Nepal - Lumbini

We made it through the Indian immigration and received our departure stamp then walked through no mans land to the Nepal immigration to purchase our visas. It was a straight forward process and once we had the visas in our passport the official welcomed us to Nepal. We thought it was a lovely touch and has been our best dealing with a countries immigration so far. Said goodbye to our Indian drivers and boarded a mini bus for the hours drive to Lumbini. We arrived at 3pm and checked in to our rooms then met the group in the lobby at 3.30pm for our walk to the world heritage site where Lord Buddha was born. We entered the building has been constructed over the ruins of temples built over the rock on which Buddha was said to have been born. We waited in line behind many pilgrims for our chance to see "the" rock then headed outside to enjoy the peaceful surroundings. It was quite amusing to see a monk with a megaphone talking to a group of pilgrims.

We wandered around the grounds and then walked to the Chinese Monastery, unfortunately we arrived at 5.20pm and the monasteries close at 5pm. Luckily though, the man at the door let us in and we were able to listen to the monks chanting for a little while before walking over to see the Korean temple across the road. The Korean temple was a huge concrete structure that has not been finished. It will certainly be a grand structure once it is complete. It was dark on our walk back to the hotel but we made it safely and met for dinner at 7pm.