Monday 22^nd October

We had a lie-in this morning and didn’t go to breakfast until 8am (call this a lie-in?!)  Then we packed and left Chitwan with a driver to take us onward.  Today we were off to Lumbini, The birthplace of Buddha.

We are well into the Dashain Festival now, and this is a family orientated time.  Everyone travels back to their family homes and villages and the whole theme is getting together for celebrations which include Tikka (red rice paste on the forehead) ceremonies, perfoemed by the elders, and goat sacrifice.  This is not a time anyone wants to be working, and it is fair to say that the hairy ride to Lumbini with 2 near miss accidents made us wonder if he was keen to get back to the celebrations.  Our driver had no spatial awareness and pressed the horn for almost the entire journey, he also didn’t really know the route and the 3 hours included a few stops to ask for directions.

Driving in Nepal is not the same as the UK despite being on the same side of the road.  If there is an accident the larger vehicle automatically gets the blame, so everyone looks after the little person.  They don’t indicate, but toot when they are going to overtake and as a way to ask people to move over.  They never reach high speeds due to the state of many of the roads, but this doesn’t mean we haven’t held on tight on occasions, waiting for the head on collisions during overtaking.  I think they just presume they are going so slowly that stopping won’t be a problem.  Most cars here are old, and seem to bear up remarkably well to the pot holes and rocks that litter the roads.  Most cars are Suzukis that are glammed up with stickers to make them more appealing.

We eventually arrived at the Buddha Maya Gardens Hotel in Lumbib at lunchtime.  This hotel was nice but it lacked atmosphere.  They were set up more for the big groups of Buddhists making pilgrimages to Lumbini and not really for 2 independent travellers.  Also due to Dashain they were running on less staff than normal.  We dumped luggage then headed on foot to the Lumbini Development Zone and the Maya Devi Temple.   Lumbini like Chitwan was far hotter than Kathmandu and the temperatures soared.  The development zone is large so we walked about 1.5Km to get to the gate.  We hadn’t got a ticket but to save us walking back we made a donation to the temple instead, which frankly was a relief as I think we wouldn’t have bothered doubling back in the heat.  We had to leave our shoes outside, causing us to make a pretty hasty dash on to the garden as the tiled walkways were roasting in the sun and were scalding our feet.

Maya Devi Temple

The Maya Devi temple is extremely significant to the Buddhist culture.  It is where Siddhartha Gautama the historical Buddha was born in 563BC.  Maya Devi was his mother.  She came here when she was pregnant, bathed in the pond of extraordinary beauty, and then gave birth under the auspicious Bodhi tree.  This has been proven with archaeological evidence.  We walked around the ruins of the old monastery on a boardwalk which is covered by a pavilion at present, awaiting renovation.  Once outside in the garden it was peaceful.  The monks here wear the maroon and saffron coloured robes and sit around the base of the Bodhi tree giving teaching and talks to visitors.  One monk spotted our lonely planet guide and was quick to point out his picture inside, taken 15 years previously.  Buddhists were coming and circumnavigating the tree and leaving offerings to Buddha.  We spent a few hours here just absorbing the atmosphere and watching the scenery.

The famous Lonely PLanet Monk giving teachin

The Eternal Flame

From here we walked the length of the development zone seeing the eternal flame and the roads to all the other temples.  Unfortunately the museum was closed for Dashain, so we took a rickshaw that was significantly more comfortable than the one we took in Thamel , back to the hotel.  The poor guy really struggled up the slopes and even had to get off to push at one point, I hasten to add this was no reflection on us as they have to do this even with no passengers!

After showering at the hotel we wandered back into the town for dinner, only to discover that the restaurants were all shut for Dashain.  We filled the gap with bars of Dairy Milk that we found for sale, and then walked back to the hotel to have the surprisingly good buffet we had been trying so hard to avoid after all the buffets at Chitwan.   We treated ourselves to Back to the Future on HBO and then went to bed.