Thank you Bjorn, sorry but we just couldn’t resist that title as we have actually spent the day on bikes trooping from stupa to stupa! Anuradhapura is the place where Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka in 400 BC and was the capital for 1500 years, so it’s all quite old and not really our thing but hey…. A similar story to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, many of the temples have lain hidden for hundreds of years before being rediscovered more recently. But the reason we chose to go today is it is a Poya Day – the day of the full moon which is a public holiday, quite a devotional day and no alcohol is served anywhere in the country (as you would expect we were prepared for this also – more later). So donning some of our white clothes so we would fit in as devotees (we had practiced at the Ashram….) we cycle towards our first site – the Buddha’s Bodi Tree. This is over 2000 years old and was a cutting brought over from India from the original enlightenment tree. Due to the Tamil Tigers there is security everywhere – young kids in army gear standing at every junction, we have taken to getting them to guard our bikes as they had little else to do. We did however have one run in where some idiot tried to charge us 20p to park our bikes. Ant got irrationally huffy and hot headed, shouting “thief” at the person and the same to the military! Gill cowered as she is not so comfortable upsetting “illiterate child soldiers ” waving AK47’s. We then had to scuttle off and hide our bikes somewhere else at a roadside stall where the guy refused to take a penny. As trees go, it was very nice, but like everywhere else we have been today, it was surrounded with saffron clad monks, families dressed in white chanting, praying and making various offerings to trees, statues of Buddha – both sitting and prostrate, and generally behaving in a very holy way. We were the only two Westerners to be seen yet again…. We visited various stupa’s, always remembering to go around clockwise, saw a 2000 year old Buddha statue reputed to have the best Buddha face ever (he was quite cute). What was more interesting as this is the site of an ancient abandoned city, is that the stupa’s were surrounded by acres of green, woods and lakes – with no modern civilisation or urbanisation to speak of. Our ancient bikes did quite well until Gill managed to get stuck in the mud – (please see vid) – not one of her better moments!
Wherever we have been in Sri Lanka people have been really friendly. We have met all sorts of characters from brash Westernised playboys, teenagers who want to practice their English, or people who just want to have their picture taken. Just tonight a fellow guest at the hotel came and gave us a CD of her daughter singing, she said that she and her family had seen us out on our bikes. At the temples today, people were smiling and saying hello (most probably as a result of these two, white clad, international fashionista’s in their midst) - happy to share their Poya devotions and not prissy at all about our taking photos.
Tonight at the Tissa Wewa guest house this is no different. Before dinner, we were chatting to (or rather he was chatting at us) to a guy who had come here to catch up with a soldier who has been up at the Tamil Tiger fighting front. Said soldier had just been involved in this week’s battles and was a little traumatised. As we sit here writing this after dinner, his soldier friend has been ‘choppered in – it feels like something out of MASH. He is fresh from the taking and liberation of Elephant Pass from the Tamil Tigers a couple of days ago – just how close is this bloody war…. No wonder we are seeing no other Westerner’s… Gill has just realised that they are sleeping in a room next to her – not sure if she feels safe or ready for war….
Wherever we have been in Sri Lanka people have been really friendly. We have met all sorts of characters from brash Westernised playboys, teenagers who want to practice their English, or people who just want to have their picture taken. Just tonight a fellow guest at the hotel came and gave us a CD of her daughter singing, she said that she and her family had seen us out on our bikes. At the temples today, people were smiling and saying hello (most probably as a result of these two, white clad, international fashionista’s in their midst) - happy to share their Poya devotions and not prissy at all about our taking photos.
Tonight at the Tissa Wewa guest house this is no different. Before dinner, we were chatting to (or rather he was chatting at us) to a guy who had come here to catch up with a soldier who has been up at the Tamil Tiger fighting front. Said soldier had just been involved in this week’s battles and was a little traumatised. As we sit here writing this after dinner, his soldier friend has been ‘choppered in – it feels like something out of MASH. He is fresh from the taking and liberation of Elephant Pass from the Tamil Tigers a couple of days ago – just how close is this bloody war…. No wonder we are seeing no other Westerner’s… Gill has just realised that they are sleeping in a room next to her – not sure if she feels safe or ready for war….
