These four Swedes were staying at a hostel in Bodhgaya just down the road from me. The photograph was taken inside the Mahabodhi Temple complex, at the foot of a stupa just a hundred feet or so from the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment.

The girl on the right was deep in meditation. The girl on the left was playing a computer game that involved firing a slingshot at monkeys.

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When travelling, I’ve always had good luck with local teenagers. Never trust anybody over 30.

This morning, I found myself trying to get out of a town in northwest India called Bodhgaya. It’s a holy place, sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus. It was under a tree that the town has since been built around that the Buddha attained enlightenment.

I didn’t know that when I was trying to get away from Boddhgaya (Gaya, technically, where the train station is). It was 7:00 a.m. and I wanted to be on my way to Calcutta. But the the man at the ticket window had other ideas. And so like it or not, I was spending the next 13 hours where the last train had left me.

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