Day 31: Homeward Bound & End of Blog

The Gateway of India

The overnight stay at Hotel Accord in Mumbai was good. Saturday morning we rose at 5am and made our way by taxi through the much quieter streets of the vast, over-crowded megatropolis that is Mumbai. One of the world's largest cities at at nearly 21 million people.

We three friends parted at the airport: Adityabodhi back to Pune and Sanghanath and I back to the UK. 

Sanghanath and I are back in Cambridge now. We reached Heathrow at 2pm today and Vimalanath was thankfully there to pick us up at Heathrow. SADHU!

It is always a long flight back and I had a chance to reflect on what an excellent month this has been.

A month of good work, wonderful friendship, some fascinating tourism, pilgrimage, being the recipients of great hospitality and generosity, cultural diversity and an awful lot of travel. Within India itself, we travelled over 4000 miles.

I feel very grateful to be sat here in Cambridge now - having had such an experience.

Day 30: Flight to Mumbai

We are leaving for the airport at 09.30am this morning by taxi. Our mid-day flight takes us to Delhi, where we wait for a while and then on to Mumbai, where we have our last hotel stay. Then Sanghanath and I must rise at 5am to get checked in at Mumbai International airport for the 08.55 flight to Heathrow. All being well, we get picked up by Vimalanath's taxi service at 14.30 BST at Heathrow, and then back to Cambridge.

I think returning to Britain will be a cultural and meteorological shock.

Start of the concert last night

The concert last night was sublime. Really wonderful traditional Indian music and we were transported. 

I particularly appreciated the tabla. Such amazing rhythms and sounds.

The night streets of Bodhgaya

4.30pm at Delhi airport: We are now on the plane for Mumbai - sitting waiting for takeoff.

This morning, we got to Gaya airport and so many of our friends were there - waiting for flights around India or flights back to the UK. Our short flight to Delhi went well and now it's another flight to Mumbai where our last hotel awaits us.

Tomorrow morning we board a British Airways flight to Heathrow at 08.55. Given the change in time zones, we should be back in Cambridge for tea time - all being well. 

What a month it has been! I have seen things and been places I could not have imagined - in the last month. I feel privileged. Privileged, especially by the wonderful hospitality of Indian people. 

For three of my four weeks, I did not see a single other Western white person. But then, I'm used to this. This is my twelfth trip to India. My close friends here forget that I'm British, because I'm just me, and their friend. However, riding through remote villages, I get lots of stares - not at all unfriendly. Sometimes, I'm the first Westerner they've ever seen.

Remote village in Rajasthan

10.15pm: Here we three friends are in the Hotel Accord once again. I am back in the same room I was in on my very first night in India a month ago! Sanghanath, Adityabodhi and I have just had our 'last supper' together. Tomorrow morning we will have a parting of ways at Mumbai airport: Sanghanath and myself back to the UK, and AB will head back home to Pune. This month is a big month for him and his family. His son Vishal has a kidney transplant this month - with his mother being the donor.

I have been helping AB raise the £8500 to pay for it.

Vishal and family

Day 30: Flight to Mumbai

Day 29: Last full day of this trip

Yesterday, I visited the Archeological Museum here at Bodhgaya. It was good to see the ancient artifacts and to read about the fascinating 2000 year history of the site. 

We were so lucky that the British restored the site in 1870 onwards. It was a ruin for hundreds of years before that.

We have the Viceroy of the time - Lord Mayo to thank for that, as he initiated the Survey of India, which led to the restoration of India's thousands of ruined religious sites. This was good news for Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Jains. Unfortunately, he was assassinated while inspecting the Andaman Islands, which shocked and outraged Queen Victoria.  

Lord Mayo

Archeological Museum at Bodhgaya

Last night I did not go to the temple for puja. I was still recovering from the dehydration and also the temple was stuffed with many thousands of Tibetan monks, nuns and laypeople. There would not be much room on this occasion, even though the temple and its surroundings has the capacity of somewhere like an English Premiership Rugby Union stadium like Gloucester.

