Weekend in Lahore

Jal, a Pakistani music band, who has recently released an album "Aadat", is going pretty good. Their music is entertaining and the lyrics are fine as well, but the vocalist(s) need to improve. Take a look at these lyrics (from song Panchi):

Panchi hoon, urnay do, urney do; hawaon se larney do,
Rastay galian, chor aaya mein; Bhoolay waaday tor chala main
Yeh raat abhi, dhal jaye gee; yeh baat abhi, badal jaye gee
Tanha hoon, rehnay do; rehnay do; ansoo hoon behnay do, behnay do

Got back from Lahore this morning at around 4:30 am driving a Suzuki FX through the Lahore-Faisalabad-Islamabad Motorway covering around 360 Kms in 4.5 hours. I had gone through the same journey on Friday night, but in the opposite direction, to meet Ali & Ahsan from Karachi. They reached Lahore on Friday night to work on a project for Warid Telecom who have recently setup their office in EFU House, Jail Road, Lahore. It's a simple office with average ambience and spacious desktops.

A city well known for its unique traditions and environment, Lahore is a must see for a Pakistani. A few of the areas to visit are Liberty & Fortress markets & Race course garden, not to forget Minar-e-Pakistan & gardens such as Shalimar Bagh & Bagh-e-Jinnah. Then there is M M Alam road where there are a few good restaurants such as Village, Cafe Zouk, etc. Other dining out areas are the main Food Street and Lakshmi Chowk (famous for Karahi). There is a famous pan shop called "Barray".
Lahore has a few good universities like UET, University of the Punjab, LUMS & FAST-NU, with good spacious campuses. The major roads are Mall Road, Jail Road, Abbott Road and the road beside the famous canal (don't know its name).

Though, I have heard a lot from the people living there and have read a few things about Lahore as well, but my experience so far is not that good. For one, taxis are hard to find as opposed to the superabundance of congested rickshaws (which are sometimes a headache). The city is not that well structured as compared to Islamabad, but again same is the case with other cities in Pakistan, such as Karachi.

Summary: If you are new to Lahore, you have to have a friend and a car in order to enjoy Lahore's atmosphere.

About my trip, we didn't do much besides staying in the hotel room, watching tv, talking and travelling in rickshaws! I hope to see Lahore's positives on the next visit.

Syed Humair Mudasser Qadri (Kadri with a Q :-p) and Danish Moid have started blogging as well, though they haven't written much, but I am sure we'll get some unique writings pretty soon. You can check out their blogs here:
Syed Humair's Blog
Danish Moid's Blog