dining with pakistani cowboys

day two got underway just after 9 but we spent the first couple of hours trying to find me a new hotel. i was grateful that ali talked with the proprietors, thus saving me from the inflated tourist rate. eventually we found a comparably-priced place that, given my previous abode, felt like the shangri-la.

an alley in the old city

our next stop was lahores old city, a sprawling maze of fragrant narrow alleys lined with tiny shops selling everything from live fowl to plastic junk from china. looking up i saw two large falcon cages six stories high. despite the lure of the foodstalls, it didnt seem like the safest place for a foreigner to grab a bite. garbage was everywhere and either side of pathways were 8-inch-wide open-air sewer ditches filled with parasites aplenty, im sure. this part of old lahore, punctuated with spectacular architecture painted in bright pink and turquoise, has teemed for one thousand years. according to ali, wealthy lahoreites who once lived here had long since shunned this part of the city. getting lost is inevitable so it was a relief to just proceed with abandon until a couple of hours later, ali took stock of where we were and negotiated a tuktuk back to his car.

men and boys at the wagah border

from the old city we headed to the badshahi mosque. completed in 1674 by the mughals, it is one of the worlds largest with a capacity of 200,000 people. it felt strange to walk barefoot in such an enormous place. despite being a sacred space i felt no reproof from the scores of women in colorful dress who loitered about in the open air plaza with their kids.

badshahi mosque

i had read that the nearby pakistan-india border closing featured a daily show that was not to be missed. driving east towards wagah on potholed roads the incredibly thick dust clouds made the always eerie border town feel even more weird. once there we parked amidst scores of wildly festooned buses that put mtvs 'pimp my ride' to shame. since we were late we waited shoulder to shoulder with scores of men and boys outside the gate. once again the young boys found me interesting and i weighed my desire to engage with them with my desire to keep my new camera. the former won out so i showed my growing brood short video clips from thailand. while ali looked on uncomfortably the boys cheered 'beautiful!'

pimping rides pakistani style

after some shoving and yelling by four soldiers, a few of us were allowed to pass. ali and i rushed the 100 yards to the border ceremony. as each countrys most fit and handsome soldiers tried to out-kick, out-snort and out-pomp the other, the pakistani crowd cheered 'pakistan zind abad!' (long live pakistan!) while the indians hollered back their own nationalist cheer. for two supposed arch enemies, both sides seemed to be having a lot of fun.

gunsmoke

by the time we were back in lahore we were both hungry and tired. all weekend ali had insisted on paying for everything. i told him that it was korean custom for the guest to bring gifts, and since i came empty handed he had to let me take him to a nice dinner. after considerable prodding he relented and chose a hilarious spot in an upscale neighborhood. 'gunsmoke,' which advertises having 'the best chargrilled burgers and steaks south of the border,' (which border? tajikistan?) was built to resemble a wild west saloon whose handsome pakistani cowboys regularly pass by and 'rudely' cast your ashtray of peanut shells onto the floor. whoa.

lahore is an amazing place, but id say that ali and my conversations have been another highlight. the topics range wildly, from the ways young pakistani men 'flirt' with girls (by randomly dialing phone numbers hoping a nice girl picks up to writing their numbers on pieces of paper that they toss to girls riding in passing cars) to the us war on terror. inevitably, at times we catch each other making generalizations about each others nations.

inside the old city

its clear that what ali wants most is for me to leave understanding that pakistan (like everywhere else) is multi-layered. on my end, it saddens me when the friendly lahoreites exuberance fades when i tell them that im american. since disclosing this hasnt threatened my safety i feel an obligation to be honest and i hope to be one more example of an american who shares their disappointment with many of my nations policies. yes, the pervasive poverty and lack of education breeds radicals and terrorists here, but most pakistanis (like everyone else) are kind people who want to be happy.

homes outside the lahore fort

ali talks a lot about terrorism. yesterday, while we were at the fort he pointed to an unremarkable brick building in a poor neighborhood. alerting me to some speakers set on its roof he said it was yet another makeshift mosque in a nation addicted to raising mosques. it seemed comical to me since the huge badshahi mosque was around the corner, but ali got riled up describing how these mosques were typically run by self-appointed, third-rate mullahs who fueled radical and violent activity among their poor and uneducated faithful, thus breeding terrorists that ravage pakistan as well as the west.

damn straight.

its ironic that its the uneducated and impoverished teenage boys that are the demographic for terrorist recruiting, especially since they are the ones who have made the most effort to engage with me via their toothy smiles or by shouting 'hello, how are you?' as they pass on their bicycles. what ive experienced from them is only curiosity, kindness and warmth, even when i can see them politely hiding their disappointment that im american. my experiences here suggest that it takes a lot to antagonize these people. for the most part, if we do we should consider how our compounded actions have conspired against us.
more lahore photos here.