Sri Lanka day 20 – Nuwara Eliya to Ella

Posted on Monday, 02 May 2011 by Hattie

The train to Ella is delayed by an hour so we spend the time standing chatting to a New Zealander and his Japanese partner.  We have bought 2nd class tickets for this two-and-a-half hour journey, but hadn’t bargained for just how busy this train was going to be.  There are no seats and we find ourselves standing in the unutterably dingy and dirty ‘restaurant’ car.  Faced with the prospect of having to stand all the way in these grimey surroundings we upgrade to first class and the shabby comfort of reclining seats;  I doubt these carriages have been upgraded since the end of the colonial era. 

A Dutch group upgrade just before us and their canny guide gives the guard a backhander and they get away without paying the full fare. We meanwhile are clobbered for the extra fiver!  To put this into perspective the two first class fares cost 6.5 pounds!

The mountain scenery between Nurwara Eliya and Ella is really stunning, far more even than our earlier journey from Kandy to Nurwara Eliya.  If only we had the same seats!

We are staying at the Hilltop Guest House in Ella which has fabulous views through Ella Gap;  on a clear day, which are probably a rare occurence, it is said that is possible to see the lighthouse on the coast.  The room has a decent shower with hot water, which is something of a luxury in Sri Lankan guest houses, but the room is slightly damp which a problem which only seems to effect room number 5.  The family who run it are very friendly and speak good English.  Our room on the ground floor opens onto a shared terrace and a small garden. 

Ella is a very small village, which is the only place we have been to so far that seems to have any noticeable tourist infrastructure.  Here there are numerouse restaurants and cafes – and even bars selling alcohol – which are aimed specifically at the few tourists who come here.  There is nothing much here to draw tourists, which makes it all the touristy side even more strange – a few walks, a couple of waterfalls and temples and tea plantations.  Not exactly a major draw. Perhaps it the laid back vibe.

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Sri Lanka day 19 – Nuwara Eliya

Posted on Sunday, 01 May 2011 by Hattie

Horton Plains National Park is a beautiful, undulating plateau over 2000m above sea level covered with a mix of wild grasslads and thick forest. There are a number of walks in the park which start from the Farr Inn – once a British hunting lodge – including the 7km circular walk to World’s End and Baker Falls, and the climbs up Sri Lanka’s second and third highest mountains, Kirigalpotta (2395m) and Totapola (2359m). 

We leave Nuwara Eliya at 5am in order to be here by 7.30 so that we can get the best views from the escarpment at ‘World’s End’ before the mists envelope the area as they are prone to do in the late morning. 

We have hired a car and driver to bring us the two hours from Nuwara Eliya and we have come with an American who is staying in our guest house.  ‘Mr’ Lee, as he is deferentially referred to by Wasantha who runs the guest house, is an older gentleman who divides his time between India and Sri Lanka.  He spends 9 months of the year in a guest house in Mount Abu in Rajasthan and three months here in a suite at the King Fern Bungalow.  Mr Lee has suggested that he join us, on the basis that it will save us all money and so we readily agree.  Mr Lee has a very wry sense of humour and is an entertaining, if slightly eccentric, companion.  However, he does have his own agenda which involves trying to persuade us to extend the trip to take in some botanical gardens and a visit to a property he owns.  This will add a further 50km to the trip and cost an additional 3000 rupees on top of the 3,900 we are already paying. 

Mr Lee has that forthright, voluble  manner, shared by many Americans, which enables him to effortlessly assume centre stage in any situation.   When we arrive Mr Lee is undecided about which walk to do.  Having been to Horton Plains and undertaken the circular walk several times before, he is inclined to trek up one of the peaks, but due to the early hour the visitor centre is closed and  he has a host of questions to be answered before he can make a decision.  Eventually someone is found who can speak English and on the strengto of the information provided Mr Lee decides to undertake the climb, while we head for the cirular walk. 

Finally its settled – Mr Lee is going to climb Kirigalpotta and we are doing the circular walk and we hurry off eager to get ahead of a large, school party that has just appeared. 

