7.Seven, Seitse, sat.

Kandy

Another bus journey to remember.  From sigiriya we got the tuk tuk to Dumbulla where almost immediately, and in (hindsight) blind faith that it was the right bus to Kandy.  the packs went in the boot, which was kept closed with a plastic lemonade bottle wedged between the door and the bumper bar.  It started raining, so the driver obviously drove more slowly, carefully, and to the conditions.  Naaaah! You go faster to out run the rain, and if you honk your horn more you can go faster.   About 4 ks from Kandy we stopped very suddenly, and we had hit the car in front.   by good luck only there were no injuries and manageable damage to the bus...not that you'd notice the distinction, and after about 20 minutes we kept going.quite a bit slower this time.  Trusting the water-tightness of the storage area of these busses is also a mistake.  That will teach us to expect a bit of preparation time before we get onto our busses.

The traffic in Kandy is about the worst I have seen in Asia.  Not as busy as Bangkok, or fast  as KL, but there are busses everywhere trying to out honk each other, knowing full well it is gridlock.   The drivers here do not have the patience or skills of other places, the roads are narrower, and the pollution is horrid.   Walking from our guesthouse to the city centre, about  2 ks we went faster than the traffic.  

Yes that's the conductor shooing people (on the foot way) away from the front of the bus

This is the renowned centre of Sri Lankan Buddhist culture.  Kandy has a temple which contains the left canine tooth of Buddha.  This sacred relic is surprisingly kept at the Temple of the sacred Tooth Relic.   It is a very holy place for Buddhists.    As temples go, it is not so incredibly ornate, ancient, nor large, but apparently pretty important.  We were there during the moving of the shrine, to its bed.  The tooth is never visible, just the golden stupa it is encased in.   It was something to see.   

The temple........yes the temple.

Apparently we should see the Kandy dancers, who walk on hot coals, and cut themselves etc, but we think not....we've seen the real thing elsewhere...but if one more tout asks us.......

The Royal Botanical Gardens, (entrance $12.00 ea locals 50 cents.) is a lovely place peaceful and relatively quite in a bezerk city.  Obviously the highlight was  the world  famous CeylonIron wood tree planted in 1892 by Crown Prince Nicolai , who was of course the last Czar of Russia.

The Ceylon Iron wood tree.

There were also very naughty monkeys in thiese gardens.   There is a big sign at the entrance warning that there is a r9000 fine for picking  flowers......

But the sign did not mention eating them.

   The taxi driver tried to take us to a 'western' restaurant for breakfast, but we insisted he take us to where he would have breakfast.  A huge local meal of hoppers, samosas, curry, tea, $4.00 for two.  

We have a business concept.  Tuk-tuk transport for Dandenong.  Nathalie has experience at driving.  It    was frightening for all.  Now these whizzy little things, cheap to run, don't take up much room....and NJC can be the driver.

Maybe not for Melbourne.

For afternoon tea we 'dined' at the Kandyian Muslim Hotel, mango lasses and pineapple juice we had, and despite the inherent sense of adventure, we did, however, pass on the'chicken gizzards, even if they were only r100 a serving.

Nathalie has always wanted a sari.  A real sari.  The overwhelming contention was that her skin tone was just not right....couldn't put my finger on what it was but....

Camellias 

What is it about the Sri Lankan people, they have thousands upon thousands of acres of little camellia bushes   all through the mounyains around Kandy.  It's not as if there is any evidence of a floral trade..... Ah, Apparently they are tea plants....that explains everything.   From Kandy for 6.5 hrs on the third class carriage journey to Budulla, was almost exclusively tea plantations.

More camellias than you can poke a stick at.

  Scenery from the train was scenic.

Scenic.

There were a bunch of high school students on the train for much of the journey, and they brought a packed lunch, rice, curry, and dhal, wrapped in newspaper, and then they started singing...what we have no idea, but they were having fun, and it was not unpleasant.

Lunchtime.

Postprandial snooze

One week to go.....wifi not a big deal yet in these parts, ( bottom right hand corner)so communications may be sketchy.  We've already had to change NJCs phone provider, as the original one was not reliable.  Now using dialog, rather than airtel.  Not that it really matters to youse.  

