Leaving India, arrive at Nepal

We had to wake up bright and early to catch the bus out of India, as we were leaving at 5 in the morning. I was first to enter the lobby surprising the nightman on the desk who wasn't at the desk but sat watching a very dramatic and corny looking Bollywood type film. Looking flustered he scurried to put lights on and do things that looked very official and proper. Gradually the tour group staggered into the lobby all looking a bit zombified and plonked themselves down, and do what you always do when the telly is on, watch it! Didn't have a clue what was going on but as I said over the top, dramatic and so bad it was good. 

Time ticked on, twenty past 5 arrived when one of the group asked if anybody had seen Shivraj our tour guide , no one had so he asked the receptionist to call his room, he had slept in. Anne from the group took charge, got us and our bags all organised and on the bus, eventually a sheepish Shiv arrived, boy did he get stick from then on, friendly banter shall we call it! On the very first day he stressed how important it was to be on time and he was the one who kept us waiting. Was funny! 

Anyway, off we set, we had a new bus, again lots of seats so we had one each and this bus had very impressive individual fans, like the one you see on people's desks, with a cage around them, which was mounted onto the side of the bus just above your head. Brilliant, we thought, we will not get too hot on this bus, boy did we curse those fans by the end of the journey. Not only did they not work but they were just at the right height to head butt you, the road was long and very, very, in fact extremely bumpy so you were constantly smacking your head off them. I did it at least 6 times, I had lumps and bumps all over my noggin, was not a happy chappy at all. 

Once on the bus people tried to catch up on some sleep, David took the back seat, as you can see.

Soon a lot of them were out for the count including David, I couldn't get to sleep just when I was 

about to nod off we would go over a bump and that would be me wide awake. One girl was bounced 

right off her chair onto the floor. It was like India was determined to be mean to the end, even the road out was awful. I asked David the other day what he liked best about India and he said the road out, and then he remembered and said maybe not! He liked the Taj Mahal. 

It was a long, long day but eventually we got to the India, Nepal border, it was chaos so much traffic. We had to leave our lovely bus, giving the delightful fans a friendly punch as we walked past them and walk the last little bit to the border. It was horrendous with the heat, the noise and all the people.

 Eventually we walked out of India and into Nepal, and instantly everything seemed calmer.
We got onto our next bus and headed for our overnight hotel in Lumbini, which is the birthplace of Buddha. The Nepalese are very proud of the fact that Buddha was born in Nepal, with many lorries having it painted on their sides.

Before we could get to the hotel though we had to stop at a hospital as one of the group had an
infection on his foot. He was seen very quickly, we thought this might be because they could get mega bucks  from him through his insurance but actually it was quite cheap and we were impressed. While we were sat waiting for him, a little old man was wheeled out on a wheelchair all bandaged up. He was then removed from the chair, bundled onto a motorbike, someone climbed on behind him so he wouldn't wobble off and they drove off!

The hospital. 

From the hospital it did not take long to get to our hotel, which was lovely, it was set out in the countryside and was so quiet and serene and typically we were only staying there one night. Varanasi the night before was really noisy, right on the main road so honking horns and we had the kitchens 3 floors beneath us and they were washing big metal pots at 3 in the morning. David got grumpy! We stayed there two nights.

We went to our rooms and the plan was to meet later for a meal. On the way down to the meal though the electricity cut off, just as I was heading what I thought down one step. You guessed it, it wasn't, it was a small flight of steps which I proceeded to fall down. I was in full view of some of the tour group who luckily didn't notice but some of the staff did, they came out and asked if I was alright, 

which I was, just cuts, bruises and a scabby knee. Elegant and ladylike, that's me. 

The next day we headed for Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha. The story goes that Hindu women go back to their parents when it is time to give birth.  Buddhas mum was travelling back when she felt tired and started to get pains so she went into a small lake to bathe as she thought this may help ease the pain. She then went into labour came out of the water and gave birth to Buddha under  a nearby tree. 

The gold bits on the statue below are gold leaf that visitors put on as an offering. 

A lovely tree by his birthplace, not the tree though that was removed a very long time ago. That is Buddhist prayer flags on when we arrived there were lots of Buddhist monks sat around it. 

In the white building next to the stupa ( the chimney looking thing) is a stone marking the birthplace of Buddha, this is a temple so no photos could be taken inside. 

 

Two of the monks.

Funny moment here, as we were standing by the monks, a lot of our group were chatting to them and taking their pictures. Three men, also tourists walked up to me, ignoring the monks and asked to be photographed with me. So I posed with them, you could see the monks thinking , what's going on., we are here.