The grasslands of Horton Plains are quite a striking contrast to anything we have seen elsewhere in Sri Lanka.  Surprisingly, Rhodadenrons are dotted across the grassland – apparently a native species – and so is European gorse.  There are Sambar deer, a few leopards and shaggy bear monkeys, none of which are much in evidence unfortunately.  Although we do see a couple of monkeys and a impressive lone stag which comes right up to the car to have his photograph taken.

The two highlights of the walk, apart from the wonderful scenery, is World’s end, where the plateau comes to an abrupt end at a stunning escarpment that falls 880m and provides some fabulous views towards the south coast, and Baker Falls.  The latter involves a scramble down through the forest to the base of the falls and another to a viewing point half way up the falls.  Both well worth the effort.

When we arrive back at Farr Inn, Mr Lee is waiting for us.  He didn’t manage the climb to the summit of Kirigalpotta.  It turns out that it was twice the distance he been led to believe and the trail wasn’t clearly marked, so he has turned back.

We decline his suggestion that we go on to the Botanical Gardens and decide instead to return to Nuwara Eliya.  But not before Mr Lee has instigated two stops at garden centres along the way to buy plants for the guest house gardens and another stop to purchases some glasses and other items, again for the guest house.  We are slightly bemused by his completely unself-conscious cheek when it comes to commandeering our outing!

By the time we get back to Nuwara Eliya the mists are rolling down the valley and visibility at the guest house is down to zero – we can’t even see the houses across the road.

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Sri Lanka day 18 – Nuwara Eliya

Posted on Saturday, 30 Apr 2011 by Hattie

There is not much in the way of interesting sights in Nuwara Eliya, apart from Victoria Park,  It is more of a base for trekking, walking and excursions.  Today we take a three-and-a-half hour walk to the top of Single Tree Hill, 6050 ft above sea level, with guide Santha.  Not that we had to make that ascent today as Nuwara Eliya town is 1889m above sea level.  The climb up through the tea plantations and back through cool Eucalyptus woods is only, the latter brought here by the British to provide wood for railway sleepers.  The climb up is relatively easy along winding roads and wooded paths with wonderful views of the neat orderly hillsides;  houses and shacks sitting amongs neatly cultivated vegetable gardens and further up a of tea bushes. 

Nuwara Eliya is a town of 26,000 sprawling across the valley floor and up into the hills. The housing isn’t dense by any means and most people appear to have some land on which to cultivate vegetables either commercially or for their own consumption. But the most of land here is given over to tea.

Higher up in Hill Country is cloud rain forest and Nuwara Eliya is often shrouded in mist and low cloud, which can sweep down from the hills very swiftly and disperse just as quickly.

Nuwara Eliya has a lingering Britishness;  it’s not for nothing that it is dubbed ‘Little England’.  From the architecture of some of it’s public buildings and historic hotels to the flora, the tradition of the gentlemen’s club still in evidence at the stone and mock tudor Hill Club to the immaculately formal gardens of the Grand Hotel and St Andrews Hotel, this in many ways is a throwback to a colonial past.

Today Nuwara Eliya is primarily a holiday and weekend retreat for wealthy and not-so-wealthy Sri Lankans who come to escape the heat, play golf and enjoy the racing.  Away from the rather down-at-heel centre of town, Nuwara Eliya is picturesque and quaint as can be.  The only thing to marr this peaceful idyll is the thick, black exhaust fumes that belch from every bus, lorry and van.  Lack of effective emissions control is endemic in Sri Lanka, and the only saving grace is that there isn’s much traffic.

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Sri Lanka day 17 – Nuwara Eliya

Posted on Friday, 29 Apr 2011 by Hattie

Today we have a driver and guide to take us on a tour of the tea plantations, a tea factory and local waterfalls.  Sri Lanka is the world’s second largest tea producer after India and Mackwoods, who are the largest tea grower in Sri Lanka, have several teas estates in this area including the Labukale Tea Centre which is where we are headed.  On the way we stop several times to take picture of the immaculate tea gardens and the tea pickers. 

The traditional image of the tea picker sporting a wicker basket carried by a strap across the head has given way, unfortunately for the environment, to the pedestrian plastic sack carried in a similar fashion but much lighter and less cumbersome. 