Kingsholm Stadium - the home of Gloucester Rugby Union Football Club

Though the nights are staying cool, the weather is getting hotter. The BBC weather app says 27C but it feels hotter than that. It will be a shock to get back to the UK in winter.

Tonight, we have a cultural programme to go to: a concert by two Indian national treasures: a tabla player and flute player. I think I will really enjoy this.

Before the concert, AB and I watched the sun setting. Our month is almost over.

Day 28: Stretching myself

AB and I have spent around 25 days doing morning yoga sessions online with a very popular Indian teacher called Saurabh Bothra. These sessions start around 06.30. Though I have Rheaumatoid Arthritis (RA) and yoga is not my preferred and most useful form of exercise (that's cycling and gym sessions), it makes sense in India.

It's hot here most of the time. Gyms are not flexible enough for me to be a member for a short time. You wouldn't want to swim in an Indian swimming pool and cycling on Indian roads would be a quick route to the grave. Walking and yoga are do-able, so while I'm here, that's what I can do to keep in reasonable shape.

India is both a very beautiful and fascinating country. It is also a very dirty one. Hygiene standards are much lower, and that requires scrupulous health practices for us Westerners, or we get very Ill, very quickly. 

In the 22 years I've been coming here, I've noticed the rising tide of plastic waste strewn overwhere. There is no effective recycling. It really shows. You can be travelling through a beautiful countryside scene, and the ground will be littered to a huge degree. Because places like the Taj Mahal are so important for tourism, there is a small army of litter pickers - keeping it prestine. Otherwise it would be covered in plastic. Anything less than the Taj Mahal or a Government bhavan (official building) will be be strewn: railway stations, high streets, public parks are all strewn with plastic waste, particularly. Every river everywhere is filthy and polluted. It's a sad indightment of what happens if you don't manage things properly.

India is drowning in a sea of plastic waste

Last night's puja at the Mahabodhi Temple was dominated by Tibetan monks - lots of them. They were setting up for a special day today, and there wasn't really room for hundreds of us. Somehow we co-existed for the evening.

Apparantly there will be 15000 (yes fifteen thousand) Tibetans at the temple today, so I don't know what we'll do tonight!

What 15 thousand Tibetans looks like

This afternoon, I fell foul of the dreaded dehydration again. It is so easy in the dry heat to not drink enough. I should know better after 22 years. I've dosed myself and can feel my body coming back on line now.

I am going to give the temple a miss tonight.

Day 27: A few things on my plate

Bihari breakfast

As we are in the poorest state in India - Bihar, I have been surprised how good the local food is. There is a lot of choice. The equivalent of £2.50 will bring you a feast.

During our 3 week tour, we were being fed three times a day by local people who were often very poor but would have been offended if we had eaten at a dhabba. Hospitality is in the Indian DNA. There was no choice of food for me, I had to eat what was served. It was always vegetarian, of course, but my goodness, it was always hot (spicey).

I am enjoying my chats with other Buddhists, Western and Asian men and women. I've met many who do charity work here. 

Yesterday, I was involved in a small accident in the street. A Tibetan boy-monk came zooming out of a monastery gate on a bicycle into the busy street as I was walking by. He hit my right calf with his front wheel and fell off his bike. I was bruised but not much. He hit his head and bashed his elbow, unfortunately. First Aid training kicked in and I checked he wasn't concussed. Luckily I had antiseptic wipes and plasters and managed to fix him up amidst his tears. He winced when I applied the antiseptic to his small wounds. He kept saying "Ghong Dhag" (sorry) and "Thug je che" (thank you). I looked up these words later on Google translate. 

I didn't have the Tibetan words for "Be more careful, kid" so said nothing and smiled at him. He eventually smiled back and got back on his bike. It could have been a lot worse. Lots of folk around stopped and watched but no-one else offered to help. Perhaps they thought the situation was in hand.

This is India.

The boy monk looked rather like this

I wonder what will happen next on this trip? There's a few days to go yet.

Day 26: Into the Home Strait

Nepalese temple

In 5 days, I will be packing my bag to prepare for the flight home to the UK.

