The Tonga Trip arranged by Mr. Fakhar was professional and experience was memorable. We were a large party of around 20 individuals and he managed every detail including breakfast, guide, tickets of different locations and refreshments. The pace of the trip was appropriately handled to handle the size of our party. The guide was very engaging and informative. He was also able to communicate in both Urdu and English to keep everyone engaged.
I would recommend this trip to anyone interested in knowing about walled Lahore and experience the local streets and ambiance.
High point of the trip for us was getting to meet local talent. You can find him at Instagram @v.jaras.
Our tour through the Walled City was an unforgettable experience. Mr. Fakhar, the tour manager, went above and beyond to ensure that we were satisfied with the day.
The day began with us being picked up punctually, first thing in the morning, then being driven in a nice car to our first stop, which was a delicious Pakistani breakfast near the rim of the Walled City. From there, we were with a separate tour guide, and spent about three hours walking through the streets of the Walled City, seeing alleyways, havelis, shrines, shops, butchers, clothing dyers, etc. This part of the tour was very interesting, but eventually became repetitive and tedious to the point where we were wondering if we were ever going to see the main attractions of the day, namely, the Wazir Khan Mosque, Lahore Fort, Delhi Gate, or Bad Shahi Mosque. Most of the scheduled tour was already over and we had to raise our voices in concern before we finally started heading in the direction of those sites. The guide didn't seem to understand that, while the alleyways were interesting, people primarily book this tour to see the spectacular historical sites. If we wanted to spend most of our time exploring the alleyways, we would have booked a different tour that met that description. Fortunately, after expressing our frustration with the tour manager, Mr. Fakhar, he was receptive to our concerns and offered to extend our scheduled tour for as long as we wanted. It was clear that Mr. Fakhar wanted us to leave happy, which we appreciated. We eventually made it to the aforementioned historical sites and enjoyed our time at each one.
Our tour guide was charismatic. He seemed to know everyone and every corner of the Walled City, and was eager to show us all of it. That said, it seemed that his main priority was to satisfy his own personal objectives of what was important and didn't seem nearly as concerned to how we were feeling.
So five stars for Mr. Fakhar for going above and beyond doing his best to make things right, but overall four stars due to some of the frustrations we experienced.