Bodhgaya the land of bliss and Varanisi the kip

Bodgaya and Varanisi:

+ The problem with matching luggage sets when travelling
+ I hang out with a monk in a cave
+ Enlightenment vs. the modern day man 
+ I hang out with a priest on a train (better snacks than the monk in the cave)
+ I hit tourist land in the wrong season...........and yes Varanasi is a KIP
+ Burning obsessions and getting burnt by trusting the wrong tourists 
+ A very bad cocktail of Monkeys and Yoga

After the disappointment of not making Buddha's birthplace (Lumbini, Nepal) due to landslides I was delighted when the train slowed into Gaya station.  I was heading to Bodhgaya to see the area where Buddha was enlightened and was welcomed by 20 rickshaw drivers all wanting to enlighten me with their 'special price'.  I soon found a good deal and we only needed one more person to fill the auto I headed towards the only white person in sight, an older traveller, the first person I'd seen in India with a full luggage set (I'm guessing he was a runner up on a TV game show). He looked lost.  I told him about the deal and he said in his broad deep south US accent "listen boy, I only get rickshaws outside of the station, infact, I normally get a bus".  Good luck mate, I'd got a bargain of a rickshaw and there were no buses.  Two minutes later he was onboard with his matching bags and a sour face.  Immediately the driver started trying his english asking the american questions (in what I thought was pretty good English).  Oldboy's response was "Speak English man I cannot understand a word", it reminded me of Marjorie and Meera in Fat Fighters but this guy was no comedian.  He was a cock.  Still, I was in Bodhgaya so thought of the quote "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who get burned."  Wise words Buddha.

After the madness of Kolkata I was delighted to be staying in Buddhist monastery.  A friend had got me a room at Schechen monastery, an amazing experience considering they only let a handful of visitors stay there every month.  The most peaceful place I have EVER stayed!

So, enlightenment.  Something I knew very little of before I came to India.  Most of my enlightenment would have previously come from material goods and the closest I got to a spiritual tree would have been.....

I have no interest in an ascetic lifestyle or becoming a monk, I like fine wine and my mulberry wallet too much but there is a balance in today's life and the noble truths from Buddha are a great guide to evaluate what really is important based on how attached we are.  To Buddha enlightenment was truth and inner peace, he found it by doing a number of things but the two most famous are meditating in a cave for 6 years and then sitting under a tree for a week at which point he was enlightened and became Buddha 'the teacher'.  This all happened in Bodhgaya.

I met a 12 year old Buddhist monk called Prince on my arrival and him and his friends showed me round for the day.

Walking across to Sujata

A statue of Buddha in the cave where he lived for 6 years.  It was a pretty special cave and Prince (the little monk!) sang mantras whilst we were in there.  

A Hindu Swarmi walking around the grounds by the Tree of Enlightenment (Bodhi Tree)

And finally the tree (with some monks praying infront of the tree in the photo below). 

Whether you're a Buddhist, spiritual or just a tourist in India this place is a truly uplifting place to visit.  Witnessing a site where someone had such a positive life transformation is something I will remember for a long time.

That evening I was having dinner and who should walk in but Bill Mr matching luggage.  He walked over to me and with a friendly smile said "Hey Chris, great to see you."  He'd previously blanked me so I had a very quick dinner and made my excuses; I saw how he treated locals and had no interest in seeing anymore.  I spent the rest of my time in Bodgaya with a cool american guy called Dan, infact all of a sudden I was meeting more westerners.  This was a good warm up for Varanasi. 

On the train to Varanasi I was sat with a Swarmi (Hindu Monk), a few educated random middle class indians and the two chaps (on the right) who just ate crisps and picked their noses the whole trip.

 

I love these moments as, even after nearly a year in India I haven't a clue what this place is about so we indulged in a debate on women's empowerment in India, charity, religion and tantra.  It was fun ;)

The Lonely Planet introduction to Varanasi reads:

"Brace yourself.  You're about to enter one of the most blindingly colourful, unrelentingly chaotic and unapologetically indiscreet places on earth   Varanasi takes no prisoners.  But if you're ready for it, this may just turn out to be your favourite stop of all"

Sounds pretty special right?  Well, I can save all of those adjectives and just say "Kip".  I'd been warned by so many people of the Varanasi constant hassle and scams but this was the first place I was offered a rickshaw before I even got off the train.  Someone jumped on the train when it was still cruising at 15 mph and whilst he was hanging off the side he spotted my pale skin and shouted "rickshaw". Unbelievable (and yet impressive!).  As for the scams, 90% of the transactions I made in Varanasi involved the wrong change.  My favourite was with friends Adam and Carly after a meal at my hotel when the waiter added 100 rupees to the total without any explanation.

