Sri Lanka Summary – go now before it gets busy again!

When I set off for Sri Lanka, lots of my friends were surprised at my “bravery” to continue my trip despite the constant headlines about fuel shortages and riots. But my decision to go was based not on blind courage but instead on sound information from traveller websites like Tripadvisor. Everyone actually in Sri Lanka advised that travel was a bit more complicated, but still possible, and there was no reason to cancel.

Hunting for fuel was the only downside to visiting at this time

My own experience was very positive. Finding fuel took up, on average, maybe 15 minutes each day, but apart from that, travelling was very easy. I had many more difficulties getting back home when my plane arrived back in Europe than I ever had travelling around Sri Lanka. I also felt safer and less hassled than in many other Asian countries. The people were wonderful, there were no tourist crowds, and the food excellent (and food hygiene was also good – not a single stomach problem in three weeks).

Excellent food all the way through the trip

Most of all though, I liked the variety of things to do and see. Sri Lanka may not have any must-do, “bucket list” sights like the Taj Mahal or Niagara Falls, but instead it crams ancient ruins, busy temples, beaches, mountains and nature reserves into a relatively small area. It never took more than a few hours to get from one interesting place to another – unlike the big distances you might have to cover in larger countries. I had the added bonus of having many of these wonderful places almost entirely to myself.

Here are my most memorable experiences of the trip:

The unexpected Hindu/Buddhist procession at Kataragama

Safaris in Bundala and Kaudulla National Parks

Ruin hunting by bicycle in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa

Staying at the Hill Club

The view from my guest house in Ella and the “tea train” to Nuwara Eliya

Breakfast with an armed guard to scare off monkeys at Polonnaruwa

The Buddhas of the cave temples of Dambulla

Puja (service) at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, Kandy

And here is a “best of” list:

Best Hotels (there were a lot!): Heaven Upon Rice Fields, Anuradhapura; Ekho Lake House, Polonnaruwa; Paraiso Guest House, Ella; The Hill Club, Nuwara Eliya; Thaulle Resort, Tissa; Radh Hotel, Kandy; Le Jardin Du Fort, Galle

Best Food: Seafood in Nilaveli; Indian Hut, Galle; Take away Dosas, Kandy; Curry feast at the Radha Tourist home; Dinner at the Hill Club.

Best Beach: Nilaveli

Best City: Galle

Best National Park: Bundala

Overall, as of today (August 2022), my advice is go now. Plan carefully and you should have a brilliant time without crowds. Your travel budget will really help the hotels, restaurants and guides you spend it with. Yes, there is a risk that the political situation gets bad again, so check popular traveller websites regularly to see what is really happening on the ground – not the sensationalist western newspaper headlines. Currently, I evaluate this risk as very low, and it has to considered in the context of a country that is otherwise very safe for travel (low crime, good roads and high driving standards for Asia, excellent food hygiene, no malaria). The Sri Lankans are wonderful people and deserve your help, and their country is one of my favourites!

That’s all for this trip. Please sign up to follow my blog and get automatic email notifications the next time I hit the road. If you would like to ask a question, type it in the section for “thoughts” at the bottom of the page and I will get back to you.

I leave the very last word to one of my fellow animal friends….

12th August 2022 3

Going back in time – Galle

From Tissa, I headed to Galle, a historic city on Sri Lanka’s southern coast. It was founded by the Portuguese in 1505, when one of their fleets was blown off course and took shelter in the harbour there. The Portuguese built a small fort but were soon replaced by the Dutch who rebuilt the fort in the 17^th century; it still stands today. Galle was Sri Lanka’s main seaport and trading centre for 200 years, before losing its crown to Colombo in the 19^th century. Today, it is Sri Lanka’s second largest city with a population of 133,000 and sprawls out over a few kilometres in all directions from the original fort.

As we reached the centre of town, I saw a small booth with anti-government slogans. During three weeks of travelling, it was the very first sign I had seen of the protests that had toppled the previous president, had made headlines in the western press and scared many tourists away from Sri Lanka.

The only sign of anti-government protests I saw in three weeks’ travelling

At the central railway station, the road turned off to the sea through gates of the old Portuguese fort, and we reached a peninsula surrounding by defensive ramparts. It felt like going back in time by a few centuries – low rise buildings, narrow lanes and little traffic. Many of the houses were originals from the Dutch period, or were the homes of the Muslim spice traders that also settled in Galle.