Only the bud and top two leaves are picked and each bush is picked every five days and the tea pickers pick a minimum of 18 kilos of tea a day for which they earn a basic wage of 500 rupees a day.  This is well below the average wage, but is supplemented with free housing, health care, education for their children, wedding and funerals paid for, in fact most of their expenses are paid for and they are also provided with land on which to grow vegetables.  Most of the pickers are Indian Tamils brought over by the British specifically to work the tea plantations introduced to Sri Lanka after the coffee plantations were destroyed by fungus.

All the tea grown in Sri Lanka comes from the same type of bush; flavour is determined by the altitude at which it is grown and strength by how finely it is chopped.  Tea bushes are productive for at least 50 years and are pruned back every five years.  The processing of the tea is quite uncomplicated as we discover from our tour of Mackwoods tea factory. The whole cycle only takes 24 hours from picking to packing.  The stages are withering the leaf using fans, rolling and chopping the leaf, fermentation, hot air drying, winnowing the stalks, grading and packing.  The processed tea is sent to auction in Colombo and is blended by the likes of Liptons and Brooke Bond for strength and flavour.  The tour completed we sit in the sun with a huge pot of tea and a piece of chocolate cake.  How perfectly civilised!

There are numerous waterfalls in the vicinity, many of which can be seen cascading down the hillside next to the road, but a couple require a little more effort. The views are wonderfully picturesque with the tea plantations carpeting the hills, occasionally interspered with vegetable gardens, and the Miwara Ganga snaking towards the dammed Lake Gregory which provides hydro electricity for the area.

Despite the extensive tea planations, which seem to occupy every last square foot of the hillsides, this is also a major vegetable growing area.  In fact it is the only area in Sri Lanka where cold weather vegetables can be grown:  carrots, cabbages, leeks, beetroot, potatoes, lettuce and green beans are all cropped four times a year.  Small vegetable terraces are with neatly raised beds separated by deep channels to disperse the heavy rains are squeezed amongst the houses to provide commerically and domestically grown vegetables which find their way all over the island and onto the local road side stalls.

After our tour we take spend some time looking around this unlikeliest of towns.  Originally established by the British as a retreat from the heat of the lowlands, it is like stepping back in time with its English architecture and toytown feel.  Not for nothing is this town referred to as ‘Little England’. There is a horse racing track and an international golf course, the latter kept in immaculate condition, but completely devoid of golfers.  Otherwise the only feature of note is the beautifully kept Victoria Park with its perfect lawns and glorious flowerbeds overflowing with dahlias, gypsophylia, antirhinums, marigolds, busy lizzies, lilies and numerous other familiar blooms.  Just beautiful.  Unfortunately though, one of the small pavilions has been subject to an incongrous promotional make-over including a large tinted pvc canopy and double glazed windows alongside which are advertising boards promoting the myriad benefits of pvc windows.  Quite bizarre.

All this before lunch!  Lunch in a small pastry shop.  No menu, just a plate of savoury pastries to choose from;  simply pay for what you eat.  But try not to think about how many people may have man-handled them before you!  Lunch for two:  less than a pound.

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Sri Lanka day 16 – Kandy to Nuwara Eliya

Posted on Thursday, 28 Apr 2011 by Hattie

It’s an early start to catch the train to Peradeniya for the onward connection to Nuwara Eliya in the heart of the hill country.  We have booked first class tickets in the observation car and are pleasantly surprised to discover that we been allocated seats immediately in front of the observation window which provides uninterrupted views down the track and across the countryside.  Quite a result! 

It’s 65km from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya but the train journey takes 4 hours as it winds up through the hills with spectacular views most of the way.  Neatly clipped tea bushes carpet the hill sides and there are a few tea pickers to be seen on the slopes cloaked in plastic capes to ward off the rain and with large plastic sacks hanging from their heads.
Nuwara Eliya nestles between the surrounding hills about 1800m above sea level and our guest house seems to be a long way up the hillside away from the centre.  We are staying at King Fern Bungalow and are picked up at the station in Nanu Oya about 6km away.  By the time we arrive we are beginning to feel that the location is far too remote.  But this is definitely the cleanest and most attractive guest house we stayed at by far.  There are fantastic views of the town below from the balcony outside our room and also from the dining and sitting room. Plus there is internet. 

