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

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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......