My hotel was in a typical old building, with a veranda facing the street, and a large shady interior with a courtyard. The owner had upgraded my room (as had usually happened in Sri Lanka) to a large suite on the upper floor.

My hotel owner had a collection of puppets

After settling in, I set off to explore the town. The fort area was a typical popular traveller destination, with many small shops, bars, tea rooms and restaurants – but very few visitors.

The closest thing Galle has to a main road

Several tuk-tuk drivers proposed their services to me with what seemed like a hint of desperation in their voices; a third year with few tourists has hit many people very hard here. Away from the larger lanes there were even smaller, quieter residential side streets where people lived and went about their daily business.

These quieter areas were a popular place for couples to have wedding photos taken.

A handsome couple having their wedding photos taken

After enjoying the centre of the fort area, I made the classic circuit of the fort’s ramparts, which is popular not only with tourists but also locals, especially courting couples. There were fine views of the fortifications, Galle lighthouse and the sea.

There were also many green spaces, which were invariably occupied by people playing cricket – the national sport and passion. Finally, I reached the Dutch church, dating from 1752.

There are no spectacular sights in Galle that would make anyone’s “bucket list”, but its mix of interesting old buildings and relaxed feel makes for a very nice destination to spend a couple of days. It is a place to sit back and enjoy life, whether that means drinking spiced tea, shopping, or snacking in one of the many restaurants – which is exactly what I did on my first day.

I stayed two nights, and on the second day made the short trip to Unawatuna beach. Sri Lanka has countless beaches like this dotted around its coasts, some deserted like my earlier destination of Nilaveli, some a bit more developed like this one. Behind the beach itself, but well hidden from it, was a street packed with tourist hotels, restaurants and spas offering massages.

I returned to Galle in the mid-afternoon to avoid spend the hottest part of the day in my air conditioned bedroom, before heading out again in the evening for another stroll and dinner – this time in a restaurant called “Indian Hut”. The meal was excellent – Indian rather than Sri Lankan cuisine for a change – and a nice way to spend my penultimate night in Sri Lanka.

My stay in Galle felt like the end of my holiday even though I had one more night to spend in Colombo. Many travellers skip Sri Lanka’s capital city but I wanted to stay somewhere closer to the airport to be on time for my morning flight back to Europe. To be honest, Colombo did not make a great impression on me but perhaps you need to give it more than the half day that I had available. In contrast I found the rest of Sri Lanka to be a wonderful travel destination, easier to travel around and safer than many other places in Asia (or Europe for that matter). My final post in this series will be a summary of my thoughts about the trip.

11th August 2022 1

Bundala, the National Park at the End of the World

Today I had booked another safari – but this time leaving in the afternoon. Two very early starts in the last few days were as much as I could take, no matter how many animals I might miss. My destination was Bundala National Park, which is also very near Tissa, but which receives a fraction of the visitors that crowded Yala does.

I spent the morning relaxing by the pool and admiring the lake, where a man was fishing, and some women were washing clothes. They seemed unconcerned by the sight of small crocodile sunning itself on a nearby rock – I would have been worried that it might have larger and hungrier parents.

My safari jeep arrived, and we set off at two o’clock. Unlike the modern road to Yala, the road to Bundala was in poor repair. I sensed that very few people went this way. The park entrance also looked uncared for and dilapidated. A few dogs came up to inspect us, but there were no humans around to ask us to pay the entrance fee, and my guide had to open the gates himself. We were clearly the only visitors.

Bundala is a wetland park formed out of many lakes lying just in from the coast, and a sign at the entrance announced that was ranked 287^th in UNESCO’s list of wetland areas deserving protection. I had never heard of this list, and thought it was maybe better not to publicise appearing in 287^th place. The first animals I saw were water buffalo. Unlike Yala, where multiple jeeps would descend on a solitary leopard, here the buffalo queued up to check out the unusual sight of a visitor.

