Another early start after booking the 6:10am ticket instead of the 9:30am, I climbed into reserved seating 2nd class and immediately found the seats far more comfy than the 1st class to Jaffna. Not sure how that works, but overall it was a better experience. Food sellers came by regularly, the carriage doors were left open for people to hang out of and feel the wind of train as it clanked along the railway, helping to cool down the sweltering humidity.
Something else was noticeably different on the train doubling back the way I had come; the complete lack of bumpiness. Sure it was bumpy, but not life threatening bumpy. I’m beginning to wonder if it was so bad on the way to Jaffna because we were in the rear carriage and it didn’t have enough weight to keep it on the tracks. They should probably look into that.
Since I had arrived in Anuradhapura earlier than originally anticipated, I decided to get off at the main station rather than the the following New Town station which was far closer to the hotel I was staying at. Might as well kill some time walking through the city and check things out.
The morning was damn humid, and the weather forecast was sunny for the rest of the week. That forecast was a slight lie, as it did rain later in the day, but for the rest of my time here the sun blared and baked every day. After a half an hour of sweating, declining good natured tuk tuk drivers trying to save me from heat exhaustion, I arrived at where the GPS showed to turn of the main street to be greeted with a dirt road and my mind immediately went back to Jaffna and I feared I’d booked another dodgy makeshift guesthouse.
With much happiness, the City Resort Hotel turned out to be awesome. A bubbly woman at the reception welcomed me in, up sold me be a room with A/C for an extra $3/night, and soon enough I was being blasted with cold air, lying on the bed waiting for my body temperature to drop to a non life threatening level. Totally worth the extra $3.
I ended up eating at a couple of excellent local restaurants. I had begun to notice that if a shop was called a Hotel it meant they were an eatery. Much like in Sydney how a hotel usually means a pub, however I’m not sure the back story of why this is. I’ve also become unsure of what a “baker” is, as that seems to be some kind of family eatery (or maybe a family bakery, I haven’t actually gone into one yet).
The first place I was offered to come into it by one of the staff, who always made a point to say hello when ever I’d walk past, had a great selection of chicken and egg rice, fish (this is the third time I’ve had fish in Sri Lanka and it’s really not good, very tough and very fishy), and a great spicy dhal. On my first visit here I was self conscience that everyone was eating with their hand, yet here I was, shoveling away with fork and spoon. The female staff looked at me uncertain on that first visit, but subsequent visits they opened up despite having no English, and appeared to be a lot more open to having a non local in their eatery.
The other amazing place was a buffet that I had read about and didn’t get around to trying out until my last day here. And I immediately regretted putting it off, as I would have happy eaten here everyday. Once again, the dhal was the highlight, and you could add chilli spices to your heat level choosing. They just give you a banana leaf, and you pile on everything want, be it the dhal, some kind of potato curry, a mango curry, and some other vegetable looking dishes I skipped over (huge surprise, right!). This place, called Ambula Anuradhapura, is worthy of all the rave reviews I found online.
There are several man-made lakes the New Town, which I had a lazy stroll around, and then I heard it. The low growl, the bark, I turn around and there a dog taking an issue with my presence. His female dog friend comes over and joins in. I walk as fast as I can, they’re not attacking, just announcing I’m not welcome. So lets talk stray dogs in Sri Lanka.
So far from Colombo, to Jaffna, and now Anuradhapura, they’re everywhere. Dogs and crows. The crows are suspiciously absent here, but they’re absolutely everywhere in Colombo and Jaffna, and I can only assuming I’ll encounter them again. But the stray dogs, I hate stray dogs. I’ve had a few bad experiences with them in other countries, and I don’t like being around them. To be fair, most are malnourished and it’s so hot they physically don’t have the strength to bark, let alone work the energy to bite. After being barked at a few times now (I blame this on racism, Sri Lankan dog don’t like the white man), I’ve found if I point at the ring leader and make a barking like “NO”, they back immediately down and usually hide somewhere. So back off racist dogs!
Because I’m a masochist, I decided to see what it would be like to walk to the sights that didn’t need the special expensive ticket you need to visit most of the main areas in the Sacred City, as I was planning on doing the Sacred City later. This was a long hour walk in the heat to the first stop at Isurumuniya Vihara, a small rock temple dating back to the 3rd century BCE. It’s a quaint little place, where you climb up the carved staircase to the top of the rock to visit the small temple on top.
Next up was to the Mirisavatiya Dagoba, which along the way I way a saw new enormous dagoba being built and some kind of procession taking place with drums being played. After taking a photo I quickly hid my camera, after upon reading the signs entrance this was a military facility and taking photo’s of the military is kind of bad thing. Quickly moving on I reach the dagoba.
This dagoba dates back to the 2nd century BCE, and like all good temples, has a story behind it. King Dutugemunu went bathing on this spot and left his sceptre embedded on the bank, a spectre that just happened to have a relic of the Buddha in it. When he went to retrieve the sceptre he found it impossible to remove, therefore took this as a sign to build a dagoba here. And now, over two thousand years later, the dagoba still stands.
I was hoping to visit the archeological museum next, but sadly it was closed. Apparently it had been closed for years, but due to corruption the renovations still weren’t complete (or so a tuk tuk driver told me). Next stop then was Sri Maha Bodhi.
The importance of Sri Maha Bodhi cannot be overstated. For over 2000 years a cutting of a bodhi tree, believed to be brought from India by Princess Sangamita, the daughter of Emperor Ashoka who brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka, has been tended to by the monks. There are even wooden gold painted struts helping the ancient tree stand aloft.
The faithful arrive at the sacred site, dressed in white (just a note, white is a sign of respect and everyone wears white. What ever yo do, don’t wear black), and pray in the courtyard surrounding the tree. It’s quite easily the most peaceful and serene place I’ve ever been to in my life. There’s just something here, this ancient tree that spiritually symbolises Buddhism, groups of people essentially singing their individual prayers filling the courtyard with a surreal calming melody, it’s enough to make you consider taking up the faith.
On top of this, the photo I took of the bodhi tree has a strange fiery orb in the branches. I haven’t been able to explain it, for one it’s not the sun (I know when I’m taking a photo into the sun, and even so shooting into the sun doesn’t come out like this), and there’s nothing around to have created a reflection in the camera lens, especially one like this. It’s just a little strange that at the most spiritual place in Sri Lanka, in the actual bodhi tree, there’s an anomaly in the photo. I’ve spent too much time trying to find a realistic reason, and well… moving on…
After all this on foot, I was ready to catch a tuk tuk and head back to the hotel. I had passed a cross road a couple of times where there were a few shop stalls, and a group of tuk tuk drivers were hanging out. I had previously chatted with them as I passed by (once again, Sri Lankans are seriously the nicest people), so I headed back here, enlisted one of the the drives, and off we went back to New Town.
Next up, the Mihintale temple complex, and the Sacred City of Anuradhapura.