ISLAMABAD
TAKE A HIKE
In the summer, residents of Islamabad head to the Margalla Hills to escape the city heat. The hills offer excellent trails for hikers, trails that vary in length from 1.5kms to 15kms and in height from 640m to 1,580m. Trail 3 is an 11km round-trip that allows you to appreciate the lush greenery and geometric style of Islamabad – the city is laid out on a triangular grid with its apex facing towards the hills, a design created by a Greek company in the late-1950s.
KARACHI
Step back in time
Frere Hall is one of the few well-preserved buildings in Karachi dating from the time of the Raj. Completed in 1865 in honour of Sir Henry Frere, who promoted the city’s economic development, the Venetian Gothic building houses a gallery dedicated to the painter Sadequain, who is credited with reviving the art of Islamic calligraphy in Pakistan. The hall stands in pleasant garden surrounds.
Eat like a local
Bar-B-Q Tonight is Pakistan’s largest restaurant – the city’s folklore claims, at one point, it served up to 10,000 happy eaters a night. Its premises, in the upmarket Clifton area, are spread over four floors and, as its name implies, the restaurant is for meat-lovers, the delicate kebab, shashlik and tikka dishes cooked on giant grills and tended by an army of chefs. Book for seats on the roof-terrace.
LAHORE
GO FLY A KITE
It’s a fantastic spectacle, but Lahore’s traditional Basant Festival of kite-flying has become mired in controversy in recent years. Brightly-costumed visitors and locals pack the 16th-century centre of the city for three days of festivities. However, the event, which marks the end of winter and celebrates the start of spring, has been marred by injuries and deaths caused by kite strings that are glass-coated or metal reinforced to incapacitate rivals’ kites, as well as by stray bullets fired into the air by over-enthusiastic participants. A 2005 ban outlawed the event, but it received a brief reprieve in February this year. However, a spate of further deaths – including of several children – has left the future of kite-flying in the balance once more.
WATCH POSTER ARTISTS AT WORK
Lahore is the centre of Pakistan’s movie industry, known as “Lolly-wood”. While, for the past decade, production of Urdu films has been in decline, visitors can still appreciate the craft of the city’s billboard artists. Head for Royal Park in Laxmi Chowk and you’ll witness billboards as large as 20 metres by 20 metres being hand painted. It’s a trade often handed down through generations, with different artists working on any number of posters at any one time. They are painted on whitewashed tin sheets – which are reused – with oil paints. In an age of home entertainment and ever-improving colour reproduction, these craftsmen are a dying breed.
PESHAWAR
Visit the building on the 100 rupee note Islamia College is one of the North West Frontier Province’s oldest educational institutions. Founded in 1913, the building mixes Gothic and Moghul architecture. www.upesh.edu.pk |
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