Day 21 to 23 Rajgir-Nalanda-Patna / Bihar

Namaste,

the flies yes the flies they are everywhere. And that is no wonder, as half of the place looks like an open slaughterhouse. Chickens, goats, everything is slaughtered on the roadside as needed. I moved on and am now in the Bihar state, more precisely in the small picturesque town of Rajgir. Here too, there is naturally a lot of trading and the whole place looks like a big market. However, one difference can be seen at first glance, there are no tuk-tuks here, only horse-drawn carriages.

Of course, I immediately set off on foot again, 6 km out of town to the cable car. It leads up to the 'Radnagiri Hill' where you can find the "Peace Pagoda" built by the Japanese, which is relatively modern but still impressive and shines in Buddhist splendor. The descent is best done on foot because after a short time you will come across the 'Saptarpani Cave' with a plateau above. This is where the first Buddhist council came together and recorded Buddha's teachings after his death.

Unfortunately, the next day it turned out that my stomach problems had still not improved. Nevertheless, I decided to take the local bus towards Bihar Sharif. With the goal of 'Nalanda' 10 km away. There stands the old Buddhist University, which in my opinion is not mega spectacular, but very powerful. Unfortunately, only the foundations are mostly left. Its heyday ended in the 12th century when the Afghan invader Bhaktiar Kilji plundered it. But it is a peaceful place, of course also influenced by Buddhism, a place to linger and enjoy.

A day later, another bus ride, this time 1 hour all the way to Bihar Sharif. Here I change buses directly and then drive for almost 3 hours to Patna. I arrived there around 2 pm.

Now I had to wait my train to Siliguri was not scheduled to leave until tonight at 1 am.

Unfortunately, Patna has long since lost its old splendor and doesn't have much to offer for the eye. Nevertheless, I went for a walk and after a short walk I came across a Buddha Museum with a modern stupa, where I stayed until sunset. Back at the train station, I received the message that my train was already 5-6 hours delayed and that I should not expect it to arrive before sunrise. So I didn't hesitate long and spontaneously went to another hotel where I could relax and sleep well. The arrival of my train was delayed more and more hour by hour.

At 9 am, I decided to return to the train station and wait there and wait and wait and..........

2 pm, what a miracle, the train arrived at the station. However, it only started moving again at around 3 pm and took almost 2 hours for the first 10 km. So now 15 hours late, I embarked on another night on the train.

Namaste...