To Patna and Vaishali. 13 Nov 2024.

I at first thought it was a direct bus ride to Patna. But at Bihar Sharif, I was told to change to another bus for Patna. 

When the bus attendant was walking around collecting fares, I didn’t know what he meant since he didn’t look like the bus attendant. Instead, he seems to be just a helper for the bus driver. 

I saw people giving 100 Rupees notes, so I followed suit, and gave a 100 Rupee note. 

Towards the end of the journey to Bihar Sharif, he gave the other passengers back their change, except me. 🙂 

I think the fare should be 30 or 40 Rupees based on what I saw the change was. 

Expected 2 hours journey. 

I gave 200 Rupees for the fare. 

80 is written on the ticket. So, I should get back 80 Rupees later on. 

Let’s see if I get back my 80 Rupees. 🙂

After a while, I just decided to give him 20 Rupees for the 100 Rupees change. 

Interestingly, they add salt to the papaya. 

Would update name of hotel later. 800 Rupees.

Reached Patna bus station at about 915am due to a traffic jam nearing the bus station.

If I knew it was so nearby, I would have walked and arrived at 845am.

Got this hotel room near the bus station to travel to Vaishali Stupa later on.

These 3 “holy men” came on board the bus to give blessings with small snakes coiled around their left arms. The snakes were alive. I declined the blessings. 

The local man beside me was approached by one of the “holy man”. I think as a respect, the passenger gave a 10 Rupees coin, the “holy man” then talk to him. 

After a short while, he gave another 100 Rupees. The “holy man” continued to talk to him. Then another 100 Rupees was given. The “holy man” still continued talking to him, till a third 100 Rupees was given. 

Then I believe the “holy man” gave a blessing, pretend to bite the snake on his left arm, spat onto the back of his right hand. (I was seated between the passenger and the “holy man”, hoping that his spittoon didn’t get on me.) After touching the passenger on his forehead, the “holy man” gave back the 10 Rupees coin. 

Interesting. 

I paid 200 Rupees to someone at a counter, who seems like an agent for the bus from Patna to Vaishali Stupa.
The passenger beside me paid only 100 Rupees. He alighted 13km before where I alighted. The difference between buying the fare directly and via an agent.

About Patna Bus Station:

Patna bus station is CHAOTIC!! I thought I have seen chaos earlier in other parts of India before coming here, but Patna bus station is another level. 

From I see, it is because there are many long distance buses passing through the bus station. And these long distance buses are not part of any company or such. So there are lots of agents based in Patna bus station selling tickets to the various destinations that these long distance buses are headed. 

So, imagine, the crowds of agents trying to get the businesses of the people walking around, the place is jam packed with lots of buses, all honking to get through. There are also the food vendors and “holy men” walking around, up and down the buses, providing their services. 

Quite chaotic. 

Story 1 with this passenger: About my dilemma getting to Kushinagar from Patna Bus Station. Resolved!! 

The dilemma: based on my research, from Patna to Kushinagar, I needed to take a train from Paliputra Train Station, which is more than 10km away from Patna Bus Station to Gorakhpur. This is a late afternoon train, so, I would reach Gorakhpur at 925pm, which I am uncomfortable about. There are no trains from the nearer Patna Junction Train Station to Gorakhpur. 

Which also means, I would also need to spend the night at Gorakhpur before heading to Kushinagar the next morning, via a bus. 

On the side, I would also want to visit Kesariya Stupa which is 3 hours away from Patna Bus Station. So, just visiting Kesariya Stupa, it would take me a whole day, to and fro. 

I was also contemplating hiring a private driver to drive me to Kesariya Stupa, before continuing onto Kushinagar. The total journey would be about 210km. So, not sure if this option is available and/or the costs involved. 

How was this dilemma resolved? 

Originally, I was seated opposite this passenger but because I was asking the driver about the bus route, he helped with the translation, then later he asked me to sit beside him. I was asking for directions to Vaishali Stupa and further to Kesariya Stupa, and seeing if there are options to Kushinagar. 

From him helping to translate some information from the driver, I found out that I can get from Patna, to Vaishali Stupa area, then further to Kesariya and then to Khajuria. From Khajuria, I can then take a bus to Kushinagar. Wow!! Fantastic. This would allow me to visit Kesariya Stupa, and still get to Kushinagar via a more direct route. 

