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Published: December 13th 2006
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Big Budda
This is the biggest statue of Budda in the town, donated by the Japanese Zen Buddhists 15 years ago After an excriciatingly hectic trip back to NJP station from Darjeeling (see nick's comment in last blog), we were fast reminded of Kolkata's atmosphere as we took an autorickshaw from Sealdeh station back to our guest house in Sudder st. We got a half room for the day and sat in a cafe with a big breakfast. After buying a few things back at the market and picking up my suit (which cost around $100 in case anyone heard any different), the afternoon came very quickly, and we liked the idea of waiting for our train at the station rather than in traffic, so we packed our dinner and jumped in a taxi. It was good to be at the station early, but perhaps 2 1/2 hours early was a tad excessive.
We found a very western food court (serving Indian food) and sat with our bags. With our cokes, paper napkins and Aloo Ghobi take away meals, we passed the time discussing our dream sporting teams of Cricket and Soccer. With 30 minutes to spare, we stepped back out onto the platform and were both hit just as suddenly with a strange feeling of falling into a western dream
The view from our roof top
These rice patties went for miles in the food court (even the floor was painted with those McDonalds style brown bricks) and diving back into the Indian reality of Howrah station, where street kids roamed and beggers shouted for help. I've got another two months in this place but i'm not nieve enough to believe that i'll ever get used to that feeling.
Anyway, The train was fine and we both slept well. This time we were seated with a family with one daughter, taking her to see the University in Kolkata which she would be attending. We were pleased to know that allong with us they were also getting off at Gaya station (at 5am) and we may be able to get some sleep. We did. The sleep stopped at around 4.45, when the father woke me up and said we were in Gaya.
We taxied the 15 minute trip from Gaya to Bodhgaya and arrived in the town centre at about half past. We waited for daylight by sitting on the curb, as beggers and rickshaw wallers came and left. We had a strange morning. It took us the best part of an hour to orientate ourselves to the Lonely Planet map.
Maha Bodhi Temple
This temple is the centre of Bodhgaya, where Budda was enlightened We practically encircled ther entire town while we scouted for a place to stay. We weren't sure about the first few, and we needed the aid of some fairly helpful kids to take us throuh the laberynth of allyways and paths to the final place on our list; Mohammad's Place.
The trip here was amazing. We walked though a different type of street than ever before. This one looked like absolute tribal life. Houses were made from mudbricks, there was no pavement anywhere, and the pleathora of food vendors and rickshaw wallers were replaced by naked 2 year olds chasing baby goats and mothers washing clothes. Chaos had been replaced by peace, poverty with nature, and suffering with happiness.
The real surprise was that in this area, unlike any other I had experienced in India, I didn't feel like I had the words 'rich tourist' written on my head. Nobody here asked me for money, tried to sell me things, or even gave me particularly strange looks. Rather, people would hardly notice us, apart from the children who always said 'hello'. We found Mohammad's place to be a large three story building in the middle of all this.
Rooftop at sunset
As the sun set on the rice patties, Mohammad's was the place to be The kid who ran the place (chotu) showed us in and gave us a second story room with a balcony view, albeit without any TV or private bathroom. Even in this seeming lixury, this room was the cheapest plae that we have stayed in all trip (Rs150 per night). It's best feature is it's roof top, which overlooks miles of rice patties and also the top of the main temple of the town.
Boghgaya itself is tiny. Its significance is in the fact that it is the most important town for Buddhists all around the world, as it was here that Buddha walked as a young man and became enlightened under the Bodhi tree, a remnant of which still stands. The town is centred around the tree and its temple, which can be seen from anywhere in the town.
The main attraction of Bodhgaya are these temples. Because there are so few of them, and they are so close together, it's possible to see the enrire town in half a day (in fact it's hard to string it out any longer than that) Despite this, it took us until the third day we were here to see them.
Park
This park was next to the temple, I never figured out what the statues were exactly Why you might ask? Because the attraction of the community here is not about sightseeing.
