Recreational places jampacked

LAHORE

A large number of citizens thronged public parks and other recreational places, including Lahore Zoo, cinemas, Lahore Fort and etc on Wednesday to celebrate the third day of Eidul Fitr with traditional festivity.

The third day of Eid was usually treated as a party day and majority of Lahorites used to visit public parks, Lahore Zoo, cinemas and other recreational places with their families to enjoy the holiday. During the day, a rush of people was seen at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Model Town Park, Nawaz Sharif Park, Racecourse Park, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Safari Park, Lahore Zoo, Lahore Fort, Shalimar Garden and Jallo Park while at night the parking lots of city cinemas were found full.

The most rush was observed at Lahore Zoo where people were unable to find a place to even park a motorcycle. Both the entrances of Lahore Zoo, one at The Mall and second at Lawrence Road, were packed with traffic and kept the traffic wardens on their toes. Zoo officials said that over 200,000 people visited Lahore zoo during Eid holidays. They said number of visitors to Lahore Zoo on first day of Eid was much lower than the remaining two days.

Cages of monkeys, lions and tigers, bear house and snake house were the points of attraction for children. However, the elephant house was as usual the most visited place in the zoo. Children were seen gone crazy to see a glimpse of the elephant, hippopotamus and rhino, which were present in each other’s neighbourhood. Playgrounds and cafeteria of Lahore Zoo were also jam-packed and many people complained about substandard food sold there.

Like Lahore Zoo, Safari Park on Raiwind Road is also one of the busiest recreational places in the provincial capital. Long queues of vehicles were seen outside Lion and Tiger Safari areas and people had to wait for hours to get in. Birds arena also attracted a large number of visitors especially families with children and small kids.

“My son Mustafa loves to run after the black swans,” said Mrs Najma Ali, a resident of Shadman. She said she along with her family came to Safari Park to enjoy the holiday. She said pleasant weather has increased the joyfulness of the day. She said she tried to go in the Tiger Safari but after waiting for about an hour she decided to come in bird’s arena.

“I am capturing the memorable moments in my camera and my husband is making a video of our visit, said Humera, a resident of Mochi Gate. She said this was their first visit to Safari Park and before this they didn’t know that such an enjoyable place existed in Lahore.

A number of families also visited Fortress Stadium to enjoy big rides at Joyland. Kids play lands having electronic swings, video games and other joy rides were also jam-packed. Ice-cream parlors, fast food restaurants, coffee shops and other eating spots also witnessed extraordinary rush of people during Eid holidays as many youths had called their friends to these places for get together and Eid Millan parties.