Bodhgaya

After another joyride with a night train from Kolkata we arrived 6 am to Gaya in Bihar on the 21st of February, 2008. We were attacked by a tuk-tuk driver just the minute when descending from the train and we decided not to argue too much, we took the ride to Bodgaya with 3 funny Asian girls, all together 6 of us in the rickshaw. We had to put on our jackets not to freeze and hold ourselves so strongly - Tomek to the right, me to the left of the driver - as if holding to our lives in a thick fog, still before sunrise, rambling with 50 km/hour. Finally we disembarked at our accommodation, the Royal Bhutanese Monastery (see the photo n the left below), which was fast asleep and still. Luckily the gate was open and after some coming back and forth we found a guy who showed us to our room for half the price we usually pay, with HOT water, first time in 2008 :)!

Instead of a morning meditation at the neighboring Japanese Monastery we crawled into bed and had a wonderful sleep under a wonderfully protecting mosquito net. Hot shower (hmmm), breakfast (rather lunch), a bit of mapping the neighborhood and off we went to the famous Bodhy tree, under which Prince Siddhartha Gautama transferred himself to Buddha, the enlightened - 2600 years ago. However, this very tree is obviously not 26 centuries old, it is a descendant of the original one. Besides the numerous Buddhist monasteries from all around the world - from countries like Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan, Burma, Tibet - the main attraction is the Mahabodhi Temple erected in the 6th century by Emperor Ashoka. It is the Nazareth of Buddhism, the most important Buddhist pilgrim destination, where (female and male) from all around the globe come, pray, meditate and chant. We spent hours just sitting and watching the hundreds of orange, yellow, crimson monks, old and kids, listening to the different country's characteristic chanting.

boomp3.com

In the evening we headed to the Tibetan Refugee Market, where eventually we had our momo in a tent restaurant, a Tibetan speciality, much alike Polish pierogi or Russian pelmeni. The place had mud floor and walls with some kind of plastic foil roof, but seemed to be so popular that there was a choice of at least five restaurants the same kind. We joined at the Chinese Monastery lighting hundreds of tiny candles organized in the perfect shape of Chinese characters celebrating the first full Moon in 2008, which is a great event for welcoming the moonlight helping the crops' grow and harvest later on. At 10.30 pm we faced the last challenge for the day: the monastery's gates were closed and we had no cash left. Since we know no impossible we got in and had the probably most quiet and peaceful night in two months.

On the 22nd of February we decided to visit the Dungeshwari Cave Temples, where Buddha spent years of penance (see the picture on the right). Our guidebook gave very little information about the whereabouts, hence we ended up in crowded shared rickshaw rides, being dropped in the middle of nowhere, jumping on a local bus and finally entering a noisy negotiation about the tuk-tuk fare, when we the bridge crossing the completely dry riverbed and somebody understood what we were looking for. The ride was long and tiresome, so bumpy that we were jumping in our seats and had to clinch like "majom a koszorukovon" (sorry, it is in Hungarian), but we finally made it. The best thing we learned today about how to make business when you do not have anything to offer: sell coins to foreigners to be able to give it away to beggars. Unfortunately we missed to figure out how much the coins they sell are worth and how low in the bargaining phase they are ready to go. It ain't no funny! Hunted by beggars, kids and monkeys we spent a half an hour chilling at the cave, which looked really nomad with a skeleton like golden Buddha statue in it.

We closed our day with a wonderful chanting session at the Japanese monastery accompanied by drums and singing a bowl. A little bit worn out by the filth, the unbelievable poverty, the constant blackouts, the difficulties to get our laundry properly washed, the beggars, the kids clinging on you asking for whatever you have, and the constant question how to find a toilet we are closing our last but one day in India very very happy and satisfied.