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Published: October 7th 2011
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sunset on the train from Colombo After spending a day recovering in Mount Lavinia, just south of Colombo, we ventured back into town to catch a train to Galle. Whatever train schedule I had looked up was wrong, and we decided to take a train to Anuradapura instead. It was the most rickety train I have ever been on, but it gave us a sense of people's agriculturally-focused lives outside the city. Most farms appear to be small and family-owned, and there are a lot of different crops (at least in this area). Unlike in most developing countries, Sri Lanka's populations have not flocked to the city; only 25% of the population lives in major urban centres.
We arrived in Anuradapura at 9pm or so, and managed to find a decent hotel a little beyond our price range, but haggled them down a bit. (Note: there are no hostels in Sri Lanka, and the distinction between tourists - who spend more money - and backpackers - who are cheap - is largely lost on Sri Lankans. We found that explaining that we were 'poor tourists' helped, and stating that we were on a budget and naming a price range right off the bat made negotiations a
little easier.)
Anuradapura is part of the "Cultural Triangle," made up of two old capitals (Anuradapura and Polonnaruwa) and Sigiriya, a fortress/monastery that was built atop a giant magma plug. The area within the triangle has a ton of ruins, temples, and places of historical interest.
We discovered that Anuradapura, like many other places we have been recently (Saudi not least) is extremely hot, at least this time of year. We had originally thought to rent bikes from our hotel, but we returned them when we figured out that Ashley's bike had no brakes and we would have to ride about 3km through insane traffic (I say insane not because of the amount of traffic, but because of the way that larger vehicles lord it over smaller vehicles, and people regularly drive down the wrong side of the street, which is the right side of the street for us because they drive on the left). We returned the bikes and took a tuk-tuk to the main gate.
Anuradhapura is quite large and spread out, and between the heat and the distance we soon wished we had the bikes after all. We drank out way through about 6L
of water in the course of our 8 hour meanderings, but never once had to use the bathroom. It's amazing how much you lose to sweat. The locals don't seem to sweat at all, but dripping, red-faced tourists are the norm (though it is the off season and the place was surprisingly empty). We saw a bodhi tree that has grown from a cutting of the famous bodhi tree under which the Buddha sat and achieved enlightenment. According to the LP it's "the oldest historically confirmed tree" (over 2000 years old). We saw some stone sculptures and reliefs, and some of the largest dagobas (or stupas) in Sri Lanka. We also saw a famous, very beautiful stone buddha, and sat by him for a while. A group led by a monk came to meditate and pray while we were sitting.
Outside each dagoba, shrine, bodhi tree enclosure, or other holy place, there are signs asking visitors to please remove their hats and shoes, and reminding them not to take pictures with their backs to the Buddha statues. This is all well and good, but the problem is that we foreigners can't take the heat. The locals' feet have soles
like shoe leather, and they can stand walking accross searing hot brick. Foreigners end up doing a quick tap-dance from one small patch of shade to another, muttering "ouch, dammit!" under their breath, and feeling a bit ridiculous. Some tourists have figured it out and brought socks, but others, like Ashley, keep forgetting them and have to suffer.
There are a lot of monkeys around. They are about as common as squirrels back home. We have seen black and red-faced monkeys, who are generally about toddler-sized (or bigger), are extremely agile and quick, and appear to have little or no fear of humans. Unless you're holding a stick. These cunning mini-people are reputed to steal your food, or anything that looks shiny or interesting, and we have heard tell of monkeys snatching vendors' sodas and chewing off the tops to get at the sweet, sweet contents. Fortunately, we haven't been robbed yet. We've already spent a lot of time looking at monkeys and have a disproportionate number of monkey pictures. You think we'd have gotten over it in Nepal...
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