2017 Sri Lanka – Anuradhapura
12th January 2017
Our next stop was Anuradhapura, 200 kilometres north of Colombo. At last, we had committed ourselves to train travel and although the station was chaotic, people were happy to help us. We asked a young man what platform we needed to go to and he told us he was on the same train so not only would he tell us when it arrived, but he would help us find our seats. There were lots of platforms with trains coming and going, making strained noises as if they were pleading to be put out to pasture. We had to laugh at the state of the trains and assumed they were commuter trains that local people paid next to nothing for and shared carriages with donkeys and chickens. We were waiting eagerly for our luxury tourist express to arrive when the young man came to tell us our train was ready to board and pointed to the one we had been looking and laughing at. He showed us to our seats and we left our luggage at the end of the carriage unattended which in any other country I would have felt uncomfortable about but it felt safe enough there.
I was looking forward to relaxing on the train journey. Reading, doing some Sudoku, watching videos on my phone and generally chilling out. This illusion was quickly shattered when we started moving and rattling around so much that I was happy to settle for just keeping my head connected to my shoulders. I thought at least I could have a nice long sleep but when I shut my eyes it felt like there was an earthquake and someone was shaking me violently to wake me up. How on earth the train kept on the rails was a mystery. A couple of times I thought we were doing an emergency stop but the ticket collector seemed to accept being thrown forward a couple of metres as normal.
I settled back and accepted that I would just have to sit there doing nothing for six hours which for me was a nightmare. The scenery would have been enthralling for paddy field enthusiasts but I can’t say it did much for me. There was some interesting scenery but that soon disappeared when darkness fell. One thing that caught my eye was the emergency handles which were a great idea but sometimes people abused them. Sri Lankan railway solved that problem by putting their emergency handles in the roof of the carriage out of reach which dramatically reduces the number of false emergency stops. The downside was that in an emergency, someone had to run through the carriages looking for an 8-foot man to pull the handle. I suppose if the train crashed and was lying on its side then even the smallest person could pull the handle but I suspect by then it would be too late.
We finally arrived in Anuradhapura at 9.30 pm where a tuk-tuk driver was waiting for us as arranged by the hotel. Outside the station area were lots of people laying on blankets so I assumed the waiting times for some of the connections must have been very long or even overnight.
Hotel Heladiv was a small family-run hotel. We hardly saw anyone during most of our stay despite the owner saying they were fully booked. It was a two-story complex and our room was on the ground floor with a lovely little terrace. The service was amazing as a waiter came to our terrace with a menu and after ordering we waited until he came to say our meal was ready and we took a short walk to the outdoor dining area. The plumbing in our room was eccentric. I finally discovered that for hot water in the washbasin, the tap turned to the right and for the shower, it was to the left. I must have wasted 100 litres before I cracked the code.
We hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day to take us around the circuit of temples, which was mandatory for all visitors. The driver charged only 3000 Rupees for the day which was about £16. I was a bit concerned when he got out of the tuk-tuk using a crutch and limping badly. Something had happened to his foot which instead of a shoe had a bandage displaying two toes short of a full foot. I had no idea if someone could drive a tuk-tuk safely with such a bad injury but at least he wouldn’t be able to force himself on us as a guide as our previous driver had done. It turned out we were so happy with him that I thought in future I would ask hotels to provide us with a lame driver if possible.
His name was Wagera and we ended up hiring him for three days as he turned out to be a real diamond. He spoke good English, was intelligent and quickly sussed out the kind of things we wanted to see. His injury was caused by dropping a large boulder on his foot and apart from losing two toes it would take at least two years and a few operations before he would be able to walk without a crutch. 
Our first stop was Abhayagiri Vihāra, a major monastery dominated by a huge Dagoba. A Dagoba is a large round construction built in solid brick with a pointy thing on the top. This Dagoba claimed to have the largest number of bricks of any building in the world. As the building was solid and it was not possible to see beyond the outer layer it was a claim that would be hard to contest. It was also claimed to have a hair of the Buddha enshrined inside. Like most ancient ruins we had visited, it was very impressive for 15 minutes.
