Grand Trunk Road sites

I am going to hijack this Indian TWHS to share something related to the wider Grand Trunk Road. After all, the Grand Trunk Road reached from the east of Bangladesh to Kabul, connecting the Indian subcontinent with Central Asia. This trajectory now crosses the countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

The town of Attari is one of the serial components proposed by India; this is the border town with Pakistan and the venue of the daily Wagah-Attari border ceremony. While travelling through Pakistan, I managed to watch this ceremony from the Pakistani side. Attending it from either side is a travel bucket list thing and it even exceeded my high expectations.

So, since 1959 India and Pakistan have lowered their flags in a joint effort to mark the daily closure of this border crossing on the Grand Trunk Road. It lies only about 30km from Lahore and makes for a fine half-day trip from there. It’s probably better set up to receive tourists than anything else in Pakistan: there are a café, snack vendors and toilets next to the parking lot where you have to wait til about 30 minutes before the ceremony starts. My phone thought I’d crossed the border already and pinged “Welcome to India. The rates are…”.

Once the guards lift the barrier, you may walk to the actual border. Along the way Pakistani flags are sold and ‘make-up artists’ are available to paint your face in green and white. Banners show the …