Our original plan was to travel by land everywhere we went. I really value this type of travel because there is a certain appreciation that one gets from the change in landscape that is missed when flying. The drive from Kathmandu is again on a dirt mountainous road - this one around 200km and there are many buses that do it for cheap. Apparently this journey is better than the previous road we took from the Tibet border, but it still takes around 7 hours. We made the decision to skip the bus and take a flight since we don't have too much time. Flights are super cheap and use domestic charter airlines. The flight was 30 minutes from take off to landing, so we caught a flight in the morning and still had the whole day to relax. One of the most awesome things about going to Pokhara is that my wife had been there before about 20 years ago and so this was a really cool experience for her to go travel back to a place of very fond memories. Getting off the plane in Pokhara and seeing the Annapurna mountain range in the distance was quite the treat.
Pokhara was warm. The border at Tibet was around 10deg, Kathmandu around 18deg and Pokhara closer to 25deg. It's also a major adventure region of Nepal. The mountain range nearby offers multi-day treks from 3-15 days. We met some travellers who had just returned to Pokhara after doing a 13 day hike in the Annapurna range. They said it was simply awesome and they would arrive in a small town each night for food and lodgings. So hiking all day while alone following the trail on the range and then getting to meet locals and stay in the small communities at night. Rinse and repeat for 2 weeks. Sounds awesome! We both felt that this was totally the type of thing we would do with a bit more time. Sitting on the rooftop balcony of our hotel we could see hundreds of people hang gliding above the city - they looked like birds!
Pokhara has a large lake and is a pretty touristy town. The whole vibe is super relaxed and laid back. Knowing that once we arrived in India it was going to be a sensory overload experience we were taking the opportunity to slow down and recharge for a few days. We did nothing but eat at small local places, people watching by lake, walking along the small streets in town and shopping for trinkets and t-shirts. As much as liked Kathmandu to visit for a few days, I would never live there. Both my wife agreed that we could retire to Pokhara though, and there's not too many places in the world we have been to that we feel this way about.
Knowing that we are slowly heading south towards India, we are constantly re-evaluating our plans, our timing and what we want to see and do. We have a general plan and keep changing it as we go trying to make plans about 1-2 days in advance. We decide on our way to the border we will stop in a town called Lumbini and see the birthplace of Buddha. Years ago while we were in Sri Lanka, we had visited a placed called Anuradhapura where the oldest living tree that was known to have been planted by humans is still alive. It's a scared fig (Bodhi) tree planted in 288 BC and is said to be from a cutting of the original fig tree that Buddha sat underneath as he attained enlightenment. Given that my Dad was born a Buddhist and studied, taught and wrote about Buddhism much later in life, this was a place I really wanted to visit. In Sri Lanka we kept and preserved a few fallen leaves from the Bodhi tree there and in Tibet we bought some Tibetan prayer flags, so now to be going to the birthplace of Buddha was something my Dad would really appreciate. On the drive to Lumbini we stopped at a roadside hut where a lady was making these delicious egg and onion pastry things. This place would not have passed any health inspections and normally I'm not a fan of onions, but the food was delicious!
Lumbini is a very small town about 20 minutes from the northern border of India. This far south in Nepal there are no more mountains in sight and it's such a dry and dusty town. We lucked out and snagged a hotel for around $10/night. Every place we have been staying on this trip has been 2-3 star hotels. On our past travels, they were more like backpacking trips and we would always stay in hostels because we like to meet other travellers and get reliable info on where to go and what to do. However in some countries it's probably best to avoid the hostels and we felt like Nepal and India fit that bill. Maybe it’s because we are getting older, have a slightly fuller wallet and enjoy sleeping with cockroaches less than we used to. This place across the street from us looked like it served food so we decided to check it out. Here we could get channa masala, aloo gobi, saag paneer, tons of butter nann all for the low price of $5 total - needless to say the the two of got stuffed on some of the most delicious Indian food ever.
We chose this hotel because it got very good reviews and was also walking distance to the temples where we wanted to see the birthplace of Buddha. We walked over there the following morning with a plan to spend the whole day exploring. There were so many people there from all over the world coming to pay their respects or do some sort of pilgrimage. Simply amazing place.
Buddha's Birthplace:
Because so many countries have a strong connection to Buddhism the grounds of this place has many temples built by different nations. We decided to go for a very long walk and visit a bunch of them. The unique temple architecture of the different nationalities so close to each other was pretty neat!