6. Six, sies, kuusi (Finnish)...[as in language not the end]

.

Now having left the relatively idyllic Lievi's Guest house ( even though the street sign is spelt as per the jeans....copyright I think) at Anuradhapura , on the local bus three hours to Trincomalle for r150 ea.  lots of white people on this bus..... Just an observation.   Ajith was telling us that he would earn about r2.5 lac a month (r25000) as a driver but he seems pretty contented. R800 mth for electricity, free education, books and uniforms, free health care, food relatively cheap, and I'm not sure he does his BAS.  He does pay the occasional 'tax' to the traffic police...r1000 if we go to court or r500 we can sort it out here.....I think that would not pass the current VicPol ethical test.   .....

Ok-imagine a ride at Disneyland pulling big g forces, acceleration, deceleration, left and right, big jumps, the adrenaline pumping constantly.      You'd pay lots of money for a ride like that!  At least at Disneyland you would.  ...... but it cost us less than two dollars each and it was the bus journey from Anuradhapura to Trincomalle, on the upper right side of Sri Lanka       The road between the two: about three and a half hours, has been completely ripped up, and for the entire length they have road works.   And the dust, we were done up like Bedouins in a sand storm; it was reminiscent of the red dust in the Central Australian out back...Finke river road.  

But there is no way any of the doors or windows could be closed,   How can you have the overflow of passengers hanging out of the doors if you did.  So after this $1.90 thrill ride, we were filthy, not only slightly hot.  Unlike our experiences elsewhere in Asia the Sri Lankans are not backward in making you scrunch so that they can fit four bums in a (Sri Lankan) three bum seat.

But the iPad was up to the task, got some awesome video, but the photos don't quite show the 'thrill' or fear factor, especially when the seats are not really properly attached to the floor.

In one of the less crowded sector.

  

Yes .....that's the end of that T shirt 

Except for the War Graves Commission site seven km north  of town, Trincomalee is an eminently unessential place to visit.   We stayed in a beach front guesthouse north of town little beach called French Gardens-  literally 50 m from the beach, but it would rate as one of the worst we have stayed in.   Monkeys on the roof all night, beach bar and doof doof music to early hours, and the room was, for the want of minor maintenance, crap.  Lonely Planet, when they called this 'basic 'was overrating it. 

At the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site we were  met by a second generation curator who escorted us around.  In this beautiful spot there are 362 graves of which two are Australian,  328 British, and a whole mixture of other faiths and nationalities.  Even the Indian labourers, mostly with only one anglicised name, are remembered here. It was set up in 1947 and even has graves for people who died aftthe 39-45 war.   During the civil war there was an engagement between the SLArmy helicopters and the LTTE (Tamil tigers) which damaged 22 of the headstones, the ones that were not replaced the damage can still be seen. (Eg. Scrivener)  

 Some graves had the usual religious and like epitaph engraved but I loved was a Serjeant (sic) G.A.Kyle whose epitaph was 'curry anything'.  

The Bay of Bengal was lovely and warm, and swimming we did.   

Found out from the king coconut seller across the road from the cemetery that Kate had a baby, (kate who? She hasnt even got a second name anymore) and that the Australian government is settling refugees in PNG.   Such news hounds we are.

And while I have your attention

Andrew got a haircut for $3.00, which included the vigorous head massage after.

And for something completely different.....

Andrew is the one on the right.

Only stayed one night at beach bum and mosquito bedsit, and the owner was not really interested in our decor suggestions.  

The semi luxury bus ride to Sigiri was un-eventful. I think the tattered curtains took it from non luxury to semi luxury...maybe they can close the doors on the 'luxury' bus.

Sigiriya

For the same price as Trincomalee we have doors that close, toilet that flushes, fan that works and in a very peaceful forest environment.  We did have a visit from a local tree frog in the toilet though.   

This place is famous for the palace that a king in the 5th century built on top of a 350 m high rock outcrop.  The rock itself was inhabited since a long time BC by Buddhist monks. In the 5th century king Kassapa, who got to the top by knocking off his dad.  Feeling a little bit insecure, he decided to commandeer, the big rock that the monks had.  He build a huge palace complex with gardens, and three distinct levels.  No one really knows what it looked like, but it was highly defendable.  Even using today's technology of metal stairs, bolted to the rocks and stairs, it was a pretty hairy and quite tiring climb. 

