May 19: Weekend in Lumbini

On Saturday, we travelled in style to the Dreamland Gold Resort for a restful night near Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. We say 'in style' because it was the most western kind of vehicle we have driven in so far. And boy was he hotel ever a dream land! Lush green gardens, served cold soda upon arriving, and A POOL!!!!!!!!!! (We were very excited about the pool....you would be too, with the amount of HEAT at this time of year).

We had a delicious lunch and tried some Indian desserts, being super close to the Indian border. The jury is in: gulab jamun and homemade ice cream is....DELICIOUS. Yum.

We spent the afternoon sitting by and then swimming in the pool. Afternoon naps, book reading, casual card games and even some room service snacks made for a fantastic and relaxing day. And a much needed break after all the brick moving, brick laying, brick breaking and general brick...dancing. Because that happened often. We went to bed with dreams of Buddha in our heads, for Sunday is our visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha.

Today we visited Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha!

We paired off and rode rickshaws for a tour of the temples and stupas. This took us about two hours in the muggy heat of the day, but the beautiful structures astonished us all. There are many different temples built by different countries, all with a very unique style. The most intricate was definitely the German temple....you could spend all day inside, gazing up at the artwork. We had to take our shoes off to walk around and in most of these structures, which was really hot on the toes but totally worth it

We visited the main temple complex and got a chance to see the marker of the actual location of the birthplace of Buddha. Of course we couldn't take pictures, but it is a sight we will not soon forget. Around the temple were some very old bases of some very old temples that no longer stand. We stood underneath the Buddha tree, looking up at the prayer flags, enjoying the small breeze, everyone wrapped up in their own divine mysteries.

We left the complex and had lunch across the street, where we really felt the casualties of Nepali time. We amused ourselves watching some Hindi "So You Think You Can Dance" show and laughed at reality TV. Oh the joys...

We returned to our wonderful home here in Dang, everyone breathing that familiar sigh of return, because it really is starting to feel like home here now. And to our utmost delight, our hotel family had pasta for dinner for us! What a treat and a great way to finish off our weekend.

Kelly Gerlings

DWC Student Team Leader

Nepal, May 2013