Holiest of Holies

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Hey all,

We are now currently staying in Bodghaya in a very modest monastery with big rooms and simple furnishings. The train journey was quite an adventure as Calcutta train station was full of hundreds of commuters and it was all rather chaotic. After finding our train we had to find our section (one of many, the trains are a good 3 times longer then british trains at least). Once we found our seats we realised that they turned into bunks and so we would have beds for the night, all groovy except that they were three beds on top of each other with a further three a few feet in front of these, so alot of people in a very small space. It was however suprisingly comfortable and we slept rather well before arriving at Gaya at 05.30 on Sunday. At the station we were bombarded by autorickshaw drivers wanting to take us to Bodhgaya (not the best thing when you have just woken up). After we had a sort of auction to get the lowest price we took a rather bumpy rickshaw as the sun was rising.

Before i go into detail about Bodhgaya i thought i'd mention our last day in Calcutta where we did very little as we were waiting to collect our train tickets and had our packs and so didn't want to stray far. We found a nice little food stall with seats so we sat down and ended up staying there for a number of hours. The owner told us he had been working at the same stall for 41 years and his helpers were all deaf and dumb. These were some of the kindest, friendliest and funniest people i have met. They gave us good advice and explained how in England everyone works for money and no one has fun, a very good point i thought.

Anyway back to Bodhgaya. In contrast to Calcutta it is so quiet and surrounded by buddhist monks from around the world. There are temples and monasteries everywhere each as majestic as each other donated by various buddhist countries.

Yesterday we went to the Mahabodhi temple which houses the famous bodhi treee where Buddha was said to have achieved enlightenment. Here people were praying everywhere and we saw what looked like very holy people, some with shaved heads, others with dreads down to the floor. Either way it was very peaceful

In the evening we went to one of the monasteries and took part in the daily prayer service and zen meditation, an exciting affair involving chanting, bells, gongs, incense and uncomfortable leg postions.

It is so peaceful here i feel i could stay for weeks, however we must move on and so tommorrow we are off to the sacred city of Varanasi on the Ganges, so until then i'll probably find a nice quiet spot to sit and think.

Much Love, Ali

P.S Sorry about lack of photos but i am yet to find a computer with a memory card reader, i may see if in Varanasi i can get some burnt to cd and put them on that way

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Photos

Chilling with Buddha
Sitting in front of the giant Buddha statue

Cute Girls
3 young girls eager to have their photo taken

Bodhi Tree
Famous Bodhi Tree where Buddha achieved enlightenment and the Mahabodhi Temple

Reading outside the Monastery
Reading on the grass outside the monastery we were staying at