From Bodhgaya, India

Seriously... sorry for the severe lack of posting since we got to India. I know you're all desperate to know what adventures we're on now, but I just don't have time to do a full entry now, so once again, here's a shorty. Also, since we haven't done an audio blog in a while, I think we'll record one tonight and I'll try to upload it tomorrow to fill you all in on our fabulous train rides from Kolkata to Varanasi (the holiest Hindu city in the world, where people still bathe in the river Ganga, aka the Ganges river, and still come to be burned on its shores) and from Varanasi to Gaya/Bodhgaya. So check back soon.

Well, as I mentioned in our previous post, we made it safely out of the Kolkata hospital, had a decent time in the city, but mostly spent time recovering our strength and resolve to be in India. Because we lost so much time in Kolkata, our plans for the country had to be really altered. First, we weren't going to go to Varanasi at all, but our friend Lana (whom we met in Nepal... one of our yoga buddies from SF) insisted on it. I'm so glad we did because the Ghats (the stairs on the western shore of the Ganga) are full of celebrations of life and death. Although the Ganga is filthy as all heck (pollution from industrial plants up-river, dead humans and animals, sewage, garbage, etc.), people bathe daily in the water (mostly men and women only on special occasions), make pilgrimages there to die and be burned at the shores (because they believe that the waters are so holy, thanks to their god Shiva, who built the city, that dying in Varanasi takes you instantly into paradise). Nightly, there are also special ritual offerings to the river goddess, Ganga, and to Shiva. These are called a puja ceremony, and it lasts for about 1 hour and is peformed by 10 Brahmin priests. The city was also very lively and although poverty and annoying touts were seemingly endless, Varanasi was totally awesome and inspiring. People living near the Ghats are living as they have for literally thousands of years. That kind of living history can not be found in most places, and Varanasi is highly recommended. Also, they have an excellent silk shop there, where we spent a crazy small amount of money for a bunch of nice stuff that my sister will take home from Singapore! Finally, we saw an awesome animatronic museum/memorial to the Hindu story of the Ramayana built in the 1960's; think: Chuck-E-Cheeze style but worse! It was hilarious but housed in a beautiful white marble building (see right) with Hindi writing on the inside of the entire Ramayana story, along with gorgeous etched and painted mirrors inside depicting scenes from the story.

Okay, so after Varanasi, we took a long terrible train ride over to Gaya, 10 km from Bodhgaya. Bodhgaya is known as the most holy Buddhist site in the world because this is the spot that the Buddha supposedly gained enlightenment 2500 years ago. In fact, they're replanted an offspring of the tree he was sitting under in the spot. The lineage of the tree is quite well-known, appearantly. It goes something like this: An Indian king named Ashoka destroyed the tree when he came across all the monestaries that sprung up around the site after the Buddha started teaching (we also visited the site of his first sermon, called Sarnath, near Varanasi). But, the tree was not destroyed before a Sri Lankan monk had taken a cutting of the tree back to his home monestary in SL. An offspring of that tree was brought back to Bodhgaya by Ashoka after he converted to Buddhism (Ashoka is famous for spreading Buddhism around Asia by force and for builiding many huge temples, monestaries, and pillars that praise Buddhism). The granddaughter of The Tree has since died, and the one here now is a granddaughter of that and has been at the site for over 125 years now. In the last 50 years, Bodhgaya has seen a revitilization as a Buddhist pilgrimage site, with no less than 20 monestaries from around the world being built up here (most of them since the late 80's). It's a beautiful place.

I should also mention that we've met a ton of really cool people in Varanasi and Bodhgaya, both Indians and other travellers. And to be perfectly honest, we don't love India the way we thought we would or the way other people have told us the love it. It's a strangely fascinating country, but I couldn't spend 2 years here like some people we've met.... it's frustrating and tireing. In fact, until recently, we didn't think we'd even get a chance to meet Indians outside of people who wanted our money (those are the most annoying kinds of people, and they're the same in every part of the world, it seems!). But if you eat at local restraunts, ride the trains, and just hang around long enough, the riff-raff starts to ignore you and you get a chance to meet the real people of India, which has been really rewarding.

Well, more on the annoying stuff in the audio blog... 'till then,

-Mike.