A Day for Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Fort

Ammi and the garden in front of the mosque

Me in Allama Iqbal's Tomb.

You can say Allama Iqbal is the founder of Pakistan. And that was the first time Zubair and Salman went INSIDE the tomb. As children they always played in the garden like every weekend but they'd NEVER actually went into the tomb itself.

Actually i really am against tombs or any other unnatural things around and on top of the grave. Because it was narrated that Prophet Muhd saw said all these "dapur-dapur" or tiles or whatever on the grave will burden the dead and that it is better to plant trees on top of them instead, as the water from the trees provide some kind of peace in the life 7 feet under. Thus, i pity all these ulama's and respected pple being entombed as such. Tragic.

Entrance to the mosque.

To the left of this entrance is a place where you can entrust your shoes to the officials for a small fee i dont know how much. Instead, the kind Aunty Nargis offered to look after our shoes as well as babysit the two youngest babies in the group.

A man praying on marbled fountain

i find it warmly fascinating that this man chose to pray on those marble tiles in the open where it was super cold rather than inside on carpet.

Prolly cos the carpet's dusty! lol. But its truly amazing feeling to get to pray in the very place pple yearn to be.

Typically, Pakistani mosques dont have a section for women or so Z said. I didnt see any ablution nor toilet area at all except outside the main entrance

Can u guess what the red letters spell?

4pm. Time for our late lunch early dinner.

We rested at this cafe and dined al fresco. VERY VERY NICE atmosphere!!!

Chicken Kerahi, if im not wrong.

The nice Aunty Farzana noticed i was struggling with my food and peeled the chicken and bread for me. I love being pampered!

I know Pak has no littering fine and all but i was totally aghast when i saw they were throwing chicken bones onto the grass!! (for the record, we threw ours for the cat, btw) I can only mentally shake my head. Even at Zubair a few days ago when we on the rickshaw, he just threw the tissue out the door. when i raised my eyebrows, he said, "It's ok it's Pakistan what. No law against littering. And i want to throw as much litter as i can before i go back to Spore!" Nonsense! :P

The naughty fun cousins the naughtiest being Haseeb the frontmost, then Fiza, Qandil, Sohaib and Wahhab.

This is the passageway that connects Badshahi Mosque to Lahore Fort.

Taking a picture of Salman taking a video of us walking.

Outside, there were a few souvenirs and toys being sold. Nothing caught my interest much save for the potteries, cutleries and other wooden decoratives. It looked quite Malay to me and would be a good thing to buy for my students or whatever. we need some plates ourselves at home. But Salman advised that the price they sell here is double of what we can get at the market. Besides, we haven't changed more money yet.

Also commonly found by the streets are vendors selling ghulab jamun. they look like mini pooris to me but was told it is something like keropok, or fish crackers, eaten with sour water and nuts. Looks VERY NICE and would LOVE to try. Alas, i was full yet again.

We then crossed over to the entrance of Minar-e-Pakistan.

It was at this place that Pakistan's independence or creation for that matter was announced, or so i understand it from Z.

It was 6pm and getting dark, not to mention FREEZING if u notice the fog. so we didnt go up the minaret. Instead, we just waited for my other mamoo, Uncle Shaukat who is Aunty Rihana's husband, to come by and pick us up to go home. Aunty Nargis and children went back to THEIR home at this point and i sorely miss them and their games.

We were barely home when we were whisked out again. This time to Food Street.

It looked somewhat like Boat Quay minus the river. The shophouses are pretty and al fresco dining all around despite the crisp night air.

Special food to be found here is Fried Fish at the shop below this building.

This Fried fish is sooo popular, they had to put a sign that says, "The Original, One and Only shop. We dont have any branches anywhere else." Apparently, pple had tried to copycat them.

These trouts were fried in a special spiceful breadcrumbs that leave not just the crusts but also the meat salty and tasteful. But if i know mummy, she wouldn't be able to take this cos its SALTY. But i TOTALLY DIG IT!

Zubair and Salman shooting each other with a fish bone pistol!

Just to show we had enormously enjoyed supper!

Thanks to Uncles Sajid who treated us with this expensive dinner. Can't remember whether its PKR 1000 or PKR 2000 per pc!!! That's between SGD 25 - 50 per pcs!


I slept smiling again tonight. phew~ What a day!