In India!

We spent the last of our time in Nepal in Lumbini. This is the birthplace of the Buddha and pilgrims from around the Buddhist world come here to see this sacred spot. They come and leave offerings of money, silk scarves, incense, etc. It was a really special place and the first place since Kathmandu where we saw a lot of international tourists. Just as interesting as seeing Buddha's birthplace was seeing all the temples and monasteries nearby. Many countries with significant Buddhist populations have places of worship in Lumbini including Japan, China, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, even France and Germany. We spent an entire day just walking from temple to temple which was absolutely incredible because the architecture and the people at each of these temples was from its own country. It was like taking a tour of the entire Buddhist world in a day. You can think of it a little like the "it's a small world" ride at Disney World, except instead of dolls and little houses for them there are real people and full size, traditional buildings. It was kind of surreal!

After a few days we left to cross the Indian border. It turns out we stayed in Nepal one day longer that we were supposed to....oops! Lucky for us the customs guy didn't notice or didn't care and just stamped us through. We each avoided a $34 fine which is a lot for us on this trip. We caught a four hour bus from the border to Gorakhpur which is the first major city from where we crossed. Let me take this first opportunity to tell you that Gorakhpur is a very poor introduction to India. It's a busy city and there is garbage everywhere. Then there are the cows that seem to eat exclusively garbage because there is nothing else around. The only hotels around were expensive and gross. It seemed like there was nowhere to walk that you weren't stepping in trash (or worse), in the mud, or dodging traffic. Most of the places to eat had flies all over. There was also no internet cafe nearby so that's why you haven't heard from me for a while. After spending a little time here we were beginning to rethink our entire trip.

Even though this was only our first stop in India, we knew it could not all be this bad. Everyone we know that has gone to India has loved the experience so we knew there had to be more here. The solution was simple. We had to get out of Gorakhpur! The only problem was that the train was all booked up, so we got on the waiting list for a train three days later. The man who sold us our ticket told us that we were number 5 and 6 on the list and there would be no problem. There would definitely be a seat for us. We came back the morning the train left so he could give us our seats and there weren't any. He said we could stand, but that was no good. Our destination, Calcutta, was 24 hours away. So he said go to the train, get on, and the conductor will find a spot for us, hopefully someone will not show up. We were pretty worried, we didn't want to stay longer in Gorakhpur and we knew that we would have to wait another week to get a confirmed seat if we didn't get on this train.

So we went to the station and the train was two or three hours late. This is bad enough, but we were sitting there staring at an empty track uncertain about our future. We really didn't want to stay. The train comes and we find the conductor and he says "Go three cars back wait for me. I'll come soon. I'll see if there are any seats for you." We do and after waiting for a while we start to get nervous - then the train starts moving. Then it starts moving really really fast. Eventually I decide to try to find the guy and I start walking from car to car through crowds of people trying to find him. I never do. By the time it starts getting dark we decided we needed to fend for ourselves and when a few seats opened up we grabbed them. It was still pretty stressful though because we never knew if at the next stop someone would get on with a ticket for those seats and tell us to move. But what can you do? We made the best of it.

After a while we made friends with a local across from us. He was very kind and generous he shared his food with us and we taught each other card games. As it got later he could see that we were getting very tired and he got up and left. Ten minutes later he came back with the conductor who assigned us some seats. He isn't the only person we've met that has been so nice to us. More than once we've heard people here tell us that we are guests in their country and they have shared their food with us, bought us tea/coffee, and more. Sometimes it's really too much and I feel guilty accepting their generosity but it really seems to be their pleasure.

Eventually we arrived in Calcutta (24 hours is a really long time to spend on a train). Now Calcutta is known for its problems with homelessness, begging, and garbage, but after Gorakhpur all we can think is how nice it is. That was really surprising to us, but it's true! Maybe the government has done some work to clean up the town and its image. In any case, we are very happy to be here. In addition to being India's third? largest city it was also the capital when India was a British colony. There are many historical buildings here, some beautiful parks, etc. Also in Calcutta is Mother Teresa's mission. We haven't had a chance to look around and explore very much yet, but I'll write more when we do.