In this park the animals queued to watch tourists

Bundala is most famous for its birdlife and sure enough there were birds everywhere – large groups of peacocks, brightly coloured kingfishers, bee-eaters, egrets, herons, and eagles hunting for fish. There were also some species I had never seen before, like the purple swamp hen and the spoonbill. They all seemed more nervous of our jeep than the birds in Yala, and the peacocks would run away from us at great speed.

Bundala’s other speciality was crocodiles. I saw so many that after a while, I only paid attention to the very biggest ones. The reptiles often lay on the road directly in front of us and would only get out of the way when they were sure we were heading in their direction. Then they would scramble into the water and disappear, leaving only a train of bubbles.

Camouflaged Crocodiles – how many can you see?

Although I made fewer sightings of larger mammals at Bundala than I had at Yala, the experience of driving around a deserted nature reserve was much more rewarding.

The sense of being all alone increased when we reached a cliff overlooking the sea. Large waves rolled in and broke over the boulders below me. Ahead of me, the sea stretched to the horizon – looking south, the next land would be Antarctica, thousands of miles away. It felt like the end of the world – and in some ways, it was.

The afternoon was drawing on, and as the sun approached the horizon its light reflected off the myriad of small lakes that make up the park. A strong breeze from the sea kept me pleasantly cool. The park was quiet, except for the murmur of our jeep’s engine and the rustle of leaves in the wind.

I was rather sorry when the park gates appeared in front of us again, meaning the safari was over. This time, a park ranger was on duty. My guide gestured to ask whether we should sign our vehicle in and out again, but the ranger silently replied with a shake of the head to say that could go without any formalities. Words seemed unnecessary. I said a fond goodbye to Bundala, one of Sri Lanka’s least visited, but in my view best, national parks.

9th August 2022 1

Leopards and Dancers

This morning I duly struggled to get up at 4.30am to leave at five for my safari in Yala national park. Yala is famous as being the best place to see wild leopards in Sri Lanka, and so is the most visited park on the island. Sure enough, my safari jeep and its specialist guide/driver were waiting for me at the hotel entrance, as was my packed breakfast. The early start ensured we were the second vehicle in the queue to enter when the park opened at six, which was also when the sun rose.

My driver went along well-established trails of red soil that led through the jungle. As it became light, I could admire the scenery, with its mix of red (the soil) green (the jungle), brown (large rocks on the horizon) and blue (lakes) colours.

The guide said that sightings of leopards, elephants and bears were rare, but that there would be lots of other animals and birds to see. Sure enough, we saw bee-eaters (small brightly coloured birds), eagles, deer, crocodiles, and a jackal. Sadly, my mobile phone camera proved woefully inadequate for taking pictures needing a zoom, so most of my photos are not worthy of my blog.

After an hour, my guide got excited. The guides keep in touch with each other by phone, and one of them had spotted a leopard. We rushed around the park to be the second jeep to arrive on the scene, and sure enough, lazing in the sun on a distant rock, was a leopard. The view was partly hidden by trees, so it took me a while to spot it, with my guide’s help. I just had time to take a (rather poor and fuzzy picture) when more jeeps arrived.

The peace of the scene was shattered as vehicles jostled for position and tourists squeeled with excitement. One newly arrived jeep pulled up just in front us, blocking my view. The vehicles all kept their engines running, and soon the air filled with the stench of diesel fumes.

Somewhat disappointed by the “circus” of a leopard sighting, I asked my driver to move on – which proved difficult, since he had been blocked in by the other jeeps. We finally got free and continued our exploration of the park alone, which I found much more enjoyable. We saw lots more smaller animals and birds – my favourite was a mongoose and her baby, who came up close to investigate us.

Mother mongoose checks us out

Our driver was heading to the park exit, when he got another message on his phone, turned his jeep around and rushed to a spot where elephants had been heard. When we arrived there were a couple of other vehicles watching a small group of the animals through thick jungle. We waited, and our patience was rewarded when they broke cover and crossed the road.

After the elephants, my driver took me back to the hotel, happy that he had delivered the top two attractions – leopard and elephant – and could therefore expect a good tip. It is a shame that the park’s bears are very rarely seen – I would have liked to greet a distant relative.

