Going To Nepal

After returning From Amritsar the next day we where off to Nepal. The train trip Chukibank station to Ghorakhpur was 27 hours but was great. We got AC sleepers with 3 levels and it was great. I got a really good sleep and the next day the scenery was very nice, kids waving from small towns where the most entertainment they had was waving to trains. I went to the area in between the carriages and opened the door, for a great view of the passing farm lands. It was flat flat flat. A big change from the Himalayas. The potato chip dry air that still cooled you due to the speed of the train was a delight. The mud brick homes in clusters or alone in fields gave the feeling little had changed in a long time. Many of the fields where still plowed with Buffalo. After passing stations with great names like Lucknow we finally arrived in Gorakhpur at about midnite. It seemed like a gross town so received the nickname Grimy Gorakpur very fast. In every place is adventure and interest. The first thing where the hundreds of people all sleeping at the station and out into the streets waiting for trains. We took cycle Rickshaws to the hotel we had heard about to find out it was being renovated. We finally got rooms, it was about 1am and people in the next room where making furniture a whole team of guys where glueing and putting together cupboards or something at 1am. I know Indians work hard but that was an eye opener. Everything that was promised at the hotel wasn’t delivered, it made for a funny experience. Hot water à wasn’t working  Breakfast next day à Kitchens broken plus power outages and a variety of other marvels that you couldn’t make happen at the same time if you tried your best. The next day we hired a 4X4 and went to the Indian Nepali border. The immigration on the Indian side was slimy and tricky. “Just joking” for bribes and who knows what else. We walked across the weakest border in the world (no security or anything). The Nepali immigration where friendly and welcoming. They made the process painless and quick. On the Nepali side people just seemed more relaxed. We took a taxi to Lumbini a Tiny town with two streets and no street lights about 1 hour from the border. This is where Buddha was born. We went to a temple, fairly low key with a few reconstructed temples all quite small, and a stone that marks the exact place where Buddha was born. We walked around the gardens and watched the sunset through some of the thickest pollution ive ever seen. So thick that in Lumbini you can look directly at the sun most of the day. That nite great food at a tiny resteraunt made of Bamboo and straw. Buffalo Momos and some other great dishes made an awesome meal along with some local beers some super strong 7%! The next day we had planned to leave to Kathmandu but there was a big long life ceremony at a monastery nearby. We cancelled our bus tickets and booked again the next day. The ceremony was amazing, hundreds of monks had come from everywhere for this blessing. People chatted and ate the blessed food we where given (like a whole big bag of it) and took the blessing. The Atmosphere was something special. That afternoon we rented bicycles so old they could have been built at the time of Buddhas Birth too and we rode around the temples that have been constructed by the various sects and countries near to the birthplace of the Buddha. The Bicycles where very funny. The tyres had bulges and the brakes didn’t work. The steering was wonky and well there’s not much else that can be wrong with a bike, no gears and oh yeh my peddle snapped off too. But it was a great experience. My favorite was the German Temple. It had an amazing painted dome, beautiful gardens and paintings all around the outside. An Oasis to the rest of the world. Another great meal at the funky restaurant and the next day off bright and early on the golden tours bus to Kathmandu.