Wagah border

The road crossing between Pakistan and India, about 40–45 minutes from Lahore, and the site of the daily flag-lowering ceremony that both armies perform at each other across the gates.

Harry went on a hotel’s recommendation with no idea what to expect — he says he imagined a hundred people at a barrier — and found stadium seating on both sides holding thousands. His description is a theme park with an army in it.

The ceremony

• Every single day, 365 days a year, and it has run for 74 years (from video – unverified — the figure comes from his driver on the way back).
• Timing: entry closes at 4pm and the ceremony starts about 4:15. Harry arrived thinking it was 3:30 and got in with half an hour to spare.
• It is a competition, not a ritual. Hype men with microphones work each crowd, the two sides try to out-play each other’s music, and the guards perform high kicks up to their own heads. The flags come down simultaneously and the guards do not speak to one another at any point.
• The gates open briefly during the lowering, which is the closest a spectator gets to the line.
• Afterwards the crowd queues to be photographed at the barrier. Harry asked a Pakistani guard what would happen if he ran across, and was told he would be shot.
• The guards’ handshakes get a running joke of their own — he says it is the strongest he has ever had, several times over.
• Harry’s read on it: for all the theatre, what it shows is two armies cooperating precisely, every evening, to put on the same show.

Practical

• Phone signal is cut at the border. Neither he nor Mac had any, which he assumes is deliberate.
• Heavy military presence and repeated checkpoints on the approach. His hotel recommended taking a security guard for the trip and he did; the guard and driver also got them through the checkpoints and in via a separate entrance, which he says is reason enough to come with a local rather than alone.
• Popcorn from a seller inside: 50 rupees.
• The smog is heavy enough to see, though he notes it is worse in the city.

The other borders

Harry has since stood at the other two frontiers between these countries, and the contrast is the point: Khunjerab Pass, where Pakistan meets China, has no crowd, no ceremony and — when he visited — no traffic at all, because the border was closed. Wagah is the only one of the three that is a performance.

Source

• Tourists at India & Pakistan Border 🇵🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fyQaLUD6tw