This morning we left the tranquility of Nadesar Palace as the sun rose.  After some meandering through the already lively streets of old Varanasi, we crossed the Ganges and headed toward Bodhgaya.  Bodhgaya happens to be the site of the Bhodi tree under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment. It is situated in the Indian state of Bihar.  It is important to mention that every guide book and every Indian that we spoke to before we came to India warned us of the dreaded “Bihari bandits”, so it was with a bit of trepidation that we headed East.  At our first stop for petrol, though, we started to realize that Bihar may have more of a bad rap than is warranted.  The people we encountered were as friendly and inquisitive as we have met anywhere in India.

So, by now you’re wondering where the duck butter (google it) comes into play.  By 9am the heat was coming on, and by noon it was 108 degrees.  Over the course of 10 hours of driving under those conditions, gravity had worked its magic and all the sweat had accumulated “there”.  Sorry to be graphic, just keeping it real.

The road itself was quite good.  Amazingly we still have had no breakdowns.  We read nightmare posts to our WhatsApp group every few minutes from teams that are really having mechanical struggles.  While breakdowns might make for more interesting reading, we’re quite happy to have not had them to write about.

We made it to Bodhgaya about 3pm.  It is actually very pleasant as far as Indian towns go.  The place is packed with Buddhist monasteries, many sponsored by the majority Buddhist countries.  We walked through the grounds of the Chinese, Bhutanese and Japanese monasteries.  Very peaceful places.

The key sights are the Mahabodhi temple (site of the original Bhodi tree), and the Great Buddha Statue.  We had a look at each, as well as a shave from a street barber.  To he honest, it was too miserably hot to really get into the feel of the place.  We do have a total appreciation for the suffering that the Buddha was trying to escape, though.

Oh… did I mention that Bihar is a completely dry state?  As of 3 days ago.

Tomorrow it is on to Bhagalpur.

FYI… I’ll add pictures to this post when we reach somewhere that will support a connection that can upload an image in less than an hour.

Cheers,
Brian and Jason