I spent the hot afternoon catching up on sleep and then lazing by the pool. I texted my regular guide that in the evening I would like to visit Kataragama, a holy town and pilgrimage site with some temples. My guidebook said at this time of year there should be a major religious festival happening there, and that pilgrims walked the entire length of Sri Lanka to attend. However, it was impossible to find any more details about this on the internet, or the exact dates. My guide texted back with great excitement to say that today there would be a big procession, which only took place once a year, to mark the end of the festival.

We made the short drive to the temple and found that a large but well-organised crowd had gathered along the procession route, and saw the last of the performers entering the temple to take up their places.

My guide found me an excellent space, from which even a short little teddy bear had a good view of the route. I sat down like everyone else to enjoy the show; one of the other spectators lent me a plastic sheet to sit on. The procession exceeded all my expectations. It started with a group of men cracking huge whips (sounding like firecrackers or gunshots).

Whip crackers

These were followed by a group of men juggling fire. Fire was a recurring theme, with men bearing flaming lamps walking by the side of the route. There was even someone with a big cylinder of fuel to refuel them as they went.

Playing with fire

After that, wave upon wave of dancers in elaborate costumes filed past to the sound of drums and various wind instruments. Each wave was completely different to the preceding one.

The procession starts….

The guide said the procession was Buddhist, but then changed his mind and said it was Hindu. It seemed to have elements of both – the temple was definitely Hindu, but the performers also often carried Buddhist flags.

These flags might be of the Hindu god Garuda

After each five groups of dancers, there would be a processional elephant covered in brightly coloured cloth.

The first elephant arrives

I lost count how many groups of dancers there were – maybe around thirty, meaning that there must have been around six hundred performers. Not only were their costumes magnificent, and their dancing elegant, but they all seemed to be having a good time and smiled broadly.

The procession closed with a large richly dressed ceremonial elephant carrying a sacred relic (my guide couldn’t explain to me what exactly). The crowd rose to throw flowers over the animal.

The end of the procession – an elephant carrying a sacred relic

I had sat, captivated, for over an hour – this unexpected event had been one of the highlights of my trip. It had been the polar opposite of touristy Yala park – I think I was the only tourist present.

7th August 2022 1

Wet, Wet, Wet

Today I had booked a tour to the Horton Plains, a national park located on a high plateau, where there is a famous view called World’s End – a sheer cliff, with all of western Sri Lanka stretching away into the distance. My guide advised leaving very early, since the view is usually covered with mist from the mid-morning.

The weather forecast for the day was bad, but suggested it might not rain early in the morning. When we left at half past five there was only a light drizzle, which soon stopped. At around six, it got light, and I could watch the passing tea plantations and small villages. At half past six we reached the park, and I started my walk. The landscape and plants at this relatively high altitude were completely different to anything I had seen before in Sri Lanka – or anywhere else for that matter.

The path first arrived at “Little World’s End” – a smaller cliff, also with a view. I was relieved that it was still not raining and that despite the clouds the famous view was partially visible.

Another helpful Sri Lankan warning sign – the end of the world is nigh!

I hurried on, but after a few more minutes the inevitable happened – it started to rain heavily. I pulled on a waterproof top, but had to accept my legs and paws getting soaking wet. The path turned into a small stream.

Arriving at World’s End, all there was to see was a big bank of thick cloud.

I carried on along the path, and the rain continued to fall steadily. Although it was unpleasant to have wet fur all down my legs, after a while I got used to it. The rain was even pleasantly cool, and the scenery was interesting.

The next highlight of the walk was Baker’s Falls, a powerful waterfall swollen by the recent rains.

After the falls, the path became easier and less like a small river. There were more lonely, windswept landscapes to admire until suddenly I was back at the park entrance.

Back at the van, I changed my trousers and took off my soaking shoes. The one-hour trip back felt very long – I hadn’t had enough sleep, my fur was still wet, and the windows of the van steamed up to obscure any interesting views. I reached the Hill Club at around noon, with a sense of relief. It was now raining heavily, so I went straight to bed for a well-needed nap. I awoke an hour later to the find water streaming down from the ceiling of my room – the strong winds must have damaged the roof, creating a big leak. I changed rooms and set out about hanging up my wet things in the hope that they might dry.

There was nothing to do but simply enjoy the old colonial Hill Club. I wandered around, taking more photos…….

Hunting trophies at the club. No bears happily, but even so Trouspinet does not approve!

