The birthplace of buddha
Our last full day in Nepal began with a typically strange breakfast (scrambled egg on bread with sort-of baked beans, half-toasted bread, potato deep-fried in peanut batter and geletenous jam tasting of strawberry laces) before getting a taxi to Bharaptur. The morning was misty as ever, and adding to this was the rather steamy windows of the car which our driver refused to clear. Some optimistic use of the windscreen wipers was tried, but given the condensation was on the inside of the car predictably this didn't help. He seemed reluctant to use any sort of fan too which would have cleared it in a few seconds.
Relieved to safely arrive at the bus stop, we then waited an hour or so for our bus to Lumbini. A little more local-bus looking than the tourist bus I was expecting, I nevertheless got on and chose a seat by the door, not wanting a repeat of the last bus experience. This turned out to be a chilly mistake as the door was not shut whilst in transit, so I soon retreated towards the back which was much better! Our bus driver was rather horn-happy, with an almost constant honking indicating "I'm coming up behind you" then "I'm overtaking" followed by "I'm cutting you up to pull in before a head-on collision". Some of the overtaking was so close I could feel the lorry breath of the trucks coming in the other direction through the holes in my window. This did mean progress was reasonable though, it actually felt extremely fast until I checked and we were doing just 40mph - how quickly one adjusts to normal driving speeds of <20mph!
The scenery to be observed included very flat but pretty fields, which I assume are completely covered by the monsoon, plus a huge number of dwellings and residents situated right by the road. Thinking about the road noise as well as the tendency of the children to run around, I would perhaps have built my own house much further away. I also saw a couple of broken-down lorries, which bizarrely, they decorate with tree branches. It's like the opposite of bumps - if you fail to reach your target and burn-out on the way you are here rewarded with being decorated in greenery. How odd!
When we reached the last town before Lumbini, we were unceremoniously dumped from the "direct bus" which apparently had other places to go. To complete our journey we wandered to the nearest junction and caught a cab, sharing a very small car with a family of three, a cosy but friendly experience.
My first impression of Lumbini itself was how smoggy / hazy it was. Given the number of fields passed through, and not so dense housing, this surprised me. I guess the weather was quite calm, but still, it definitely played on the throat. Despite this, we decided to hire some (quite awful) bikes to get around. I must have looked hilarious on mine as it was clearly sized for Nepali people (even though I was told it was a "big bike") and the fact it had no brakes left me going at quite a slow pace of just 4mph.
We explored the birthplace of Buddha, the main temple of which was quite busy but had some nice square masonry foundation remains, then a number of temples, each built by a different country. The best looking were China's, Korea's, Thailand's and Myanmar's in my opinion. India seemed to have gone a bit budget.
Wanting to keep shoes on after the first couple, I generally explored the outside of these, admiring the structure. Whilst doing this, Peter was generally occupied with posing for group photos with local teenagers, one of whom followed him for about ten minutes before plucking up the courage to ask for a picture. Sometimes I am even roped-in to take the photos, which is amusing to start and then a little repetitive; thank god for selfie-sticks!
The evening ended peacefully (which reminds me, nearly every establishment here has the words "peace" or "buddha" in its title, slightly confusing) with another batch of momos after ridding ourselves of the bikes, and a dark, hazy walk to our hotel for the night.
Our last full day in Nepal began with a typically strange breakfast (scrambled egg on bread with sort-of baked beans, half-toasted bread, potato deep-fried in peanut batter and geletenous jam tasting of strawberry laces) before getting a taxi to Bharaptur. The morning was misty as ever, and adding to this was the rather steamy windows of the car which our driver refused to clear. Some optimistic use of the windscreen wipers was tried, but given the condensation was on the inside of the car predictably this didn't help. He seemed reluctant to use any sort of fan too which would have cleared it in a few seconds.
Relieved to safely arrive at the bus stop, we then waited an hour or so for our bus to Lumbini. A little more local-bus looking than the tourist bus I was expecting, I nevertheless got on and chose a seat by the door, not wanting a repeat of the last bus experience. This turned out to be a chilly mistake as the door was not shut whilst in transit, so I soon retreated towards the back which was much better! Our bus driver was rather horn-happy, with an almost constant honking indicating "I'm coming up behind you" then "I'm overtaking" followed by "I'm cutting you up to pull in before a head-on collision". Some of the overtaking was so close I could feel the lorry breath of the trucks coming in the other direction through the holes in my window. This did mean progress was reasonable though, it actually felt extremely fast until I checked and we were doing just 40mph - how quickly one adjusts to normal driving speeds of <20mph!
The scenery to be observed included very flat but pretty fields, which I assume are completely covered by the monsoon, plus a huge number of dwellings and residents situated right by the road. Thinking about the road noise as well as the tendency of the children to run around, I would perhaps have built my own house much further away. I also saw a couple of broken-down lorries, which bizarrely, they decorate with tree branches. It's like the opposite of bumps - if you fail to reach your target and burn-out on the way you are here rewarded with being decorated in greenery. How odd!
When we reached the last town before Lumbini, we were unceremoniously dumped from the "direct bus" which apparently had other places to go. To complete our journey we wandered to the nearest junction and caught a cab, sharing a very small car with a family of three, a cosy but friendly experience.
My first impression of Lumbini itself was how smoggy / hazy it was. Given the number of fields passed through, and not so dense housing, this surprised me. I guess the weather was quite calm, but still, it definitely played on the throat. Despite this, we decided to hire some (quite awful) bikes to get around. I must have looked hilarious on mine as it was clearly sized for Nepali people (even though I was told it was a "big bike") and the fact it had no brakes left me going at quite a slow pace of just 4mph.
We explored the birthplace of Buddha, the main temple of which was quite busy but had some nice square masonry foundation remains, then a number of temples, each built by a different country. The best looking were China's, Korea's, Thailand's and Myanmar's in my opinion. India seemed to have gone a bit budget.
Wanting to keep shoes on after the first couple, I generally explored the outside of these, admiring the structure. Whilst doing this, Peter was generally occupied with posing for group photos with local teenagers, one of whom followed him for about ten minutes before plucking up the courage to ask for a picture. Sometimes I am even roped-in to take the photos, which is amusing to start and then a little repetitive; thank god for selfie-sticks!
The evening ended peacefully (which reminds me, nearly every establishment here has the words "peace" or "buddha" in its title, slightly confusing) with another batch of momos after ridding ourselves of the bikes, and a dark, hazy walk to our hotel for the night.
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