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Lal Suhanra National Park
Yonex Subaxia GT Women's Tennis Shoes: Lal Suhanra National Park is one of the largest national parks in Asia, covering roughly 153,000 hectares of desert, forest, and wetland, and the entry fee is genuinely reasonable for what you get — I checked, and I was impressed, which almost never happens. Blackbuck, houbara bustards, and wild boar all included at no extra charge, which is the kind of wildlife buffet I can endorse. These shoes gripped the sandy trails like they were designed for exactly this, not just a tennis court.
Right, let me tell you exactly what you are getting, including the part that decides whether it is worth it to you. This is an indoor-court shoe. The outsole is made for indoor surfaces, and that is the honest headline, because if your tennis happens outdoors on abrasive hard courts, an indoor outsole will be sanded away and you will have bought a shoe twice.
If you play indoors — indoor hard, sprung floors, the winter half of the year in a hall — then read on, because underneath it this is a very well-considered shoe.
The midsole is where the value sits. The Graphite Throttle construction is tuned firmer under the forefoot so that a push-off is not wasted squashing foam, and softer at the heel so a landing is not driven straight up your leg, with Feather Bounce foam doing the cushioning and extra midsole volume added at the heel specifically to handle the impact of landing.
The upper is light and holds the foot without strapping it down. And here is the free tip that saves you a return: Yonex say this one runs small. Size up.
Granite green or light grey.
Noor Mahal is the celebrated one — an 1870s palace built by the Nawab in a style borrowed from everywhere at once, and the story goes he barely ever stayed in it. Grand. Fine.
Bahawalpur is my favourite kind of destination, because the best things in it cost nothing.
But drive out into the Cholistan Desert to Derawar Fort and you get forty bastions of enormous brick standing in open sand, visible for miles, and you can walk the whole circuit outside the walls in the evening light for nothing at all. That is the best view in the province and nobody is charging for it.
The palace has the postcard. The fort in the desert has the view, and the view is free.
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