3. Locals are curiously friendly
I saw around five other tourists during the five days I was in Lahore. The city seemed to receive very few foreign tourists, which meant I got a lot of interest from locals when I ventured out.
I received plenty of friendly greetings as well as requests for selfies on their new, top-of-the-range mobile phones. What did surprise me and did make me initially feel a little uncomfortable at times was that groups of locals would start following me down the street.
4. Alcohol is illegal but incredibly easy to acquire
I did know before visiting that alcohol was not sold in most of Pakistan except in a few very high-end international hotels. With the searing heat I was dreaming of an ice-cold beer.
I wandered back to my room, dejected but not very surprised — after all, I was in a conservative, predominantly Muslim country. However, less than 30 seconds after closing the door to my room there was a knock. A bellboy was standing there with a big plastic bag. He said, “You want beer?”