How Can I Say Thanks To You?

Hello and welcome back to the show! This will be the last post about my travels in Nepal. If I told you that I went to a place in Nepal from which you can't see any mountains whatsoever, would you believe me? Well, I did! This magical place is called Lumbini, a village in the far South of the country. It's worth travelling to for one thing, and one thing only: Buddha was born there. Fede and me took a bus there from Pokhara. This time around, I was the one who could enjoy the view and Fede was the one recovering from food poisoning :D Coming from the beauty of Pokhara, the landscape around Lumbini is pretty shocking. It's completely plain and very dusty. No matter though, we weren't there to admire the landscape after all. We spent one day exploring the area around the temple commemorating Buddha's birth by bicycle. The most impressive part of the temple isn't actually the stone on which Buddha was allegedly born, but a plain stone pillar. This pillar was erected by king Ashoka (reigned over much of the Indian subcontinent during the 3rd century BC) in 245 BC and grants the village of Lumbini tax deductions for being the birthplace of Buddha. I thought this was cool because it shows us that there was already a pretty sophisticated system of governance on the Indian subcontinent at a very early time.
In the surrounding area there are around 20 monasteries built by Buddhist communities from all over the world, which means that in an area of about two square kilometres you can discover architecture from many different countries. It's definitely a place worth visiting, although I doubt that you could spend more than a day there. There just isn't much besides the temples and monasteries.

The temple and the pillar.

More of these :)

The Eternal Flame.

Myanmar.

Thailand.

International Peace stupa.

Austria...sponsored by Switzerland :D

Inside the Chinese monastery.

Germany. On point as usual.

On the next day, we took yet another tourist bus to Chitwan National Park, also close to the Indian border but further East than Lumbini. This National Park is known for its population of rhinos, elephants and, wait for it, BENGAL TIGERS. So what do you do in a National Park full of animals that could potentially kill you? Walk around looking for them, obviously. We spent two days hiking through the grassland and jungle (yay, the first jungle of my life) with two local guides. I cannot really describe how amazing it was :) You can't go 30 minutes without sighting some animal or other, less if you count birds of course. We saw deer, monkeys, peacocks, an elephant and four rhinos! Most of the time, you're walking in silence so as not to scare the animals away, hence all you can hear is the sound of your own footsteps and the rustling of leaves and grass. It's overwhelmingly beautiful. We spent the night in a small village on the edge of the National Park, where we met a 12-year old boy who was fluent in English and could even say "Enjoy your meal" in German. He taught us a Nepalese card game and also tried to teach us a joke in Nepali. Sadly, I've already forgotten all of it. The Nepali language is a deep mystery to me.

Do you see it? Hint: It's grey and BIG.

Little cotton eating bugs.

Tiger markings.

Parasite tree.

Crocodiles do it right.

Camouflage experts. End of day 1.

What a sight.

The only tiger we saw.

Rhino #1.

This was one of the happiest moments of my life! Three rhinos, a mother and two children. Bathing together.

Look at their little ears!

The baby taking a break from swimming.

After two amazing days in Chitwan, it was time for us to return to Kathmandu. We had one evening left there, which we spent at Pashupatinath temple. As a non Hindu, you can't go inside the actual temple, you can however walk around the complex and watch the goings-on there. What happens there? Well, families cremate their dead. If you think that the temple is a sad place though, you are very mistaken. The general atmosphere is actually pretty relaxed, not very different from other Nepalese temples. The whole thing left me weirdly emotionless, no deep life reflections. It was very interesting to see though and I did enjoy my visit there a lot. Afterwards, we had our last Dal Bhaat in Nepal before we had to leave. Goodbye Dal bhat, I miss you dearly!

The cremation site.

The temple, which we only got to see from the outside.

The next day saw my return to the safety and regularity of China (haha, I know). I hope you enjoyed my (ridiculously late) recount of my travels. If you're more interested in what I do in actual China, rest assured that from now on my posts will resume their usual form :)

Nepali Word of the Day: फेरि भेटौला pheri bhetaula, See you again!