It's going well here, and I am appreciating sharing a decent hotel room with AB, and having a regular routine after 3 weeks on planes, trains and automobiles. 

AB is a 69 year old yoga teacher (amongst other things) and is able to do yoga poses I can only get half-way towards. 

So we do an hour's yoga each morning. Gyms are not really an option in India (they exist but have rediculously rigid membership rules), so I need to do something to keep fit whilst here. We are also walking everywhere instead of taking rickshaws. 

It will be interesting to see how much weight I've actually lost since being here.

Can't wait to get back to the YMCA gym in Cambridge and a decent 25 mile bike ride!

The bike on which I cycled from Lands End to John O'Groats

This morning, AB & I had a late breakfast in the hotel and did some touring around temples. We mainly spent time in a beautiful Nepalese temple dedicated to the deity Vajrasatva. It was an exquisite place and full of atmosphere. We also spent time at the Chinese temple, which houses three huge Amitabha Buddha figures, which are 200 years old and came over the sea in a boat.

Chinese temple

I am able to be active mornings and evenings here in India now. The afternoons are too hot and I rest in the hotel or do administrative work around our project.

There is much, wealth, splendour and tourist income here at Bodhgaya. The scores of magnificent temples and monastic buildings draw huge crowds. But poverty is also all around. There are substantial slums that are just behind the main streets. This is where the shop workers and street vendors live.

At the very top of our hotel is an area where guests can dry laundry. There is a metal and brick hut on the roof in which many of the hotel staff live.

This is India.

Typical slum housing

I enjoyed the puja at the Mahabodhi Temple again tonight. There must have been a rhousane people there from many countries. It is a special place in the evenings in particular.

Day 25: Settling in 2

Inner Temple statues

The complex of temples at Bodhgaya are very beautiful and uplifting. There is a deep spiritual atmosphere. So countless numbers of pilgrims have come over the centuries. This creates a special atmosphere. However, this is juxtapositioned with deep poverty, ugliness and crime.

The sort of unfortunate beggars you see around Bodhgaya

There are lots of beggars around this Holy Site. But less than there used to be. I've been coming for 17 years now. The Police are cracking down. It is hard to know what to do as a Westerner. Sometimes I give, but mostly I don't, as I know they usually work for a Beggarmaster.

Rats are a frequent sight anywhere in India, and rather large ones are often around the temple. Pickpockets, scammers and thieves are everywhere, so you have to be on your guard. Cows wander everywhere here, as they do all over India.

Some people use their children as a source of income. Yesterday, I watched two parents parading their daughter who must have been around six (same age as my oldest granddaughter). She was tightrope walking on the side of a busy street about six feet off the ground. She had to do this all day.

Yesterday was a good first day. However I did fall asleep in the hotel for two and a half hours in the afternoon. I intended just a short nap. Now I am in a stable place and routine, I am assimilating the intensity of the last three weeks of our tour: the constant travel, all the people, the strange places, the drama and joy of it all.

I am eating Western-type food now. It is a relief after everything being Vindaloo level for the past few weeks.

I'm pleased to see the switch to electric rickshaws happening in India. Though AB and I are not using them. We are walking everywhere for exercise.

This morning, we got up at 5.30am as usual for meditation and yoga. We heard incredible chanting and mass shouting outside. We were concerned it was a riot. But it was Hindu Nationalists protesting against India's Democratic constitution. They would like a Hindu-led dictatorship.

This was prompted by today being Republic Day all over India. 

Exactly 75 years ago today, the great Buddhist Dr Ambedkar's newly-written Indian Constitution came into effect. He was the Chief Architect of this new constitution, which was to form India's governing code, three years after Independance.

Today is a national holiday.

Typical Bodhgaya electric rickshaw

Dr Ambedkar

Day 24: Settling in

Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya

We are all settling in here at Bodhgaya. This place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and central Buddhist pilgrimage place. It is quite beautiful and wonderful and, because it is in India, it is also colourful, chaotic and crazy. 

