Yes, I agree with NYA that Lahore is probably the most interesting city in Pakistan. It is a fascinating mix of the old and the new. It is modern and swish in places but there is also the feeling of centuries old tradition steeped in some of the older roads and buildings. It's a fun place. Alongside religious monuments like the Badshahi Mosque there is the Chiryaghar (Zoo)which can make for a marvellously relaxing stroll in very nice surroundings. And then we have the famous Heera Mandi which is, I believe, a finishing school for dancing girls.
At the moment, probably the only tourists that do venture into Pakistan are the trekking/mountaineering types who want to take on the infamous slopes of K2. I feel that though some parts of Pakistan are quite accessible to foreign tourists, like Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, etc, some of the more tribal areas are off-limits. I'm not sure how comfortable a westerner would be travelling to the North-West Frontier, for example. And I don't think those people would want to become a tourist attraction.
Places like Murree and the Swat Valley have definite potential though. Another big plus for Pakistan is of course the food. One of the pleasures of travelling through Pakistan is that every road, street, or gully has a large variety of food being cooked for the traveller. Whereas abroad, a lot of asian food tastes much the same because it has been modified to suit the western palate, I think there is a better variety in Pakistan because each place has it's own method of cooking. It makes me laugh when i see people in Karachi eating super-expensive burgers from McDonalds when they could eat far better food for much less if they weren't so susceptible to marketing.
Sabah's comments on postcards are so true. My niece went to Pakistan just last month and her teacher asked her to send her a postcard - guess what? no Postcards in Pakistan!
Sabah says:
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Our main locations are not even sold in Pak – do we need to wait till we have a perfect infrastructure? Why can’t we just promote it as it is, and work on things with time? Oh one more thing that I wanna criticize is – does anyone see Tourism (I think that’s what the channel is called), anyway, how come they too show all the average things in Pak – we have natural beauty so obviously we’ll see the beauty in the doc. What about some culture?
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Again, this is a fair point. India has a fairly successful tourist industry but it has all the unattractive sides to it that Pakistan has. Is it just a case of successful marketing? Yes IMO. I remember a female cousin saying to me while I was in Pak;
Paa, ithay TV programme a 'ich baray smart shart goray log lagtay ay.. Valayet 'ich aida' aN sary log?"
it never occurred to me before that the only image people have of America or anyplace for that matter is what they see on a TV screen. Maybe hungarians think everybody in India looks like Amitabh Bacchan?
So yes, I think we could do a lot more to promote Pakistan. How many of us have foreign friends who when we discuss our country with them say "I would love to see it"?
Another unusual aspect of our media is that while other nations tend to glamourise thier countries on screen, with us it is the opposite. TV programmes are downbeat and unimaginative, and I swear, if you go out into an ordinairy street it is more lively! Weird.