Pakistan Travel and Tourism

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Nadeem Dar
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Pakistan Travel and Tourism We hope to contribute to Pakistan's tourism industry by building a community of people who love cult

A street of Venice having the oldest restaurants and bars in Italy.
Picture taken in April-2022

میرا ماننا ہے کہ میرا پیسہ ضائع ھوا اگر میں نے اسے بے وجہ ایسی اشیاء پر خرچ کیا جو کچھ عرصے بعد اپنی قدر و قیمت کھو دیتی ہیں یا ٹکنالوجی کے ارتقاء سے کوڑے کا ڈھیر بن جاتی ھیں۔
میں اس کی بجائے اپنے پیسے کو تفریحی یا مطعالعاتی سفر پر خرچ کرنا بہتر سمجھوں گا کیونکہ سفر مجھے وہ یادیں دے گا جن کو میں ذندگی کا حصہ بنا لوں گا۔
آپ کا کیا خال ھے اس بارے میں؟؟

Photo credits: Nadeem Dar's Photography

PAK TEA HOUSE (complete feature)
By: Nadeem Dar
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Having tea in a small café on Mall Road Lahore, the pictures hanging on the walls took me into an unseen time which I wish I could be a part of. The photographs of the literary personalities around me elevated the history and significance of the place. The small corner library represented the writers of those books who were once a part of this café. I visualized big names sitting around me enjoying tea cups while sharing their prose and verses with each other, telling fictions, novels and praising or criticizing the work. The revolutionists smoking and discussing ideas, ghazals, riots, movements and what not on small wooden tables with pens and papers, some surely burnt with ashes. In this spell of time I thought of many such things till a huge group of Halqa Arbab-e-Zouq entered the café and went upstairs for some meeting.
This was the Pak Tea House, once a dreamland and a house of thinkers, writers and revolutionists. The mood of the place at present might not be as spell bounding as it was originally but the ambiance with intellectuals sitting around did make it different from other cafes in Lahore.
During British rule in 1939 and 1940, a tea house was established in Lahore, located at the bank of Mall Road towards Neela Gumbad, Anarkali. The tea house was named as “India Tea House”, and people from different walks of life and school of thoughts started sitting there. Who knew that the place would become a house of revolutionary writers, poets and literary personalities in future.
In 1939 an organization, “Bazm e Daastaan Goyian” was founded and six months later the name was changed to “Halqa e Arbab e Zouq”, this is the same Halqa e Arbab e Zouq I saw coming in the café. The sessions and meeting of Halqa e Arbab e Zouq took place on the upper storey of India Tea House. Many literary organizations joined Halqa e Arbab e Zouq at that time and started working in collaboration with it.
Somewhere in 1943 another organization “Halqaa e Arbab e Ilm” emerged whose focal person was Baedaar Bakht. Amongst his companions were Agha Shorish Kashmiri, Malik Aslam Hayyat and Syed Nazir Zaidi. Later with the support of Molana Hamid Ali Khan another organization “Urdu Sabha” was founded having big names like Professor Patras Bukhari, Dr. Muhan Singh Dewana, KhwajaDil Muhammad, and Dr. Shanti Roop Bhatnagar. At that time education and literature was at its peak. Many legendary and literary personalities from Uttar Pardesh, Madhya Pardesh, and many other cities of Punjab moved to Lahore. Among whom Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Professor Patras Bukhari, Sufi Tabbasum, A-Hameed, Muhammad Hussain Azad, Tajwar Najeeb Abadi, Mahmood Taerani, M***i Abdullah Tonki, Muhammad Hassan Jalandhri, Muhammad Shafi Qasuri, Mir Manzar Hussain Nazim Lakhnawi, Sheikh Abdul Qadir, Dakit Abdullah, are renowned ones. The art and literature of Lahore achieved its ultimate point and this Tea House of Lahore became the spot of writers and poets.
These were the years when the Pakistan Movement was in full swing and revolutionists and writers were writing on the same topics. Then came the Pakistan in 1947 but it was an end to the India Tea House as the Hindu and Sikh laureates left Lahore and moved to India. The India Tea House was sealed!
The following year of independence of Pakistan, some literary personalities like Aleem Siraaj, Sadiq, A-Hameed and Mr. Siraaj migrated from India and played a role reviving the Tea House. With the revamping of the India Tea House, the name also changed to Pak Tea House. With its reopening the writers and poets started coming back and this place again became a center of education and literature.
Pak Tea House emerged once again as a house of literary people and poets and writers like Mubarak Ahmed, Munir Nyazi, Nasir Kazmi, Mukhtar Siddique, Munoo Bhai, Mira Ji, ibn-e-Insha, Noon Meem Rashid, Qateel Shifai, Imtiaz Ali Taj, Anwar Sjjad, Yousaf Zafar , Ijaz Batalwi, Jillani Kamran,Mustansar Hussain Tarar, Asgar Nadeem Syed, Intezar Hussain, Hussain Majrooh, Atta Ul Haq Qasmi, Nazir Naji, Abdul Majid Salik and many more became a part of Pak Tea House.
With the revolutionary writings and poetry going on, the Pak Tea House again witnessed a deadlock in mid 1990’s and that was a downfall of literature and revolution. The historic café was replaced with a carpet and a tyre shop. During that time many journalists, poets and writers raised their voice for the reopening of Pak Tea House but in vain.
Pak tea House was closed for several years till it was revived and revamped in 2012 by the Government of Punjab. It was a beckon of delight and hope for the literary circles. Maybe the times cannot be brought back to recreate the lost glory as the attitudes and circumstances have changed. The trends of poetry, reading, writing and thinking of revolutions have also fainted with the passage of time. It was the Pak Tea House where the intellectual left met the right for meaningful conversations and the same place gave birth to powerful literary movement like the Progressive Writer's Association.
Pak Tea House is one of its kinds in the history of Pakistan which has its own significance and was a dominant spot for the birth and flourishing of art and literature. The good thing is that Halqa Arbab-e-Zouq is still there carrying on the tradition. Many other associations have also emerged and I am hopeful that these organizations will also make a history.

