After a couple of very leisurely days in Karachi, Thomas and I headed for the airport at 6.30am this morning to fly to Lahore. I am currently writing this from the business centre of the Pearl Continental, after spending the day going round the Badshani Mosque, Lahore Fort, and the Old City. We have just swum in the hotel pool and will go from here to our 'exquisitly appointed room' (and I'm quote from the hotel brochure) for a shower and a round of Cribbage, before sampling the delights of the Dum Phukht, Moghul restuarant.
Tomorrow we are off to the Shalimar Gardens and then to watch the border closing ceremony at Wagha, with all its pomp, circumstance and silliness!
The more observant of you will realise that this is a repeat trip for me, as I made it in October with a certain Mr Frost (currently suffering the hardships of round the world travel, and at this moment laguishing somewhere in New Zealand!! I know the 10th Commandment doesn't explictly mention, 'your neighbour's 'round the world trip' ', being more concerned with asses and maidservants, but I feel the principle is there, I am however, finding it very difficult not to be covetess!! More details can be found on andysgapyear.blogspot.com).
Thomas and I had intended to go through Wagha to Amritzar in India and watch the closing ceremony from the other side. Unfortunately, there were problems gaining the necessary visas and so we decided that it would be better to travel to Lahore instead.
Yesterday, was one of complete indulgence. After rising late, we had a breakfast in Espresso, which is a very small chain (3 branches, all in Karachi) of coffee shops. From here we went to the kaprawala (cloth merchant) Moosajees. Now if you are picturing a little stall in some crowded back street, you obviously don't know me very well! Mosajees is 5, air conditioned floors of the finest cloth in the world. We went there to select material to make kurti and shirts for Thomas and kurti for myself. We ended up select enough material for 7 garments and with stiching this will come to the princely sum of 40 GBP! Not bad for made to measure clothing!
After this we headed to Clippers, for a haircut, head and shoulder massage and facial (told you were were being indulgent). The funniest part of this was, on the way there, when Thomas' girlfriend, Andrea called from Tuscon, Arizona, and was heard to cheer when she found out that he was getting his hair cut!! Apparently, she doesn't go for the scruffy look!
We returned to my aparment and after my Urdu lesson it was of to the Avari for some more swimming, and then showered and changed we were off to Lubna and Faizal's for dinner and some lively banter. Lubna accused me of not being adventurous enough in my travels (she spent the Christmas holidays trekking in Peru with her sister). She was trying to oconvince me that I should go up the Karakhoram HIghway, but every tale she told just convinced that it was not my cup of tea. The last part about the landslide with rocks the size of a room and trekking, in the dark, along a river path, really sealed it's fate!! As you are aware dear reader, I need aflushing toilet!
Well, Thomas has sat patiently, whilst I type this and he now wishes to update his blog, so I will post this and let him get on with it...
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