Hotel Buddah Vihar Gaya

... okay ya you can just get back on the train in third class, we were in awe that this guy couldn't just tell us that in the first place. By that point we didn't even care what class we were in since we had spent the night in the worst one before, but we were both getting sick which made the whole situation worse because all we wanted to do was sleep. Arielle was already crying because she just felt really horrible, and when we got on the train we had to get on the top berths that are ...

... and we went to the Dungesgwari Caves (12 km away) where Siddartha meditated for six years before moving to the Bodhi tree and attaining Enlightenment. The cave is nondescript but the trip up the hill was something else. It was straight out of my imagination of what India would be like - lots of poor desperate children, old ladies and de-limbed men begging for money. Vendors conveniently have set up stalls selling candies and single rupee coin packets (buy 40 Rupees for ...

... this earlier), is that Indian women are GORGEOUS! Their faces are very striking. Young women - even those selling fruit on the side of the road - have beautiful skin and delicate features. Older women, most who have wrinkles and are shriveled, look wizened and rich with life perspective. Its amazing to think of how that is celebrated in their culture, whereas in ours we Botox away the years (to be fair, financial limitations are a consideration). Then again, I did ...

... The other scams are children asking tourists to buy school supplies (pens, workbooks) and sports supplies. They then re-sell the items back to the store and take a small profit. This is small-time scamming and a minor hassle, really. Bodhgaya was like a village and I quite liked it. I expected a much more developed place! I wandered out into the rice paddy fields and vegetable fields (potato, cabbage, cauliflower). And now onto the mysterious, scary Varanasi!...

... switching buses at least once. We arrived in Rajgir after a few hours and I found a cheap guesthouse that appeared more like a garage from the outside, where the room had an unfinished concrete floor. I figured I would use the remaining daylight to see the ruins of Nalanda, the once great Buddhist university, and I hopped a local bus heading in that direction. Nalanda was mostly in a state of ruins and contained the foundations of what were once ...

... us. We take pictures of them, because they keep asking and begging (it doesnt take me very long to take pics of them anyways) and they love looking at themselves in the display. Really cute how they start posing and laughing. In the end, they challenge us(or we them, but doubt it) to a soccer game tomorrow evening. Wow we are pretty scared but plotting and preparing hard. Probably we'll paint our faces with the powder used to draw ...

... headed downstairs and entered a smaller room by the entrance, which happened to be the principal's office. The principal, Nikesh, thanked us for visiting and proceeded to tell us about the school while occasionally bowing. The school was run entirely on donations and focused on the kids from the Sujata Village on the outskirts of Bodh Gaya. Eight of the students were orphans who lived at the school and slept on the wooden tables, which doubled as beds. The next day I ...

... of light from the hair-treasure between his eye-brows, he invoked Mara, who came to challenge him. Mara dispatched first his horrible armies and next his enticing daughters, but the bodhisattva remained unmoved and defeated him, calling upon the earth and her goddess as his witness. He continued in profound meditation through the three watches of the night and finally realized supreme enlightenment at dawn. The air filled with flowers and light, and the earth ...

... ago, he was facing the prognosis of a six month life expectancy due to advanced cancer. He devoted two of those months to intense vipassana practice and follow-up tests revealed the cancer to be almost eliminated and curable with minor surgery. The centre is a tad run down but serves the purpose well the energy is very conducive to a focussed effort. Unlike the centre in NZ, the Dhamma Bodhi centre sports an ornate pagoda containing several tiers of ...

... I was getting late to a meeting and I walked upto this guy to figure the time and I asked - 'Bhai saab kya time hua hai' 'Brother, what time is it' he gave me a dirty look and says 'Ghadi tumhar liye pahane hey ka' 'Have I worn this watch for you??' Its sad the English language cannot capture the essence of the Bihari babu