Linda and Mals Asian Adventure: Lumbini, Nepal

Lumbini: Nepal. Lumbini is the supposed birthplace of Buddha. As such it attracts many followers of the lord Buddha, when we arrived a two day festival was about to start so the place was a little hectic. We found decent accommodation with no problem, the 7 hour bus journey from Chittwan was the usual local bus type, hot, bumpy, tedious and really slow.

With just a two night stop-over ( it was really hot !) we had to hit the sight early the next morning. The main attraction is the temple housing the birthplace of Buddha, not a lot to see but from a spiritual point probably really important. 2011 is the Nepal tourist year and to mark this the Nepal government will offer free visas to tourist in 2011, yes there is a catch, virtually all attractions and sight are having a huge hike in entrance fees, the Temples around Lumbini have just gone from 50 rupees for foreigners too 200 rupees, this seems to be reflected almost everywhere so the deal isn't as god as it seems. ( more on this later with the Trekking TIMS Permits ! )
Around the birthplace is an area known as the development zone. A huge area where Buddhist temples from all around the world are being constructed. Some still in the "going up stage" some very much complete. The whole area is quite large and it took several hours of foot slog to cover both West and East sections of the development area.

The highlight was the World Peace pagoda at the far Northern end and out of the main development area. Very Quiet and virtually no people around, we even saw a pair of Sarus Cranes in a nearby field. There were so many temples being built we simply lost count of which one was which, hopefully I have recorded the few we took pictures of correctly.
Apart from the temples Lumbini has no real appeal so two nights was easily enough time, next stop Tansen ( if we can sort out the tangle of buses to catch ! ).

Flowers Lumbini.

Bathing Tank where the Lord Buddha is said to frequented.

Birthplace of Buddha.

Prayer flags on tree Lumbini.

More flags.

Birthplace of the Lord Budha.

Burmese Buddhist temple.

Image of Buddha.

The entrance to the unfinished Cambodian Budhist Temple..

do you think it loks like Ankor Wat or what ?

Thai Buddhist Temple.

This one didn't have a nameplate..

mmmm can't remember the name of this one.

How is this for the ugliest building.. It is set in amongst all these nice stylish Buddhist temples, it's the Lumbini Museum, what clown allowed this monstrosity to be put up.