Islamabad to Lahore by car

Car to Lahore

I had ordered an InDrive intercity ride for 0930, allowing plenty of time for the hotel’s slow breakfast service.  The car arrived a 10 mins late but we loaded up quickly and were on our way immediately.

The route mostly consisted of excellent tolled motorway.  We took a comfort stop around midday and bought some drinks and nuts at the same time.

A little later, Kim came down with some tummy issues which required an emergency toilet stop.  He said the premium toilets on the motorway were very flash.

Because we had eaten identical meals, we couldn’t work out what might have caused him to be ill.

We arrived at the Dimora Hotel in Lahore at 1400, only 4h20 after departure, despite our two stops.

We took lunch at the hotel’s café immediately.  Their food was good and reasonably priced and we ended up having two other lunches there during our time in Lahore.

Exploring our neighbourhood

We rested in our room from 1500 till 1730 when we popped out to explore our neighbourhood.

Our area, Purani Anarkali was very chaotic, to say the least.  We didn’t see many places that would suit us for dinner, for fear of getting sick.  Kim was already a little unwell with his tummy and we didn’t want it to get worse and we didn’t want to follow suit.

We continued our exploration to the Zam Zama (or Kim’s Gun), the cannon featured in the book entitled Kim, by Rudyard Kipling.  Kim was named after the boy in the book, so this was a very significant moment for him and for our trip.

From here, we tried to get to a money exchange and received some help from a student to book a rickshaw on the InDrive app.

Mall Road area

Getting to the Mall Road area where we found several exchanges.  The rates were all better than the official rate so we were very pleased.

We were previously pleased with the airport rate which was only a tad worse than the official rate, but now we know the real-life rates are better, reflecting somewhat of a grey-market situation.

We asked the money changer for dinner recommendations and he suggested Master Biryani across the road.  It was a simple place, a little more than a “hole in the wall” establishment.

We ordered a potato biryani with a side of chicken boti for protein.  The biryani, despite being a humble potato one was possibly the best biryani ever for all three of us.  It was better than those I had tasted in Hyderabad earlier in the year, despite Hyderabad being supposedly the best place for biryani.  The boti was more like a regular kebab though.

After dinner, we took a short walk along mall road.  There were some gorgeous old colonial-era buildings but with the chaos and poor illumination, I didn’t end up taking any photos.

We took a rickshaw back to the hotel and had an early night.