It’s not dangerous (unless you want it to be), and the “Death to America” squad generally keep to themselves, planning their evil schemes in the privacy of their cave/tea shop/gun making factory or wherever
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The vibes changed the moment I crossed the border. My exit from India was a laboured bureaucratic mess of traipsing from one window to get a ticket to give to the official in the next window and so on… Then you walk across no-mans-land to the sound of blaring music coming from a massive PA system and approach a guy in jeans and t-shirt sitting under an umbrella at a table and the first thing he says is “how’s it going, you like the music”?
Great! I hung around for the Closing of the Border ceremony which was like a football match with India on one side and Pakistan on the other cheering on their “team” of soldiers while they parade up and down doing python’esque silly walks and blowing raspberries at each other.
Lahore was a cultural extravaganza. On the second night there it was a mate of the guesthouse owners birthday and he’d arranged a gig on the roof performed by some local heroes fresh home from a tour of European festivals. Great music and a late night was enjoyed by all.
I should mention at this stage that Pakistan is a completely dry country, with not a sip of booze to be had except in the foreign embassies which i wasn’t frequenting, so the gig was fueled by sprite alone.
That’s not to say that Pakistanis don’t like to get shit faced. Their drug of choice is Afghan hash, which is smoked in large quantities by everyone .
Everyone male that is.
Maybe Pakistani women do partake, it’s just that i didn’t really see any (women that is). Where are they? The few I did see out and about were fully clad in Bhurka’s so you could just make out their eye’s behind the mesh.