(It was recently that I decided to create a travel blog and I thought of starting with my first backpacking did back in 2012. The date of publishing has no relevance so to say.)
I think preparation time for the exams has been the most creative part of my life. It was while preparing for my 3rd semester exams, I thought of recording a few songs sung by me with a karaoke. I also remember starting my Spanish audio lessons when I was in a similar mood preparing for my 2nd semester end semester examinations. I think it is the time when you get bored of the same thing you are doing for a long time and really want to do something else. I have also started some other blogs earlier during my exams thinking of adding many posts later and deleted most of them finding them to be rubbish. But this time, I think I am not going to delete this. So it was another exam season when I started planning for my first backpacking trip back in February 2012. Since I am staying in Kanpur, choosing the destination was not a problem for me and I made a really smart choice, 'Bihar'. I really wanted to experience India and the trip turned out to be awesome.
I booked most of the train tickets since it was the first time for me travelling alone, but not any accommodation anywhere. Also I had to be really mean spending the scholarship I get for my travels. So I chose to travel in 2nd class sleeper coaches.
As soon as the exams were over, I was ready to kick off my journey. But I didn't have a good backpack and decided to get it from Kanpur market. My train was at 20:05 from Kanpur Central and I had somehow made my mind that it is at 22:05. I always had this confusion in the 24h- 12h conversion. By the time I got back to my hostel after purchasing the bag, it was already 19:30 and at around 20:15 I had a glance at my ticket and suddenly realized my mistake. I still had faith in Indian Railways, and checked the CRIS website. The train is about half an hour late and it will depart from Kanpur central at about 20:35. I knew that I had no choice but still decided to give it a go. I started running fast to the IIT Gate(It's 2 km from my hostel, yes the campus is really big) and I was lucky enough to get a lift on a bike from Nankari to the gate. I got a 'tempo' (the big Autorikshaw) from the gate but it was 21:10 by the time I reached the railway station through the heavy traffic on the night of 'Holi'(yes, I forgot to mention this earlier). But I was completely undone when I looked at the display board. The 'Mahabodhi Express' in which I booked the tickets will leave from Kanpur Central at 1:00 in the morning. But the excitement did not last for a long time as I realized that it was the other train which is coming back from Gaya. So, the only option I had was to buy a general class ticket. Even though the journey in General compartments in this part of the country is unimaginable, I thought to give it a shot. These are like once in a life time experiences and you never really know if you will be able to do some adventure like this in the future. I bought a general class ticket for Ajmer-Sealdah Express which was supposed to leave Kanpur Central at 23:50, though I was hearing the name 'Sealdah' for the first time. But Indian railways had a soft corner for me at least for this train. I was more than 2 hours late when finally I could board the train at around 3:00 am in the morning.
The journey was a real adventure. The train was completely packed and I somehow managed to get into the train by the time the train left Kanpur. My eyes quickly pointed out a thin guy sitting alone in a side seat(which is supposed to be for 1 person but used by 2 or even 3 people many a times). Most of the people inside the train were trying to sleep on the floor and somehow didn't have an eye on this seat. After a lot of hard-work, I could walk up to that seat and requested politely to him to adjust me there. He agreed and I got at least half a seat. But later on as we reached Allahabad, he also wanted to sleep and this nice guy told me that he would sleep on the floor so that I can have the seat for myself. I managed to sit and sleep and the train reached Gaya around 11:00 on the next day.
I was in search of some decent hotels near the railway station area and I found one not very far. Almost all the shops and restaurants in Gaya were closed due to the Holi celebrations and I did not even have the slightest idea about this. Only few vehicles were on the road, and the person at hotel reception told me that I will have to hire an autorikshaw in order to go to Bodhgaya(which is around 15 km from Gaya). I had a quick shower and got out on the streets. Some children were playing with colours on the streets and I could somehow manage not to get anything on my dress. I found an 'Autowaala Bhaiya' with whom I had to bargain down my trip cost to Rs. 150 after 5-6 minutes of conversation. Even though I considered myself an expert in Hindi (even in the local slangs), I was having a hard time with the Autodriver. The journey from Gaya to Bodhgaya had to cross some king of a reserve forest region(why this is important will be clear later).
I reached Bodhgaya around 3:00 pm and I headed directly towards the Mahabodhi Temple.
