Varanasi and Bodh Gaya so far

we are currently in Bodh Gaya, India. we arrived yesterday after a 'fun' train experience from Varanasi, that will definitely have to be detailed in the book. all we can say now is the European train experiences we had feel like 12 star hotel experiences in comparison.

in case you are wondering, we're on the 'Buddhist circuit' visiting a few important Buddhist sites that relate to the life of the Buddha. Bodh Gaya is famous as being in fact the most important Buddhist site in the world.

Wikipedia states:
"According to Buddhist traditions, circa 500 BC Prince Gautama Siddhartha, wandering as a monk, reached the sylvan banks of Falgu River, near the city of Gaya. There he sat in meditation under a bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa). After three days and three nights of meditation, Siddharta attained enlightenment and insight, and the answers that he had sought. He then spent seven weeks at seven different spots in the vicinity meditating and considering his experience. After seven weeks, he travelled to Sarnath, where he began teaching Buddhism." (we had just completed a nice day trip from Varanasi to Sarnath as well.)

both Bodh Gaya and Sarnath are interesting as they are relatively small Indian cities these days with only tens of thousands of people. meanwhile various monasteries have been built by various countries (in their typical styles) including Thailand, Japan, China, Korea, Burma, Tibet, etc. most are fairly new and while staying in these towns, it's pretty easy to walk to each and where possible go inside and even meditate or just sit peacefully. i plan to do some drawing here too. but the irony is that while these sites are famous for Buddhists and attract tourists and monks/nuns alike, the cities are dusty, polluted, rundown places that are difficult for relaxation and meditation. the noise and air pollution have really clobbered our ears and sinuses and in fact molly is fighting a sinus infection again right now after experiencing one in Kathmandu, where the air quality was equally bad.

i tell ya though, we are still amazed by how different India is from Nepal. we just flew here on the 29th after an awesome time in Nepal trekking and getting to see the sights in and around Kathmandu. the kindness of the Nepalese and the beauty of the country really had an impact on us. while in Nepal, we were fortunate to be invited to the home of our trip outfitter, Binod, on our last night in Kathmandu and enjoyed a typical dinner of papad (basically lentil 'tortilla' chips), dal (lentil soup), curried veggies, and fried chicken, and the best part; masala tea with milk and sugar for dessert. with cinnamon, clove, black pepper, ginger, etc, it's really yummy and a bit spicy. it was so interesting to see his home and meet his wife, son, and mother who all live in a house in the Kathmandu burbs. a particularly offbeat moment: all of us sitting around watching tom and jerry cartoons (Binod's son is 7 years old), but even Grandma seemed riveted.

sadly at the moment, our camera memory card is corrupted with a virus we inherited at an internet cafe, otherwise we'd share images from our time there. we are hopeful to wipe the virus and save the pictures once we get to a more modern country/city (Kuala Lumpur at the end of this month), but we may in fact lose some or all of the 800 pictures we took in Tibet, China and Nepal (except for those posted on shutterfly already). that would be devastating!

flying the 40 minutes from Kathmandu over the border into northern India and Varanasi was so weird. in such a short time, the world feels very different!! Varanasi is an ancient city - one of the world's oldest continually occupied - and frankly it shows! it's just a crazy place with an aged infrastructure. let me paint you a picture....

we stayed at a nice 2 star hotel for about $25/night, and it was probably the best constructed building in a 5 mile radius - but that's not saying much when most buildings look as though they will fall at any moment! right outside you find cows walking the streets eating and cutting off traffic at their whim. no, there isn't a pasture anywhere around, this is their turf (keep in mind that Indians don't eat beef as the cows are sacred and apparently allowed to roam free). the dirt/asphalt road is packed with bicycles, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, motorbikes, wild dogs, maybe a chicken or two. horns honk incessantly, and the smell of smoke from miscellaneous burning fires (trash as well as outdoor kitchens for people that i assume don't have kitchens indoors) add to the overall feeling of chaos. walking out the hotel door after a peaceful night's sleep and into this is better than 4 cups of coffee at waking up your senses! geesh, if anything it makes you want to head straight back into the hotel!!

Varanasi is famous these days for the ghats that line the Ganges River. Varanasi has nearly 100 ghats, used today for bathing, washing clothes, and cremation. did we mention how polluted the Ganges is? suffice it to say that bathing in it definitely cannot make you cleaner than you already are, but being physically cleaner isn't what it's about here.

Wikipedia.... "According to Hindus the river is sacred. It is worshipped by Hindus and personified as a goddess. Hindu belief holds that bathing in the river on certain occasions causes the forgiveness of sins and helps attain salvation."

we walked from the southern end of the ghats all the way up to the top over the course of about half a day, and witnessed so many strange and unbelievable sights it will probably take a month to fully digest and make sense of them. watching live cremations is something we had seen in great detail in Kathmandu recently which was a good thing because while Varanasi is famous for it, it was harder to actually observe because we were being hammered by locals trying to sell us various things or beg for money. the countless narrow passageways around the ghats reminded us of Venice as well as Morocco, but more dangerous - thanks to the cows and water buffalo that like to cruise around! they occasionally decide to start running through the alleys and we witnessed a small stampede requiring everyone to suddenly run the other way or take shelter (as we did) on small stairways to the side! i am not certain if our health insurance would cover us if we were trampled by a cow.

we are now planning to stay in Bodh Gaya for another 7 days possibly before heading to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and a few days later start our 2 week driving tour of Rajasthan. molly has said she wants to update her blog too, so stay tuned.