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Published: January 14th 2013
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Bright and early we were back on the wild Sri Lankan buses – heading to the ancient city of Anaradhaphuda as a diversion from the cricket for a few days. The journey was pretty standard, hot & sweaty, with even more heavy acceleration and braking than usual. On arrival we treated ourselves to rice & curry before searching out a place to stay that could offer us local trips (as well as the cricket on TV for Mark). We found a great place to stay that had all this and more – that meant a 4am start the next morning for our second safari day in Sri Lanka, this time in the Wilapattu National Park.
We were looking forward to an exciting morning so the hour in a bumpy tuk tuk before we switched to the standard 4wd vehicle didn’t trouble us too much. Unfortunately the Wilapattu park didn’t quite live up to the standard set by the Yala Park we’d previously been to, we’d clearly been spoilt there. We still enjoyed the morning though and saw some superb wildlife including Wild Boar, Giant Squirrels, Deer, Jackyls and Crocodiles, as well as some more stunning birdlife.
Back at the
guest house we’d arranged for an afternoon whirlwind tuk tuk tour of the UNESCO old city sights and it didn’t disappoint. Incredibly large stupors in brilliant bright white reached above us and huge reservoir ‘tanks’ of water stretched out into the distance. We could have spent much more time there admiring the archaeology and the superb birds that joined us in some of the ruins. We also saw a Bodhi tree said to be over 2000 years old which is believed to have been propagated from the Sacred Fig tree at Bodh Gaya which is hugely important to Buddhists.
Unfortunately it was fairly clear that the place needed a dog rescue centre as we saw lots of sorry looking creatures wandering around the place. Locals believe that if they leave dogs at temple sites then people/the monks will feed them. Unfortunately that didn’t seem to happen here.
Next morning it was an early start (again!) and we were off back to Columbo for the semi-finals and final of the cricket. The train back was slow, naturally, so we got into the capital at lunchtime, immediately noticing the increase in people & traffic. We needed accommodation, and the tuk
tuk driver at the station assured us that he knew cheap places with rooms free. After a couple of stops at completely unsuitable and full hotels we parted company in our first disagreement with the usually friendly Sri Lankan locals. Fortunately another tuk tuk was at hand and it whisked us through the traffic to a beach side suburb of the city. Here we found a decent place to stay, just a couple of hundred metres from the sea.
After checking out the local neighbourhood in the afternoon, we headed up to the Premedassa stadium to watch the first Semi Final – Sri Lanka vs Pakistan. The stadium was packed and there was a real buzz around the ground as Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first. The locals were out in numbers, fancy dress, Malinga wigs, horns, flags, they were ready to watch their team get to the final. Sri Lanka started slowly and Pakistan bowled well to restrict them to 139 in their allocated overs with the Pakistan spin bowlers applying the brakes on the scoreboard. Pakistan set off well in response, but similarly, and to the home crowds delight, they couldn’t find the
boundaries either. This meant the party started in the stand and throughout the rest of Columbo as Pakistan finished on 123 and the home side were in the final. It was a mad scene getting back on the roads as fireworks were set off, cars tooted horns & people celebrated wildly in the streets. The next morning we really appreciated our first lay in for a while.
The next afternoon was spent at the visa office and browsing the museums of the city, with some interesting taxidermy on display at the National History Museum. As evening approached we made our way back to the stadium for the second Semi Final - West Indies vs Australia. Naturally we wanted WI to win and it was amazing to watch them flay the Aussie bowling to all parts of the ground with Gayle, Bravo & Pollard all smashing huge 6’s into the stands. Set 206 to win, Australia were never in the hunt and collapsed to a meagre 131 with only skipper Bailey making any headway with an aggressive 60.
With a days break before the final we opted to use the pool facilities of a more upmarket hotel near to
our guest house. It was good to spend a day relaxing in front of the pool after racing through the dirty and smoky streets of the city in tuk tuks the two previous days. In the evening we walked down over the train tracks to the local beach and watched hordes of locals enjoying the weekend sunset.
Final day was soon upon us and the excitement was building around the city. Our tickets had become hot property but we opted to experience the final rather than cash in on them. We took a walk on the famous Galle Face Green and enjoyed tea in the Galle Face Hotel where many foreign dignitaries, writers and scientists have enjoyed the ocean views. It was the womens final at the stadium first up where Australia beat England with a thrilling last ball victory. The ground was filling up nicely and was incredibly loud as the main match approached.
West Indies won the toss and decided to bat first. Sri Lanka simply blew their top order away as they could not get the ball off the square and lost Gayle & Charles to be on only 14 runs from 6 overs. The
home fans scented victory and were going crazy, cheering every dot ball and wicket like it was the winning ball of the game. It was left to Marlon Samuels to rebuild the innings for WI as wickets fell around him he stayed in and then hit out well at the end to reach a superbly crafted 78 and dragged WI to a respectable total of 137 – a score they had never looked like reaching. Mendes was again the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets as Malinga struggled, going for 50 from his allocation.
Sri Lanka started their reply slowly and WI kept applying pressure – eventually wickets began to fall and the crowd was silenced as their local heroes were unable to get the WI bowlers to the boundary. As the pressure built the nerves in the crowd were felt in the middle and two quick run outs put WI firmly on top. Unfortunately for the locals there was to be no comeback and fairy-tale ending as they finished all out for 101 – slow bowling of Narine & Sammy doing the damage again. The WI team celebrated Gangnam style around the ground and the locals filed
out of the stadium to reflect on a tournament where they’d lost only one game – the final.
Tina returned south to SOS for a further week helping out, another rewarding week meeting the founder of the organisation, getting to know the new manager Nicole a lot better and this time with the experience of living on site. Nanda one of the local workers invited Tina to dinner to meet his family and to have another fantastic Sri-Lankan curry as well as meet another 8 rescue dogs living at his house. Nanda explained how he had lost both his parents and a sister to the Tsunami. His children were a variety of ages some adults down to 7 years old as with many of the local people we had met he had a son working overseas, another on the fishing boats which could mean that he would be away for up to 3 months at a time. After dinner Nanda and his wife enthusiastically watched Pop Idol Sri Lanka. The evening ended with an unexpected motorbike ride back to the rescue centre.
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