which court yard can find place as many as 95000 devotees (and other 55000 inside!)



I don’t write often all my “thanks”, but in this case I really have to say thanks to Usman for the Malangs, for stopping the icecream man to make us listen to his music [ Video ], for having brought us in so many places that I cannot even list them, for your amazing ospitality and expecially for all the nights under the stars in the fresh air of your terrace (if inside the house is too hot to sleep, what to do? You move the matress on terrace, obvious!).