Lumbini

Lumbini it's a birth place of Siddhartha Gautama, friendly called the Buddha. Excavation done here about 20 years ago confirmed that without any doubt Maya Devi gave a birth to her son right here.
And what a weird town it is!!! It feels like a ghost town. Apparently it had been deserted by unknown cathaclisme about year 250BC!
Lumbini is in the middle of nowhere, planked in the flat fields and woods. There is the site itself  (the World Heritage) and plenty of temples in Monastic Zone. The last one feels like exclusive villa quarter - nice peaceful area, with huge constructions going on, smooth driveways and nice roads all around... It looks surrealistic compare to what I have seen and experienced in Nepal. Where am I?!!!

















The highlight of my day was a rescue action - getting a rat out of a pond... A boy was running around this pond frantically. There was so much concern in his face, his eyes almost bagging me to help, find a way. We struggled for more than an hour. Every time we got closer to the beast, he would swim toward the middle of the pond to get away from us. We saw him growing more and more exhausted with the effort and stress. He would stop swimming, dissapear under the water then get the strength from somewhere and carry on to the wall where he could rest.

Rats give me creeps on my back. But when I looked at him I saw just another being that struggles to keep what is the most precious for him - his life. Don't we all? Alone in the water, helpless, maybe hopeless, with two monsters chasing him around...
Finally Suna, the boy, jumped in a water and got the screaming and terrified rat in my scarf. In the grass he was not able to move for a long time. I hope he picked up his energy and went back to his pals.
That's me taking about a rat...