Update from Bodh Gaya

Since a view days I am stuck in Bodh Gaya. After x-mas in Lumbini and then the holy city of Varanasi I thought it is a good idea to come here on my Buddha tour. And I wanted to meet Rita but that did not work out due to the lack of communication. Her shitty Hungarian phone company did not like to forward my sms from Germany or India :-(

But I did meet Dee and Gerben again! Dee has a phone that is actually working and she uses Facebook as well. Great!!

Did meet a few other nice people and after changing my guest house things got better and quieter.

It was very cold the last few days. Of course the cold wave started AFTER I did ship my trekking stuff back home.

Next stop will be Gokarna where I should meet Efrat again. Last time I did meet her in Manali in August – she is still here, did spend the last few months on the beach. Good Girl!!

Another Indian adventure. Ppl told me to take the train because it is so much better than the bus. Right! So I need ticket and it was Happy New Year so everything was closed and in the end I did order them in my guest house. Foreigner quota so one has to go to the train station to get this ticket. From a junction to Bodh Gaya – from there to Patna (really difficult to get there with the bus!!) and from there to the other site of India.
They did charge me 100 rp per ticket – great! Had to pay 250 to get to the junction, train was nowhere near at 10.20. Did meet a couple from the french part of Switzerland so it was not so booring. They wanted to go to Bodh Gaya as well. 11.20 – no train! We did ask and where told that at 12.20 my train would come. At 12.20 there was a train – different number but i have a ticket for the trip? We went in. Found a bench in sleeper that was free – or they did make it free? Had a nice time with the 3 guys on the other site. Than the conductor came – uhhh wrong train! 1000 rp fine!
Ui the other guys told him to sit down and somebody was called to explain. I tried to tell him that I was sent to this train and I have a ticket for sleeper – only in another train – the other guys said this is way to much and so on. After 10 minutes he still wanted 1000 rp. Than the Indians started to haggle – it went down to 500 – still they did not like it. In the end it was 300 – right in his pocket. We did smile as it was too funny! 1 minute later he came back and asked if there was a problem. No there is non Sir! OK so smile – and we did.
Another day in India!