The family – mother and three brothers – who run the bungalow (which is a complete misnomer since the building is on several levels) and King Fern Cottage further down the hill – are very friendly and attentive and the puckish brother who seems to do most the work is very chatty and keen to tell us all we might want to know about Nuwara Eliya and we are in danger of information overload.   Mamma surprisingly manages to make herself understood despite her very limited pidgin English and bird-like voice and is famed for her cooking, which sadly turns out to be not quite as good as she likes to believe.

It’s distinctly cooler here, overcast and wet.  In fact rains heavily most of the afternoon and well into the evening.  So plans to take a walk down into town, which we are assured only takes 10 minutes by the short-cut, will have to wait until tomorrow and we hunker down in front of a wood fire in our fleeces instead – and yes, it is that cool!

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Sri Lanka day 15 – Kandy

Posted on Wednesday, 27 Apr 2011 by Hattie

We are staying an extra two days in Kandy, mainly to slow down after the rather hectic three-day tour of the ancient cities, but also to do justice to Kandy. 

The bus fare into Kandy sets us back 6 rupees, which puts the tut tut fare of between 150 and 250 rupees into perspective.  Our destination today is the Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya about 6km from the centre of town.  But first we take a look round the central market.  It is surprisingly well organised and clean by Asian standards. It  is arranged around a well-cared for central courtyard garden with a pond.  There are the usual food stalls here on the ground floor – meat butchered on premises, fresh and dried fish and stalls heaving with fresh fruit and vegetables.  On the upper floor are stalls selling clothes, household and leather goods, toys and so on.  I’m looking for a sarong and one of the stallholders is very keen to ensure I find what I want, taking me from stall to stall until I find a rather nice, piercingly blue silk sarong.  Of course, having bought something I become a prime target and in order to get to the exist we have to run lhe gauntlet of the rest of the stallholders all eager to sell their wares.

The intention is to get a bus to Peradeniya, but like many of our intentions it is quickly thwarted.  There is nothing so sophisticated as numbered bus stops or anything at all in the way of signage giving information about where to catch the bus you want.  Asking passersby only results in being told some contradictory flimflam about how full the bus will be, that there are long queues, we will have to wait hours and the buses only leave when they are full.  All leading to the inevitable pitch for a taxi or a tut tut.  One man offers to drive us for 300 rupees, which at less than two pounds seems like a bargain until we see the state of the rust heap he wants to take us in.  In the end we take a tut tut for 300.  Once on our way the driver skillfully sells a return trip including waiting time for 1000 rupees.  And once again convenience wins out.

The Botanical Gardens are quite spectacular and very well kept.  Again rather at odds with the general infrastructure of the Kandy which is anything but.  It’s a shady haven of peace away from pollution and noise outside.  At 60 hectares, these is the largest botanical gardens in Sri Lanka and are bounded on three sides by the longest of Sri Lanka’s rivers, the Mahaweli Ganga.  There are avenues of palms, a flower garden, a suspension footbridge over the river, giant bamboo and a delightful orchid house.   A splendid Javanese fig tree, which although showing signs of age, dominates the Great Lawn with a span of some 2500 square metres.  But the strangest tree must be the Canonball tree which has flowers growing from the trunk and round hard-shell fruits the size of cannonballs and and pretty heavy too!

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Sri Lanka day 14 – Kandy

Posted on Tuesday, 26 Apr 2011 by Hattie

The most important cultural and spiritual attraction in Kandy is the Tooth Relic Temple on the northern edge of the Lake.  The temple houses one of the Buddha’s teeth – probably the most important Buddhist relic in Sri Lanka and said to have been snatch from the flames of the Buddha’s funeral in 483 BC and smuggled from India to Sri Lanka in the 4th century AD in the crown of a prince. The tooth has resided in several places in Sri Lanka since including Anuradhapura before ending up in its permanent home here in Kandy.  At one point in its eventful history, the tooth was stolen and taken back to India.  It finally came to rest in the central shrine of the temple in Kandy under the auspices of the British.

