Moo's Mid Life Crisis: Nepal - Buddha's birthplace and Chitwan National Park

After our sunrise boat ride on the Ganges it was on the train heading for Nepal. Please note, the Nepalese pronounce it 'Ne-pal', not 'Ne-paul'. You learn the oddest things! It was another sleeper train, and a few of us made use of the opportunity to catch a few more zzz's. From Gorakhpur we took a bus to the border (A/C was broken, not pleasant), then walked the 5 minutes between the 'leaving India' immigration office and the 'entering Nepal' office. I find it logically odd that you can technically not be in any country while walking down a busy street, though why that's any different from technically not being in any country whilst in a busy airport I'm not sure.

All Nepal photos can be found here.

Once into Nepal we got a much better bus and headed for Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. Who knew that Buddha was born in Nepal! I'd have thought India or China, but there we go.

Random colourful truck behind us

British built bridge apparently

Buddha's original name was Siddhartha Gautama, the first son of a king and born in 563 BC. The astrologer who performed the birth reading told the king that his son would become either a great king, or a great monk. Not wanting his son to be a monk, the king kept Gautama inside the palace with all the luxuries that afforded. When he was old enough Gautama went out into the world and was horrified by the poverty, sickness and death he found there and so became 'enlightened'.

We did see a tractor-load of pilgrims headed for the site. I didn't realise that they farmed them!

The site itself has archaeological ruins, dating back to at least the 3rd century BC, of temples, shrines and stupas. There was a building around one ruin supposedly of the exact spot where Buddha was born, though I'm not really sure how they have decided that this was the spot. No photos inside of course.

There is also a sacred pool, where Buddha's mother bathed before he was born and where Buddha had his first bath. There were many turtles and fish in the pond which I found interesting (not that the religious significance of the place wasn't interesting, though it really wasn't for me).

"I can fly!!!"

As the site is mostly outdoors there was also the opportunity to see a variety of local wildlife (Wildlife? Me?)

Bulbul

Thought this was butterflies..

It was dragonflies with partly translucent wings!

Whistling duck. Identified by sound!

Lesser agitant stork

After Lumbini it was off to our community homestay at Chitwan National Park. It was basically a small locally run hotel that helps support the local community. We saw the local ladies practicing/performing some local dances for a small film crew and went for a short bike ride around the village.

Teddy bears drying in the sun?

Oriental Magpie Robin

Weaver Bird

Spiced masala chai by the river for sunset

Next morning I was up early (it had been a hot and sticky night and any excuse to get out of our little sweat box was welcome) so I went out for sunrise.

The local tiger, also known as 'Bel's pussy'

After that it was a jeep safari into the park which I greatly enjoyed. No tigers unfortunately, but we did see a rhino and loads of birds.

White rumped shama

Rhino wallowing

Sloth bear prints

Dollar bird

Female tiger print - they were around!

Crested serpent eagle

Crested serpent eagle in flight

Boar-ing

Unknown raptor. Guide couldn't identify it from the photo

Grey breasted prinia

White rumped vulture

Chestnut headed bee-eater

Cinerous Vulture

Buffalo - water

Judith and I enjoyed it enough that we decided to skip the 'walking tour' of the village that afternoon and instead went back for a second safari! Loads more birds and deer and then the heavens opened! Windy storms are quite unusual in the area, and our driver was very nervous about being near trees (a bit difficult when you're in a forest!). We saw quite a few that got blown down or branches broken by the wind. A damp experience, but nonetheless exciting.