Day 129, Bodhgaya [Wednesday 9th April 2008]
Previous day: Day 128, Bodhgaya [Tuesday 8th April 2008]
Next day: Day 130, Allahabad [Thursday 10th April 2008]
I get up early and go to see the Thai, Chinesese, Taiwanese and Darjeeling/Sechen temples. At 7am the bus which a travel agent promised would turn up, and which we bought tickets for, fails to arrive. We retrieve our money from the agent and get a rickshaw to Gaya instead, where we then stand in a hot, sweaty queue for a train ticket. The whole station is packed with men.
Men queuing, men idling, men sitting. Where do they come from, all these men? Where are they going? Young and old, do they have jobs? It's 10am and there's more people in this small station than Waterloo at rush hour. The men either side of me in the queue work in the Indian Air Force.
The "Upper Class" waiting room smells of urine. A middle class man bravely approaches, his children in tow, and attempts conversation.
"Which country? he says. "You see Boddhi tree?"
He sits back down, pleased with himself. His children remain, staring mutely. He glances back and watches while Kate combs her hair.
The train to Varanasi is quiet, and our cubicle is empty. We read our books and play some Scrabble. At 6.30pm, when we are due to arrive, a ticket inspector passes by. Looking at our tickets he says,
"Benares gone. Next stop Allahabad. Three hours."
We'd sat right through our stop! Oh well, at least Allahabad is somewhere we were heading to anyway — we can spend a day or two there and then head back to Varanasi.
At Allahabad, after an embarrassing, juvenile squabble between cycle-rickshaw drivers competing for our custom, we get cycled to the Civil Lines area. We ask to go to a specific hotel. The rickshaw driver tells us it's burned down. We ask to go there anyway, suspecting he's liying. Once there we discover the hotel has indeed burned down, with our very own eyes.
Amazingly, they have a McDonald's here, on MG Marg. We go in and get some food as we haven't eaten all day and it's 10.30pm. It's my first McDonald's in about 7 years! We get Paneer Wraps, fries and Cokes. The town is quiet, but many food stalls and cafes line MG Marg and they are all busy with people eating, drinking tea and talking with friends.
Walking down MG Marg with our backpacks on, we eventually find the Tepso Hotel, a cheap, clean place (Rs. 550 a night).
Next day: Day 130, Allahabad [Thursday 10th April 2008]
Previous day: Day 128, Bodhgaya [Tuesday 8th April 2008]