Lumbini/ Bandipur

We have now left Gorkha! It's strange not going back to our pink house in the middle of a field, but we are leaving for the Annapurna Base Camp trek on the 2nd so we have lots to look forward to.

As we had some time when the kids had exams we decided to see a bit more of Nepal and travel to Lumbini and Bandipur.

Lumbini is the birthplace of Buddha and the marker stone showing exactly where he was born is in the Maya Devi Temple. It was very peaceful here and there were lots of monks meditating. Can't say I'm sold on the idea of Buddhism, but it was still a nice place to wonder around. We also got bikes and cycled to the monastries in the area around the Maya Devi Temple. There is a big project for Lumbini and lots of different countries are building monastries and some of them are amazing. The Nepali one is beautiful, the decoration is bright and colourful and bold and they have some very cool paintings on almost every surface. The Korean one is half finished and is currently a concrete shell. A huge concrete shell - I would love to come back and see it when it's finished because it looks amazing. As Lumbini is in the Terai (the flat bit of Nepal in the south) it was hot. Boiling hot. And also mosquitoes everywhere. However, I have already been eaten alive by every mosquito in Asia, so really I've given up counting the number of bites I have.

Bandipur is an old town that the Nepali government restored to attract tourists and show them some of the old style Nepal. It was a very clean place; slightly disconcertingly clean as there is strictly no rubbish. We stayed in a very nice guest house and the owner has a daughter who's living in Sutton and working at the Rosemary Hospital. It was quite weird asking him where in London his daughter was living and finding out it was only 20minutes walk from me. Small world. In Bandipur there is the biggest cave in Asia. It was great fun climbing round the cave, and reminded me of rock climbing when sailing. The cave was great; lots of bats :)

Sorry about the short entry, we are now in Pokhara where the prices for the internet are more than double that in Gorkha. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time in Gorkha to go on the internet as we were packing and cleaning. And also head office cut off the internet so there wasn't really much hope...

Hope you're all well.