Sri Lanka 7. The Ancient Cities

 

 

Having reached the northernmost point of Sri Lanka which isn’t at Point Pedro lighthouse as the sign claims but at Alvai a few km to the west, we turned south.   It’s the same incorrect ‘fact’ as John O’ Groats and Lands End being the northernmost and southernmost points of Great Britain which as I’m sure you all know are actually Dunnet Head and Lizard Point.  Phew.  Pleased to get that off my chest.

 

a requested photo but not by the one in the middle

We've seen hand written similar signs outside houses

Our destination was the Ancient Cities and the sprawling ruins of Anuradhapura was to be our first stop.  The area with the main sights covers an area of roughly 4km by 2km, so it is big.  It was the first capital of whatever this country was called back in those days and that was around 380BC.   The whole place is very impressive with huge man-made reservoirs known as tanks and many Stupas, the dome shaped Buddhist monuments.  Smaller ones are called Dagobas although I’m totally lost as to when a Dagoba becomes big enough to be Stupa and when a Stupa is small enough to be a Dagoba.  The travails of a pedant haunt me.  This is a religious site and one of the main points of interest for Buddhists is the sacred Bodhi tree, said to be over 2,000 years old and brought as a cutting from India.

 

reclining Buddha

Niroshan cleverly suggested we looked at a couple of the free sights in the evening and then the ticketed ones the following day and he was spot on with his advice.  Doing the whole lot in one long hot day would have been draining.  I must mention the fee structure here which has foreigner and local prices.  Now I’m aware of the enormous disparity of wealth between the average Sri Lankan and us tourists who can afford to travel here but the difference is surprising.   Here at Anuradhapura foreigners pay 5075 Rupees, locals 50 Rupees, at Jaffna Fort 831 Rupees to 20 Rupees.  Other locations are similar.

 

Abhayagiri Stupa

right next to Abhayagiri Stupa, showing how few tourists there are

The really big Stupa, Ruvanvelisaya (oh, those names again) or The Big White One as I think of it, is very impressive especially when lit up at dusk.  Dating from around 140BC it now stands 55m  (170 feet) high with seven foot deep foundations of limestone crushed into place by marching elephants over it.  As a comparison Salisbury Cathedral with it’s 404 foot spire only has foundations four feet deep. 

Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba at dusk

 

longest hair I've ever seen

I confess to having enormous difficulty in remembering the various names of kings and their relatives for any longer than it takes for the sound to go in one ear and out of the other.  For example King Pandukabhaya, Devanampiya Tissa and Dutugemunu to name but three.  The other problem I have is that the history
appears to be a mixture of what may well be factual and a goodly proportion of myth.  One example was two people whose names escape me for the moment who did a bit of astral flying from India, landing at a spot which was to become a monastery and then calling a king in some way to tell him to come quick.  Now I’m not having a dig at the Sri Lankans because this belief in mythology is no different from various people in Britain claiming to have discovered the true location of King Arthur’s Camelot, The Holy Grail or the benefits of Brexit.

 

our hotel, a former Government rest house

the deadly embrace of a Strangler Fig
planted by a Tax Official staying at the hotel

You'd think you'd
notice them

Our Ancient Cities visits were separated by a visit to Wilpattu National Park, the largest in Sri Lanka at over 1,300 square kilometres (about 200 miles by 200 miles if that helps).  It’s mostly dry woodland with some lakes and has few jeep tracks through it so most of the animals must be pretty untroubled by tourists.  This is where I was the victim of a snatch and grab.  The usual early start was necessary but as we were in a tree house hotel no more than a hundred yards from the entrance gate it was very convenient.   We saw our fourth and fifth leopards here, one on a road some way in front of us and one partly hidden in typical leopard pose stretched out on a horizontal tree branch.  We’d hoped to see Sloth Bears but they avoided us.  By the way, they’re not sloths and on hind legs can be as tall as a man.  If you come face to face with one they’re easy to recognise as they have a habit of cuffing you playfully around the head and face with their claws.  Oh, the snatch and grab happened at the designated lunch stop, location of the only litter we saw in the park.  We were sat in the open sided jeep, I had my last banana on my knee with my arm on it, looked towards Heather and in a flash a Macaque monkey jumped up next to me, grabbed my banana and was gone.  My last banana ! 

 

And here are some bird photos

Crested Serpent Eagle

Pond Heron

Red-wattled Lapwing

no, not a chicken but a Jungle Fowl

no home should
be without one

A couple of ‘news’ items have been brought to our attention, not by the BBC.  Sri Lankan TV ran a story about Prince William who, so it was claimed has a serious drink problem and his marriage is breaking up because of it.  Then, according to Polish news so a Polish tourist told us, the Olympic Flame had gone out in China.   True or not true ?  How can we tell ?  Do we really care ?

 

storm clouds gather at Nilaveli Beach

just me for a change

During a beach stay for a couple of days at Nilaveli on the east coast we had the first rain of our five weeks so far, starting late on our last afternoon, continuing all night and most of the next day as we drove towards our next Ancient City site, Polonnaruwa.  Fortunately for us it had stopped by the next morning when we were due to visit.   Our accommodation for two nights was Galkadawala Lodge, built using lots of recycled material, no plastic to be seen and set in quite dense woodland.  No man made noise, very peaceful.   In sunshine with dappled shade and cool air this would have been quite something and it was just unfortunate that we’d arrived when it was cloudy and dull.  That said this really was a memorable experience and was the last hotel of our Tikalanka tours.   We left at 5.30 the next morning and the staff appeared with a pot of tea and gave us our picnic breakfast of coconut filled rolled pancakes.

Galkadawala Lodge, the kitchen

 

common sitting area overlooking the stream. 
 amazingly no mosquitoes

breakfast al fresco

There’s a museum near the ticket office which was well worth visiting, not least for the models of what we were to see on our visit because when we did see the real thing there was a bit of context for us.  Polonnaruwa is more compact than Anuradhapura but still a good kilometre from north to south.  The palace group of buildings is from around the 12th century and constructed during the reign of, wait for it, Parakramabahu I.  What I find interesting compared to European castles is that most of the ancient buildings we’ve seen here are made of brick and not stone.  That’s fired terracotta coloured brick, not sun dried bricks as we’ve seen in many other places.  Millions of bricks do make for a very solid looking construction.

 

Blue Tigers

one of those lions carved by
someone who's never seen a lion

Here's a sobering thought to finish.  Most hotels and guest houses don’t serve alcohol.  The biggest do but the licence for selling intoxicating beverages is expensive.  By necessity we travel with a stock of Lion Beer which can only be bought at the infrequent Alcohol Stores, not in ordinary shops or supermarkets.

 

not exactly Starsky and Hutch

Covers 7 Feb 2022 – 14 Feb 2022