(The writer is a professional heritage photographer and can be reached at [email protected]
Source: https://facebook.com/nadeemdararticles/

Travel Diary by Naufil Dar

A Trip to Azad Kashmir

Summer vacations had just gone by. No summer fun, no get-togethers. Just me and my bed. It was a punishing summer in terms of the weather as well. After all, it’s Lahore. Summer vacations were extremely boring. But there’s a thing about holidays, no matter how boring they are, you just don’t want them to end.

So in the end of August, the university finally opens. Turns out, my friends had the same summer experience as me, boring. So we decided to go on a trip to Azad Kashmir. We’ve already been to a few trips together so we knew how the planning part goes, at least we thought we knew it. There were just two questions, “How” and “How many”. These interdependent questions had us confused for quite some time. We couldn’t tell who among us were in and who were not. Each one of us was very generous in giving out-of-the-box ideas and were being tourist experts. But when asked whether they’re in or not, “Mera mushkil hai”, “Abhi trip say hou k aya hun”, “Abbu nahin maanain gay”, and “Gaari ka nahin arrange hou raha”.

After all the filtering and sorting out process, we came down to six ridiculous men (twelve initially) and one car (Honda City). Problem: How to fit six men in one car for a 16-hour long journey? Well, we couldn’t find an answer. Therefore, one brave friend decided to sacrifice his Kashmir dream to make it possible for others. This was after we decided to eliminate one of us through a “Pugan Pugayi” method. But our sacrificer friend saved him from this misery and opted out.

