Into Nepal

At 4 AM on March 21st we pulled out of our hotel in a private little bus, loaded with our luggage on the roof, and headed north from Varanasi toward the Nepal border.

This was the extra-long driving day resulting from our decision to stay in Varanasi for Holi, and we were all a bit leery of it.

However, in the early morning the traffic was light and we made good time to the border, about 5 hours. Throughout the drive we passed though agricultural land on the flat plain, with no mountains in sight, and through small villages. The way of life in this north section of India is hard, and most of peoples’ time is spent simply eking out a living. It was a very interesting drive nonetheless, and time passed quickly.

At the border, we were dropped off by our bus, our luggage loaded into rickshaws, and we were marched to the India departure office for official exit stamps in our passports.

Then we walked perhaps another 500 feet to the Nepal Immigration Office where we presented our itinerary, our visa photos, and $25, and were issued with visas for Nepal. About an hour later when we all had been processed, we were reunited with our luggage and clambered into two vans for the one-hour drive to Lumbini.
Instead of spending a day there as originally scheduled, we were discharged from the bus at the monument at the supposed birthplace of Sidartha, later Buddha.
There is a shrine around a rock that is meant to be the exact spot that he was born, and nearby there is a place where he gave his first sermon following his Enlightenment.
 It was interesting, but I think we did the right thing by emphasizing Varanasi at the expense of time in Lumbini: beyond the monument, which we saw, there is not much else there. We returned to our vehicles for the remaining 2-1/2 hour drive to Chitwan National Park, and the Royal Park Hotel in Sauraha.
About an hour into the drive we started to climb up off the plain, and could feel the temperature dropping as we went. To our surprise we also went back down again, and found the the national park is at the same level as the plain.
That evening there was an excellent local dance demonstration by a troupe of about 25 men, accompanied by very percussive music, and then we ate dinner at the hotel dining room. Everyone was tired but content with the day’s travel.