Tuesday 23^rd October

We woke at 7.30am, although we could have done with a bit longer.  We had missed the breakfast buffet which was a bonus as it meant we could order from the menu and get exactly what we wanted.  All the other groups had left for morning prayer and had already had breakfast. 

The Lumbini Development Zone covers an area 4Km x 2.5Km and in the heat it is too much to walk, so we hired bicycles from the hotel for the day.  These were basic – no gears, bar brakes, big saddles which were far lower than the handlebars (sorry Dick and Ian!) and had shopping baskets on the front, mine didn’t even have a bell which I was gutted about, although it did have an unusual clunking sound which did let people know I was coming!  Despite this they were comfortable and did the job even in the off road terrain.  We spent the day cycling to all the other temples.  The area is split into the eastern side for the Theravada Buddhist Sect, who wear the saffron coloured robes and come mainly from Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the western side for the Mahayana school which wear the maroon robes and have a noisier style of worship using cymbals and gongs.  In total there were about 30 temples, built by Buddhist countries from all over the world.  We looked at some from the gates and the more decorative ones we went into to explore.  The most detailed architecture was from the not quite finished Cambodia Temple and the Thai Temple.  The guardians of the temples were all keen to tell us about their monasteries and I learned all about the lifecycle of Buddha.

When Buddha was born a seer predicted he would become a great teacher or a great king.  To make sure he was the latter his aristocratic family gave him a plush and rich life, and his parents protected him from the outside world for most of his childhood.  When he was 29 he left the palace and came across a sick man, and old man, a hermit and a corpse and with the shock of realising the existence of suffering  and the impermanence of life, he left his luxurious life and became a holy man.  He realised that life as a starving man was no more productive than life as a price and so became the Middle Way.  After 49 days of meditation under a Bodhi tree in India he achieved enlightenment and travelled to Sarnath near Varanasi to give his first sermon on The Middle Way – a path of moderation and self-knowledge which enables humans to escape the cycle of birth and rebirth to achieve Nirvana, a state of eternal bliss.

After working our way around all the temples we headed up to the World Peace Pagoda, which is a large white Gompa situated on the top of the hill overlooking the development.  Although this is just a white building it is really impressive (and hot on the feet again).  Here we also found the Crane Sanctuary and saw a common crane which added to the number of species Sarah has spotted.

World Peace Pagoda

Then back onto the bikes to head back to the hotel to shower and pack ready to leave for the airport to fly Yeti Air back to Kathmandu.  The security check-in was great.  They opened our bags to “search” by hand.  They really made no effort whatsoever and it was a pointless exercise – I think they were just bored.  The flight was 40 minutes and I had a novelty single seat with a window. 

We arrived in Kathmandu and took a taxi back to Kathmandu Guest House where we bumped into Andrew and Luke, the Aussie guys who we had met before they disappeared off to Everest Base Camp.  They had taken a helicopter back from base camp to get a few more days in Kathmandu.  After unpacking and going out to eat it was late so to bed.