Lumbini: 11th March.

On the 11^th March we reached the Nepalese border after an exhilarating 8 hours jeep journey from Varanasi. We arrived substantially deafer than when we departed! All forms of vehicles in India and Nepal seem to compete with each other over who can create the most annoying horn tune. Even if the vehicle is falling apart with no indicators, a doggy exhaust or no seats, as long as the horn has a good tune they are road worthy and part of the gang! Literally it’s tune. Not beep beep but beep beep diddle diddle blare beep siren blare beep. No exaggeration it is completely true. Even if there is an open road ahead it seems to keep the driver happy as a constant sound clip of entertainment. And if its not the musically altered horn it’s the radio blaring Asian pop at 4 million decibels! Jess likes to refer to the experience as being on Harry Potters Night Bus- squeezing through gaps not wide enough for a motor bike and driving largely on the wrong side of the road or deciding to drive the wrong way round a round about causing us both to squeal on several occasions!

Bye for now, India!

Our first experience of crossing a border was somewhat lengthy and scary with the firearm wielding police (Jess didn’t notice but Armelle was uncharacteristically more observant!). We then took clambered onto a bus to reach Lumbini. Lumbini is the historical birthplace of Gautama Siddhartha Budda and one of the most important religious sites in the world. We visited the Maya Devi Temple which marks the exact spot where Queen Maya Devi of Kapilavastu gave birth to Gautama Siddhartha which is basically a stone in the ground surrounded by a factory looking building, reminiscent of UEA. The grounds were completely bound by prayer flags which was beautiful and inspiring that so many people had come to make their prayers here (according to Armelle fluffy fairy world).

That evening we returned to our lovely hotel and looked forward to dinner as this would be the first time that we would both have wine and Armelle would have chicken since leaving the UK. After much anticipation, the wine was incredibly expensive, warm and non descript, and the chicken was like leathery burnt roadkill....Why us?....