……and then treated myself to high tea, a wonderful club tradition where you stuff yourself with cakes, savoury snacks and tea in the mid-afternoon.

The solution to a rainy afternoon – High Tea!

After such a huge tea, I sat and wrote my blog in the reading room. In the early evening I tried a game of snooker in one of the club’s two billiard rooms – although the table was so big it was hard work for a small teddy bear.

I dined late and chose Indian Ocean Kingfish, which was a bit like tuna in texture and taste, washed down with a bottle of wine (my first wine since I had arrived in Sri Lanka). It had been a difficult day, but sometimes the life of a traveller is like that. The walk had been very interesting, if wet, and the comforts of the Hill Club more than made up for spending half the day with wet fur.

5th August 2022 1

The Tea Train and the Well-Travelled Trousers

Today, I took the train from Ella back to Nuwara Eliya – a route renowned as one of the most scenic in the world. The train arrived on time – something not guaranteed in Sri Lanka – and I got on to find my reserved seat in second class (someone had told me that second class was better than the air conditioned first class, since you could open the windows). Usually, the reserved seats sell out long in advance to tourists, but with Sri Lanka’s current problems my compartment wasn’t even full.

My guide also got on, but his ticket was for unreserved second class, meaning that he had no guarantee of a seat. I could see through the rear door of my compartment that this was a completely different travel experience. I hoped he had got a place in the melee of people boarding at Ella. Our driver headed off in the van to be able to meet us at the other end of our trip.

We set off in bright sunshine, and the views lived up to my expectations. In the area around Ella, the scenery was wild and mountainous.

It was very pleasant leaning out of my window and either watching the scenery go by or observing the frenetic activity at each station as passengers with unreserved tickets fought to get on the train first in the rush for a possible free seat. The train doors are left open for the whole trip, and more adventurous passengers held on to the hand rails and leaned out of the open door for an even better view.

As the train progressed, the mountains and forest gave way to nice orderly rows of tea plants and rolling, green hills. It also started to get cloudy – it seems that we had already received our ration of precious blue sky for the day.

Rolling hills covered with tea plantations

The train arrived at Nanu Oya, a small town close to the popular tourist destination of Nuwara Eliya. On arrival, I got a big surprise when my guide informed me that my parcel had arrived. Initially I was puzzled, but then I remembered that I had left some trousers in the hotel at Polonnaruwa. I’d asked the hotel to send them to Kandy, but they had arrived after we had left and I assumed I would never see them again. It turned out that my guide had been in touch with the Kandy hotel to get them redirected here and that they had arrived in the morning. My guide took me to the station master’s office – a wonderful old-fashioned office room – to meet the station manager and collect my well-travelled trousers.

The station master….and my vagabond trousers!

Sure enough, our driver was also there to meet us at the station, and we drove to my lodgings for the night – the Hill Club.

This wonderful institution is a relic of British Colonial rule, when British men (not women) could join a private club in the hills to get away from the heat of the coast. The club has now been enthusiastically embraced by a new generation of Sri Lankan club members, who have kept most of the old traditions, which include a jacket and tie dress code after 6pm, providing hotel water bottles for the beds, and a daily ceremony raising and saluting the Sri Lankan flag whilst listening to the national anthem. One less good tradition – a side door for lady guests, who were not allowed to use the main door – had thankfully been scrapped.

The club is popular with its members at weekends but rents out spare rooms to travellers when it is less busy. I arrived on a Sunday and it turned out that I was the only guest. I had the whole of the huge building to myself, including the comfortable reading room……..

……bar, two snooker rooms and dining room……..

There was even a gym. The manager looked surprised when I said that I wanted to use it and I soon found out why. It had a musty smell, like it had not been used in a long time, and after a few km on the treadmill I was soaking in sweat from the near 100% humidity. I decided that visiting the bar and ordering a cocktail was a much better idea, and I enjoyed drinking it siting by an open fire in the club’s dining room.

I then had a hearty western-style dinner of fish and chips (the menu had many traditional British offerings as well as Sri Lankan food) before retiring for the night and the company of my hot water bottle in my bed.

