Bodhgaya, A Train, and A Delhi

It has been quite some time since my last post, so I will fill in the geography here.

I ended up spending quite some time in Bodhgaya, being almost half of the trip up until that point. Bodhgaya was big enough to offer many sights, sounds, and smells as per usual India.

Maybe it was the large number of Buddhist pilgrims and the small number of Hindu tourists, but it had a peaceful, more pensive nature. Except for Sarnath, Bodhgaya was the easiest place to relax.

The other advantage of Bodhgaya was the "monastery" we stayed at. The Sakya temple offered a very peaceful place to recover from more busy places. The rooms faced East, so sunrise always filtered through the windows, and looming trees offered shade from a somewhat intense sun.

After Bodhgaya, we began the journey West. This required a trip by Autorickshaw back to Gaya. As it happened, the day we were to travel was the second day of Holi, a huge Hindu festival. After picking up some new friends, we ventured into a color filled world.

From stories, I had imagined buckets of color slung from every corner of the street, turning the world into a giant painting. As it was, color was reserved mainly for hands and faces. The two main colors were redish-pink and hulk-green. If I had to choose, I would probably go with green, fearing the red would make me blush for weeks.

Taking a very uncrowded overnight train, full of regular Indian shennigans, we arrived in Delhi. This time around, we were able to experience a more full-bodied Delhi. One that is an assault on five senses, with only minute pockets of solace in which to rejuvenate. I was lucky enough to find some in my travels, and I am happy for that.

After 3 long days in Delhi, I headed off to Rishikesh via Hardiwar on a tightly packed train. The ride was quite fun, and I spent a majority of it speaking with an Indian couple and a young Indian family, and for that I say "Libba-libba-lay!"

Arriving in Hardiwar was uneventful, with the usual rush of cabis, wanting to take us anywhere. We walked down to the street to the bus depot, which was the experience of this trip so far.

When asking for the bus to Rishikesh, there were two responses:
1) I can take you by taxi
2) Eiither shrugging shoulders or laughing or pointing in a seemingly random direction

Now, all of the buses have numbers, but all the writing was in Hindi. After finding the one person who would tell us, we saw a bus emerge, slowing down just enough to enable jumping on. From there, it was a bumby and somewhat exciting bus trip to Rishikesh, a city seemingly without beginning or end.

And here I am in Rishikesh, the first city I feel comfortable spending some time, walking, hiking, climbing, swimming, yoga-ing, meditating, and Qigong-ing. I feel that this more than the start of my second part of this trip, but something altogether and different at the same time. I hope to get all into my next post, so tune in next time for something a little more deep.

Thank you for listening!