Arrival in Lahore was a shock- the heat incredible. Made it out of the chaotic airport. Bicycle box wouldn’t fit in a “rola” (Corolla) but did manage in the equivalent of a Maruti van. Entering Lahore Cantt (military zone) on the way to the hotel we were stopped at a checkpost and after showing my passport and visa were told to turn around and take a different route. This was a foretaste of many similar encounters in this security obsessed country.
Lahore is an enormous sprawling city with cars speeding all over the place. No obvious taxis on the road- everyone uses apps like Uber. There doesn’t seem to be much public transport either.
Thus a 5:00 a.m. departure when I was finally ready to set out on G.T. Road toward Rawalpindi and beyond.
As it was it took quite some time to get out of Lahore and after crossing the Ravi I encountered some of the worst flyover chaos ever. I made it unscathed and had open road to Gujranwala, 93 kms. Not a bad start at all.
- I discovered that only a couple of hotels in Gujranwala would accept foreigners and thus stayed in the rather luxurious Rachna Palace.
After some delay and phone calls I was given a room only to be called downstairs to meet the agent from Special Branch who quizzed me and wrote up a report and forbade me from leaving the hotel! I hadn’t planned to leave the hotel anyway and as I had just gone to bed I was called downstairs again and was interviewed by the previous agent’s boss who was in uniform and had an armed bodyguard. Once he was satisfied with my answers he became most gracious and reminded me that all the security measures were for my own good.
I did wonder if this was going to be a recurring theme.
