I kept telling the monks that we received all we did because they had created so much merit in the past by giving offerings. In the evenings we would look for a temple to sleep in. Most of these were Hindu temples, so it was interesting to see their reactions to us and the way of life in their temples. The local people welcomed us gladly and always took care of us however they could. Bihar, the province we walked through, has some beautiful countryside, green and full of streams and rivers.
Canals run through the green fields.
It was a unique experience to walk through this area with the monks, just as the Buddha did over 2,500 year ago and to be almost totally dependent on the kindness of others. We took a small amount of money for special needs, but hardly ever used it. All three of us suffered from pain and fatigue as we were not used to walked such long distances each day. We covered 288 km in eleven days, the same time time took the Buddha to go from Bodhgaya to Sarnath. The last part of the pilgrimage was along the Varanasi-Calcutta highway, where walking was difficult with so many trucks speeding by.