into the Punjab

I was pleased to find that there are international flights out of the city of Multan, as there is a shrine in the area that I really wanted to see.  So I added a few days to my Kalash Festival trip with a plan to make my way to Multan afterwards.  Then once in Pakistan, and speaking to a guide about how to get to the shrine and also the Derawar Fort, it was suggested that I spend a day in Lahore and take a late evening bus to Multan, so as to see the famous Beating the Retreat border ceremony close to Lahore, in Wagah.

So I spent the daytime around the Walled City, Lahore Fort, the Badshahi Mosque, and other mainstream sights (the majority of which I probably visited when backpacking across Asia in 1984, but I don’t remember now), and then headed off to Wagah.  OMG, what a crazy ceremony it is!!  Carried out daily on both the Pakistani and Indian sides of the border since 1959, border guards dressed up in over-the-top costumes perform an elaborate series of moves (including ‘high kicks’ where the raised leg nearly touches the nose), whilst other men playing drums and twirling flags try to whip up the crowd, to shout their support of their country.  It’s a display of rivalry, but in 2010 they added in a handshake at the end, after the two countries’ flags are lowered, to make the whole thing slightly less confrontational.  The men are selected in part for their extreme height, and apparently are paid a bonus for keeping their facial hair in the prescribed style!

Then on to Multan – not much visited by tourists, with very few hotels licensed to accept foreigners and a police escort required for any venture outside of the hotel.  I’m not really sure why, as it doesn’t appear to be a particularly dangerous part of the country.  But whilst adding to my costs, it didn’t prevent me from doing anything I wanted to do, and the police were very friendly.  With an added advantage for me … my Pakistani host had somehow got it into his head that he and I would spend our last night together, in the same room, with his chance to finally see and touch a woman’s body, etc … whilst I’d already made it pretty clear that this was not going to happen, he would not give up hope … but then found that it was against the law in Multan for us to be in the same room!

In Multan – with the police escort – I got to visit the mausoleum of Shah Rukn-e-Alam, and the shrines of Hazrat Bahauddin Zakaria and Shah Shams Tabriz, but the reason for the trip was the tomb of Bibi Jawindi in Uch Sharif, a couple of hours’ drive away from Multan.  On the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites, it was built in the fifteenth century but badly damaged by torrential floods in 1817 – the back half of the building is missing.  But it is still amazingly beautiful, and I am really happy that I made the effort to get to see it.  In this photo you see the tomb between two other tombs in the same complex; on the left-hand side of each building you can see the edge of the damage.  Basically there is no back half to any of the buildings.

After Uch Sharif we went on to see the Derawar Fort.  This was built in the ninth century, and renovated in 1732.  Next door to it is the rather impressive Abbasi Mosque, and the beautiful cemetery complex of the Nawab Abbasi family (who own the fort).  Also well worth visiting, although I have to say that wandering around a ruined fort in a desert in the middle of a day with the temperatures in the 40s was not the most comfortable experience.