Rest day at Anuradhapura

April 12, 2025

Last night we had our dinner slightly early, what we had found in all other places is that the cooking won't start until 6-6.30pm so we were about 1 1/2 hours too early. But once we got on the main street where you literally could not move or fall over as the person next to you would just prop you up. The road was at a stand still and I keep repeating myself – why bother getting in a vehicle when it is quicker to walk! We found our place to eat and saw that there was plenty of food cooking. So we had my favourite meal – Lamprice! I had the red rice rather than the plain rice which Neil had

So moving onto todays theme is which is “SWEAT” ... liquid goes into our bodies via the mouth and then bypasses ALL of our organs and comes straight out of the skin... there is no mucking around going via the kidneys to be peed out! I am not sure if you can sweat too much but I think we are both candidates for Sweaters of the Year 2025!

We decided to do a little bit of self guidance tourist exploration which turned into a “I'm not sure kinda day!” Tourist informationis really hard to come by, as much as the hosts can help and guide you – the confusion begins with signage and mapping on Google! Whats on Google and whats in front of you don't always correspond! We managed to get to the first temple – one of the sort of freebies/cheapies but a good one! Isurumuniya temple is our first port of call.

Before we left our hosts came out to check if we had the appropriate clothing as she saw we were both in shorts. I said yes I have pants and showed her and she gave Neil a sarong to use!

Our first sign we see ...

Yeah we still haven't seen one -however when we came back someone was feeding the fish in the tank and I saw the tail of a small croc out in the middle!

So I put my pants over my shorts and Neil wraps his Sarong around his waist

We pay 500 rupees each to go in (for the bigger temples there is a pay 1 price and get into all for $31USD but I think if you were on an organised tour you would pay it, but we are on a self guided tour and we know I only really want to see the Bhodi Tree)

We have to take of our shoes but you can walk around in socks, I haven't got any socks in my luggage whereas Neil does. It is alot gentler to walk on the fine gravel in socks, but bare feet for me is ok. You climb up lots of stairs around the rock structure. The first room we enter there is the sleeping buddha and the next one has stone carvings from 6-8 century AD but no photography is allowed. It is quite interesting to read.

Once outside you are free to move about and naturally I am the only one taking a photo of some bats that are wedged between some of the rocks around the temple!

A few sets of steep stairs to climb but ok. Once at the top there is not a great view of the city instead all you can see is tree tops! But you can look down on the Stupa

And also walk around it

From here we head back to the bikes and we try to find where the Bhodi Tree is. Eventually we realise it is called the Sri Maha Bodi (there is also another shrine with the Bodi word in it so that is why we we are confused) fortunately this one is close by.

On our way we saw one giant new stupa being built and across the road was something we couldn't find on Google but it had 4 horsemen at the front of it

We park the bikes and can see there are heaps of people – not foreigners but worshippers all in white. There are a few of us foreigners and everyone has to remove their shoes again and by now the bricks, pavers and sand is absolutely scorching – I can feel my feet burning so I am moving very quickly trying hard to keep to shade but there is none! Everytime I found shade I would stand there to let the feet recover and then move on almost running! We can see the tree and the complex around it. It is fascinating just to stand aside and watch all the devotees. One guide says it is ok to take photos

the golden arms prop up the tree branches

This tree is a sapling from the original Bhodi tree from India. This one is the oldest known trees on record –it is 2300 years old. So it is very sacred to those that are worshipping here today.

We are free to go inside where everyone has their offerings – now this I felt a bit funny and get somewhat annoyed with what I see (but don't worry everyone if you just thought when you read the “I get annoyed” as I can hear everyone gasp and think Oh heck please don't tell me she has made a scene!) I will categorically say I am not a fan of religion for myself but I whole heartily accept that for some people it is of the utmost importance to them and in Sri Lanka religion plays a big part of their lives and culture. So no I don't say anything when I see the pursers of the temple putting all the offerings made by those that are rich and poor in a bin and in front of devotees! Some were flowers, some was food (what a waste!) some it looked like candle type stuff but funny how cash donations are put in a separate box!

But it is heartening to see that so many people devoted to something and come to this place.

On my quick tippy toe walk back out the gate -now this is how tough these people are they are also in bare feet and are just casually and slowly walking around – they do not look like me when they walk! While I didn't look like a ballerina or a graceful Gazelle I looked more like a rampaging elephant walking on its tippy toes! Gosh my feet were burning. Apparently it was a little easier for Neil with the socks on, but he too could feel it coming through. Just sitting here typing this I can still feel the warmth in the soles of my feet!

By now I was over my self guided tour. I had seen all that I wanted to see, which primarily was the ancient tree. We head back to town for lunch. The main street is again at a standstill so we navigate our way through all the traffic quite quickly compared to most. We find a small mobile food cart selling these deep fried vege pasty type things and take it back to our hotel and guzzle down a bottle of pepsi and these little pasties.

In the afternoon we decide to head down to the market and it is like Victoria Park Market in Melbourne only a little smaller and it has a bigger and smellier fish part and the vege part is also bigger. It is hot in there and the sweat is absolutely pouring of us.

The market is crowded

One thing catches my eye as I saw a woman using one of these when selling her veges– she used it to peel and cut here breadfruit.

Then I looked closer again and something that I think Dad and Sharon might recognise...

It is used to grate coconut. We had one of these, or I should say our Mum had one of these but instead of a flash wood board to kneel on and grate coconut she used one of our skateboards placed it on a low lying bench and knelt on that (don't worry she took the wheels off!)

From here we ended up on the main street so we walked down to the supermarket cafe and sat down and had a sweet tea. There was no airconditioner in this food court so we just sat in the corner table glistening.

I looked around at the locals and no one was sweating, we were just sitting there and the sweat wouldn't stop!

By the time we got back home my shirt was saturated!

Fortunately my tshirt is Merino, so it will dry and not stink so I am good to wear it for another week!!!

Tomorrow we head south to Dambulla.

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