We asked Wagera to recommend a restaurant for lunch so he dropped us off at a classy-looking hotel. The menu looked pretty boring and most of it was European. The only item that was Sri Lankan was entitled “chicken curry” which made it sound like the dish of the day in a naff English restaurant but we ordered it anyway. When I asked for a beer the waiter looked at me as if I was trying to score cocaine. We were near a temple so they were not allowed to sell alcohol. We waited for ages for the food but when it arrived it was quite a surprise. The chicken curry was in a dish with just two small bits of chicken in curry sauce but there were eight side dishes, most of which we didn’t recognise. The waiter explained what each one was and although most of them were things we knew; we still didn’t recognise them. The overall taste was amazing and not only the best curry I had ever eaten but the only curry not to leave me feeling bloated.
After lunch, Wagera recited an extensive list of temples he wanted to take us to but we just wanted to go back to our hotel for a swim in the pool. He still insisted on showing us a couple of things on the way back but I quickly forgot them as by now all the temples we had seen had merged into one. I can however remember in detail the glass of mango juice and ice cream we had sitting by the pool.
Next morning we had a casual stroll around Anuradhapura which was your basic noisy town. There were very few tourists so it was hard to find a place for lunch but we eventually came across a restaurant that offered Chinese and Thai food except all the Thai food was off the menu. The waiter must have been in training for the Sri Lankan Grumpiest Waiter of the Year competition and the A/C was far too cold but the food was passable.
Later that afternoon Wagera took us to the ruins near the town of Mihintale. Knowing the kind of things that interested us we stopped at an amazing Banyan tree that was not in any of the tourist books. I had seen many Banyan trees before which were always very impressive but this was in a class of its own. Banyan trees have roots that hang down from the branches which reach the ground and take water from the soil. For centuries, monks had trained this tree so the aerial roots formed an outer wall leaving a large space in the middle. There was a little gateway into this tree and a small bench where I assume they took a rest from all the tree training. 
The next monastery was built around a man-made lake called Black Water Pond and there was something about the lake that I found haunting. A few locals were scattered around the water’s edge washing themselves and some women were washing clothes by bashing them against rocks. There was a strange quietness and we liked it so much we decided to go back there the next morning and postpone our departure to Kandy until the afternoon.
On arrival at the Mihintale ruins a guide appeared out of nowhere who turned out to be a friend of Wagera so I had no doubt he had been tipped off. We didn’t mind on this occasion as we were in the mood for a guide and he was very good. Getting to the highest point of the ruins involved climbing 1200 steps but Wagera suggested he drove us to the halfway point, not just to save our rapidly ageing legs but because it was getting late and we wanted to see the sunset. Even though we had bypassed half the steps they still seemed never-ending. At the top, there were lots of ruins and a large monastery. No surprise there. On a plateau in the centre was a shrine where it was claimed that Buddhism was first introduced to Sri Lanka. According to our guide, the shrine replaced what used to be a mango tree where the Buddhist monk Mahinda bumped into the local king. They started chatting and after the king was asked a few questions to test how clever he was, the monk converted him to Buddhism and most of the rest of the country followed suit. The guide didn’t believe the story but pointed out (quite rightly) that all religions are based on unlikely stories but that didn’t diminish their value.
Back at our hotel for dinner, we got talking to the owner who had worked for many years in Padova in Italy so he was surprised to hear my mother come from Piove Di Sacco a small town close by. He really missed Italy and hoped to go back as soon as the hotel was running smoothly and he could leave it in the hands of another family member.
Friday 24th January 2107
Wagera took us back to Blackwater Pond and at that time of day, we were allowed to go into the forest area as the monks would not be praying there. It was only a short walk but completely deserted and quite eerie as the ghosts of monks past were uncomfortable about us being in their sacred place. After that, we sat by the lake where Federika did some sketches and I wrote a song about the lake. We had got quite close to Wagera and on the way back he stopped off to show us his house although sadly his wife and two children weren’t home at the time. It was a surprisingly big house with a lot of scope for extending but it was very basic and in common with all the houses we had seen, the brickwork was terrible but functional. There weren’t many windows and none at all at the front of the house where you would expect to see some. Back at the hotel, we said our goodbyes and a taxi was ready to take us on the two-hour drive to Sigiriya.
2017 Sri Lanka