The front of the temple was extensively damaged by an LTTE bomb in 1998 although there is little evidence of the damage now.  Although there is still tight security including barracades around the entrance to the complex and screening of visitors. 

The temple is surrounded by a moat and is a wonderful example of traditional Sri Lankan temple design with carved stone pillars and decorated wooden beams supporting a tiled roof to form a galleried cloister.  In the central courtyard is the two-storey tooth shrine surmounted by a  gilded and rather out-of-place modern canopy on metal supports built with Japanese donations.  The temple was mainly constructed by Kandyan Kings during the 17th and 18th centuries and is decorated with some wonderful painted walls and ceilings. 

Behind the central courtyard is the new Ahut Maligawa shrine hall which displays several buddhas and a sequence of paintings around the walls depicting scenes from the life of Buddha and the saga of the tooth relic.  The upper two floors of the Ahut Maligawa house the Sri Delada Museum which contains a number of artifacts, some facsimile documents dating from British rule and photographs of the damage caused to the temple by the 1998 bomb.

Also within the temple grounds are the Audience Hall – an open-sided pavilion with carved wooden columns;  Rajah Tusker Hall where the stuffed remains of Rajah the ceremonial Muligawa Tusker who served the temple for 50 years and died in 1988 is on display.

After the temple we visit two adjacent Buddhist Devales or temples to the gods who support Buddha, and St Paul’s Catholic Church which retains a strong British flavour with its flowering arranging rotas and notices written in very old fashioned English.

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Sri Lanka day 13 – Kandy

Posted on Monday, 25 Apr 2011 by Hattie

Today is our first opportunity to try a traditional Sri Lankan breakfast;  most guest houses don’t offer it, serving instead the ubiquitous standard fare of stale, lightly toasted bread, jam, eggs – usually fried – tea or coffee and fruit.  A Sri Lankan breakfast consists of coconut milk rice served with either a sweet syrup or juggery which is a very sweet fudge and/or chilli sambal and fish curry.  We draw the line at the fish curry, not being able to face it for breakfast, but try the rest.  Rice and chilli sambal works for me but Andy prefers the rice and juggery;  perhaps not the best combination for a diabetic.

Kandy is probably the most picturesque town visited so far.  The town centre is the usual unprepossessing array of small, open-fronted shops with a jumble of signage and streets teaming with people.  But the setting around the serpentine lake with the steeply rising jungle-covered hills all around is really quite lovely. The lake was created in 1807 by Sri Wickrama Rajasinha, the last ruler of Kandy.

A walk along the south side of the lake reveals a huge amount of wildlife including pelicans, heron, 4-foot water monitors, hundreds of birds, bats hanging in the trees, and an amazing number of fish.  The only thing that marrs a lakeside walk is the pollution from the heavy traffic that crawls along belching out thick black fumes.  Sri Lanka has a long way to go in terms of emissions control. 

After spending some time in one of the markets and having a look round the centre of town we finally locate the train station and purchase tickets to Nuwara Eliya (pronounced Nureliya) for the 28th.  We walk up the hill to the Raya Wasala Park also known as Wace Park and are pleasantly surprised to find a beautifully tended formal garden quite at odds with the surrounding down-at-heel city centre.  It’s another place frequented by young courting couples who seem to occupy almost every bench in the park.  In fact apart from us, there are only  young couples and we feel rather like intruders.

In the late afternoon we go to the Kandyan Art Association and Cultural Centre of the north side of the lake for a performance of traditional Kanyan and Sri Lankan low country dances.  There are nine dances performed by a troupe of men and women accompanied by a drum ensemble.  The performance finale is a very impressive display of walking over hot coals.  The costumes are wonderful and whilst it’s interesting from a cultural perspective, much of it is poorly rehearsed and choreographed.

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Sri Lanka day 12 – Sigiriya to Kandy

Posted on Sunday, 24 Apr 2011 by Hattie

We decide to take a pragmatic approach over the travel arrangements and agree with Mustalif that he will take us as far as Dambulla today where the  we will catch the bus to Kandy. He is also going to arrange accommodation for us.  The latter we agree to reluctantly only because we can’t get a mobile signal here and there is no internet either so we can’t arrange our own accommodation.