Its all about the very relaxed ambience of the place. There is no place of all that i have been to in India that i would rather spend time than on the rooftop of Mohammad's place, watching people tend to the fields in the distance, kids play with eachother on the street, old women make bricks for their fires. As the sun sets over us here in almost complete silence, there is no more a peaceful place to be.
The other great appeal of the town in my opinion is the restaraunts which line the back streets of the main road. They're all are just rectangular tents with dirt floors, lined up next to eachother like a military base. There must be 20 altogether, and despite the names, it's very hard to tell them apart at all. The tranquility of sitting on the Mohammad's rooftop is almost matched by drinking tea and talking politics in one of these dark den like places. Our meals here usually cost about A$4 between us by the way
The shopping here is also a lot of
The walk to Muhammad's
This was the road that i talked about fun. I've now got presents for just about everyone i know, and bargaining is quite a lot of fun. At one of the temples a kid was selling these postcard pictures of all the sights of the town. He came up to me and did his little act (explaining why i need to have this item) and said "150 rupees only". I walked away and he said 'how much you pay sir', for a laugh (considering i didn't want the thing at all) I said '5 rupees' He gave me a dirty look and turned around. As I walked away he said, 'Your best price sir?'. I replied, 'best price? Hmmm.. 5 rupees'. 'OK' was his answer and I couldn't stop laughing the entire way home.
Another aspect of Boghgaya life is frequent power cuts, which can be quite frustrating. Fortunately the Tibetan Refugee Market sold us LED lights for around a dollar each.
We've also met some pretty cool travellers here. We helped a sweedish couple, Gustav and Arna, to find Mohammad's and we ended up going out to one of the tent restaraunts for dinner with them. This was a good experience, for us, a they
Rooftop kids
These girls were brading eachothers hair have been in India for about the same time as my trip will be, and have been to the same places. Gustav also spent two months in Varanasi (our next destination) 7 years ago. We spent the evening talking about Rajasthan and Kerala and Kolkata, it was a lot of fun. It turns out that we'll be in Varanasi at the same time as them anyway, so we'll probably catch up again.
I really like Bodhgaya. It's certainly been the most pleasant and tranquil (not necessarily the best) of the three places we've visited so far. The Buddhist presence here adds a twist on the usual Indian hillarity of culture mix. The monk next to me on the computer just answered his mobile phone- the ring tone was jingle bells. I think that I will always remember more than anything about this place the walk to Mohammad's. The other day we wen't through with our camera and kids kept shouting 'one picture, one picture', they get a real kick out of seeng themselves on the screen of our camera.
Next stop, as i said, is Varanasi- the most holy city to all the world's hindus. I'll write again
'One picture'
They loved seeing themselves on the camera- btw this is one of my favourite photos from there, until then, keep the comments and emails coming. I'm thinking of you all heaps.
Sam
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Nick
non-member comment
Different take from the other side of the room
G'day guys, hope your all well. Sam is absolutely right about the tranquility and peace that made bodgaya so enjoyable. It was an excellent change of pace from the never ending craziness that is Kolkata, but had a really different feel from the tourist-orientated Darjeeling. The one thing that i would add is the impression that i got from living in amoungst local homes, albeit in an impressively clean and well furbished guest house. Sam's account may have given the impression that where we stayed was somehow an escape from city life. I dont think it was, what we were seeing was merely how the majority of indians live, either in cities, or in other semi urdan areas. The poverty was just as severe in that street as anywhere else we have seen, and somehow the everpresent litter of Kolkata played a starring role too. We still walked through dirty children living in fly-ridden filth, but it was the feel that the people gave that stretch of road the difference that I think Sam was trying to capture. For the first time anywhere women outnumbered men, and we got glimpse of family life, rather than the hustle and bustle that is the business of a large city. Anyway, thats my take on it. Oh, and as im sure you'll hear soon, those sweeds dont just appear once in this Story....