4th August 2022 3

Ella and the Phony Farmer

Today I headed off to the “Hill Country” – the mountains that cover the centre of Sri Lanka. The road wound steadily upwards, and after a few kilometres I saw the first of Sri Lanka’s famous tea plantations. It was a very scenic route, with distant mountains looking over rows and rows of bright green tea plants, and lots of waterfalls.

Tea plantations and mountains on the road from Kandy

Of course I stopped at one of the plantations to learn how tea is made and the differences between white, black and green tea……and to try some of the finished product for myself.

The road led on to Nuwara Eliya, nicknamed “Little England” because of its old colonial buildings. It was a popular destination for the colonial British to escape the heat of the coast. Since I was going to return here to stay for a couple of nights I only stopped to take a couple of photos.

We continued to my final destination, the small town of Ella. Driving on the narrow windy roads, with the local buses, motorcycles and animals was slow, and I got a little bored. We stopped for fuel at a town near Ella. This stop proved more difficult than the earlier ones, and the police gave our guide a long interrogation before asking us to park our van and wait. The guide sent the driver off to get a document that had been requested in order to get some diesel and explained to me that the police here were particularly careful. Nearby Ella was a rare town with a lot of foreign tourists, and local drivers had been paying backpackers to sit in their car so that they could claim they were a tourist vehicle. This had made other local people understandably angry. We waited ten minutes before we were allowed to drive up to the pump to get our ration of 20 litres.

The fuel shortages seemed to be more acute in this town

The driver, the guide and I were all glad when we finally reached Ella in the early evening. I had booked a guest house which was on a hill a little outside the town, and which was supposed to have an amazing view over the mountains. However, the afternoon had seen thick clouds return and for the moment nothing was visible. At least it hadn’t rained.

When I woke up the next morning, the clouds had mostly gone, and I enjoyed one of the best ever views I have had from a hotel room.

I had breakfast and set off on a short walk up to Ella Rock, which promised an even better view of the surrounding area. The guest house owner gave me very detailed instructions, which included sending me twenty photos of the route on WhatsApp. Finally he advised me to refuse the services of guides loitering on the route, but that if I got lost I could ask local farmers and they would point me in the right direction.

The path followed a railway line. At times, I had to walk on the track itself and was a little worried that a train would arrive suddenly. But I had no other choice, and anyway lots of local people seemed to be walking on the line quite happily. When a train did arrive, I could see why walking on the track wasn’t dangerous – it could be heard from a long way off, went very slowly, and sounded a warning horn at all bends.

Walking along – and on – the railway line

My WhatsApp photos told me to leave the railway and head along a path through fields. I stopped again to check the way, and immediately a small wiry man, who I thought might have been following me for a while, offered to show me the way. I hesitated, and he said “I no guide, I farmer”. I should have said no, but instead I followed him up the path. Rather than just tell me the way, he insisted on accompanying me. The route he took suddenly became flat and I scratched my head – the guest house owner’s directions described a continuous steep slope. Seeing me stop, the “farmer” said “I know way” and when I continued to look doubtful, “I not guide, I farmer”. He produced an identity card very similar to the one I had seen my guide use to obtain petrol. Under his photo, it said “FARMER”. Hmmm. In English, with no Sinhalese. I smelt a rat and told the “farmer” I would find my own way. With remarkable speed, he straightened his back and held out his arm flat with his palm upturned – the position of someone expecting to receive money. I gave him a 500 rupee (1.5$) note to get rid of him and ignoring his protestations (“Not enough! One more! Rude bear!”) continued along the path he had been following. Sure enough, it led to a dead end, and I had to retrace my steps to find an alternative way up. I reached the top, where I found the true path with a steady stream of (mostly Sri Lankan) visitors going up or down – my “farmer” had taken me on a detour, presumably to make his services harder to reject.

At the top, there were a couple of drinks stalls (someone had the energy to carry drinks all the way up) and a spectacular view, enhanced by wisps of cloud that occasionally blew in from the lower down in the valley. It was well worth my slightly extended walk.

Worth the walk – the view from Ella Rock

I felt the weather changing, so I headed back. Just as I got to the guest house, yet another storm broke and I sat watching torrential rain for the rest of the afternoon. When it finally stopped, I grabbed a tuk-tuk to head into the small town of Ella. It was a pleasant and lively place, similar to many other popular traveller destinations I had visited in the past. Its one main road was flanked by a series of guest houses, bars, restaurants and spas. I offered myself a massage before having dinner and a beer in the appropriately named Chill bar.

