Lumbini

The Siddharta Highway from Pokhara south into the Terai plain is beautiful, great to cycle and there’s surprisingly little traffic, but it also means that you’re leaving the gorgeous mountains behind, so actually a sad story.
We wanted to go to the far West of Nepal and then cross to India, so we had to do it.

And then we accidentally met Gabriel on the road, coming from India! We knew that he was heading towards Pokhara, so chances weren‘t too bad, but it was so amazing to meet him again! We cycled so many days together in Iran a couple of months ago and now we’re here in Nepal - cyclists world is still small :)

Lumbini was not much of a detour, so we took a rest day there to explore the birthplace of Siddharta Gautama, the Buddha. There is a huge garden with many temples and monasteries from different countries, even Germany and Austria, and it felt a bit like being on an Expo with the subject ‚Buddhist temples‘. But it was nice to visit them and spend some time under the mango trees.

It was quite striking to see how many monks we encountered were busy with their smartphone, telephoning, wearing a headset and trendy sunglasses, taking selfies and that they were traveling with the most fancy minibuses. For us, it doesn’t fit the mould...Read more