The hotel in Negombo was in a beautiful spot on the beach
There were fishing boats on the beach ..... and a tuk tuk?
The sunset was good too .........
and the shop across the road was maybe taking liberties? Tecso Express
Negombo is predominately Catholic and this is where the churches were bombed last year. After an afternoon and evening relaxing we went to bed to prepare for 2 weeks of Intrepid exploring!
We started at 8 am, went 500 yards down the road and stopped to watch fishermen pulling a huge net from the beach. Unfortunately the beach was filthy and apparently the sea is too - I will be vegetarian for the foreseeable future......
After a 5 1/2 hour bus ride (I slept for most of it thank goodness) we arrived at Anuradhapura - an ancient capital of Sri Lanka, up in the centre of the north. On the way we watched a guy 'toddy tapping' - ths is where they bind the coconut flower and tap it every day and then drain 500ml of sap from it which they make into very alcoholic arrak. He will tap 100 trees in a day and to make it easier all the trees are connected by ropes. This man had been doing it for 40 years! He was demonstrating how he got up the tree to do the tapping when, half way up, his phone rang. He pulled a plastic bag from his very skimpy sarong and inside was a mobile phone - he answered it and was chatting away completely ignoring the fact that he was midway through a demonstration. That made me laugh, there he is doing a job that hasn't changed for generations but he now can't do without that one piece of modern technology
We ended the day by going to Mihintale, the sacred birthplace of Sri lankan Buddhism - on the way we stopped at an ancient forest monastry and archeological site which was set in a forest and they lived in caves. They use sweeping up as a form of meditation (and there were a lot of leaves!)
Ancient toilet
The caves
Meditation place
At Mihintale there were 3 hills with fantastic views of the surrounding countryside, one was lookout and very difficult to climb (it was smooth rock and we had to do it in bare feet, fortunately I was allowed to wear socks)
One had a buddha on it (another difficult climb)
The last hill had a stupa and a chapel with a reclining buddha in it - fortunately this one had steps
By the time I had been up all 3 hills in my bare feet (+socks) I was exhausted and my feet were killing me! Unfortunately I think I will be doing most of the sightseeing here without shoes - OUCH!
The next day we had a tour around the ancient city of Anuradhapura by bicycle - obviously I was not going to be beaten by a little thing like that buy, my god, my heart was in my mouth - it's anarchy on the roads! (plus, after a couple of hours my arse was killing me). Apparently 10 people are killed on the roads in Sri Lanka every day!
A very attractive look Den (unlike me)
We went to the place where the sacred old Bodhi Tree was (supported by gold plated scaffolding). This tree was taken from the original tree in India and planted here
2,300 years ago when Buddism first started) It was a bank holiday because of the full moon and the place was packed.
On the way back to the hotel we saw a lookout in the rice fields, this is for elephants who are a great problem to the rice growers. When they harvest the rice they keep it in stores in their homes but the elephants have a great sense of smell and can destroy a home (walls and all) to get to it. About 200 elephants and 50 people are killed defending their properties each year
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