Peace with the Buddha

We have finally found a place where it's almost peaceful. Getting here was half the fun. We took a train that left Varanasi at 5:40 pm, an hour and a half late, and arrived in Gaya only an hour late, at 10:30 pm. Of course it was night so we didn't want to move on and decided to pick the nicest looking of the hotels in the neighbourhood.

Big mistake? This was the hotel you all think we stay in. After we were shown a room on the very noisy side of the building (a Hindu temple in full swing and about five generators to provide electricity in the alley), we asked for one on the other side. We were shown one right opposite, which in fact was also opposite the hole that had been chiseled into the wall for a window which someone had obviously forgotten to order. It also had one of the hotel staff in it, enjoying television. Yes, we took it anyway, and then had the bellboy? change the linens on Geordie's bed. His new sheet looked a little better, but mine, although clean, was dingy browny grey. I slept under it anyway and the heavy blanket, which was welcome, but Geordie slept in his clothes because he didn't want to have the smelly blanket on him.

There were no vermin we could see, but the toilet floor was wet from a leak so a nighttime visit to the bathroom meant putting on our shoes. And the clanging cymbals and the loud singing at the nearby temple went on until 3:00 am. I slept through it. Geordie says he only got three hours sleep.

The food in the restaurant was terrible too. I don't even want to describe the chop suey, and the "eggroll" was served in a pool of oil with a fine black patina. Ugh.

We left as soon as possible the next morning - took a taxi which cost almost as much as our room and took a hotel in Bodhgaya which is luxurious in comparison, even if they didn't make the room today and it's cold. It has decent bed linens and only a slight leak from the toilet...

But really, Bodhgaya is peaceful. I wasn't kidding there. This is the holiest Buddhist site in the world, where Buddha found enlightenment under the bodhi tree whose relative now grows on the same spot. The place is full of monks and nuns from all over the Buddhist world with a few Caucasian monks thrown in for good measure. Our hotel in fact seems to have Buddhist monks from Tibet as guests, and us. There is even a wonderful exhibit in the basement of the temple of artifacts from a Buddhist temple which is now in South India, but was of course moved from Tibet. The small bronzes are about 8 centuries old and very lovely. The finale was even better though. The young monk who showed us the photos and talked about his monastery, also took us in to see a sand mandala which had been created by four monks of the monasteray. It took them a week, and is an amazing work of art and religiosity. And after the exhibit is over at the end of January, it will be swept away. We couldn't take pictures of the bronzes but he encouraged me to take photos of the mandala, including pulling up a chair so I could take a photo from above. (Not illustrated here, lol. Old computers again.)

The Mahabodi temple area is a respite though there are no vehicles including bicycles and the upper area is where the devout walk around, clockwise, saying their beads, or in the case of one very elderly man, prostrating himself as he makes his way around. In the lower temple complex there are hundreds of monks and nuns, many of them prostrating themselves too, but in place rather than moving. The monks in some areas are chanting, there is incense, some teaching happening on the grassy areas, and all in all a very peaceful sense of well-being.

Around the area are also many Buddhist temples - Thai, Bhutanese, Chinese, Japanese, Burmese - some of them very beautiful examples of their architecture. The Bhutanese temple is lovely, and the Thai temple is exactly like a wat in Bangkok. The Japanese temple was closed for lunch when we walked by, so we don't know what the interior is like, however someone was ringing one of those huge bells often found in a temple complex. A lovely sound.

We did a bit of a walkaround yesterday and today, and in the afternoon yesterday I even took my pants to a tailor for repair. My Armani pants (really) had the worst sewing job imaginable. But they are nice and sturdy now, and it cost me 20 rupees, about 50 cents. There is also a Tibetan Refugee Market nearby which we explored, but it is full of clothing, warm clothing and not a tourist market at all. I did buy a Tibetan singing bowl from a young boy this morning when we went for our walk to the temples. I paid 250 rupees (from 350) which is about six dollars.

We have another full day here and part of another. We still have to have apple pie at one of the tent restaurants near the Refugee market too. We head for Kolkata in the wee hours of Dec 16 (4:30 am or whenever the train arrives) which means another visit to Gaya. We understand there are railway retiring rooms at the station which one can hire so we are hoping to get one of them, so we can avoid any of the terrible hotels. Sitting on the floor, or sleeping there as many locals seems to do, doesn't appeal quite as much.

A little note of fear here: We read today in a newspaper that the train line that we are going to take was bombed by Maoists yesterday morning. No trains were on the line, but they were held up for about 7 hours while it was repaired. Let's hope they have it out of their systems by now. It was in retaliation for some men who were sentenced for murder of policemen recently. We will presume everything is great.

We've also made a slight change in plans. We are going to Kolkata for the three nights we planned, and then flying to Chennai (Madras). However, instead of staying in Chennai for another three nights we have asked the hotel in the beach town we head to next if they have room for us. If so, we can be picked up by the hotel at the airport and delivered to the hotel without worry. That would make our lives a little easier, and maybe eight nights at the Greenwoods Resort will be what we need to decompress a little from the wild travels. No doubt we'll have an adventure or two to talk about before that. There's lots more to come.