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Second post on India:

Kolkata ---> Gaya

Last night I tossed and turned for what seemed like five hours. My stomach felt upset, and I could feel acids throughout my throat. I woke up as the sun was coming up, ran to the bathroom, and threw up. I threw up with such force that my vomit bounced off the toilet and on to my pants and a good deal of the floor. I felt so sick that I laid down in my own vomit while crickets jumped on me. This is all part of my Indian experience. I'd prefer not to go through this again, but I don't necessarily regret it either. Marissa took care of me. She was extremely kind.

I must have eaten some dirty food. I felt my body rejecting what felt like poison.

The hotel is pretty filthy. Crickets are jumping everywhere and our water is not running. We have a beautiful view from our room of a temple perched on a hill.

Name of hotel: Atchaasatru



Upon waking up today, I drank some electrolyte beverage and headed with Ris & family to a place called Bodh Gaya (roughly 20 mins away from Gaya). We jumped in a van and invited some fellow travelers to come along. There was three of them: a girl from Belgium, a girl from Holland, and a guy from the Bihar region of India. I talked to them on the way. It was a pleasant discussion about India, Thailand, and Louisiana. We parted at Bodh Gaya.

Bodh Gaya was beautiful. Bodh Gaya is where Buddha was enlightened under the pho tree. The temple and the tree were very nice. I felt incredibly serene. After walking around the temple, I sat down with a female Buddhist monk as she taught Thai to a few young Indian boys. She was very gentle and kind. Toni came over and we talked to another female monk. We discussed the current state of Buddhism in Thailand, and the overwhelming amount of overlap between the way Buddhism and Hinduism are currently worshiped. She remarked that she thought it was funny that so many Thais are currently wearing necklaces with Hindu gods on them. She thought it was especially funny that many Buddhist monks are doing the same thing. I felt peaceful talking to her. Islamic prayer chants shouted over loud speakers provided background noise for our conversation.

I don't believe in limiting spiritual experience. I disagree with people who believe that spiritual experiences can only occur under "controlled" circumstances. In other words, a spiritual experience can only occur in a specific context (at the temple, in sacrament meeting, etc). Spiritual experiences are abundant if we don't narrowly define "spiritual" according to our subjective perception of spirituality. Places can be spiritual. Conversations can be spiritual. When we express our love of our neighbor, it is highly spiritual. Life, in essence, is a broad spiritual journey. Agency provides vast space in which to explore spirituality.

Last night a parade with drums and yelling could be overheard from our hotel room. We all seemed settled, the atmosphere of our hotel room, and the general atmosphere of Gaya felt somewhat familiar. We stayed up late playing games and discussing Mel's love life. My stomach had settled down quite a bit after the 4-5 hour nap we took earlier in the afternoon. It was a pleasant night.

Gaya - center for Hindu pilgrims.

Today we woke up and left the hotel around 10 am. We planned to visit a few sites in Gaya before riding a train to Varanasi at 2:50 pm. We looked around for transportation, and ended up settling for a cart driven by a pony. The autorickshaws were not driving due to a strike. Five of us climbed up onto the small wooden cart. Toni screamed in fear, worrying that we would break the cart and fall in mud, or that we were abusing the small horse. I admit, at moments I felt the cart was going to break. Mostly because we were riding down a populated road with plenty of holes. Also, besides the five of us, were the driver and his young (possibly 6-7) son. The road, as I said, was intensely populated. Flocks of people passed us, smiling at our situation. Tons of boys and girls were coming home from school. Many of the girls were effortlessly beautiful. They smiled, and embarrassingly stared at me, followed by quickly looking away. Shortly after, a young man on a bike followed closely behind us, and started a conversation with me. He was in Gaya to teach computer programming (oracle, to be specific). He followed behind us for quite sometime, our seamless conversation periodically interrupted by holes in the road and screams from Toni. We got off the cart as we neared the temple. We were not permitted into the temple, but walked around the area surrounding the temple. A guy in all white clothes brought us to the back to see funeral pyres. Shortly after he said a Hindu prayer, blessed us, and put orange spots on our foreheads. After this, we purchased some items and headed back to the pony. The ride back was fun, especially when we passed the autorickshaw strike. The city was vibrant, alive with people. The driver's little boy fell asleep on the very back of the cart. He was hanging on but looked like he might fall. Toni grabbed him by the shirt, holding on to him as we finished the last leg of our trip.




Name of temple we traveled to: Vishnupad

Explanation of Vishnupad Temple from Lonely Planet:

"Caught between the crowded section of the old town and the falgu river is the sikhara(it) (spired) Vishnupad Temple. It was constructed in 1787 by Queen Ahalya Bai of Indore and houses a 40 cm 'footprint' of Vishnu imprinted in solid rock. Non-Hindus are not permitted to enter, but you can get a look at the temple from the pink platform near the entrance. If you walk past the temple and down the steps, you'll find yourself at the rivers edge and among many a funeral pyre" (p.510 - 511).

Train ride:

Gaya ---> Varanasi