The last two days have been a serious whirlwind of travel. The bus to Patna was the nicest bus I’ve ridden on in the past three and a half months. No one was standing up, my chair wasn’t broken, peanut shells weren’t covering the floor; I’m talking first class quality for only a buck fifty. It was so nice I just had to take a picture of it.

Finally we reached Patna at 9pm after leaving Bodhgaya at 2. I’ve had an upset stomach bug the past few days and hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so I got some food at a local Indian restaurant. It went down fine but about an hour later, while taking a cycle rickshaw to the train station, I began to feel really sick. Although I felt like cow poop, I managed to find my train platform, which was packed with people. Look:

I sat down and started to wait, trying not to notice the mass of people that had gathered around and were staring at me. It sucked-all I wanted was to wallow in my belly ache and be anonymous. But considering I was the only white face around, like always it seems, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Jos no happy. Here’s the visual.

About two minutes later, with nowhere to hide, I took about four steps to the edge of the platform and threw up. It was crazy-the puke was a like rocket shooting out of me, not wanting to spend one more second in my body. Trajectile vomit I tell you. A couple of more dry heaves later, I felt on top of the world.

When I turned around, and found every single pair of eyes within sight were staring, absolutely STARING at me. I gave this weak wave, said, “Ehh… Namaste..??” and sat back down on my bag, knowing full well that everyone was still staring at me. That definitely goes down in my record books as one of the most uncomfortable moments in India thus far. All in all though, the day ended alright-I got on the train, in my bunk and laughed to myself about it all.

I swear I’m having a good time.

On a lighter note, I’ve made it to Siliguri and from the poll it looks like I’m heading to Sikkim! I’ll get the permit tomorrow and take a bus up to Darjeeling. The permit only last 15 days, so I need to make a plan before I go if I want to do any trekking or rafting. I hear the scenery is spectacular up there, I can’t wait to get in the mountains.

I had to get an unexpected root canal in Delhi in the beginning of March, so my budget for the month is running low. I’m gonna try to skimp when I’m in Darjeeling and have some ideas on how to do it. One-I can limit myself to eating only street food-the more local the better. Two-I can try to stay for free in a guest house in exchange for recruiting (touting) tourists at the bus station. And three-head to a touristy place, bring a sign that reads five minute hand massages for 20 rupees (50 cents). I’m up for hearing your ideas of how I should save-write a comment! As you can guess, I’m open to suggestions…

Hay hay hayyyy-

Bodhgaya’s been fantabulicious but it’s time to move.

I’m heading to Darjeeling where I’ll be best set to go where ever y’all decide. Well, Darjeeling is the final destination I should say.

Tomorrow I start the trip at 7am with a 4 hour bus ride to Patna, and then I need to kill some serious time doing who knows what until my train leaves at 10:45pm. Patna, as everyone has told me, is about as exciting as itching my mosquito bitten butt.

The overnight second class train ride should arrive to Siliguri at 11am, but probably more around 1 or 2pm realistically speaking. From there, I have another 4 hour bus ride to the famous tea locale. I think I might be a wuss, break the trip up and spend the night in Siliguri. To travel to either Sikkim or Assam, I need special permits, which are easier to get in Siliguri than Darjeeling. Who knows, we’ll see. For now, I leave you with an excerpt from the movie Caddyshack that’s been on my mind here in Bodhgaya. (This is taken from Wikiquotes.) Ahh, Bill Murray.. you so funny.

“So, I tell them I’m a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald… striking. So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one — big hitter, the Lama — long, into a ten-thousand foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga…gunga — gunga lagunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/v/TkLH56VlKT0&hl=en

I’ve finally made it to Bodhgaya aka Buddha central. The train ride was hellish; full of staring men and smells that I never want to smell again. Pretty much second class train ride as usual. This is the place where the Buddha reached enlightenment under a Bodhi tree- right here-

I can’t believe I’m sitting here and all I can picture is Keanu Reeves as Buddha. Damn Hollywood movies.

Here’s a massive Buddha statue over 80 ft high that the Japanese built and was unveiled by big poppa DL in 1989.

I started up a conversation here with a group of Bangladeshi monks and their tour guide, Bijoy. After a while I asked if I could get a photo with them. Immediately each one of the monks reached under his robes and took out their own digital cameras. Funny how things are- I’m stoked about getting my picture with Bangladeshi monks, they’re excited to have their photo with the blond American girl. I laugh to myself when I think of the monks looking at this exact same photo back in their monastery.

The photo-op soon turned into this, when a bunch of Japanese Buddhists living in Australia wanted to get in on the action.

It became a Joslin version of ‘Where’s Waldo’.

That night I had some tea with a Burmese monk I met at the Bodhi tree. I was so brain dead by all the travel and activity of the day that as we were sitting awkwardly together, inside this fly-filled hole in the wall tea stand, with everyone staring at the monk and the blond girl, the only question I could think to ask was…

‘So how do you like being a monk?’

Nice one Jos. Classic.

Not sure how long I’m gonna be staying here or where I’m headed next. I got some options-head north do some trekking and rafting in Sikkim, an Indian state squashed between Bhutan and Nepal, or head east, to the state of Assam right above Bangladesh, an area rich in biodiversity and home to the might Brahmaputra river. I’ve also heard great things about Kalimpong, but I know zilch about it. But going there on a whim is a very Joslin thing to do. What do you think?