Achieving Enlightenment
- Sep 2, 2016
- 3 min read
We hopped on a train at Agra, Greg proved to be very popular in the station because he is “a strong man” and everyone wanted a photo with him. One guy wanted to show Greg a picture of his girlfriend… he had downloaded 200 photos of girls off google and facebook. Creeeeeepy. He asked to take a photo with me but I explained I don’t take photos with guys because they claim you’re they’re girlfriend, or something less tasteful.
We took the train overnight to Varanasi where we said goodbye to Matt. Sad face. Unfortunately, we did not like Varanasi which we found to be a really intimidating and aggressive place. The nicest resident we met was a dog who decided to guard us at the train station. While we were waiting to head to Bodhgaya a stray dog curled up next to us and chased/ growled at anyone who came too close, then came trotting back to us looking pleased with herself.
What we did decide in Varanasi that we don’t enjoy Indian cities. Perhaps on a shorter trip it would be ok but at the moment they’re overwhelming and we much prefer the countryside where we can walk around and don’t need tours. Plus, India, though relatively cheap, is not as cheap as we had been led to believe. Especially with Brexit knacking the exchange rate we were getting through our budget much faster than planned. So we looked through our itinerary and cut out cities like Mumbai and fast tracked ourselves down south to the beaches. One last trip in the north though…
It was a short train ride to Bodhgaya and we stocked up on crisps and drinks and happily said goodbye to Varanasi!
Now back as a two, it was strange to be without Matt. We were met at Bodhgaya train station by an enthusiastic local guide who helped us fend off the piranhas circling us in the car park shouting “taxi!”. In total three people met us and we weren’t really sure why, though were instantly suspicious. Sure enough about ten minutes into the drive the guide started talking about a local school he helps run, a school that supposedly runs off donations…
He will take us to see this school.
No thank you.
Yes it’s no problem we can go now.
No thank you.
Ok we can go tomorrow.
…We’ll see.
Out of the three guys who met us, one was a driver and two were pushy, pushy tour guides. Bodhgaya is a tiny place so we thanked him for meeting us and firmly refused a tour guide. It was in this village that the Buddha achieved enlightenment under a Bodhi tree, so is a major pilgrimage site for Buddhists from all over the world. There are temples EVERYWHERE, our favourite was the Bhutanese temple just across from our hotel.
We went to see the Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi temple (UNESCO) and it was beautiful, there was only one person trying to scam us here to it was a refreshing change (one industrious local dressed up as a monk and offered tours).
All around the base of the tree monks and pilgrims were meditating. The story goes that the Buddha meditated under the tree for a week and achieved enlightenment, then he was so thankful to the tree that he sat and stared at it unblinking for a further week. All around this temple are seven sections detailing what he did in the following weeks e.g. here is where he paced during weeks 3-4 after enlightenment.
The tree here isn’t the same tree, but is apparently third generation. Story goes that a king adored the original tree so much that his wife got jealous and stabbed it with poisonous thorns. Luckily, a princess had taken a cutting of the tree to Sri Lanka (another pilgrim site) before it died, so they were able to bring a descendent of the original tree back to Bodhgaya.
The food was astoundingly bad, we took refuge in a coffee shop that did reasonable things and dreamt of the food awaiting us down south. Greg's coffee was very pretty:
But mine was better!
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