I was up early this morning for my lesson in milking Shankar's cow. It produces two litres each evening and three litres in the morning. As the golden ball of the sun rose across the road, I marvelled at this simple, hard, yet satisfying life here in the village. It was surprisingly easy to pull on the udders and for the milk to squirt into the bucket. An hour from now, it will have been boiled and ready for my breakfast. What a great way to start the day. My ver...

I had only been walking for a few minutes on the way to school when I was beckoned over to join in a dance to the very loud music played on drums and horns at a local wedding party. A young man I had never met before offered me a lift on his motorbike to go the school which I accepted. I am getting into the swing of life here in the village and I had a nice welcome at the school from children and teachers alike. I did a bit of research in the school library and t...

After the busy, noisy and dusty previous couple of days, it was good today to relax and chill at my home in Daldale. There are always visitors and this morning a family friend who's 82 years of age and who is fit as a fiddle, popped over. I was told its a combination of no alcohol or tobacco, lots of fresh food, exercise and laughing a lot. Life is so simple sometimes! It's the final day of the Holi holiday today and it's peaceful where I am but there is still th...

This morning after breakfast, it was time to see more of the Peace Park. Some of the constructed temples are fantastic in the style of their respective countries, eg Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal and there are notable buildings from Austria, Germany and France. Some are under construction, eg Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. You get to appreciate the spread of Buddhism across Asia (and beyond) from it's very beginnings with Buddha's birth here in cen...

I have travelled three hours on the bus with Ramesh to visit the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautam, better known throughout the world as Buddha. Today is also the Holi festival of colours which is a very popular annual event in the calendar for people of the Terai. We see a number of groups on the street with many colours of powder in their hair, on their face and all over their clothes. It looks a great fun day! Lumbini is only a short distance to the border with ...