Day 127, Patna, Bodhgaya [Monday 7th April 2008]

Previous day: Day 126, Guwahati — [Sunday 6th April 2008]

Next day: Day 128, Bodhgaya [Tuesday 8th April 2008]

An uneventful night on the train. There are a huge number of vendors on the train this morning, selling everything from digital cameras to suit materials, massage equipment to curtains.

We arrive at Patna at 2pm, and have to change trains to head towards Gaya. There's a bunch of very aggressive, leering boys on the platform who gather round us and start spitting Hindi, sneering and gesturing towards Kate. So, it's obvious to both of us that we have truly returned from the hills, those northeastern lands of peace and tranquility, and are back in plains India. Back in the land of the bell-bottomed boys, those hand-holding boys in their high-waisted, hip-hugging trousers. Idle men on permanent career breaks, lolling by the side of the road, staring like they've never seen pink skin before. Some of them stare vacantly, as if their eyes don't recognise the sum which is before them; others watch, lizard-like, their dark gaze revealing more sinister calculations. They whisper behind their hands, or put lips to ears in a mockery of tact, as if we understand or even care what they say or think. There's something of the stray dog about these boys — sneering, roaming in packs, unpredictable, seething with sexual heat and prone to, or capable of, indiscriminate violence. Women, ubiquitous but always on the periphery, gawp, chew gum mindlessly, giggle behind sari-corners.

We leave the station and decide to get the bus. It rattles along and arrives in Gaya at 7pm. We get a shared rickshaw (13 people in it) to Bodhgaya, about 13km down the road.

At Bodhgaya, exhausted after a full days of travelling on trains, buses and rickshaws, we get some pretty good noodle soup and spinach and cheese momos at Om cafe then swiftly crash out for the night in a huge, empty hotel a few yards down the road.

Next day: Day 128, Bodhgaya [Tuesday 8th April 2008]

Previous day: Day 126, Guwahati — [Sunday 6th April 2008]