Sorry about the lack of updates, I haven’t had much time recently, or if I have done then it has coincided with either a power cut or the phone lines being down and thus all the internet connections. I suppose this is going to be a fairly long post so you pay want to go and make yourselves a cup of tea before you start (Darjeeling of course).
So I left Darjeeling about a week and a half ago and headed back down to Kolkata for the day before getting a late night train to Bodhgaya. Bodhgaya as some of you may know is the place where Siddhārtha Gautama sat under a bodhi tree for 49 days until he gained enlightenment and became know as the Buddha or ‘enlightened one’. What you may not know is that the Buddha was born to the son of a king and destined for the life of a prince he instead turned his back on the material world and began the life of an ascetic. In due course he nearly killed himself after limiting himself to a small nut a day for nutrition and he realised that rather than completely discarding the material world he would need to follow a ‘middle way’ to enlightenment.
Anyway Bodhgaya is the home of the Mahabodhi Temple, built on the site of the bodhi tree. A truly serene site to spend a few hours walking around, reading or watching the coming and goings of the numerous monks who are knocking around. I got to talking to a group of old Indian men for about an hour one day in the grounds comparing the differences between the UK and India. They were very concerned for my moral well-being because my parents were divorced. Divorce was pretty much non-existent here and they were very concerned about the whole thing, struggling to understand how in many cases it can actually be an event that makes people happier. They didn’t look to happy when I suggested that if it was not so taboo in India then maybe so many women would not have to suffer in silence whilst being systematically abused by the husbands or stuck in a loveless marriage that was arranged by their parents.
Because Bodhgaya is so important to Buddhists, generally every country which has a large Buddhist population has built a temple here. What makes this more interesting is that each country has built their temple in the style of their home country. So the Thai Temple has a multi layered and angled roof allowing the sun to shine of the golden edges, the Japanese temple is more colourful than an episode of the tellytubbies and the Burmese temple is fairly understated, at least from the outside. I spent an hour at the Japanese complex in a beginners meditation class. Not that I thought it would be but I can now say for certain that I don’t think meditation is for me. I could barely stand up after an hour with my legs crossed and trying to to let your mind wander just makes it wander even more. But it was an interesting experience none the less. The only problem with Bodhgaya is that it was over 42C everyday and the power kept going out…hence the fans in all the buildings did the same, not a comfortable place in which to try and get some sleep.
From Bodhgaya I went to Varanasi, one of the worlds oldest cities (previously known as Benares). Mark Twain once wrote that “Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.” I can fully recommend a day or two there because I honestly don’t think that there can be another city like it anywhere in the world. It is a city where the inhabitants and Indian people that travel from all over the country to visit go about their business in a whirlwind of colour and noise. Varanasi is considered a good place to die as bathing in the Ganges is supposed to wash away sin and dying here supposedly it ends the cycle transmigration. The river is lined with over 100 Ghats, most of which are used for bathing or washing with a couple used as burning ghats. There is nothing to prepare for the the shock that goes through you when you walk the through the thick acrid smoke at Manikarnika Ghat and realise that it is a result of a cremation ceremony at the side of the river. As you carry on walking that chances are that would will walk past a group of people carrying a dead body covered in a sheet and chanting in preparation for the burning. The old city itself is just a gigantic maze. Honestly I have never been anywhere where you lose your sense of direction so quickly, arriving at night with no idea how to navigate through the old lanes is a fun experience. I ended up paying a couple of kids 10rps to take me to my hotel as otherwise I would have ended up sleeping at the side of the river, money well spent in my opinion.
Got up at 5am one morning for the sunrise and to watch the hive of activity at the ghats from a boat on the river. That was amazing, definitely something I can say that everyone should do. Watching people go through their daily rituals and or cleaning process in full public view is something that even after 3 months still gets to me over here. You feel like a bit of a perv sometimes! Alas in my sleep deprived state I managed to forget my camera so I don’t have any pictures which is a shame.
Varanasi although a great place to visit is not somewhere that you want to linger, the heat, hassle factor and general lack of things to do after the first full day all encourage to scarper fairly quickly and that is exactly what I did. Feeling the heat a bit I decided to head back up north to Dharmasala via Amritsar (the site of the Sikh Golden Temple. Caught a flight from Varanasi to Delhi (lots of points for Jet Airways….a full meal with real cutlery!) and then was then supposed to get a connecting flight to Amritsar a couple of hours later. That did not happen. First they said we had a delay of a couple of hours because there was a problem with the plane, then they said that if the plane could not be used then there was a flight coming in from Bangalore a 10pm that would have enough flying time left to take us to Amritsar. Sure enough come 9.45pm we were told our flight was cancelled and there was no other plane available. Met up a couple of British guys and after much hoo-hah managed to cancel that ticket and get a flight for the 5.45am the next day. Turned out that the guy lived in Leicester and went to Loughborough Grammer of all places, so that provided a bit of banter for a couple of hours.
I don’t know about you but when a new airport has just been built (Delhi is being completely overhauled, to the extent that the indoor bench I slept on last time is now 10m outside the front door) but I expect them to own their furniture. This is obviously not the case though. Around 3am when eventually i drifted off to sleep I got woken up by a guy who said that the bench I was sleeping on (I know a soft leather c\sofa with no arms was too good to be true) had been recalled by the rental company and had to be removed. So at 3am they went about waking up everybody and removing about 10 benches from the airport loading them up into a van outside. I think that they were just robbing the airport but there you go.
Eventually got to Amritsar and found a place that had rooftop views over the temple complex. The city loosely the Sikh equivalent of Mecca or Jerusalem so it had a real air of spirituality about it. The great thing about Sikhism is that it is an inclusive religion. Every temple has a communal kitchen that caters for the people and everyone regardless of wealth or class sits together on the floor to eat……a real difference to the caste based system that can be so prevalent elsewhere in India. The main part of the temple itself is set in the middle of a big pool and covered in around 750kg of pure gold, spectacular when the sun is shining on it. Met up with an elderly Sikh guy with a cycle rickshaw one night and got him to take me around the city the next day. Really nice guy, his grandfather was a Punjab soldier in the British army as it turned out, he turned out to be a mine of useful information. No where less than at the Martyer temple which he showed me round and explained the various different parts, including why I was meant to crawl on my hands and knees through a 2ft high tunnel!
Caught a bus from Amritsar and arrived in Dharmasala yesterday evening after 7 hours. Caught a jeep up to Mcloid Ganj (where HH Dalai Lama) usually resides. Think I am going to try and find some volunteer work here and maybe stay for around a month, haven’t looked into it yet but it shouldn’t be too difficult. Not been here long enough to write about the place yet but will do so shortly!
That in a rather large nutshell is what I’ve been up to. Will report back soon and will get some pictures up as soon as I can.
