The first stop on our week away was Lumbini. A small village near the border to India, It is famous as the birthplace of Buddha. It's located in the Terai, which is the plains region of Nepal, so it it is FLAT and HOT. The village itself is unremarkable, just an intersection with shops and guest houses going a short way down two branches. The real draw to Lumbini is the temples, located in a park just outside the village. It took a long, hot, and hellish bus journey to get there from Gorkha, so we decided to stay two full days, and split the temples into two mornings.
The first afternoon, after relaxing in the shade through the hottest part of the day, Julia, Magnus and I went for a walk through the fields outside of the village. It was weird, walking through fields that were completely flat and completely yellow, after so long among green tiered fields in the mountains. It took only about 10 minutes walking to get completely in the country. The edge of the village was almost like a suburb; rows of individual houses instead of apartments.
From Lumbini we went along a dirt road, past a group of children swimming in a small pond. At first I though it was too bad I couldn't join them (it was still brutally hot) but later, on the way back I saw the far end of the pond clearly. It was gross, and all desire to swim vanished in an instant.
We walked past another small village, all dirt and brick houses, lots of thatched roofs, and people out working in the fields. (my first paddy fields!) As per usual we received lots of stares, but that's all in a day's experience here. Don't really notice any more.
After walking for a little while, we made a right turn and while a while later did the same again. Walking, wandering really, around with only a vague idea of where we were going afforded us the opportunity to see what life in the Terai is really like. It was wonderfully peaceful, and there was farm equipment. Tractors and everything! After so many weeks in the mountains where buffalo do all the work, it was a bit of a shock to see machines.
The walk showed me once again just how friendly Nepali people are. Along the way a man on a bicycle stopped to chat, simply because he spoke English and felt like using it. It turned out to be really helpful, as he directed us back to town! It wasn't just him; almost everyone we passed said hello or stopped to chat a little more. Really, it's the friendliest country I've ever been to.
I didn't see any motorcycles. Because it's so flat, everyone rides bikes instead. There were lots of people biking by, old and young. There were also tons of temples dotting the countryside, a sign of how deeply ingrained religion is to Nepali culture. It was very peaceful, to see once again the slower pace, and to walk on a path literally through a field. The villages were poor though; they looked poorer than Laxmi, which I'm coming to realize is a rather prosperous little place.
It was a wonderful walk, a really nice way to pass the afternoon. Lumbini the village wasn't that impressive, so seeing the countryside made a much better impression.
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