So, the plan now, is to get an early bus tomorrow morning to Kesariya Stupa with my backpack. The bus should drop me directly at Kesariya Stupa, based on my research. 

Then hop onto the next bus to Khajuria. If it still early, catch a bus direct to Kushinagar, which should be 1.5hours away from Khajuria. If it is too late, I would then spend the night at Khajuria. Dilemma resolved!! Yay!! 

Story 2 with this passenger: Chatting with this passenger. 

After I found out enough about getting to Kesariya and onto Kushinagar, we kinda just kept to ourselves for the first part of the 2.5 hours journey. 

After a short while, he attempted to chat with me. He was asking/telling me various things about Buddhism, like the basic chants, the Buddhist places to visit, about whether I have visited Sri Lanka, about King Asoka, etc. He had read about the Lord Buddha while studying his Bachelor in Arts in 2004, as part of his Hindi material course. 

He was trying his best to express himself in English by first typing in English to see if the Hindi translation was correct. (I did not know why he didn’t try to type in Hindi to get the English translation instead.) His English spelling wasn’t very accurate, so, I couldn’t understand some of it, at such point, my google translate using the microphone helped. 

After that, he continued to ask/tell me about Jainism, which he also studied during his Bachelor in Arts. Luckily, I knew enough about Buddhism and Janism to know what he was referring to. 

Later, he told me that he is now a regional finance manager with Microsoft, staying 13km south of the Buddha stupa in Vaishali. He got his Masters in Economics in 2015. Impressive resume. 

Before he got off, I asked to take this picture with him.

What a nice encounter that doesn’t involve any money!! 

I took a picture of this restaurant/hotel because: 

– If I needed to show the Autorickshaw driver where to go, I can show this picture, to catch the bus back to Patna. 

– There aren’t any decent restaurants near Patna Bus Station. I haven’t had my lunch, but due to the rush of catching the bus back to Patna, I might have to packet dinner from the restaurant. 

– I want to check the room rates at this hotel. 

Their room rates are 1200 Rupees for an AC room, 800 Rupees for a non-AC room and 600 Rupees for a single non-AC room. This sounds reasonable. If I knew that there were such reasonably priced rooms near Vaishali, I would have stayed here, instead of rushing up and down from Patna. 

There are no Autorickshaws around. 

I read that the last bus back to Patna is at about 4pm. I am targeting to wait for the bus back to Patna at least by 3pm. 

I also don’t have time to explore. . 

It looks exactly like the one on Vulture Peak (Gridhrakuta). Just snapped a picture and left. 

I was looking for the Buddha’s Relic Stupa actually. 

No Autorickshaw around. Need to hike the roughly 5 km to Vaishali Stupa.

Along the way, I kept showing the picture, because he was going the wrong direction. I thought he needed to drop off the other passengers on the Autorickshaw. He still nodded ok.

Oh my! He went back to where I started at the Vishwa Shanti Stupa. He thought that was the Vaishali Stupa. 

I opened my google maps and used it to guide him to Vaishali Stupa. 

Reached Vaishali Stupa at 145pm. Still faster than me walking the rest of the way. 

He asked for 100 Rupees. I then told him that he went to the wrong place, not me. I gave him 70 Rupees in the end. 

No Autorickshaw at the Vaishali Stupa. Have to walk the 2.5km back to the main road for the bus to Patna. 

This is a video of my hike:

https://www.relive.cc/view/vmqX9LVQ4Lv

Reached the restaurant at 230pm. 

Ordered my egg fried rice 110 Rupees, steamed rice 50 Rupees, and 2 bottles of water 20 Rupees each. 

Got my food at 255pm. 

I waited about 20 minutes for this bus to come by, from 255pm-315pm. 

Every time a big vehicle came around the bend ahead, my hopes went up, only to be dashed when I saw it was just another truck. 

I got the last seat. Lucky. Didn’t want to be standing for 3hours. 

I reached back at 610pm. 

Big portion. So, in the end, I wasted the packet of steamed rice. 

What a long day today!!

Would be waking up early tomorrow morning again for my journey, hopefully to Kushinagar!