The Kolkata Rajdhani pulled into Gaya Junction Railway Station at 5am and we quickly scrambled down with our backpacks and bags of donated clothes. 3 mins was all it took before the train continued towards its final destination of Kolkata. We lingered in the "Upper Class Waiting Room" (thought it was pretty egoistically named) and when day break finally came (it was deemed to be unsafe to go to Bodhgaya before dawn), we hired an Auto (Rs90/S$2.90) for the 16-km journey to Bodhgaya.
Looking for a place to stay in a monastery seems to be a very difficult task (i.e. rooms seems to be fully booked) especially if one did not make a prior booking. We went to the Thai, Bhutanese and the Tibetan (all 3 of them!) monasteries but all of them were full. The Vietnamese monastery did have some rooms for offer but the high price (Rs700/S$22.58) deterred us from making that splurge. In the end, we settled for a conventional hostel; Hotel Tushita (Rs350/S$11.29 per single) along Bodhgaya Road (just opposite of the Archaeological Museum).
After a short rest (think I smelled worst than preserved fish sauce), we set off for Root Institute (a well known meditation center in Bodhgaya) via a cycle-rickshaw (Rs10/S$0.32). I was commenting to my fellow volunteers on how un-India this place was; it was so quiet, clean, peaceful and not at all dusty. Perhaps I should stay here next time if I am ever going to get back again.
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A volunteer was helping out with the setup of the mobile clinic.
- impressions of Ghonghawa Village, Bodhgaya District, Bihar, India |
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Photograph of a little girl and her younger sister at the mobile clinic. Thought that the baby was pretty cute. |
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A woman with her health records. |
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Dr K, the doctor on shift for the day, was handing out milk biscuits to children who were suffering from malnutrition. |
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This is so true indeed. |
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2 boys were sitting in front of the classroom after the lessons were long over. Somehow they did not respond when I began snapping pictures of them. |
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I was wondering why there were so many women (and no men) waiting outside and I realised I was blocking the entrance to the women's clinic!
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Thought that this was a rather good picture taken.
- impressions of the Shakyamuni Buddha Community Health Programme (mobile), Ghonghawa Village, Bodhgaya District, Bihar, India |
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We all laughed because the little girl was trying to eat the wheat biscuits without opening the wrapper. |
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A staff "dispensing" medication to the patients - by feeding 2 droplets straight onto the tongue! *What you see is what you get* |
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