3rd August 2022 1

Kandy – the heart of Sri Lanka

Today I transferred to Kandy, Sri Lanka’s geographical, cultural and religious centre. Kandy was the capital of Sri Lanka from 1592 until 1815, when the last Sri Lankan kingdom was finally conquered by the British.

My first stop was the botanical gardens, located a little outside of the centre of town. They are some of the best gardens in Asia and I was pleasantly surprised that for once, it was not raining. The gardeners seemed to like planting impressive long alleys of straight, tall trees……

Magnificent palm trees stand to attention!

….or in some cases, not so straight trees.

…but these pines look like they had too much to drink

Some corners of the gardens had a huge populations of fruit bats. Enterprising garden workers would ask tourists for a few rupees, and would then shake the trees to unleash a crowd of screeching animals.

Just how many bats can roost on one tree?

There was also an area for trees ceremonially planted by world rulers and celebrities visiting Sri Lanka, including many members of the British royal family, Yuri Gagarin and even Crown Prince Nicolay of Russia (who planted a tree a few years before he became the last Russian tsar).

My driver and I then went to my hotel but encountered a big traffic jam. It had an unusual cause – the road had been blocked for a procession of Sri Lankan drummers and three elephants. It was a practice procession for Kandy’s big religious festival called Esala Perahera, which celebrates the sacred Buddha tooth relic which is kept in Kandy. I knew that I would miss the main festival by a few days, so I jumped out of the car and ran to get some photos.

My lodging turned out to be a very nice boutique hotel located in the centre. I had a quick rest before heading out to a performance of Sri Lankan dance. It was rather touristy (unusually, there were more foreigners than Sri Lankans) but still entertaining and included many different forms of dance, following by fire eating and fire walking.

Next I started my visit to Kandy’s main attraction – the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. This shrine houses a tooth said to have been taken from Buddha’s funeral pyre and smuggled to Sri Lanka in 483 BCE. It was located in successive Sri Lankan capitals including Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa – before ending up in Kandy. The tooth was seized by the Portuguese in the 16^th century and burnt, only for the Sri Lankans to reveal that the burnt tooth was a replica, and that the real one had been hidden for safe keeping. The complex was built over many years, from 1687 to 1782, and also housed the royal place.

Today the temple remains a very active centre of worship, and I made sure to visit at the time of evening Puja (prayers or offering). It was a very atmospheric experience, which lasted an hour and a half. I entered through an ornate doorway and brightly painted corridor, and then I waited with local worshippers and a few other tourist outside a shrine on the ground floor of the complex as drummers welcomed priests who entered and left an inner sanctum.

Drummers await priests at the first shrine on the ground floor

Then I queued to visit the tooth relic itself on the second floor. Worshippers filed past a small window, through which can be seen the silver caskets in which the tooth is housed (seven caskets of decreasing size, sitting inside each other like a Russian doll). They then retire behind a long table where they place offering of flowers.

A glimpse of the silver casket housing the sacred tooth (not easy to photo!)

After placing my offering, I strolled around the rest of the complex, including parts of the former royal palace. The night air was filled with the sound of services being started in the neighbouring temples, of which there are many. The air was pleasantly cool, with a smell of incense and flowers.

The temple complex seen from the outside, after my visit

I continued my stroll back to my hotel and bought some take away vegetable dosas (an Indian dish a bit like a crepe) to eat on my balcony overlooking the city. It had been a very nice day, and in the hotel I enjoyed regaining some of my basic creature comforts – electricity, internet and hot water. Even better, it had not rained today!

1st August 2022 4

A tale of two trees

I got up early again – it is so much nicer cycling in the cool of the morning – and set off to see the remaining sites that I had not had time for yesterday. First up was the Sri Maha Bodhi, the world’s oldest documented tree. It sits in the geometric centre of Anuradhapura and is surrounded by very large parking area to accommodate crowds of pilgrims at festivals. Today it was quiet, the car parks were empty, and I could leave my bike very close to the entrance. I stopped to admire a beautiful lake with lilies and many birds, with a brilliant white stupa reflecting off the water.

