Sunday, 3rd february, 2019
“Ayubowan” – that is how the Singalese greet each other: meaning May you live longer and have a healthy life”
We woke up to a magnificent day! Sun was shining and temperatures were well above 25 degrees at 7 am. We went down for an early breakfast and were surprised to find out that our hotel was situated on the beach – no grand building but more or less trendy – and we had our breakfast outside on the terrace facing the swimming pool and the beach.
Indika arrived on time and we were off to our first destination: Anuradhapura. This road trip would take some 4 hours driving first north along the coast and the lagoon and then inwards.
However, we first drove to Hamilton Fort which was situated on the outskirts of Negombo – originally built by the Dutch in the early 1600’s in order to protect their trading post and then used by the British who also canalized the waterway between Colombo and Negombo. Nowadays, Hamilton Fort is a prison.
After about driving for nearly 2 hours through villages lining the road and along the coast, we asked Indika to pull over somewhere where we could stretch our legs and get something to drink. This is not a country where you find fast foods restaurants along the highway – only small enterprises and stalls selling local produce; coconuts! The first stall, according to Indika, did not have good coconuts (apparently he could see from the colour….), but the second stall seemed to have good coconuts! The stall was manned (or should I say, womanned?) by a little old lady who had enough strength and energy to hack the coconuts so that we could first drink the water and then scrape out the coconut flesh! What a nutritional break!
Back on the road again and this time we drove till lunchtime when Indika brought us to a restaurant serving a local buffet. It seemed to be a lunch address for many of the private chauffeurs taking their clients here. Well it was a good time to have lunch which consisted of a buffet of local Singalese food, as it had started raining. All the chauffeurs went to separate part of the restaurant to have their lunch there. I guess they get their lunch free as they bring their guests here.
Our rain shower did not last long and when we had finished lunch our guide to the sacred city of Anuradhapura was waiting for us together with Indika. Kosala who is a historian student, was very informative and he explained that his tour would take some three hours. I looked at Gerry to see whether he was up to it to get so much history and culture, however although we asked to limit the tour to two hours, Gerry’s interest we finally ended up spending more than 3 hours………
The citadel of Anuradhapura, the first capital, founded by King Pandukabhaya and the seat of the government for centuries is symbolic of the Golden Era of Sri Lanka. This city is the longest continuously inhabited city in the world as it’s been lived in for more than 3000 years.
Buddha visited this city three times in his life time and spread his teachings. For this reason, this city was the hub of Buddhism and some of the oldest temples can still be admired here as they are still in use after having fallen in disrepair when the citizens had moved due escape invaders and then after the plundering, the city was taken over by the jungle only to be rediscovered in the early 19th Century by British archeologists and historians.
As you can see from the above pictures, there is still sincere devotion being expressed by the locals who are mainly dressed in white as a sign of purity and respect. Offerings of lotus flowers and other gifts are left on altars. Kosala took us to visit the stupa (temple) after we had taken off our shoes and I had covered my arms with my shawl. I was so impressed with the purity of the devotion showed by the congregation and it really touched my heart.
We were also visited the shrine around the Banyan tree under which Buddha shared his knowledge. Apparently this is the oldest tree taken from a cutting which was brought over from India so many years ago! Again we had to show reverence and take of our shoes. Entrance to this area was heavily guarded and there were two entrances – men and women being separated. My shawl was wrapped and tied up by the female guard but she did with a genuine smile.
The city of Anuradhapura is surrounded by man made lakes with dykes around them and are the oldest in Asia.
By the time we were finished with our tour it was getting dark and our interest was saturated so we called it a day and said goodbye to our guide and Indika drove us to our guest house where we were staying for the night.
Luckily we could have our dinner at the guest house too and we were well taken care of. In front of our spacious room, there was a communal veranda and here we spent some time with other travelers who were staying over till it was time for dinner.
By the time we had our dinner, we were totally exhausted and just managed to catch up a bit with our social media before heading off to bed.
Tomorrow, Indika wants us ready by 9 am to start our drive to Sigiriya.
PS – again problems with putting up pictures due to the weak Wi-Fi………
