Sorry Buddha...

Sorry Mr Gautama, I had been looking forward to visiting your birthplace.  Things got in the way (a few boulders) so I'll write about the lovely world of Buddhism when I go to your special tree in Bodh Gaya later in the year...

I had planned to go to Lumbini to see the birthplace of Buddha but it didn't quite work out.  The road from Pokhara to Lumbini has a bad reputation for landslides but I'd seen my fair share of landslides in the last month and thought nothing of it.

The tourist bus at 0630 offered the usual tricks of being late then not actually being a tourist bus but a local one.  I take local buses 'locally' but for longer rides it's good to have the upgrade of a sober driver, seat with a headrest and room to fit your legs in (I didn't say move them), and with fellow passengers who have washed and don't spit on the floor (instead of out of the window).  7 hours on a local bus.  Joy.

So there we all were banging out heads on the roof with the Chinese tourists all looking confused that they didn't have enough room to play Tiny Wings on their iPads.  The Chinese are 'the' travellers of this generation; just behind the Russians in their 21st century version of tourist colonialism.  The Chinese are everywhere in gangs and always have a Nikon or Canon SLR round their neck, a smart phone 2 inches from their face and an ability to shout and spit even more inappropriately than the Indians. 

Here's a pic of the average Chinese tourist; this was in my favourite restaurant in Pokhara where the social buzz was amazing, obviously not if you're Chinese.

The ride itself was comparable to offroad driving.  We were driving through the clouds and fog in monsoon rains and every once in a while the clouds would clear and you'd see a view resembling that of an airplane window at 5000m then your ANS kicked in and you realised that you didn't have wings.  Lucky for me it was a cloudy day.

So, the road had a bad reputation for landslides.  After 4 hours on the bus this was landslide#1

This was landslide #2

Landslide #3 was a nipper and the digger got through in just 30 minutes.  Then came #4......1 hour

and behind that was this

At which point the digger driver gave up and went home for a nice cuppa masala chai.  This was the other side of the above.  We were told 5-6 hours for it to be moved.  

BUT.  This was behind it....

At that point we saw a load of locals coming up the hill from Lumbini.   Lumbini was pretty much closed, the airport (my contingency) was flooded, the roads were closed and someone had been crushed just the other side of the above landslide so we decided to turn around.   Bearing in mind we were in a traffic jam of trucks, jeeps and buses and our bus driver was no-where to be seen we grabbed our bags and started trekking back up the hill.  Luckily after a few kms we came across a local jeep driver who wanted to cash in on the stranded westerns and offered us a ride back to Pokhara.  

All of a sudden the clouds cleared and we had a gorgeous day.  One of those special moment when you are travelling whether it's hanging out of a train in India or standing up in the back of a jeep in Nepal that you realise what a lucky fecker you are.  

Here's me and my Spanish mates in the jeep.

The best part was what was waiting for us once we got closer to Pokhara.  I've been in Nepal for a month and seen one summit for 10 seconds.  It was my last day close to the mountains and the curtains lifted for the finale.  And this was the standing ovation...

Goosebumps don't lie and upon seeing Annapurna in all her glory I realised I'd missed something quite special and immediately promised myself to come back and do the Annapurna circuit in the dry season. Who wants to come along?

So after returning to Pokhara for a second leaving night at The Lemon Tree I headed back to Kathmandu on the bus.  I met two girls I'd done Kundalina meditation with the week before so it all worked out rather splendidly.  

Being back in Kathmandu for my final day reminded me of something I'd seen just before I left last time.  30 scouts from the UK stopped by the side and their leaders make them do the green cross code.  It only encouraged the locals to play target practice. Never ever Stop look listen, just walk peacock style and hope for the best.  No Scouts were harmed in the experiment.

I'm leaving Nepal today, it's been a blast, and I hope that Nepal keeps stable after the upcoming elections.  Another reason I didn't head to Lumbini was as most of the south is on strike based on tensions between the two ruling Maoist parties.  Nepal is only 10 years out of civil war and the population has no faith in the government so I hope a peaceful resolution evolves.  

I'm off to the sunny south east today (Thailand) for a month's yoga at Agama before heading back to work in India (I finally got my passport back after a 3 week wait....thank you Indian diplomacy).  Every person I know who has gone to Agama in Thailand has stayed longer than they'd planned to.  Let's see what happens ;)