Finding Happiness in the Himalayas: I went to India Illegally!

I am baaaaaack in Kathmandu after a weeklong excursion to Lumbini and Chitwan (see previous post for more information on those). Basically the trip consisted of a 3-night stay in Lumbini (the birth place of the Buddha) and a 2-night stay in Chitwan (national park). I will not bore you with all the details of Lumbini but basically all you have to know is that there is a whole museum, town and multi-billion-dollar facility dedicated to this place! (OH MY BUDDHA!) The trip to Lumbini was filled with lots of information and also lots of Buddhist and Hindi pilgrims from all over the world—pretty cool actually! We became good buds with a local restaurant owner, 365, and at one point during the trip bought out his whole restaurant of food (there were over 25 of us)! We stayed at this beautiful Gompa Buddhist Monastery and I was able to run every morning around the lush compound.

CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK…was absolutely beautiful and one of the most touristy places I have ever been. The first morning we woke up we were told that a Rhino had walked through the compound that night…we saw the foot prints and even a dent in the fence to show proof. We later figured out this was all a hoax! It was almost like finding out as if Santa Clause was not real! Well anyways…being touristy served us pretty well because we got to go on a canoe ride down the river, a jungle safari walk and even ride elephants! Yupp, you heard me right…we rode ELEPHANTS!!!! I was hoping to see a Rhino or even a Tiger during my time but we were not successful just lots of deer and even a dead boar. Better luck next time? Over all we saw some pretty incredible things and are very lucky to be doing everything that we are!!!

Here are photos from our adventure!