Bodh Gaya

          What can you say about Bodh Gaya? Well, if your thing is meditating, you can't really find a better place for that anywhere else on earth.
           Yesterday morning we climbed a mountain to have a look at where the first council was held after the Buddha's death. A bit like Vulture's Peak in that these guys liked a bit of altitude for a sit down. Saw some joe getting carried up on a sedan chair which ... well, I suppose ... no, I did not like that. He wasn't ill. At the top, I had a wee meditate and there was a sadhu sitting there, quite impress really in a black suit jacket and red everything else. Top knot and a smouldering lump of dung. I have him some water and fruit since getting up and down yon mountain for supplies must have been a pain in the neck. Quite impressive looking, sharp eyed joe, and he wasn't begging.

             The giant stupa by the bo tree is most impressive and the surrounding noisy as hell, with competing chants and loud speakers and tons of folk there when we did our wee meditation. Lots of mosquitos.

              Today I went down with Francoise at half five and sat with my nose close to the stupa for an hour and a half. For most of that time a black dog was lying against the small of my back and we were warming each other. I'm not one for vows, but thought that was enough to make me a vegetarian again. Been eating chicken and any other meat since getting back from the Singalila Ridge.

               I was back at eleven and went into the Meditation Park, which costs 25 rupees if you are a meditator and 20 if you are a visitor, with a "mosquito net" I'd bought on the way. It turned out to be a pink mosquito tent with a seven foot long base. But it meant I'd no excuse to leave it except for the bog, so I sat there from eleven till seven. I had to move when the shade moved at 2.40 p.m., and that's probably the longest sit since I was with Winnie on the Holy Isle during the summer three years back. The meditations got better when night fell around half five.

                There's a cat in a photie. First one I've seen here. It's dog territory. Also, we were in a big tent with Bhutanese (great eyes shut meditation there) in Rajgir when a fat lady squeezed down beside me. Lots of folk ask us to be in selfies so I turned the tables there for the first time.