Lahore Museum

Lahore Museum

Today we fly to Karachi in the evening and had the morning to kill.  My original idea had been to take Kim and Jo to Shalimar Gardens but after yesterday’s hot and sweaty experience at Lahore Fort, I opted for something easier.

We had not managed to fit in the Lahore Museum on the day of arrival, so we walked there after breakfast.  With the heat, I had decided to be risque and wear shorts.

I was surprised at the amount of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain exhibits in the museum. The Sikh section was closed and appeared empty.

Included in the exhibits was the four-sided lions with the wheel of Ashoka, which is one of the symbols of the Republic of India.  I was even more surprised with this one!  In fact, I was somewhat surprised it wasn’t in a corner somewhere collecting red paan-laced spit

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Our visit lasted about 45 mins and we returned to the hotel for a brief rest before enjoying a leisurely lunch at the hotel café.

Flying to Karachi

We ordered a car to take us to the airport at 1400.  We had to take a detour close to the airport as we weren’t allowed to pass through a seemingly public road that went through a so-called military area.

The detour took us through some newish highways which appeared unfamiliar to the driver and he drove on the wrong side of the quiet motorway briefly!

At the airport at 1450, we weren’t allowed into the check-in area.  At first we were told we could enter at 1520, which is 3h prior to departure.

So, we had to wait in the hot noisy public area with jackhammers operating nearby.

Later on, we were told we could enter 2h prior to departure.  Kim showed the airline staff our online boarding passes saying that check-in opened 3h prior to departure and they were very surprised.

They arranged with security for us to enter the check-in area earlier, at about 2h30 prior to departure, on the condition that we would not come out to the public area even for the toilets (as the toilets in the check-in area are under refurbishment).

Check-in opened 2h prior to departure at 1620.  It was swift, as was the security check.  For such a populous country, flying doesn’t seem to be a mass market affair.

We snacked lightly on the simple offering at the lounge during the hour that we were there, before boarding our Fly Jinnah flight to Karachi.

As Fly Jinnah is a subsidiary of Air Arabia, the flight started with the same pre-flight prayer.  I had points on Air Arabia that were expiring and had redeemed them for meals.  The chicken biryani was awesome, as was the BBQ platter.

We arrive a few minutes early and received our bags on the carousel promptly.  I ordered a car to our accommodation at the Orchid Inn.

Little did I know that the driver had cancelled the order and when we arrived around 2200, he claimed that the app had updated the price due to traffic and routing conditions.  It wasn’t much of a difference, so I was only slightly miffed.