The five mile rickshaw ride we had from the packed Gaya station yesterday to our hotel was frenetic, massively congested and full of the shouting of competing rickshaw and taxi drivers. The air resounded with a deafening cacophony of horn blasts, revving engines, shouting, price-haggling and the barking of many stray dogs. 

It's a unique Third World scene.

The giant Buddha

Having said all that, nothing, nothing can compare for Indian madness with the Flower Market in Kolkata (Calcutta). It is somewhere that everyone should experience once in a lifetime! Kolkata is the maddest and most congested city of all. I know, I've worked there (Mother Teresa's Hospice at Kalighat).

Flower market, Kolkata

Typical Kolkata street

Mother Teresa's Hospice, Kolkata

This morning we settled into our retreat programme. We are gathered near the monumental Mahabodhi Temple (the central pilgrimage place) for meditation and chanting. 

The original temple was probably built in the 6th Century Gupta period. Archeologists don't really know. They do know that Ashoka founded it around 2000 years ago, and it went through many stages of re-design and development, during the various dynasties of Indian history. By the time Alexander Cunningham encountered it in the mid-to-late 1800s, it was in a state of total disrepair. The amazing Major-General lovingly restored it. So we Buddhists owe him a lot. What we have now, is the results of his work.

We also owe Anagarika Dharmapala a lot, too. He managed wrest it back for Buddhism. 100 years ago, It was being taken over as a Hindu site, and he effectively prevented that.

The temple in the 1800s before restoration

The temple complex in 1899 after restoration 

The temple is open for around 14 hours, every day of the year. At any one time, there will be hundreds of pilgrims present, and very often thousands - especially when the Dalai Lama is here.

9pm: The puja (devotional ceremony) at the Bodhi tree this evening was excellent. What with our circumambulation within the inner temple, it was one of life's peak experiences. I felt as happy and contented as I can be in this life - doing that.

On a more mundane note, a real surprise is the amount of tractors around the Bodhgaya region. They comevright into the town from the country. Usually pulling large trailers of tourist goods/fruit and massive sacks of rice for all the restaurants. The roads are so bad here (effectively dirt roads) that it obviously warrants a tractor to bring big loads in.

Almost all tractors here are Sonalika. An Indian tractor manufacturer, based in the Punjab and the third largest tractor company in India.

I really would like to drive one!

Day 23: Arrival at Bodhgaya

7am: It was not a bad night's sleep on the train, but really, Indian sleeper trains are not easy for someone of my age and with rheaumatoid arthritis.

Of course the train is very late. There is dense fog outside and the train is going slow. Could be mid-day before we reach Gaya station.

According to Google maps, we are near Varanasi, and have 227km to go.

6.30pm: Here we are at Bodhgaya, the place of the Buddha's Enlightenment and the most holy of Buddhist places. It is a delight to be here among thousands of Buddhists from scores and scores of different countries.

AB and I have booked into our hotel and I am greatly looking forward to this retreat.

This morning, on the train, our team reported-out over our tour. We reviewed it and declared it a resounding success. Some apologies where made by some of us about things we hadn't done as well as we could, but overall, we found there were almost no negatives, only positives regarding the team, the task and us as individuals.

Day 22: Train to Gaya

We are due to leave at 08.30 today. Our train is at 09.15. There is 6 hours to wait in Mathura for the 6.30pm overnight train to Bodhgaya. We may visit the museum. We reach Gaya on Friday morning - all being well.

So.... probably 24 hours of train travel - on and off, if it all goes on time.....

09.11: We are on the train now, and thankfully it is not like the picture above (though I have been on Indian trains exactly like that).

Several Alwar friends are actually on the train with us, as it sits in the station and they won't leave the carriage until the train is due to pull away. Indian hospitality dictates that you not only take your guest to the station, but carry his/her luggage and provide drinks and food for the journey. 

My Western conditioning is always rebelling against this, it feels unnecessary and stifling. Being an independent traveller, I smile and put up with it, but it does feel claustrophobic and I want to do things for myself. People mean well and this is India.

The Indian hospitality model is amazing, though. In three weeks of travel in five cities, I have not bought a single meal, or even a cup of chai for myself. They have all been provided (and happily so) by scores of others.

