Anaradhapura

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D4

Today was spent visiting Hindu Temples and I can honestly say we are now ‘Templed Up’. We are also trinketed up, well I am at any rate. I was offered some small items and eventually bought a couple at 40% of asking price. However, his cronies then moved in like vultures and pleaded for rescue from depravation and dire starvation of their families, even though they were far from looking like stick insects. My philanthropic spirit kicked in (or was it gullibility) and I ended up with two more. I must have SOFT TOUCH tattooed on my forehead. I console myself that the local economy is now thriving creating replacements.



We cycled around just a few of the temples close to the lake in the morning and then Mihintale in the afternoon. We saw the mounds, which are purported to contain riches and the Buddha effigies along with all the monk’s dwellings. At Mihintale there is a large rock with footholes, of sorts, for you to climb to the top for a good view of the surrounding district. The worst bit was the descent and luckily there was a handrail for support. At the temples one has to remove footwear and legs must be covered. I had been wearing socks to protect my little feet from stones and grit but these had to be removed when climbing the rock due to the slipperiness of the rock. The locals with feet like leather found it easy, of course. Outside one of the temples was a snake charmer with his three cobras doing their usual dancing bit, which was quite entertaining. We just got back at 6 o’ clock when it was starting to go dark, time to have a shower and do my laundry ready for tomorrow. I did the trick of wrapping the wet clothes in my towel and rolling it up to remove the excess moisture prior to drying under the ceiling fan, which I expect to fall at any minute with its wild, out of balance, spinning. The trouble is it is directly above my bed and is on at night in preference to the air conditioning unit, which is cold and draughty. This blog could end at any moment. Tomorrow on the road again, heading South for more temples I imagine (imagine =dread?). A good night’s sleep is therefore needed now to prevent temple drowsiness. The birds are more interesting, and even the monkeys which were trying to strip our bikes whilst at Mihintale. A very nice Bittern was seen posing by a pond looking for its dinner and a large lizard, about 1 metre long, was seen five minutes later disappearing under the road down a drain. Pity I could not catch it on camera.

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