A Piligrimage Special: Moving On

We left Bodhgaya for Varanasi on 14 December 2007. That was the eight day of our pilgrimage. Varanasi is 250 kilometers or 7 hours away and we left our hotel in the morning with a packed lunch. That must be the second time we had packed lunch and the first time when we were served with moldy sandwiches.The first time we had packed lunch was on day 5 when we were traveling from Kushinagar to Patna via Vaishali. Someone said that the first packed lunch was too big and asked that the second one to be sized down to avoid wastage. While the intention was good, I thought that was pretty insensitive since some of us could really eat. Besides, all the excesses could be given to the poor, children or adults alike, who were always clamoring over us for one thing or another. I remember during this particular trip, some pilgrims gave away their fried rice only to find them in the dustbin a while later. We concluded that the young Indian children did not know how to eat fried rice, this not being their staple food. Anyway, eating in the bus was not a very comfortable experience and if not for the rush for time, I bet we would enjoy a quiet lunch in the beautiful Indian countryside...

Inside our coach...

Our packed lunch...
Scenes on the way...