Spending a day at the Red Fort — Lahore, Pakistan

The Red Fortress of Lahore was the first of this kind of fortress I’ve ever seen and it was quite amazing. It has a rich history, beautiful structures and lush parks inside.

You need to get through the outer walls to get to the main fort and if you didn’t come from the right direction, then so help you God. You can either try to go through the mosque, which is right next to it, or try to go though one of the side gates, as seen on the my pic above.

The side gate option is really only for locals and people the guards know. When we wanted to enter this way, even with our local friends, we were turned down.

So we went though the mosque, which is beautiful by itself and ended up behind the mosque, in the outer garden of the fortress. Here a group of people asked us to take pictures with them, they were really nice and friendly people.

Afterwards, we went to the entrance, where we decided to try to get in using the local ticket. You see, in India and Pakistan (and some other places around Aisa), it is common to openly sell wildly different tickets to foreigners. Here the pricing difference was 10 for a child, 20 for an adult and 500 for a foreigner.

Now I was luckily wearing my shalwar kameez, so we’ve decided we’re gonna try to blend in. The rest of us who weren’t dressed in local attire bought the 500 rupee ticket, while I approached the gate with a large group of locals.

I blended in with the group, trying to not show my face or my height. Luckily it was really hot and the guard was bored and probably pretty sleepy, because he let me bass by with my local ticket.

The fort itself is pretty nice, the remains of the old palaces and barracks are a bit ruined, but I found I adds to the experience. You can get some snacks from the local stands here. If you’re gonna be here during the summer, you probably wanna get a lot of water and some ice cream.

In one of the buildings in the inner court there is an exhibition about the military history of Pakistan and Lahore. You can learn a lot about the times before the British colonialism and the kind of weapons and armors the people used back then. Unfortunately taking pictures was strictly prohibited, the guards would shout at you and delete your pictures if you were caught.

I don’t know about the current situation, but my friend Talha warned me to watch my belongings because of pickpockets. We looked out for each other, never leaving anyone separated. Luckily nothing happened.

All in all the Red Fortress of Lahore, especially combined with the marvelous Badshahi Mosque is a great trip and combined with the food street right next to the mosque, you can spend a whole day here and end the night with a great feast, in one of the rooftop restaurants of the food street, with a wonderful view of the mosque and the fortress, with their beautiful night lighting.