Then started our preparation. We decided the day we’re leaving and packed our bags. We left from Lahore at night. We were all excited and pumped for the trip we were off to. Bought some snacks on our way as we started our trip. Lucky for me that I wasn’t driving. Not-so-lucky as well because I had to sit on the back seat with two other friends which wasn’t a very comfortable experience. Still, I was thankful. Our energy levels were high throughout our journey from Lahore to Islamabad. We stopped at a local dhaba in Rawalpindi to have a dinner and left. Our journey from there to Muzaffarabad was quite smooth and fast. On our way to Muzaffarabad, we stopped at Kohala, had breakfast, grabbed a cup of tea for each of us and enjoyed the view of Jhelum River while sitting on the big and slippery rocks. Cold flowing water gave us a refreshing feeling while walking and playing in the stream. It is to be noted that these rocks and pebbles beneath are very slippery and you must walk cautiously otherwise you could hurt yourself.

Anyway, we enjoyed our brief stay at Kohala, which entertained no more than five people at that time since we were the only tourists there. With our energies refreshed, now was the time for us to continue our journey. A long journey can really be tiring and can diminish the energy and excitement. But for the experience we had on the road after Muzaffarabad, this is an understatement. An eight-hour drive wouldn’t hurt if it was on a highway. But an eight-hour drive on a narrow, broken road was one to remember, in a bad way. Again, I was lucky that I wasn’t driving. But again, not-so-lucky. With three people on the back seat, this bumpy ride was extremely uncomfortable, not that comfort was our priority, but some of it would’ve been nice? The weather too was hot. We got so frustrated that after sometime, the view of Neelam River even got us bored. There was no point good enough where we could stop our car and take a break except a couple of them. Plus we were already late and we didn’t want to waste our time in stopping at points. There were no hotels good enough where we thought we could stay.

After around ten hours of constant torture, we reached Sharda. This place was a big sigh of relief for us. It was like seeing a plate of biryani after starving for two days. There were a lot of hotels and restaurants over there. It was a market adjacent to the Neelam River. We stopped at the very first hotel. It was sunset. We decided to stay over there, and get something to eat, since Kohala was the place where we last ate. We ordered Chicken Karahi and Biryani. It was “fantastic”. Till now, the best thing about this trip was, by far, this hotel. By this time, it was dark and it was starting to get cold. Each of us grabbed a cup of tea and sat at the edge of the river. I will never forget that experience. We were the only ones over there. The calmness of the river and the pleasant cold breeze was so peaceful. Surrounded by the mountains, this place is a great option to stay. I’d recommend all the tourists to do the same if they can bear the long, broken road. Because trust me, it’s worth it. And so was the sleep we were dying to get. So we went to our room and saved the enjoyment for next day.

We woke up the next day early after getting good sleep, had breakfast, and booked a jeep to Kel. The road to Kel is unmetalled and not suitable for cars. Hence you’ll have to go there on local jeeps which are easily available. It took us around one and a half hour to reach Kel. It is basically a village which connects to Arang Kel through a bridge and a chairlift. The bridge connects bases of both mountains whereas the chairlift from Kel to Arang Kel takes you to a point from where a trek of around thirty minutes takes you to the top. Obviously, the best option is to take the chairlift and trek for 30 minutes instead of going down from Kel, cross the bridge and hike for 2 hours to reach the top.

I wasn’t joking when I used the word “ridiculous” for us. Blinded by, I don’t know what, we saw no chairlift and went for the kill. Snapped some beautiful photos on the bridge connecting both mountains before my camera was taken by a security forces official and I had to delete those photos due to security reasons. After that, we continued to hike. It was easy and enjoying in the beginning. It was a gradually inclined hike as we passed through the rocks and trees. It started to get tiring more and more with time. We took breaks in intervals and these intervals started to shrink as we got more and more tired. Then came a very steep slope. By this time, we were starting to regret our decision of coming here and some of us were thinking of going back. We didn’t know if we were even going the right way. We had a friend among us who was going back but we forced him not to. Half an hour later, while climbing the slope, he finally made his mind to not listen to us and go back. The hike had taken the toll on us both physically and mentally. Our legs didn’t have enough strength in them to hike on such a steep slope. Calculating all the costs, benefits, and the risks involved, I decided to join my friend in the “mission abort”. We went all the way down the mountain we hiked, crossed the bridge again, and hiked our way back to Kel. It was at that moment we saw the chairlift we should’ve seen three hours ago. Frustrated by the series of events, we grabbed ourselves some refreshments from the local grocery store and reflected on what just happened. We didn’t know if the remaining of our friends made it or not.

