Buddhist Tourists throng Gaya

SANJAY_DEL

Gaya is a popular destination for both Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims. It is the site where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment and advocated the essence of life and where Lord Vishnu of Hinduism preached the reality of death.
Gaya is seeing the influx of pilgrims from many countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand.
Indian Airlines, Druk Air and Thai Airways International have launched air services to Gaya.

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New-South-Welshman

It's pretty good to see airline services coming into Bihar. I've travelled through Bihar on train, and got off at Buxar station for a drive in UP, and wondered how so many people got to places like Gaya. I guess planes will make it easier, plus make a wary traveller more keen to visit Gaya.

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sirensongs

Gaya itself is rather a hell-hole, or perhaps more appropriately, one of the hell-realms from Buddhist cosmology. Best seen from a rickshaw on your way out, straight to Bodh Gaya - "do not pass go, do not collect $200."
Despite what the railway stn touts tell you, the share rickshaw to BodhGaya is 80 RS for the whole car. (They ask as much as 40rs per person.) And, make sure you do not arrive at Gaya after dark - travel in Bihar is really not safe even for locals after dark.

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whatiyam

i am returning to Bodhgaya soon, and the last time i traveled there was by bus from Kathmandu to Ruxaul (sp?) then to Patna by bus then via 4th class train to Gaya.

needless to say it was a very interesting trip. the bus from Kathmandu is straightforward, you have a choice of two routes, there was no advice on which to take in the lonely planet nepal, so i chose the shorter one on the map, through Ruxaul. however it doesn't matter because you will be dropped off near the border in pitch darkness in the middle of the night then rickshawed to the border where the office is closed till later when the sun comes up. then the next bus looked good on inspection, although with 5 seats across cramped, but that only took us a short distance where we were changed to an old bus. that luckily didn't breakdown till near patna, where a rickshaw driver tried to take me on somewhere other than to the train station, but the nice indians from the broken down bus intervened. the train trip to gaya was alright although it took four hours to go a relatively short distance. after that it was dark in gaya so I stayed in hotel across from the trainstation till morning. i must have left a piece of food in the pack i was carrying because a rat ate through the bag that night.

while i was there i read that tourists polled gave high marks to gaya for being the worst city in india. its not that bad, in the daytime it is safe enough not to feel unconfortablly safe. it is a bit run down but must have looked nice a hundred years ago. you can spot the prostitutes in gaya because they stand out on the veranda in very bright red velvet outfits.

sirensongs

If it's just BodhGaya you want to see, you are among thousands of pilgrims each and every week so you will not be alone.

In my case, literally about 200 western Buddhists, Tibetans and monks from all countries (Vietnam etc) had been in UP for the Dalai Lama. En masse we took a train from Varanasi to Gaya. The train was meant to depart VNS at 5.15 and arrive around 11am. Thanks to fog conditions, we ended up leaving VNS at 11.30 and arriving in afternoon! Needless to say, we really got to know our fellow travellers on the platform.

At Gaya station, we descended on the auto-vultures who immediately tried to overwhelm us with exorbitant demands - taking advantage of the coming darkness (do not travel even from Gaya to BGaya after dark! even with other people).

Fortunately the Tibetan monks go all the time and knew the score. So I took a share auto with a bunch of monks who got the correct price. (They all speak Hindi and Tibetans do not bargain. Even the drivers are respectful to them.) How much safer could a woman be?

We managed to get to BGaya by 4.30pm. Once in BGaya you are home-free - it is quite the oasis, with lots of clean guest houses, good vegetarian restaurants and holy people from all traditions swanning round in their robes.

Sure, there is dust, some dirt and beggars. But it's a town quite well adjusted to travellers and foreigners. Women can move about freely there, but most stuff shuts at 9-10pm. My guesthouse gate shuts at 10pm. There is even an allnight cyber cafe with excellent speed!

The BodhGaya temple is amazingly clean and peaceful, even while being continually used for worship. And - no entry fee for anyone!!

The many international monasteries have cheap clean guesthouses - Burmese, Bhutanese, Thai, Bangaldeshi etc.

It is a real haven and worth going through Bihar for; just take a few precautions.
--don't travel outside of BGaya, or bet. BGaya and Gaya, at night. Neighboring villages are fine for day trips but get home before dark. I was advised by resident Tibetans not to even take the auto bet. BGaya and Gaya alone in the daytime - there are too many staged "accidents" and robberies.

Take the plentiful and cheap cycle rickshaws round town. The autos tend to be more expensive and run by antisocial elements (advice from local Indian).

Share autos between BGaya and GAya - safer because of the crowd - are 80Rs for the entire car.