Blogs from North Central Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 5

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Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Anuradhapura April 26th 2014

Avant de visiter la cité sacrée qui nous prendra bien deux jours, Vipula m'emmène à l'hôtel Shalini où je vais passer ma première nuit, pas très loin des sites à visiter, c'est très propre avec douche et clim, nous sommes acceuillis avec un verre de jus de fruit frais et en guise de petit dejeuner je vais gouter eu curry sri lankais, riz, légumes et noix de coco rapée épicé. Le temps de prendre ma douche, il fait au moins 34° et de me reposer un peu du voyage, nous partons aussitôt visiter le musée de Jetavana, la citadelle, les ruines du grand monastère d'Abhayagiriya, le grand stupa, on peut imaginer l'ampleur de ce lieu où vivaient des milliers de moines. Quelques sri lankais viennent offrir leur hommage au Bouddha et peu d'étrangers, nous sommes plutôt ... read more
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Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Anuradhapura January 28th 2014

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 ... read more
7 headed snake
Bittern
Monks

Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Polonnaruwa January 5th 2014

I hadn't exactly dreamed of going to Sri Lanka. It was never high on my list. But several people told me how great it is and I needed a cheap holiday, which is not easy when I have two weeks to use for travel. So I used airline miles for the flight and when I started making plans, I realized the cheapest way to go was to book a tour. A big bus tour. Limited to 16 people though, so not too bad. I'd never done a big bus tour before, except for a few day trips, but this was my best option financially. So I booked with an Australian company called Geckos Adventures. It was easy, good value, and seemed very organized, which it was. I left Kuwait at 3:30 am and wasn't feeling too ... read more
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Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Polonnaruwa December 4th 2013

Took the bus to Polonnaruwa - another of the ancient cities. I was a bit daunted but it actually was great fun. Everyone uses the local buses here - families, school kids, little old ladies, labourers, businessmen and even monks. You just jump on - sometimes as the bus has started moving! There is incense burning constantly which I love, colourful garlands everywhere and they showed a Sri Lankan movie which seemed to be a dramatisation about the arrival of Buddhism here, and felt very like a Sinhalese 'Game of Thrones'. An old lady sat next to me and suddenly picked up my wrist and tied a Buddhist thread around it. I am blessed! The journey was a bum-numbing three and a half hours but I totally enjoyed it. Arriving in a wet Polonnaruwa early afternoon ... read more
Polonnaruwa
Polonnaruwa
Polonnaruwa

Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Anuradhapura December 3rd 2013

The best way to get around the huge ancient capital city that is Anuradhapura is to rent a bike. The bike has no gears and no cushioning but it's great fun. I was a bit nervous about cycling through the traffic of the town, but in spite of the appearance of chaos, it all seems to work. Like yesterday it's raining pretty much the whole time. Unlike yesterday there are lots of people here - it seems to be a day out for many Sri Lankans, plus a place of pilgrimage for all buddhists. There is so much to see here - giant stupas said to contain holy relics including one huge sky blue one, the beautiful 'moonstone' slabs at the foot of temple steps, and the sacred Bo tree that apparently dates back over 2000 ... read more
Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura

Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Anuradhapura December 2nd 2013

We were now headed to two more of Sri Lanka's UNESCO World Heritage Sites back to back - Sigiriya and Anuradhapura. The ride out of Kandy was uneventful other than the roads and traffic were not much different than what we encountered entering Kandy. With no shoulders and rough tarmac, these would be the worst roads of our trip. That wasn't to change until we hit Dumbulla (actually home to yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site…). It is interesting to note that the worst roads of our trip were around Sri Lanka's two largest cities -- Colombo and Kandy. I guess with the new motorways (Sri Lankan now has a few true freeways -- Colombo to Galle and Colombo to Kandy) constructed recently the older roads are no longer as much of concern. Riding in Sri ... read more
Flower
Elephant Sign
Elephant Crossing

Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Mihintale December 2nd 2013

It's raining in Sri Lanka. A lot. I was not expecting this! I knew it was likely but I had naively thought rain here would be hot, tropical and short lived, not cold, dark skies like we have in England. Arriving in Anuradhapura, the advice is not to go up to Mihintale because the rain will make the rocks slippy, but a guide offers to take people up there and I am not sure I will get another chance. This is my first time in Asia proper, and my first time in a tuk-tuk. I'm amazed how far they will push these tiny vehicles, and how nifty they are. We really should have them in over-crowded Britain. Miraculously as we pull in to the car park the rain stops and we find ourselves at the base ... read more
Mihintale
Mihintale
Mihintale

Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Anuradhapura December 1st 2013

If I should ever write my book, I think I would call it 'the Kindness of Strangers' and Sri Lanka would definitely have its own chapter. After over a week in country, we continue to be amazed at the friendliness of everyone we meet. Each guest house that we have stayed at, are small 5-8 rooms, and the service is amazing. Since we had no strong itinerary, and not booked any hotels, we have found each guesthouses booking for us in the next town they recommend. And it is working out, wonderfully. And each guest house we leave, the manager gives us their cell #, and tells us "If you have any problems, please call me". They are amazed we do not have a phone, though. We read there are 105 mobile phones per 100 residents ... read more
Vessigiriya Monastery
And this was even more comfortable
Sakawala chakra

Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Anuradhapura December 1st 2013

Kandy is a pretty city nestled into the hills surrounding a lake... it was the last capital of the Singhalese Kingdom, which fell to the British in 1815. They defied the Portuguese and Dutch for 3 centuries but the Brits managed to prevail. Kandy is situated at about 500m, so the climate is slightly cooler and dryer than the coast. If was very pleasant actually. The lake in the center of town was actually a creation of the last ruler of the Kandyan Kingdom. We were off to a good start in Kandy we had a lovely Chinese (yes you heard me right - Chinese) dinner at a funky restaurant called “Slightly Chilled”... This is THE hangout in Kandy - the views are killer! We started out our day in Kandy after a lovely breakfast at ... read more
Random Monkey
Garrison Cemetery
Barry in a tie-dyed sarong

Asia » Sri Lanka » North Central Province » Anuradhapura December 1st 2013

Note: if you double click on any of the pictures you will be transferred to the picture gallery where they can be enlarged to half page size. Saturday 30th November: on Friday we had arranged to hire a car and driver to take us around Sri Lanka and the driver showed up as arranged at Reception at 10am as we were checking out. We left the hotel and headed north through Colombo and out on to the new expressway leading to the International Airport. We continued past the airport on the main coastal road towards Chilaw and Puttalam before turning inland towards Anuradhapura (a tongue twister of a name, especially if you try to pronounce it quickly) which was the ancient capital of Ceylon. Initially the drive was quite slow as there was a lot of ... read more
Sri Mada Bohdi Tree enclosure
Golden spars
Ruvanwelisiya Dagoba




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