The Sri Maha Bodhi is a bo (or bodhi, or sacred fig) tree grown from a cutting brought from India, possibly by the daughter of Emperor Asoka in the third century BCE; some legends say that it was derived from the very tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment. Whatever the truth, written records of the tree being tended stretch back over 2000 years.

The usual routine was needed to enter an inner courtyard housing the tree with its shrine – shoes and hat off, and security check (the shrine was the site of a bloody terrorist attack by Tamil separatists during the Sri Lankan civil war). The tree itself was a normal looking fig tree with its branches supported by golden scaffolding, but the surrounding shrine had a very special feeling to it. Pilgrims streamed in, bringing offerings of flowers or rice. Someone gave me some flowers to make my own offering, and like the other visitors I placed them to make an appealing pattern.

Other pilgrims and local worshipers sat on the ground, praying with beautiful chants, which were half-way between singing and talking. The combination of the cool morning air, the chanting, and the strong smell of flowers gave a deep feeling of peace, and I sat down and closed my eyes to enjoy it.

Eventually it was time to move on, and my next stop was the huge Sandahiru Seya stupa, which can be seen from almost anywhere around Anuradaphura. It was started in 2010 and construction was only just finishing, so it was not yet recommended in any of the guidebooks. I found its perfect shape and brilliant white colour very beautiful and watched the workers completing the final bits of work.

Finishing the construction of Anuradhapura’s latest stupa

From there I headed to another less-visited site – the former royal gardens, that are over 2000 years old. They were poorly signposted, but I eventually found them at a the bottom of a steep slope leading down from the embankment of an artificial lake. I found some carved stone structures in an advanced state of decay that were once water basins. There were no signs at the site and little text about the site in Lonely Planet, but I had the luck to overhear the explanation of the guide escorting a group of western tourists (the first I had seen that day). I learnt that a system of channels led from the lake above to irrigate the garden and also produce an artificial waterfall over carefully placed huge-boulders. With the added explanation the site came to life, and I could imagine the royal family bathing in luxury all those years ago.

The Royal Gardens. 2000 years ago, water cascaded over the boulder to the left into a pool where I am standing.

Next stop was Vessagiriya, a little-visited cave monastery that was founded over 2000 years ago, possibly by the Indian prince who introduced Buddhism to Sri Lanka. The guardian of the site attached himself to us – the only visitors – and gave an excellent guided tour. He pointed out the huge boulders that had been brought here and raised onto small supporting stones to form some of the caves – how this was done remains a mystery. He also showed us a line of small holes in a rock, and explained that builders would fill these holes with burning oil, and then suddenly cool the rock with water to make the boulder splinter along the line.

Our guide, and one of the mysterious boulders balancing on smaller stones

My final destination was the rock temple of Isurumuniya, set beside a particularly beautiful pond with lotus flowers. This temple is also ancient, originally dating from around 300BCE.

Next to it stood a museum of ancient carvings, including one called “the Lovers” showing a prince who gave up his right to be king in order to marry a girl from a humble background.

The top of the temple gave a nice view over the area, with the stupa of Sandahiru Seya prominent as usual, and of the pretty elephant carvings in the stone by the pool.

It was now midday and the sun made the walk around this temple with bare paws particularly hard (I had forgotten to pack socks again). I concluded it was time to retreat to home to cool off in my guest house’s air conditioning.

After a couple of hours, I set off and had a short picnic lunch of bananas in one of the rice fields.

A tuk-tuk driver spotted me and offered me a ride to see a “special tree”. Intrigued, I accepted his offer and after a short drive he showed me probably the biggest tree I have ever seen – a sprawling banyan with a huge mother tree and several almost equally impressive daughter trees sprouting from massive aerial roots.

Part of the giant banyan tree (I could not fit all of it into the photo)

Next, I had intended to return to the Sri Maha Bodhi to soak up more of the special atmosphere there, but dark clouds had gathered, and I could hear thunder in the distance. I retreated to my guest house just in time to avoid this……

You can only find rain like this in the tropics

It was supposed to be the dry season in Anuradhapura, but I was unlucky. I stayed at the guest house for the rest of the afternoon and worked on my blog. You never know in Sri Lanka when you will have electricity and an internet connection.

23rd July 2022 3