Bahawalpur was my stop in Pakistan between Lahore where I arrived by land and Karachi in the south where I would take a flight onto my next destination. It’s in the region of Pakistani southern Punjab, and it was a toss up between stopping here and stopping at the city of Multan where I had stayed in 2004. A friend convinced me to go with Bahawalpur on the basis that I had already been to Multan. I came to the region principally to revisit the shrines at Uch Shariff which I had been mesmerised by back in 2004 and was super keen to see again, and as Uch Shariff was slightly closer to Bahawalpur this sealed the deal.

Bahawalpur was founded in the 18^th century and was in fact the capital of the Bahawalpur region for many a year. Today it’s a neat little town with a population in the main town at least of a little under 800,000 people. The town does have few things worth looking at with a cute little museum, an historic library and the Noor Mahal, an historic mansion/palace where the region was ruled from back in the day.

I took the Daewoo Express bus from Thokar station in southern Lahore to the Daewoo Express bus station in Bahawalpur. I knew getting off the bus that arriving in this part of the country met you needed a police escort, as strange as it may seem, as a foreigner. I also had heard stories of how it was a hassle, at least the organising of it and had read at least one story of a foreigner having a police escort waiting for them when they got off the bus.

Was I supposed to alert the authorities? I don’t know. These regulations have been in place for years now due to terrorist activity targeting foreigners in the past. Thankfully those sort of events don’t seem to have occurred of late, but that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been ANY terrorist attacks in Pakistan, in fact it is sadly a common thing. As tourism starts its rebirth in Pakistan, the last thing the government want is for a tourist to be killed or involved in a terrorist incident, even if that is very unlikely these days. So, and I’m not sure who decrees it whether it’s local/state government or the Federal government who put these things into place, but in Multan, Bahawalpur and Southern Punjab in general you require a police escort. Is it truly necessary? Probably not, you don’t need one in Karachi nor Lahore, but if it keeps you safe from even something with a one in ten thousand chance of happening, then it’s worth it right?

Nevertheless, the first thing I did when alighting from the bus was to grab my bag and rush to the auto-rickshaws waiting and hopped one straight to Hotel One, which is a bit of a way from the centre of the town and next to the airport, but as good as any hotel in town with super staff. I managed to get there without escort and then through the hotel I was able to organise a guide for the next two days whilst in town through the incredibly helpful staff at the hotel. The guide I think then organised a police officer who would accompany us for the next two days.

Both days would revolve around day trips, the first to the Cholistan Desert and the second to the shrines at Uch Shariff (where I had visited in 2004 under my own steam from Multan). On the second day I had time in the morning to visit the three sites already mentioned above in Bahawalpur.

The security provided by a local police officer was non-intrusive, the guy was super friendly honestly never was an issue. My guide was Umair and he had his own car and did the driving (and Cholistan in particular was I think around 3 hours one way) so it was all pretty simple. As for price well for the two days all up it was around $100USD which I thought was excellent. Didn’t include entrance fees but there weren’t many and it did include fuel of which we must have used quite a bit. I’m just looking at my records here I think that included a tip.

As this post is about Bahawalpur I’ll just write in particular to the three places we visited on that morning. We actually stopped at a bakery there and got some pretty decent baked goods!

1/ The Bahawalpur Central Library

This library is an historic building dating back to 1924 when it was founded by Sir Rufus Daniel Isaacs who certainly seems to have a very important name. It’s a beautiful old library for sure and not particularly, you know, digital. The highlight here was meeting a lovely old man who in fact used to be a politician for the region and particular for education I think it was. His name for reference is Said Ahmed Alam. The library had the books and magazines around the centre reading area and a second level around it too. Wouldn’t be something will take up a lot of time if you visited but still worthwhile and right next to…

2/ The Bahawalpur Museum

Literally, it was just 100 metres walk. It’s a small museum with a lovely preserved steam locomotive outside, and there are a lot of historical photographs from the time of the Partition and before, the lead up to the creation of the State of Pakistan. That was the highlight for me – in the ‘Pakistan Movement’ Gallery.

3/ The Noor Mahal

A bit further away with a little bit of security in surrounding beautiful gardens the Noor Mahal was the number one thing I saw in Bahawalpur. It’s a 19th century building with a strong Italian influence and it was home to the Nawab Family (who have their own cemetery out near Derawar) who were the rulers during the British Raj period up until the partition of the Bahawalpur State.

Today it’s owned by the army but visiting is allowed, and it is really a great building to visit and kept in immaculate condition.

After two and half days (only sadly) it was time to move. I say ‘only’ but if I wanted to go into town for a bite to eat from the hotel I would have had to get a policeman to come with me. Even to the Bahawalpur Train Station (quite a beautiful building itself) when I was leaving I needed my guide and security, plus there was security at the station as well and I was photographed before getting on the train and before arriving in Karachi after the train ride the police located me there presumably to confirm that I had made it safely. All in though we are talking about good people doing their job.

For dinner I think one night I wasn’t feeling 100% and skipped dinner, and the other two nights I ate at the hotel’s restaurant which was pretty decent. Bahawalpur turned out to be quite a nice stop on the road from Lahore to Karachi, and I hope if I ever go back I can stay in the centre of town a bit more and have a bit more freedom. Eventually as long as the security situation continues to improve I expect that foreigners will be given more freedom.

Thanks for joining me today for this one! Take care wherever you may be – and May the Journey Never End!