Sigiriya or Lion Rock is an awesome sight; its sheer walls rising high above the surrounding jungle, the magma plug of a long-since eroded volcano.  Historically the summit has been the site of both a palace and a monastery.  Legend has it that King Kasyapa 477-493 built his palace here, choising it as safe bolt hole after murdering his father.  More recent archaeological evidence suggests that it was a long-standing Buddhist monastery and perhaps there is some truth in both. 

The base of the rock is approached through the landscaped Royal Gardens which consist of the lovely symmetrical water gardens, boulder gardens and terraced gardens. Here there are the foundations of buildings, bathing pools, caves once used as shrines with seating carved from the rock, evidence of walls and paintings and boulders that once formed the basis of buildings. 

The climb to the top starts with a series of granite steps through the boulders.  Half way up the rock there are two modern spiral staircases leading to a sheltered gallery in the sheer rock face.  In this overhang there are a series of amazingly well preserved and vibrantly colourful paintings of buxom women with slender waists which date back hundreds of years, perhaps to the time of King Kasyapa, although noone seems know exactly how long ago they were painted. 

Beyond the frescos a path clings to the sheer rock face protected on the outside by the 3m high Mirror Wall, so called because of the glaze that gives a sheen to the surface.  The wall is inscribed with a 1000 years of graffiti much of it commenting on beauty of the frescos.  At the end of the path more steps lead up to a large platform which is full of colourful dragonflies.  From here the final ascent is throgh a pair of enormous lion’s paws, all that remain of a colossal crouching brick lion whose mouth in earlier times was the gateway to the summit.  From here a series of metal steps have been erecting that appear to cling precariously to the side of the rock.  The climb which looks daunting from ground level, is actually not so difficult, despite the fact that some visitors, the younger ones particularly, seem to be struggling and have to be cajoled by their guides to continue to the top.

The summit is 1.6 hectares and was once covered in buildings.  Now all that remains are the foundations and a large tank hewn in the rock and which looks remarkably like a swimming pool but was probably a reservoir.

After lunch we head for Dambulla to the Royal Rock Temple, probably one of the most famous of all Sri Lanka’s sites.  The Temple is actually five caves, the earliest dating from the first century BC and the most recent from the 19th century, containing a spectacular collection of 150 painted statues of the Buddha carved from the rock.

Whilst we’ve been looking at the rock temples Mustalif has found a driver he knows who is willing to take  us to Kandy at no extra cost to us.  This seems a much better arrangement than going by bus.  On the way we stop at a Hindu devale its towering roof ornately decorated with numerous statues of gods, including a dead ringer for Freddy Mercury!

Muthalif has booked us into Hillway Tour Guest House near the eastern end of Kandy Lake.  The first room we are shown is pretty grim so we upgrade to a much larger room with a balcony and good views from a huge picture window.  It’s not exactly clean though, but then none of the guest houses so far have been spotless. The whole place has a air of decrepitude about it.  A shame, because with a bit of TLC is could be very nice indeed.

By this time it’s mid afternoon and we take a stroll along the north side of the lake into Kandy town.  Kandy Lake is the focal point of the town which spreads up into the surrounding lush green hills.  It’s about 20 minutes walk from the guest house to the centre at the western end of the lake.  By the time we get there it is threatening rain and anticipating a downpour we hop into a tut tut.  The driver has no idea where our guest house is and completely ignores our attempts to direct him preferring to stop several times to ask for directions.  We could have quite easily walked in the time it takes him to find it.

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Sri Lanka day 11 – Polonnaruwa to Sigiriya

Posted on Saturday, 23 Apr 2011 by Hattie

We stayed overnight at The Summer Village, which isn’t a village at all, but a small countryside guest house, just outside Polonnaruwa.  It proves to be a pleasant enough stopover and it has internet which, as we are beginning to discover, is something of a rarity for guest houses in Sri Lanka.  We thought we had negotiated a good rate for the room when we arrived last night, but we have been caught out by the service and internet charges which have bumped the bill back up.  The breakfast is good though, served on the covered terrace just outside our room. 

