The morning after the Mehndi, we enjoy a day off.
After 2 breakfasts, Mariam’s cousins and friends took us on a trip for the Badshahi Mosque:
Due to a glut of protests in the old city, we are forced to take a few detours. We eventually get there:
Before reaching the entrance to the mosque, we walk down Food Street, a recently redeveloped area that used to be the red light district:
Along Food Street we check out Coocoo’s Den, where the owner Iqbal Hussain — son of a prostitute back in the heydey of the Heera Mandi red light district — became a world famous artist and ended up returning here to redevelop this area into the high end tourist-driven Food Street that we know today.
Step inside to his refurbished haveli, where you’ll get to see some of his artwork and sculptures:
After visiting Coocoo’s den, we lined up to enter the Badshahi mosque. But then we were told that since we looked like a family, we could skip the line and enter ahead:
Approaching the mosque:
People begin to notice I look a little different:
And then we reach the mosque itself. The sunset is a perfect time to visit:
The prayer halls inside:
People lined up to take photos with “the foreigner”:
…while Mariam poses by the Minar-i-Pakistan, the “Eiffel Tower” of Pakistan:
If you don’t go on a busy day, the mosque is a beautiful place to stroll around with your friends and take photos.
When the sun finally set, we went back out into Food Street:
We return to Coocoo’s for a quick snack, but really for the rooftop views of Badshahi Mosque while listening to the adhan:
Then we headed back to the car for home.
- At time of posting in Lahore Airport, it was 60.8 °F -
Humidity: 41% | Wind Speed: 4km/hr | Cloud Cover: nil significant cloud
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