I do have fantasies about travelling India incognito on an All India Rail Pass (AIRP) and just going where I like. It's such a fascinating country. Rather like Paul Theroux. However, as so many folk know me all over this subcontinent, it would be impossible. Folk would find out where I was through our network, be offended that I hadn't asked for their help and would intercept me at stations and want to travel and look after me!

If I'm serious about doing this in future (and I am), I may need to do that in Bangladesh - the nearest to the India experience. I don't know anyone there. Pakistan is too dangerous for Westerners.

Our group on the train - hard at it on their phones

As we travel through the countryside, I reflect that rural India (which is most of it) is vastly different from the cities. This is the Third World, with deeply entrenched attitudes and ways of life. Apart from mobile phones and tractors, there's not much of the modern world to be seen.

1pm: We are now in Mathura. The train was on time! We are in the Mathura Museum which is very good. Our Gaya train is due to leave at 6.30pm.

Buddha figure at Mathura Museum

After seeing the museum, Buddhist men with cars turned up and were going to take us to some Buddhist Holy Site nearby. I had a bad feeling about this but NM had clearly obligated himself, somehow. People were expecting us. It looked like a programme to me. It was 8km away in terrible traffic. There was some serious gridlock. Getting back in time for our train worried me.

On arrival, I made my reservations loud and clear. As it turned out, the others reluctantly agreed. We found out it was partly a Hindu shrine, so we weren't interested, anyway. We made the sensible decision to turn around and make the long journey back to the station - arriving in comfortable time. Who and why we agreed to this foolish jaunt may never be known.

If we had agreed to a programme, we'd have missed our train. Social obligations, eh?

This is India.

6pm. We are now in the waiting room, waiting for the Gaya train.

The ridiculous traffic at Mathura

8pm: We are now on our sleeper train to Bodhgaya. We have our sleeping berths. Our three weeks tour is finally over and we can settle into the International Convention tomorrow.

I think this has to be my last tour. I'm 66. They are too taxing, good as they are. I can do other, easier things in India in future.

I think I'm suffering from MICE (Maximum Indian Cultural Exhaustion). It crept up on me in the last few days. A week at Bodhgaya will remedy that.

Day 21: Pilgrimage to a Holy Site

Alwar: where we currently are in India

Today, the plan is to drive out 50 km to Bairat, a Buddhist Holy Site in Rajasthan. We have hired a minibus for six of us. It will be good to have a day together at a significant place without having to do any more events/programmes.

Our digs in Alwar

Bairat

Inevitably, in India, our 6 seater minibus is overloaded. We have picked up four more friends who are coming for the day with us. We have 10 packed into a 6-seater. I asked the driver if anyone else was going to ride on the roof and everyone laughed. 

Indians don't seem to mind being packed in like sardines. The atmosphere is holiday-like.

After three hours we got to the house of the site custodian. He is a Buddhist and kindly gave us lunch and escorted us around the site. It was a tough climb to walk up the mountain walkway to the ancient monk's temple complex from 1500 years ago. I was feeling weak and dizzy from dehydration, as I had not drunk enough in the morning (I rectified this).

What we found was like an Indian Stonehenge. It is the oldest religious shrine site in India and was built by Ashoka. Quite an amazing place and well worth the trip.

We also saw the site of Ashoka's ancient Buddhist Rock Edicts. Sadly, they have been completely demolished by Hindu hard-liners. They chizelled the edicts from the rock.

Site of the Rock Edicts

What the temple would have looked like

We are now on the long trail home. Pradeep the driver is playing Indian film music. Rajasthani scenery is pretty amazing.

On the long way home

As it was dark, we got home so much faster, and were in Alwar for 6.30pm. We are now at a local supporter's upmarket flat with his family for a final meal of the tour. 

What a succesful tour it has been! We did what we set out to do, and with harmony, on budget and with no major mishaps or illnesses. 

I have been delighted to see the good effects that the money I raised are being put to.

Before bedtime, we had a little programme around the shrine to say thanks to the family, which they appreciated.