Just the beginning.

 I can only imagine what it would have been like climbing a bamboo ladder and using the footholds and stairs cut into the rock face.  Either they had really small feet, or lots of them fell off during the climbing.  

See the little foot holds.

Around the base of the rock is an enormous water garden, city type precinct.   They were pretty clever dudes.  .  All the building materials, including hundreds of thousands of bricks, were carried up.  The king had several large cisterns dug, one is at least four swimming pools in size.    There are 28 nudie murals on a part of an of hang, and even after 1500 years, the colours are stunning.   

Great colouring.

Twelve hundred and two steps to the top...... If you don't take a wrong turn, which I don't think we did.

Twelve hundred and two steps.....like who counts them after the first 100!!!.     I always marvel at the skills, application and motivation of the ancients.....but.  .....the following are two items that had been carried to the top.

.  Why?  And one more

The safari

At the MinneriyaNational Park near Sigiriya   were elephants, white birds, black birds, peacocks peahens, locals fishing on the lake, using outrigger canoes, water buffaloes, tourists, jeeps, elephants and chaos.   For a national attraction close to Sigiri, the lack of tourist information signs, as to cost, and the one cashier dealing with the 100's of tourists was appealing.  I think we were charged about $30 US for the experience, because in the fee is attached paying for the vehicle we go in,  entrance fee for the driver(( as if we are not going to have a driver) 'service charge' and VAT. More about that later.

The elephants alone made this worthwhile. At this time of the year the lake recedes, and the flocks of elephants gather in their hundreds, to eat the newly grown soft grass.  And hundreds there were.  Big ones, little ones, and in between ones the Sri Lankan elephant are not often tuskers.   

A little one..but he did not like us so he decided to charge

A mob of em

See the elephants...

Getting to feel that there is a lot the Sri Lankans need to learn about the psychology of tourists, and the need for clear and unambiguous pricing.  In bartering for accommodation for example, last night the guesthouse tries to add service charge and tax, adding 25% to the account.  We did not pay.  It's not about the $5.00 or so extra it's about feeling that we have been lied to, and that they take us for fools.   We are now very cautious negotiating to ensure their evasiveness do not cost us $.    But I suppose that's what being a tourist is......

5. Five, Paha, Fem(Danish)

Well we arrived safely in Anuradhapura, four hours on the bus  with a quick change at Vavyunia.  Stopping at the army checkpoint and this time everybody had to leave the bus and walk through.  You'd reckon they could smile I didn't take a chance of taking a photo though as there were lots of  AK-47s about. 

Arriving here, we asked the tuk-tuk driver to take us to a good and cheap hotel, and here we are at Lievi's.  It is a  welcoming, clean, and green, place $20.00 a night, and no hot water...but you don't need it.  There is however the Colombo to Vavyunia  train track next door though .  Hot and cold running geckos though-which I love.

Green. Something not overly common this time of year.

               

The resident gecko

Love the pink mossie net.

We Australians have to appreciate that we have certain advantages when it comes to recognising and dealing with creepy crawly creatures that can kill you dead.  Like the North Queensland man eating  canus toadus, the kangaroo bite creeping necrosis, brown snake, red backs, Melbourne stickle back crocodiles and other like things that we deal with every day.  So the frog in the room of the two female Swiss tourists was no cause for screaming for us.

Ajith, the tuk tuk driver who took us to Lievi's has been lined up to take us to see the local sights for r2000 for the day.   

Nothing like a bit of advertising

Ajith's tuk-tuk

We have no idea about old... These people were building lakes, fresh water and sanitary systems thousands of years ago, they were building stupas bigger than the pyramids, they had systems of government, which if not perfect, worked well for them.  Then Buddhism came to Sri Lanka, in the form of a monk Mahinda, arriving in this area.  We saw at least 10 separate temples, each one requiring bare feet, virtually from the car parks.  Just as well Ajith had told us to take socks.

