Lahore and Eastern Punjab

Eastern and central Punjab is a heavily populated, pancake-flat land of rice paddies, cornfields, and urban conglomerations.

Pakistan’s second-largest city and the provincial capital of Punjab is also its most friendly. Lahore is the cultural hub of Pakistan but is Punjabi to the core; a fun-loving place of music, drama and gastronomic delights. While the roads around the sprawling University of Punjab are leafy boulevards, the frenetic lanes and microstreets of the Walled City are the polar opposite. It’s equal parts fun and frenzy, squalor and splendour, refined tradition and exciting exuberance. City streets throb on weekends with young guys on bikes, heading to the cinema before coffee at 2am – if it’s not happening in Lahore, it’s probably not happening in Pakistan!

Wagah, just 30 kilometres from Lahore, is a highlight: you’ll never forget the pomp and ceremony of the India – Pakistan border closing ceremony. North are the enterprising cities of Gujranwala, Gujrat and Sialkot, and the important Sikh pilgrimage site at Kartarpur. The people of this region of Punjab are also known for their fun-loving and worldly outlook, tempered with time-honoured tradition.