Some of the scenes along the way...
Small villages...
Lots of little farms...
And brick kilns everywhere which are big polluters here in Nepal. It is winter now and they are in full production as they can’t operate in the monsoon season.
We had a pit stop at a roadside restaurant which provided an opportunity for some great shots of the people there...
The restaurant was just gearing up for lunch with all the food being cooked on ovens fueled by sticks of wood...
The view out the back was beautiful...
An arch welcomes us to the Lumbini region...
The area was very poor looking...
Very dusty...
But of course there were the colorful transport trucks...
And roadside cooking...
In contrast the birthplace of Lord Buddha was located in a park like setting to which we walked from our nearby hotel...
Siddhartha Gautama, the Lord Buddha, was born in 623 B.C. in the famous gardens of Lumbini, which soon became a place of pilgrimage. Among the pilgrims was the Indian emperor Ashoka, who erected one of his commemorative pillars there. The site is now being developed as a Buddhist pilgrimage centre, where the archaeological remains associated with the birth of the Lord Buddha form a central feature.
Here is the Ashoka pillar which is still standing from 248 BC...
This site is one of the holiest for Buddhists as could be seen by the number of pilgrims here...
Inside the building is the exact place of Buddha’s birth which is marked by a stone, no pictures allowed, but we entered with the long lines of pilgrims and it was very evident the reverence they held for this place.
The whole place was quite peaceful as people prayed...
Gave offerings at the sacred tree..
Monks everywhere...
In the Center was a pool where Lord Buddha’s mother bathed before giving birth...
We also sat for awhile in the shade to take in the atmosphere of the place...
There were also stupas from the 1st century BC on the property as this is still an active archeological site...
A giant statue of little Buddha...
Beautiful lake for boat rides...
This large site is visited by many pilgrims every year and will be kept free from any other enterprise besides the Sacred places. It was a very interesting place to visit.
The next morning we were up at 5am to be at the Nepal-India border for opening at 6am. We had no difficulty getting out of Nepal but not the same on the Indian side. There were hundreds trying to cross and a very small office. Agents were lining up and paying bribes to get their buses across while we were only a small group on our own so the officer took our passports and made us wait a long time. He put them aside, got up left and came back a number of times and still no action. We know he was waiting for money which none of us were prepared to pay. Finally after over an hour he processed all of the passports except Don’s which he said was unreadable so he coughed, sneezed, licked it before passing it back none too pleased he didn’t get a bribe!
Lined up at the border...
Don walking across the border with our luggage in a rickshaw...
Now off the long drive to our next stop which is Varanasi, one of the most holy cities in India.
It was the Holi holiday in India so lots of roadside sellars of coloured powder...
Holi is a Hindu festival that marks the arrival of spring. Known widely as the Festival of Colour, it takes place over two days, and is a celebration of fertility, colour, and love, as well as the triumph of good versus evil.
People take part in Holi all around the world, but it is celebrated the most in parts of India and Nepal. It is often associated with the coloured powders that end up coating its participants after they’ve thrown them at each other.
Some pictures as we passed through the towns where Holi was being celebrated...
Holi is also an excuse to get drunk and stoned in the middle of the day.....
Notice there are no women on the streets as it is considered too dangerous so they celebrate behind closed gates..
Don and Andrian getting their touch of Holi colour once we got to Varanasi...
No comments:
Post a Comment