As it was Poya, the full moon public and holy holiday, there were at least seven or eight MCG crowds there paying homage to various temples and shrines.  Whole villages hire busses, and travel from 100's of km to visit.  If they are lucky they have accommodation in public type guesthouses, 6-7 families to a room, or they sleep under the trees.   Food can be got if you want to line up, for free, provided by government, corporate, and charity groups, alternatively there are hundreds of food vendors floating around.   

The photo does not really do justice to the grandeur and size of the stupa, the heat and the crowd....!!!!

It was like the royal Melbourne show, but dusty, noisy crowded, x a hundred

Thumparama stupa, where lord Buddha's clavicle is said to rest 

At a place called twin ponds, there was a busker, who was allegedly a snake charmer.  Was not very charming. He had the traditional baskets, and several large cobra that he enticed out of their baskets.    Of course handling the largish python was not much of a chore it was a lovely if not shy creature.   The locals did not think the white guy was very sane, even less so when the cobra came up for handling.   I think they just wanted to see the stupid tourist get bit.  Ajith was decidedly uneasy at this stage as a. We had not paid him yet, and b. it would not look good on his CV to have an almost paying customer die from snake bites.  But it was funny seeing the locals part and run when the python decided he wanted to go 'that' wayto stay in his bag.

See the chick in the white......in horror, but can't look away.

After a full, day of templing and stupaing, we were pretty tired, and surprisingly a tad sunburt. Surprisingly because the cloud cover has usually been so thick as to have a uv rating of 0.

But in the evening there was a treat in store.

Parehenia- this is the once a year celebration of poya posan, and there  is a parehernia.   This is a parade along the main streets of the new town.   The best estimate the locals could give was that it would start after 8 p.m maybe before 10.  Well it was a midnight Moomba, starting at about 10.45 pm. Lead by whip crackers, which was not to heard cattle, but make a big sound to scare away the evil spirits in leiu of fireworks.   Then there were thousands of dancers, fire twirlers, kids on bikes dressed up as fish, and rats and various other creatures( the bikes not the kids)and then not one, or three but eight elephants dressed in ornate robes and lights festooned ( i like that word..Marie) across their ears, trunks and head.   The last one, a huge bull with a shrine atop.  

The bull elephant, note the blokes with the sticks on each side.   They push the power lines out of the way of the Howdah. 

Whoops thats a bit of a non sequitor that one.

Then they  went down to the local park and there was free food, and a 10 m high device festooned with bright lights which told the story of lord Buddha , and pulsed to the music.   

The thing that had the lights and whizzy bits.

The crowd was wonderfully friendly. Wanting to adopt Andrew ( yeah right) but feeding us from their purchases from the street vendors.  It was a lovely but hot and humid night.  

Following day, 22nd July, we got Ajith to take us to the nearby Mihintale sacred mountain where Buddhism is said to have been introduced to Sri Lanka over 2000 years ago.  The main purpose for the pilgrims is to travel up the mountain several hundred steps, then the last bit on a single lane stairway to a pinnacle rock, said to be where the monk Mahindra invited the then king of Sri Lanka to embrace Buddhism.   Wagin has its big sheep, Kingston has its big lobster. Dandenong has its big.....it's big.....  But this mountain has its big Buddha, repleat with languin monkeys, jumping from knee to knee, etc.

The invitation rock climb..single lane. The one hour to top just due to crowd.

Surprisingly a Buddha in a teaching mudra..at a Buddhist shrine

Always cheeky monkeys eating the offerings at the big Buddha.

Didn't know this but the guide, who took us up the mountain (Ajith left and Mr Kapliarathne on the right) told us that the Buddhists here put a little Hindu shrine in each Buddhist temple not necessarily as a sign of tolerance, but more as an insurance against destruction by the invading Hindus, as happened from time to time.

Then having a swim with the thousands of locals at the nearby lake.

Yep the odd one out again, the only one not wearing a dress.(sarong)

And a tour of the stupas, lit up splendidly at night. But had to stop at the Poya feed and drink stations, set up all over the place, with tea, or feeds or medicine drink for free. But like stop revive survive run is Australia 

The stupas look wonderful, but not photograph well.

Off to bed. To Trincomalee tomorrow.