Hotel Taj Darbar Bodh Gaya

As I said before, there are three people deeply connected to India that I'm interested in. A little town in northern India known as Bodhgaya was pretty significant for one of those people, not to mention the rest of the world. <br><br>Getting to Bodhgaya from Varanasi proved difficult, though. The only train I was able to book dropped me off in the nearby city of Gaya at about 2:30 in the morning. I was wary about arriving at that time but with the ...

... waste my precious two hours, I ended up taking a photo of the 25 meter high Buddha (made by melting down 20,000 bronze Buddha&#8217;s) and the Thai temple through the closed gates&#8230;I would say better luck next time but why the hell would I come back here?&#8230;.oh well&#8230;I&#8217;m sure Buddha forgives me&#8230;as long as I&#8217;m wearing pants and not pointing my feet at him&#8230;..<br> <br>Off to the Indian highlands to drink some tea in Darjeeling!<br> <br>

... the Temples of Thailand, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, China, and Mexico (no, just kidding about Mexico). They ranged from the VERY ornate temple of Thailand (closely matched by China) and the very serene and simple Temple from Japan. We had an unusual incident at the Temple of Japanese Buddhists. As we arrived at the temple and entered with Brisesh, 4 nicely dressed young men (in their late teens?) jumped out of a mototaxi and followed us in. They ...

... attendant told us the same story. As we looked around it also appeared that in this hotel of over 40 rooms, we were only one of 2 guests that occupied rooms for the 2 days that we were there. That also explained why they wanted to know what time we wanted to eat dinner-so they could staff the kitchen. I should also mention that the temperature when we arrived was a toasty 114 degrees with a brisk wind blowing. Not very inviting! A little like ...

... day. It was nice to have someone take us around, the few times that we did get out of the car it was a little too crazy. Everyone just goes around throwing colored powder on you, hugging and saying "Happy Holi!!!!". Udaipur was a lovely city set on a lake that is pretty dry around this time of year. It is called the Venice of Asia. It is a lot smaller than any of the places we had been. Also the Bond movie "Octopussy" was filmed here, and everyone talks about it and all the guesthouses ...

... and I can't imagine that kid was just doing it out of altruism. Then again, I've certainly learned some lessons about making assumptions. ~~ Today I spent the day puttering around doing errands - like tending to my liver. I had an adventure trying to get rid of a 1000 rupee note which I guess is seen as almost a $100 bill here. No one wanted to take it cause it had been torn a touch and retaped on the side. After it being rejected by the bank for exchange (!) I got rid ...

... really the man would take his wife) and move far away. To this end, its quite rare. It sounds like its standard to have an arranged marriage at 18 years old. A woman is expected to have a monetary dowry (though I imagine in the countryside, its still cattle or something). So back to Bodhgaya... My (possibly scamming) tour guy with the motorcycle took me to the Mahabodi Temple. This is THE temple of Buddhism as it commemorates the spot where the Buddha attained ...

... In the middle of the lake is a cobra statue. Sorry for the not so interesting blog entry, but after the burning ghats in Varanasi, I think some of you are probably relieved. I'm in Kolkata (Calcutta) now so expect to be hearing from me in a few days from India's second largest city. Go Cubbies!!!! peace, Jen

... to work on it. On another day I introduced the kids to the Periodic Table, handing each a copy. The response from each student was a bow as if I had given them a present. The "land of extremes" label was evident as, on one hand, the kids were advanced in the material they were covering but the school building was a run-down mess with mice regularly crawling on the floors and the extreme heat of September and lack of any reliable electricity giving even this Floridian a ...

... village near Bodhgaya. While the Buddha sat meditating beneath the ajapala nigrodha tree, Brahma came and requested him to teach the Dharma. Hsuan Chwang saw this tree with a small temple and stupa beside it at the southeast corner of the bodhi tree enclosure. It is thought that the site is now within the Mahanta's graveyard near the present eastern gate. Buddha spent the last of the seven weeks seated beneath the tarayana tree. Hsuan Chwang placed this some ...