Pakistan - India border

After a couple of uneventful days in Lahore, Pakistan, we made an evening visit to the famous border closing ceremony at Wagah, the border crossing between Pakistan and India.
At the ceremony, each of the two countries has something of a stadium set up for seating, divided with men on one side and women on the other. Each country blares out some national music. I couldn't hear the Indian music as it was drowned out by that of Pakistan - this is probably intentional. Unfortunately, the music wasn't terribly melodious and all that could be deciphered was the word 'Pakistan' every 3 seconds! As westerners, we were immediately shown to a special viewing area right at the front and soon after, the 'show' began. The guards were smartly dressed in formal army uniform and sporting turbans with fan-like trimmings. There was also a crowd warmer who egged on the audience to ensure that they were louder than the people on the Indian side. Around a dozen guards marched around aggressively, stamping their feed in a knee jarring manoeuvre. There was a certain extent of synchronisation between the two countries, but I think that the jist of the performance was a display of strength and anger towards the other country! Difficult to understand really. At one point, the gates between the two countries were opened (again, each gate targeted to be more ornate than the other) and the flag lowering section began. There was plenty of rope throwing, foot stamping, moustache twiddling and had realigning going on as well as a fair share of accelerated marching with legs raised high. All in all, an interesting show, but perhaps there was more hidden meaning that was not communicated to the viewer. After the ceremony, we took a rather colourful ride back into Lahore. Our taxi driver was somewhat psychotic, driving on the wrong side of the road and eager to pass anything that was or wasn't moving. We made it back to the hotel somehow or another.
The aim had been to return to the border the following morning to actually make the crossing, but a bout of sickness put it on hold for a day or two. Little more of Lahore was explored except for the Old City and main mosque, said to have a capacity of up to 100,000.
The border was finally negotiated without too much delay on the Sunday. There were absolutely no other people at the border that day, but a bit of standing around in the sweltering heat during the processing of the carnet de passage made sure that our first cold drink in India was not far away.