Day 17

From one of the holiest sites for the Hindu religion, we took a 20-minute auto-rickshaw drive in the morning to one of the holiest sites for the Buddhist religion, Sarnath. It's the site where the Buddha gave his first sermon after his enlightenment.

The place itself isn't especially impressive. There are some old structures that are mostly in ruins, and then there are several new temples built by (and in the style of) various foreign countries. So the most interesting thing for me was the people, particularly the Buddhists making a pilgrimage to the sites. People would "walk" in a circle around the main ancient stupa, lower themselves down, lay completely prone, face down on the ground, work their way up, take one step (or sometimes zero steps!) and repeat. And this included some really old women too. I've always had it in my head that among world religions, Buddhism was one that had about the least amount of "worship". But seeing all these people really gave a different impression. I got the feeling that if the Buddha could see his people today, he'd be pretty disappointed, but as Arjan astutely observed, that's probably the norm for most religious founders.

From Sarnath, it was back to the Varanasi railway station to catch our 3:15 train back to New Delhi, the first step in our upcoming 24 hours of travel. This time we would be going Sleeper Class, which, at about $7 for a 14-hour journey, was more than four times cheaper than the 2-AC class we took on the way to Varanasi. Again, we were expecting all kinds of chaos and people stealing our seats, but instead it was completely relaxed, and at least for the afternoon, much more enjoyable with the open windows and the views of the countryside. Sleeping wasn't quite as easy, as blankets weren't provided like they were in 2-AC class, so it got a bit chilly in the early morning hours. Plus there were the "Chai....chai...." and food guys walking by about every ten minutes throughout the day and night. Kind of like guys at the ballpark shouting "Red hots, get yer red hots!", though at least these guys weren't slamming the metal lids on their boxes. I still hear their calls in my head, even if I don't know what things they were actually selling. However, I felt fine when the train arrived in New Delhi (around an hour late), so I must have gotten enough sleep.