Polonnaruwa is one of Sri Lanka’s ancient cities and one of the nine former capitals.  There are extensive ruins, both monastic and royal, spread across four sites:  the Royal Palace group, the Quadrangle and the Northern and Southern groups. There is also an excellent small archaeological museum which contains artifacts and stone carvings that have been romoved from the site during restoration. Of particular interest are the scale model reconstructions of some of the main buildings giving an useful insight into what they may have originally looked like.

The first stop is the Southern Group to see Potgul Vihara and a fine 4m high rock carving of King Parakramabahu (1153 – 1186) – or possibly Sage Palasti – holding a manuscript or is it a yoke? – there seems to be some uncertainty about who this might be and what he is holding.  And beautiful and life-like as it is, the presence of a corrugated tin canopy goes some way to compromise its artistic integrity. Potgul Vihara is a a library dagoba, unusual in that it is a hollow structure (most dagobas are almost entirely solid) with four smaller solid dagobas arranged around the central dome to form a rectangle. 

At the Royal Palace Group we meet up with a guide, this time arranged by Mustalif, although, as it turns out, we could have easily managed without him as the site, unlike Anuradhapura, is well signed. 

Polonnaruwa is as spread out as Anuradhapura and some form of transport is definitely required to get between the groups of ruins.  It is more varied than Anaradhapura in terms of the types of buildings and also more intact.

Notable buildings in the Royal Palace group are the Royal Palace itself, a massive structure that once comprised seven floors, the audience hall with its freize of elephants and carved, Chinese-influenced lions at the top of the stairs, and the bathing pool (Kumara Pokuna) which was fed by two stone crocodiles and flowed out into the rice paddies beyond.  All date from the reign of KIng Parakramabahu I.

The Quadrangle group is a compact group comprising the vatadage with four entrances onto its surrounding terrace with fine guardstones and moonstones; the Thuparama Gedige – a hollow Buddhist temple, and unlike many in the ancient cities was built  entirely of stone and has its roof intact. It is strongly influenced by Hinduism and contains a number of Buddha statues; the Gal Pota, a colossal stone book weighing 25 tonnes, which was dragged from Mihintale 100km away;  the Hatadage tooth relic temple which was said to have been built in 60 days;  the Latha-Mandapaya – a small dagoba encircled by stone pillars shaped like lotus stalks and topped with unopened buds; the Satmahal Prasada – an Angkor Wat-styple pyramid consisting of six diminishing  storeys;  and the Atadage.

Close to the Quadrangle are two Hindu temples the Shiva Devale No 1 and No 2.  The former has been recontructed and is notable for the precision of the stone work.  Also in this area is Pabula Vihara, a typical dagoba from the period of Parakramabahu, probably used as a library and containing a statue of Buddha.

The highlight of Polonnaruwa though is the Gal Vihara, a group of four superb Buddha images carved from a single long slab of granite which are probably the most famous group of Buddha images in Sri Lanka.  The standing Buddha is 7m tall, the reclining image entering parinirvana is 14m long.  The other two images are both of seated Buddhas, one in a niche in rock face.

It had been our intention to go onto to climb the rock at Sigirya in the afternoon, but after lunch there is a downpour and we are slightly relieved to have to postpone Sigirya until tomorrow;  I don’t think we could have found the energy for the climb after this mornings activity!

So by 4pm we are at our hotel just outside Sigirya taking it easy.  Our room faces onto a terrace with views of the lush gardens.  Very pleasant.

Mustalif is trying to wriggle out of taking us all the way to Kandy as we had arranged.  He is trying to suggest that we had originally agreed to go only as far as Dambulla, which is definitely not the case.  But once again we are caught out, because we didn’t write down what we had agreed with him.  The actual arrangement was that he would take us as far as Kandy unless we decided to stop over in Dambulla, in which case we would make our own way to Kandy and he would return to Anaradhapura. This has become an issue now only because the rain has put us half a day behind schedule and means he will not be able to get back to Kandy tomorrow.  In a way, we can see where he is coming from, but instead of explaining the real reason, he is trying to make out that this was the plan all along.  Eventually, he offers to pay for the bus from Dambullah to Kandy.  We decide to sleep on it and let him sweat a little.

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