The last stop in Nepal was a spiritual one: Lumbini, the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, aka the Buddha. The small town had grown to be a base for buddhist monasteries from all over the world, all built one next to the other in a specific “development zone”. It could have been a wonderful zenlike experience were it not for the fact that half the site is still under construction, and for the hordes of (loud) (mostly local) tourists, including busloads of schoolchildren. The birthplace of the Buddha itself was complete craziness: a line of tourists as far as the eye could see, waiting to get a glimpse of the ruins of the building where the buddha would have been born. The entrance to the whole thing was manned by police, army and security firm, searching the bags of all tourists wanting to enter. Unfortunately, the pocket knife which I was not allowed to take with me into the complex for security reasons, was stolen from the security post by a 14-year old boy (who subsequently took the knife into the complex…). My first claim to my travel insurance ;-)
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Enjoying my blogposts? You can also follow me on instagram or facebook. Click the icons below!
Categories
All
Archives
April 2017
|