After an hour worth of reflection and refreshments, we decided to go to Kel via the chairlift. So we did. As we were hiking above to reach the top of Arang Kel, we hear our friends shouting our names from above. We were relieved to hear that. They told us how they reached the top after just ten minutes of hiking. At that point, I just didn’t care. I just wanted to go to the top and see the place for which we’ve gone through such “khuwari”. So we did, all of us. It was a satisfying feeling once we reached the top. Now, I just wanted to sit and relax. And most importantly, eat. Weather up there was good, it was a beautiful place with greenery all around and huts made of wood. Some were hotels and some of them were for the residence of locals. Sun shining through the clouds was a sight to see. The cool breeze was enough to relax and calm us down. We were told that beyond the mountain right next to this starts the Indian Occupied Territory.

It was around 4pm by now and we knew we didn’t have much time because chairlift time was coming to an end. So we had our lunch, some of us had it for the second time. I vaguely remember how much I ate. Around 4-5 rotis. Had tea and sat there for a little more since we didn’t want to leave that place so early. I’m sure, no matter how long we would’ve sat, it always would’ve been too early to leave. But we had to.

We came back to Kel via chairlift and went to our jeep driver who wasn’t very happy with us because we kept him waiting for so long. On our way back, we decided to have a Bar-B-Que at our hotel and so we bought the masala and chicken. Our hotel’s management was generous enough to marinate the chicken and provide us with the necessary equipment. Bar-B-Que was fun. But the feeling of leaving this place the next morning wasn’t. Sharda itself is a sort of place where you can stay for days and enjoy. It’s so peaceful. You just have to make sure that you’re not going when there are too much tourists. Lucky for us, it wasn’t the case. We enjoyed the calmness and silence. It felt like the whole place was ours. We kept sitting at the edge of the river till midnight.

We woke up next morning, breakfast, tea, and here we go, on our way back. Our trip had many ups and downs. But it didn’t make us want to leave this place. We had our share of sadness in our hearts which we knew each one of us had, but didn’t share it with one another. We were lucky and happy to have made this trip but sad to leave this place at the same time. It’s the place but most importantly, the experiences and the people you travel with, which makes the trip memorable and in our case, we were lucky with both of them.

We were off to Lahore via same route we came. Except that we stayed the night at a hotel on Murree Mall road. Murree was much colder than Kashmir but also, much more crowded. It was a weekend as well. It was fun. But we didn’t have the same luck in getting a good hotel as we did in Kashmir due to limited budget which was remaining. We slept for a while and left for Lahore at around Fajr and we reached Lahore by 10.

This wonderful experience wouldn’t have been possible if not for my ridiculous friends. Whichever place you go, there have to be people accompanying you who understand you and who just want to have fun. You just can’t stand people who are complaining about each and everything on the trip. You must make sure that if you’re travelling with your friends, leave the comfort at your home. Yes, keep sufficient amount of money because you’re there to enjoy. Eat good, stay at a good place. But don’t expect much, because you aren’t going to get much. Hotel rates in off season are very affordable in Sharda. So are the jeep rates. Standards of hotels on Murree Mall Road continues to go down and down with the never ending inflow of tourists. But you can enjoy your stay there for one night because of the weather.

Therefore, if you have a decent budget and friends like I had, I have no doubt that you’re going to enjoy this trip to Kashmir like I did.

