in a dusty internet cafe

The train to Agra - where the Taj Mahal is - is 5 hours late. So Kim and I are in a tiny dusty internet cafe near the trainstation in Gorakhpur. The room is the size of a wide hallway decorated with a Hindu poster, a small Hindu shrine.

Of the Hindu characters we both like Ganesh. The one that looks like an elephant. Ganesh used to have a human head, but there was a misunderstanding: Ganesh's father went on a trip and when he got back he did not realize that the man sleeping in his wife's bed was his more grown up son, so he took his son's head off. After realizing his mistake he put the nearest head he could find back on his son's body.

But since very Hindu Vernanasi, we have been visiting Buddhist sites.

First, near Veranasi is a relaxing place called Sarnath which is where Buddha gave his first sermon. Hence they call it the "birthplace of Buddhism". There are buddhist ruins there that marked the spot. It is also a very nice place to hang out, away from the Veranasi crush.

Second, further away - a 4 hour train trip and 2 hour taxi - is Karnath which is where Buddha died. There is a stupa marking where he was cremated and a famous 'resting buddha' statue that was recovered. Also there are Thai, Cambodian, Sri Lanka, Japanese and Vietnemese temples and monasteries there.

Kim and I stayed in the Vietnemese (buddist) monastery.

This is the first time either of us has stayed in a monastery, so we weren't sure if there were any rules or expected behaviours. A monk first showed us to the Buddha shrine, we took our shoes off - but didn't do much else. He then asked if we were looking for a place to stay and we said yes. Then a guy showed us our room and said it would be 300 rupees.

Unfortunately there was a power outage which meant that we had to go to bed at 6:30pm. I slept well and had lots of crazy dreams. In the morning we were woken up around 6ish by little monk boys quietly chanting and ringing a bell while walking clockwise around a statue outside of our window.

So we've seen two of the four Buddhist pilgrimage sites: Sarnath and Karnath. The other two are: Bodhgaya which is further east and is difficult to access because of the flooding from Nepal; and Lumbini which is in Nepal.

We briefly considered going to Nepal to check out Lumbini and Kathmandu, but the timing was tight because of the time we have and because Kim's Indian visa was single entry so we would have to apply and get another one from Nepal.

But we do think we have time to go to Bombay. Which is meaningful to me because of Gonzo in the first Muppet Movie.