A particular temple had all of the walls painted with murals of different stories of Buddha's life story. I showed these to my Mom when we returned and she could recite in detail what each mural was showing since she learned about all these in school as a kid. She had forgotten all about these stories, but they all came flooding back seeing these images.
In the distance of this pic below is a temple with distinctly Cambodian detailing. Next up India!
Pokhara was warm. The border at Tibet was around 10deg, Kathmandu around 18deg and Pokhara closer to 25deg. It's also a major adventure region of Nepal. The mountain range nearby offers multi-day treks from 3-15 days. We met some travellers who had just returned to Pokhara after doing a 13 day hike in the Annapurna range. They said it was simply awesome and they would arrive in a small town each night for food and lodgings. So hiking all day while alone following the trail on the range and then getting to meet locals and stay in the small communities at night. Rinse and repeat for 2 weeks. Sounds awesome! We both felt that this was totally the type of thing we would do with a bit more time. Sitting on the rooftop balcony of our hotel we could see hundreds of people hang gliding above the city - they looked like birds!
Pokhara has a large lake and is a pretty touristy town. The whole vibe is super relaxed and laid back. Knowing that once we arrived in India it was going to be a sensory overload experience we were taking the opportunity to slow down and recharge for a few days. We did nothing but eat at small local places, people watching by lake, walking along the small streets in town and shopping for trinkets and t-shirts. As much as liked Kathmandu to visit for a few days, I would never live there. Both my wife agreed that we could retire to Pokhara though, and there's not too many places in the world we have been to that we feel this way about.
Knowing that we are slowly heading south towards India, we are constantly re-evaluating our plans, our timing and what we want to see and do. We have a general plan and keep changing it as we go trying to make plans about 1-2 days in advance. We decide on our way to the border we will stop in a town called Lumbini and see the birthplace of Buddha. Years ago while we were in Sri Lanka, we had visited a placed called Anuradhapura where the oldest living tree that was known to have been planted by humans is still alive. It's a scared fig (Bodhi) tree planted in 288 BC and is said to be from a cutting of the original fig tree that Buddha sat underneath as he attained enlightenment. Given that my Dad was born a Buddhist and studied, taught and wrote about Buddhism much later in life, this was a place I really wanted to visit. In Sri Lanka we kept and preserved a few fallen leaves from the Bodhi tree there and in Tibet we bought some Tibetan prayer flags, so now to be going to the birthplace of Buddha was something my Dad would really appreciate. On the drive to Lumbini we stopped at a roadside hut where a lady was making these delicious egg and onion pastry things. This place would not have passed any health inspections and normally I'm not a fan of onions, but the food was delicious!
Lumbini is a very small town about 20 minutes from the northern border of India. This far south in Nepal there are no more mountains in sight and it's such a dry and dusty town. We lucked out and snagged a hotel for around $10/night. Every place we have been staying on this trip has been 2-3 star hotels. On our past travels, they were more like backpacking trips and we would always stay in hostels because we like to meet other travellers and get reliable info on where to go and what to do. However in some countries it's probably best to avoid the hostels and we felt like Nepal and India fit that bill. Maybe it’s because we are getting older, have a slightly fuller wallet and enjoy sleeping with cockroaches less than we used to. This place across the street from us looked like it served food so we decided to check it out. Here we could get channa masala, aloo gobi, saag paneer, tons of butter nann all for the low price of $5 total - needless to say the the two of got stuffed on some of the most delicious Indian food ever.
We chose this hotel because it got very good reviews and was also walking distance to the temples where we wanted to see the birthplace of Buddha. We walked over there the following morning with a plan to spend the whole day exploring. There were so many people there from all over the world coming to pay their respects or do some sort of pilgrimage. Simply amazing place.
Buddha's Birthplace:
Because so many countries have a strong connection to Buddhism the grounds of this place has many temples built by different nations. We decided to go for a very long walk and visit a bunch of them. The unique temple architecture of the different nationalities so close to each other was pretty neat!
A particular temple had all of the walls painted with murals of different stories of Buddha's life story. I showed these to my Mom when we returned and she could recite in detail what each mural was showing since she learned about all these in school as a kid. She had forgotten all about these stories, but they all came flooding back seeing these images.
In the distance of this pic below is a temple with distinctly Cambodian detailing. Next up India!
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