You do the sums.....

If you are a Hindu and get cremated and then laid to rest in the Ganges at Varanasi it is said that you are purified and that your spiritual essence is released.  I reckon that is why everyone in Varanasi is up to sommit dodgy.  

I probably shouldn't give Varanasi such a bad report.   It supposed to be totally different in high season (I'd tried and failed in high season due to the trains being booked..)  Varanasi was flooded and as a result there weren't many tourists.   This was the Dolphin bar, one of the most famous viewpoints along the Ganges... 

Photos of the flooded Ghats....

 

It was here that I met a friendly Spanish couple Jaume and Pat and we spent the afternoon trying to find a Ghat (steps to the Ganges) that wasn't flooded.  Jaume and Pat were heading to Rishikesh and I wanted to get some money to Roopak a kid with polio I've been working with.  I gave them 50 euros and they agreed to deliver to a said point.  That was 2 weeks ago.  They were due to leave India yesterday and I never head from them.   I know having spoken to Roopak that he has had no delivery.  He is an orphan with polio, living in a small room that was flooded in the monsoon.  He's in a bad way and I cannot believe that the corruption of Varanasi got to the Spaniards too.  It makes me sick.  I'll be putting out an ask for Roopak on Facebook soon to get him fixed and in a sustainable project.   I'll also put it up on here so please keep a look out.

Having spent time with the Spaniards I'd been speaking a bit of spanglish and was amazed at how the locals knew the language   Infact they knew every language   If I ever return (and I probably will as I have heard the boat down the Ganges is gorgeous...but impossible during monsoon)  then I'll get myself to a Gaeltacht before heading to lash out some irish at them :)  I did find one technique for avoiding being hassled.  After having "hello friend.....I have a rickshaw/shop/crack cocaine" types latch on to me for the first few days I decided to try and shake them.  They are determined.  Say no in any language  speed up, stop and have lunch......they will STILL be there.  However, if you do a funny dance such as a moonwalk or robot away from them they cannot cope.  This works best on mass, as proven when Adam, Carly and I lost a guy who called himself 'Michael Jackson'.....and wouldn't leave us alone.  He couldn't moonwalk, infact he walked off when we did.  Clearly a fraud.

The one tourist attraction that was still happening was the burning of corpses on the ghats.  It was a very strange obsession with the travellers and one I soon fell pray too myself.  You'd be sharing a chai with someone from Berlin when all of a sudden they'd see a funeral pression go by and run after the corpse with the hope of seeing it being burnt.  I got to see a few bodies being burnt.  The other place that travellers went on mass was to the Blue Lassi cafe.  Infact the Lassis were so good here that you nearly ended up liking Varanisi!

Me with a mixed fruit Lassi......a meal in a cup :)

Owner Shivani.  He works 7 days/week with minimal breaks and produces the best lassi in the world.  LEgend. 

Travel around Varanasi during the monsoon was testing at times and impressive to see how rickshaw drivers coped with the flooding.  My favourite trip was to the University in a bicycle rickshaw where for some reason Adam and I chose an old guy as (my fault) he 'looked the part'.  Only problem was he looked like he should be in a postcard, not like he should be riding a bike, let alone dragging two lads along.  After 5 minutes of him getting very close to a cardiac arrest I told him to swap places and I jumped up and took control.  It was a breeze, cycling through the street smiling at all the locals who just looked shocked at the white guy doing the work. Then something went wrong.  Seems I didn't know his rickshaw as well as him, and there was a reason he hadn't been cycling fast.  He had a broken axle   Within the space of 5 seconds we went from cycling along happily to veering off to the right out of control into another rickshaw.  No-one was hurt and we all had a good laff :)

One of the few things I enjoyed about Varanasi was my hotel.  It was an Indian budget hotel, full of waddling old men wearing string vests, dhotis (men's skirt) and scratching their arses.  It, had, however, a subtle charm (and a cheap price ;) ).  It also had an amazing terrace for me to do yoga on.  Until the last day.  After my last yoga practice I looked over the edge of the building and met eyes with a monkey.  I probably looked for just a little too long but within 10 seconds there were +5 monkeys on the roof all in attack mode with their arms in the air. I've worked with monkeys in the wild but this was like a scene out of Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  I bricked it and got behind a door just in time before they reached it and started banging.   The staff came up in numbers with big bats and scared them off but when I went down to my room they were outside my window.  I was glad to leave Varanasi!

Here's a picture of a more docile animal friend greeting Adam and I at a local restaurant....

Next stop RAJASTHAN...