We arrived in Nepal this morning from Varanassi after a 7 hour train ride to Gorakhpur, a 3 hour local Indian to the Nepalese border at Sunnali and then a further 45 minutes by taxi to our first location in Nepal, Lumbini.
We are all a bit anxious about this journey as aparently it is through the most dodgy regions of Northern Indian and tourist scams are very common. Dee's family who live in Delhi have been begging her to catch a flight and even advised us at one point to wear full-face veils! None of us knew what to expect at the border either. In reality the journey was actually quite enjoyable. Except perhaps the Local Indian bus, where both the guys behind us and one women in front of us were all simultaneously being sick. The roads were ridculously bumpy too and we all had achey bums by the end of it.
The border crossing was a real anti-climax too...it was literally just a case of filling in a couple of forms, paying 30 dollars and strolling across. The difference between the 2 countries was instantly noticable though. The people in Nepal are so unbelieavbly friendly. On
arrival a taxi driver came up to us and asked us if we wanted a taxi, we said no and he actually walked off! No following us, no asking us where we were going, nothing! Then we noticed people were not staring and there were actually women on the streets, which made us all feel at ease. In fact we were all a bit lost as we have had to start asking for things again when we walk into a shop whereas we are used to people just jumping on us and not letting us leave without pestering us for half an hour.
We got a breakfast of vegetable curry, chipatis and spiced tea (a spicy tea flavoured with what tastes like ginger or black pepper) negotiated a taxi and were on our way to lumbini. We were only here for around 30 minutes but we already had a small party waving us off , including a taxi driver who we declined for being too expensive!
Lumbini is a very small town with only a few guesthouses despite being the birthplace of Buddha. We were absolutely shattered but were only staying a night so Dee and I rented
bicycles and went off to explore for the afternoon. The town is like a disneyland of monastries including a Korean monastry, a Thai monastry, a Chinese monastry to name a few, so we spent nearly 3 hours just cycling around all of them. I cant tell you how nice it was to just get out in the fresh air and do some exercise and not be hassled. We pasted by loads of local villages and all the kids were waving and shouting namaste (hello) and giggling at how unbalanced we were on the rickety old Asian bikes on their bumpy old gravel paths. It was the perfect afternoon...although im paying for it now...my bum is so numb!
Nepal's Flag
Map of Nepal