Photo Credits: Naufil Dar

KETAKSHA - THE KATAS RAJ!
I am proud to be a Pakistani as Pakistan is one of the richest countries in terms of heritage, nature and culture. Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, Lahore, Multan, Jhelum, Chakwal, Ali Pur, Shujaabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and many more cities and small towns are hub of heritage and culture but very much under projected. I wonder instead of the crimes and turmoil why our media cannot exhibit these soft sides of Pakistan.
Another wonder I am writing about is the Katas Raj temples, located in Punjab near Chooa Saidan Shah, in Chakwal District. The site originally housed the Satgraha, a cluster of seven ancient temples, along with a Buddhist stupa and the home of a warrior and havelis. However, only four of the seven temples, havelis and the warrior’s residence remain till today. Some smaller temples were built around 900 years ago whereas the earlier ones date back to the sixth century. Katas Raj thus has a collection of buildings and ruins that stretch in an unbroken line from the Buddhist era down to British rule, thereby, preserving at least 1500 years worth of history in that particular space.
The site held a Buddhist stupa which towered 200 ft in height with ten streams around it as described by Alexander Cunningham, the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, in 1872-73. This verified the account of the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Xang who had visited this region during the 7th century and described the various Buddhist sites in the subcontinent.
According to Cunningham, the complex of seven temples at the highest point on the site is the most important part of the place and echoes the architectural style of the Kashmiri temples of the Karkota and Varma dynasties who ruled from 625-939 CE. These temples have uniqueness such as dentiles, trefoil arches, fluted pillars and pointed roofs which are present in most of the temples that are found all along the Salt Range foothills but are in shambles. The main building material is soft sand stone which is plastered over.
It is said that the oldest book in Hinduism, Rig Veda was written in Katas 300 BC though many Hindu scholars believe it was written sometime in the year 1300 BC. The book contains a detailed account of Katas. Also it is said that Katas is located at 2200 ft above sea level. Katas also remained the capital of Hindu Sinha kingdom. During British rule before Pind Dadan Khan and Jhelum it was also the Headquarter of Jhelum Valley.
It is said that Albairuni also spent some time at Katas to learn Sanskrit in a University of Languages which then existed in Katas. During his stay at Katas and Nandna Fort Albairuni wrote his famous “Kitabul-Hind” that depicts the religion, scientific knowledge and social customs of Hindus in the region at that time.
The temples at Katas are mostly constructed on square platforms. The elevation of the sub shrines seems to form a series of cornices with small rows of pillars, crowned by a ribbed dome. It is no doubt a mind blowing site once you step in there. This is a tourist spot but not very much well maintained like many other monuments and proper tourist facilities lack there.
The Ramachandra Mandir is situated near the Hari Singh Haveli and is closed from all sides except for one entrance. The Mandir has two jharokas (balconies) that have been severely damaged and I guess these should be taken up for conservation. The Hanuman Mandir, another marvel in the same complex, is a high rectangular enclosure. The temple's ceiling is undecorated, and lime-plastered. The Shiva temple is also built on a square platform. The temples are closed for the public and unless you have terms with the local guides you cannot access the interior. In my opinion, this entire place should be opened for the public as well with much security and care. Some carvings of the Hindu deity are still seen on the walls whereas most of the idols have been shifted to India.
The Katas Raj temple complex is believed to date back to the Mahabharata era. Many legends are connected to the temples. It is said that the five Pandava brothers, heroes of the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, stayed there during their exile. The lake in the complex is said to be filled with Shiva's tears and has magical powers. Another legend involves the death of Shiva's wife Sati; the story says that when she died Shiva cried so much that his tears created two holy ponds - one at Pushkara in Ajmer(India) and the other at Ketaksha (Pakistan), which literally means "raining eyes" in Sanskrit. It is from this name that the word Katas is derived. That’s not the end to the versions, another says that the Shiva legend involves the death of Shiva's horse Katas instead of that of Sati. Some old manuscripts also consider Katas as the birthplace of Rama, as well as that of Ayodhya, though this is controversial as Hindus never stated it as Rama's birthplace.
This is one of the most important Hindu pilgrimage sites in Pakistan and still in use to this day. If this place is used aesthetically by the archeology and tourism department, it can prove to be a nice religious touristic spot. The economy can also be uplifted through this attempt and the same amount can be used in the conservation and restoration of the site, if the government wants. I think other than building roads and bridges, the government should also work on preserving these sites and promoting tourism. I hardly see anything related to tourism in the budget speech or the government’s strategies!
(The writer is a heritage photographer and can be reached at [email protected]
Source: https://www.facebook.com/nadeemdararticles/