After visiting Bodh Gaya where Buddha reached enlightenment I figure it was only right that I visited the birthplace of Buddha just across the border in Nepal. Two trains a bus and a taxi later and I had finally made it a day later.
Lumbini is crazy small and offers even less to do than I was used to. But I only used it as a quick stop on my way to Nepal. I spent two nights in Sunauli just outside of Lumbini. My first day in town I took the bus over to Lumbini and spent the day walking among the Buddhist temples, like Bodh Gaya each country had temples built in their own style. But here the temples are massive, several of them are open to the public and you can walk around their grounds and go into some of the buildings.
But really these temples are private, each is owned by their respective country and their main purpose is to house students and monks from their country. A few are open to all but make sure you do your research if you plan on staying at any of them.
Personally I did not like the feel of Lumbini it just didn’t seem as friendly as Bodh Gaya was. Probably because of how far apart all the temples are. I was happy with the one day I spent in Lumbini and unless you are planning some retreat a day should be plenty of time to see everything. To explain a little better, it did not feel like a place I would sit down and meditate at for any amount of time. The day before I was in Bodh Gaya and saw hundreds of pilgrims at the Bodhi temple. In Lumbini I only saw random tourists visiting the temples.
Sunauli also is not a city you want to stay in for very long. My second day there I just arranged for my bus ticket to Kathmandu. Finding travel arrangements in town is fairly simple. Both of these towns are used to massive amounts of pilgrims so getting into town and out of town is pretty easy.
