Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We left Negombo after breakfast. We decided to take the train north up the coast to Puttalam and then onto Anuradhapura. The train was at a civilised time but the downside was there was only third class unreserved on this line. When the train arrived, we were pleasantly surprised - it had padded seats and was half empty. The journey was supposed to take 3 hours but the train crawled its way along stopping at little stations. The only discomfort was when the train went over rough bits of track - we were bounced around crazily - much to Fran's discomfort and Ken's exictement.
About 30 mins before the end, the train came to a shuddering halt. It was clear that something had gone seriously wrong - when we looked out there was a mangled bicycle beside the track., just after a dirt road crossed the track. What had happened was a young guy was riding his bike wearing a walkman, didn't hear the train and was killed by it. The aftermath was dealt with very quickly - the bike and body put on the train and we were on our way. Sadly this is not an unusual occurrence.
All of this made for a quiet remainder to the journey. We opted to take a minibus from Puttalam to Anuradhapura. It went along a bumpy road past the nature reserve - lots of signs warning of elephants and cobras but we didn't see any.
We woke this morning to more bad news - it was raining. We had an early breakfast as we planned to cycle round the ruins of Anuradhapura (Anuradhapura was the capital of Sri Lanka before the 10th century.) but the rain made this a bit dodgy. It stopped and started and stopped so we decided to go for it. It took for ever as the hotel produced 4 very old rickety bikes and took ages pumping up the tyres but then could only unlock 3 of them. Eventually they took me off on a moped to get a 4th bike - after we threatened to go to the hotel up the road.
The first stop was the 2000 year old tree which was grown from an offshoot of the tree Buddha gained his enlightenment under - or so they said - it looked like any other tree to us. After this it was round the rest of sites looking at various ruins (OK) and some very large Stupas (quite impressive). As the ruins are quite spread out, it was fun just cycling through the countryside. Ken & Judi were well prepared for any shower - Judi in a large green cape and Ken cycling holding an umbrella. The highlight of the day was meeting a 70 year old Sri Lankan who insisted the BC stood for before cricket!
After we had had enough of Stupas and ruins, we found a posh old colonial rest house for afternoon tea. Unfortunately, they had no cake or cucumber sandwiches but the rest was good. The only problem was we got our timing wrong and the afternoon downpour started just as we left. We got soaked on the way home - much to the glee of the tuk-tuk drivers who told us we should have used their services.
- comments