My Travel Adventures

When I reached Multan and checked in yesterday evening, I was told at the reception that every time I left the hotel, I would have to have a police escort with me. I had read something to that effect on Google reviews and booking sites, but the posts were so old that I assumed they were outdated. In vain did I try to convince the hotel that I had a local friend who would accompany me at all times, for, as I found out later, this measure was not just intended to ensure my own security, but also to keep me away from Multan’s nuclear facilities in case I was a spy. In any case, there was nothing I could do but accept the dictate from on high. At least the service was free.

One major sight I missed in Lahore yesterday was the Lahore Museum – the oldest museum in Pakistan. While the museum building itself seems intimidatingly large, an average visit by a non-specialist might take about an hour and a half to two hours, as the upper floor space is comparatively small. The exhibition halls are organised very logically. As one walks in, the hall with ancient artefacts from Mohenjo Daro, Harappa, and other sites are on the right. On the left is the hall with Islamic art, which leads into spaces dedicated to Hinduism and Buddhism, and finally to a hall that is nominally dedicated to Chinese art but serves as a catchall for everything that doesn’t fit anywhere else (such as the diary of Queen Victoria).

With a population of over fourteen million, Lahore is the second largest city in Pakistan and one of the largest urban centres in Asia. Although it has been continuously inhabited for millennia, it rose to prominence in the medieval period, when it served as the capital of the Hindu Shahis, the Ghaznavid Empire and the Delhi Sultanate. Lahore’s greatest blossoming took place under the Mughal Empire, when Emperor Akbar ordered that a palace be built in the city and moved his capital there from Fatehpur Sikri. His son Jahangir was buried in Lahore, and his grandson Shah Jahan was born there.

I ordered an InDrive to Lahore on my last evening in Islamabad, and although it was meant to arrive at eight o’clock, my driver only showed up a little before nine. Humza suggested that next time, I better just order an InDrive the moment I am ready to go. I did not take it as a good sign when, after a mere half an hour of driving, we stopped at a gas station for a coffee and cigarette break, but somehow my driver was still able to beat our estimated arrival on Google Maps by a considerable margin.  

On my fourth day in Islamabad, I paid for a driver to take me around Taxila. Founded around the year 1000 BCE, Taxila served for some time as the capital of Gandhara, the region from which Buddhism and a specific aesthetic sensibility around this religion spread to Tibet, China and beyond: the city’s shrines were even visited by the Chinese monk Xuanzang during his famous Journey to the West. In 325 BCE, Taxila surrendered to Alexander the Great without a struggle. It was successively ruled by the Mauryans, Indo-Greeks and Indo-Scythians until the old city was destroyed by the Kushan Empire in the common era. However, it was under the Kushan Empire that Gandhara reached the peak of its cultural and artistic influence, earning fame as a respected centre of learning.  

The day started out quite cloudy, making it a perfect time for my planned museum visits – I prefer to use my sunny days for taking pictures outdoors. My opinion diverged entirely from that of my hosts who, as proper Pakistanis, only refer to a day as good to spend outdoors when it is cloudy and “not too warm.” Fortunately, we found an intersection between our priorities. In the morning, we would use the lower temperatures to visit the Shah Allah Ditta Caves, after which we would drive to the Faisal Mosque and the Islamabad Museum.

My friend Humza recommended a tour of Rawalpindi during my stay in Islamabad. The two cities are right next to each other, forming a metropolitan area of around six million people, many of whom travel back and forth between the two for work and school. While Islamabad serves as the nation’s capital, Rawalpindi is the seat of the Pakistan Army General Headquarters, which is why it was recently targeted by drones claimed by the Taliban. Interestingly, before the partition, Rawalpindi had a Hindu and Sikh majority. The population left a massive hole in the city’s economy and social fabric when it was forced to leave, and many of their old havelis are in a state of disrepair.