Mahayana Guest House Bodh Gaya

... kidnappings, extortion, banditry and violence. It remains one of the least literate and most lawless parts of India. The extreme lawlessness of the area makes buses and private cars targets for bandits. Knowing about this ahead of time we had our game faces on, but did not really encounter anything serious except an increase in staring and random cars loaded with men armed to the teeth.

There is not much to this town. It mainly consist of the Mahabodi ...

... if like Judith, you slow down or stop to looks at some hawkers wares, the rest of the pack swoop in like a pack of hyenas on a fresh kill. We didn't enter the main temple because we had decided to see it the next morning before breakfast. Instead, we left (dodging all attackers) and Judith bought a few small items while I checked my Email (which was not available at the Lotus). Back at the hotel we had an OK meal and went to our room for an early night.

... ignored as it only encourages them, in any case if we gave money to every one we'd be on our way home by now. Managed to watch the united-Porto game on our hotel telly and the highlights of Arsenal, the first footy I've seen in about 6 weeks, which was nice, what a goal from Adebayor? I'm really hoping I can catch the last few games of the season in Thailand or Vietnam, assuming Arsenal are still competing that is. Fingers crossed. We were having some lunch one ...

... like this....There is a lot of **** here, and sometimes you just have to get through the **** LITERALLY to get to the gems, and sometimes there isn't always gems in the end. That just describes this trip and India so well. So we spent a total of about 6 hours in Agra which was enough. It was just another really dirty city. We are so glad we didn't spend the night there. Getting into to the Taj was just a pain in the ass and by the time we finally got in I wasn't even excited. We went to ...

... random men, and here conversations with strangers often end with them trying to sell you something. but Ahmed was very polite, introducing himself and asking if i spoke any Hindi, and then trying to teach me a few words. as we continued chatting, i began to feel this was different from most of the conversations with strangers i had had in india ("where are you from? what is your name? do you like india?). we got onto religion, and had some really interesting ...

... it at a fancy hotel in town. SUCKAS! ;) What else ... There are an amazing range of temples in the city here with each culture offering their own vision of the Buddha from their own cultural standpoint (e.g. he has more slanted eyes in Japan, thinner in Bhutan, etc). Its fascinating to see the contrasts. By far the most impressive temple was the Bhutanese one, where there was this extraordinary detail in the paintings and color scheme on the walls. The entire place ...

... a number of ads for woman's face whiteners in Delhi... But in their Sarees, India women look so *vibrant*, delicate, sophisticated, and elegant. I'm jealous we don't have anything like that in our culture. Maybe a really classy (but not pretentious) woman along 5th Avenue is the closest? Even with the hustle and bustle of poo and mud covered streets, these women in sarees glide down the side of the road with such elegance, centeredness and grace that it astounds me. It ...

Just a quick entry from Bodhgaya. Mahabodhi Temple is where Buddha first became enlightened and formulated his philosophy of life. Just as in Sarnath, a part of the original Bodhi Tree which is now in Sri Lanka was brought to Bodhgaya and now flourishes. Under the tree there is a shrine that marks the exact ...

... India. We were approaching Bodh Gaya, the site where the Buddha had attained enlightenment, and during the five-hour ride we discussed the Buddha making this same trip on foot. We arrived at the Gaya station a little past 10 pm and as we were leaving the platform we unexpectedly saw Andrew, who we had last seen the previous day in Sarnath. He was about to catch a train for Calcutta and had only great words for Bodh Gaya. We wished him ...

... form one, which survived, and when Fa Hien saw it in Peshawar four rims could be seen in the one. After thus spending forty-nine days meditating close to the seat of enlightenment, the Buddha left Bodhgaya on foot to meet the five ascetics at Benares in order to turn the first wheel of Dharma. This accomplished, he returned briefly to Uruvela and introduced the three brothers - Uruvela, Gaya and Nadi Kasyapa - to his teachings. They developed faith in the Buddha and ...