Monastery in Lumbini

Lumbini is very famous because it is where Buddha was born. It is a pilgrimage site for Buddhists.

We stayed in the Korean Monastery while we were there. It was the biggest monastery in Lumbini. We meditated in the mornings from 5am until 6am. Then we ate Korean food for breakfast at 6am. I didn't really like Korean food.

When you stay at a monastery there are lots of rules. You can't drink alcohol, you can't smoke, and you can't sing, dance, cuddle or play cards. You have to be really quiet.

Taiga and I broke one of these rules. Can you guess which one it is?

We went to the Bodhi tree where buddha first spoke and to the exact place where he was born.

There were a lot of monks in Lumbini.

From Cody

Lumbini

It was here in Lumbini, in the year 563 BC, that one of histories greatest and most revered figures Sidhartha Guatama was born, better known as Buddha. This area is a world heritage site and is of huge religious significance. It is therefore no surprise that this area attracts Buddhist from all around the world.

x Lisa

I love Bardia!

I love Bardia! We went rafting and saw gangetic dolphins. When we stopped on the river bank for lunch we saw tiger foot prints and tiger cub's foot prints. We also found a sand lion and saw loads of monkeys.

I also liked jungle trekking. It took about 8 hours a day and was very humid. We saw monkey, deer, crocodiles, otter, jackel, wild boar and lots more. I found deer bones and lots of tiger prints around it. So I guess a tiger must have eaten it. We found a rattle snake skin and caught lots of frogs.

We went in the jeep one day. It broke down. While we were fixing it, we heard a leopard. It was hunting the deer near us. The deer were making this howling sound. The leopard got quite close, so we had to run away and get back in the jeep.

We followed rhinosorus, elephant and tiger tracks. One day when we were following a herd of elephants, we had to run to the look out post because we were in very long grass and the elephants were coming through the area we were in. One of them had killed a lady the night before, so everyone was a bit nervous.

We found a place where the elephants had been eating mud and playing. They had made lots of holes.

One day we were near a water hole and saw that all the fish were dead. Poachers had put poison in the water, so they could kill animals. The next day we went back there and the army came through looking for the poachers. We were told, if the poachers had a gun the army would shoot them.

We went on an elephant trek. When we went into the water a huge python snake jumped in next to us.

The rats woke us up early every morning because they kept eating the mud walls of our hut. Mum kept trying to scare them away, but they weren't scared of her.

From Taiga

The army looking for poachers

This Rhino killed someone 3 months ago

Bardia

Bardia is the largest and most undisturbed protected area of the Terai region of Nepal. Due to the Maoist insurgency over the past ten years, what tourists the area may have had has dropped off to virtually nothing. There were army checkpoints everywhere along the road, still checking for weapons. We saw very few foreigners, so the local Tharu people were very interested in us being there. It was fantastic.

Due to it being harvest season, we needed to watch out for wild elephants. The first night we were there a woman was killed by an elephant. Two days later an elephant reaped havoc in the village. He was met with gun shots and flaming wood. The gunshots meant nothing by the way. These animals don't appear to be frightened of anything.

Rats gnawed on our mud hut walls in the early mornings and leopards roamed the streets at night. There was no doubt, we were in the jungle!

We spent all day everyday in the depths of the jungle. We spent our days tracking animals in the hope of catching a glimpse of them. There are so many stories to tell from this part of our trip, I honestly don't know where to start. I could spend another six months there. It was awesome!

x Lisa

Highway to Hell

The boys had been very keen to head back to the jungles of Chitwan, so with that in mind we decided to travel further North West to the steamy plains of the Terai to a place called Bardia.

Again, like all travel here, we had to work out the safest and most comfortable way of getting there. There was the option of flying in a small aircraft, of which I am not a huge fan or the overnight bus, which could take anything from 18 hours to 36 hours depending on the roads, i.e. landslides, traffic, bus accidents or livestock wandering about. Actually, the mind boggles at what you can see on these roads. The buses are notorious for crashing, particularly on this stretch of road due to the narrow winding roads, snaking up and down around the mountains. We chose a private driver and van.

We were fortunate enough to bump into friends we had met in Kathmandu, a Canadian family, Louis and Rhonda Corbei, travelling for a year with their 2 boys, Gabriel, 13 and Merek, 11. We all get on famously. We all decided to make the road trip together to Bardia.

We left the relaxing shores of Pokhara with its glistening lake and snow capped peaks early, to try and make the best time we could. However, we hit the dramatic Siddhartha Highway with its landslide scarred valleys, winding roads and spectacular views and stopped every 10 minutes or so. There was vomit, oh so much vomit!

It was touted as an awesome sing-along road trip; instead it was the bilious, chunderous, churning, vomiting road trip from hell. Not only was it happening inside the van, but people from passing buses hung from their windows splattering our windscreen and roof. We reeked of the stuff!

However, that said, we made it to Bardia by early evening and we did make it in one piece.

x Lisa (slightly traumatised Mum)

Sidhartha Highway

Arriving in Bardia on the roof of our van

Holy Cow!

I've been offered just about everything money can by on the streets of Kathmandu. Not terribly surprising. However, after becoming friendly with a restaurant owner and his sons in Pokhara, we were offered something that really did catch me completely off guard, 'boti', better known as 'cow'.

In Nepal, cows are considered holy and sacred. They walk freely and it appears that they really are able to please themselves what they do, in rural and residential situations. It is two years jail for killing a cow.

So as the owners son's eyes darted left and right as we discussed the possibility of me actually buying some boti from him to eat, I was completely intrigued.

He barely moved his lips and his eyes followed every passer-by with suspicion as he explained how he came by the meat.

Now, I can't tell you if we bought any boti, and I can't tell you who may or may not have eaten the boti. And, It's only hearsay, but I'm told it was very good.

What I can tell you is, it wasn't me!

x Lisa (innocent Mum )

Our favourite restaurant in Pokhara, Kebab King