India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 52 to 55 - Negombo to Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Jackie finds a tiny kitten to stroke

Checked out of the 5 star hotel, which certainly had 5star food prices, though it itself wasn't actually that expensive. OK flight (once they decided they would let us on without our proof of onward travel). In an hour and 15 minutes they managed to dish out a snack, juice and water (if only BA would pay attention)

A little stroll along the road by our hotel in Negombo and there's Tesco,  the biggest supermarket chain in the UK - except they can't spell Tesco

I'd booked a transfer to the hotel from the airport, though not via the hotel as they were really taking the P. We were happy with this price though it would probably have been less to just take a taxi at the airport you never know. In this case the arrivals hall was very calm, with a few polite taxi drivers wandering about so we wouldn't bother book again.

And another cat by the tiny fish market in the village (closed on Sunday's)

Cash from the ATM and a new SIM card, probably not necessary, but so cheap we thought why not?

Meet our team for the next three weeks: Richelle, Grant (from Canada - they've only been together for six months so it could be make or break), Robena (also from Canada), Lucie (Isle of Wight, UK), Jackie, Brian (you know us!), Catherine and Pete (Auckland, New Zealand)

25 minute drive and although it's similar it's all a bit less, less frenetic, less litter, less horn blowing. We did still end up driving the wrong way down the dual carriageway but I think that was actually an error! Then his phone rang and he had the same ring tone as Shareef and it all felt just the same!

First stop on the coast north is the main fish market in Negombo

Hotel seems ok, though it is the starting point for an Intrepid trip too, we can probably identify them, they are all a bit younger! Rooftop bar for a beer and a little something. The beer had arrived but the food hadn't when the rain did. We all huddled near the bar which had a little bit of shelter and ate before the rain, thunder and lightning really started. Good time to retire!

Preparing the fish (he's done it so many times he doesn't have to look any more)

Day 53

Without any planning we were up, breakfasted and standing outside at 09.00 brainwashed or what? No driver, so we'll walk, before the next forecast storm. I met a cute kitten (I know he was on the last blog, but the writing wasn't really there, I was still summing up!) and his owner who was very friendly and welcoming and would really have liked to be just given some money. Back to the hotel to chill before our 5pm welcome meeting.

Queuing up very nicely for their share of the scraps being tossed down. The cat knows its his turn next

We were first to meet George but were joined quickly by the rest of the group, Lucie from the Isle of Wight, Robena from Canada, then Richelle and Grant from Canada and finally Catherine and Peter from New Zealand. I would say Brian is the oldest and I might be the youngest, but it's touch and go on that! George has issued us all with an itinerary, very thorough, WiFi passwords, dress code, departure times, driving durations and times at activities! This is all a bit scary!

Catamaran style fishing boats

Only Brian, I and the two single ladies chose to go out to dinner with George, which was a local restaurant. Tasty food and (except for Brian) we did try eating with our fingers, but the whole rice and curry mush ball doesn't do it, even for me, and I like eating with my fingers.

Next stop on the coast road was to see Toddy Tapping. This man is walking between coconut trees cutting the branch that produces the flowers to bleed the white coconut juice that flows out. As a fresh drink it's quite refreshing (we tried it), but they ferment it to produce an alcoholic drink. We tried that and it was pretty horrible! George (our guide) said that they can even distil it to produce Arrak, a firewater that's about 34 proof (we didn't try that!)

Day 54

We were second to breakfast (early) 06.55 but last to be served, it's ok though we were still upstairs and teeth cleaned in time for bags outside room at 07.40. Scheduled bus departure time 07.50 and we were one minute late, is this the start of the slippery slope?

Temple visit. A rundown of Hinduism from George which was very interesting

Down to the fish market (may have seen one or two of these before) and there is the tiniest kitten. George may fall out with me as despite his firm instructions yesterday obviously I took no notice. 

And, after lunch (everyone else had a big buffet, but we just had our usual milk shake and bananas) onto our main event of the day, a safari in Wilpattu National Park

A visit to the toddy tappers who cut the coconut flowers to extract the juice at 06.00 every morning. By 10.00 it has started to ferment and is disgusting and by 6pm it's the local hooch. The coconut and chickpea snacks they served were delicious though as was the fresh coconut. My second cat of the day and I can tell I'm going to be on the naughty step!

We had fairly low expectations and, for the first hour it was living up to that. We'd stopped here to look at a peacock. Well, we've seen peacocks before, so I preferred to take a photo of Richelle taking a photo of it

Third stop, ABT (another bloody temple) though we were relaxed as we know it's the first of the trip. It was vibrant and new and had a covered walkway so no burnt feet. Supermarket for snacks and loo break. We are trying to avoid the buffet lunch as well as a dinner (hence the emergency snacks) and we are almost there, and, according to the schedule, we are an hour early!

Spotted deer, yes, we've seen them before

After lunch, a drive of about an hour to Wilpattu national park for our safari. We didn't have high expectations, it being about 2.30 and ridiculously hot. Two vehicles with 4 in each. I was talking to Catherine from NZ and we walked to the one at the back as it seemed to have higher seats. Too late we realised that we were separate from the cab where the driver and George sat, with the AC on completely out of contact with us. I thought I'd really made the wrong decision. We would arrive behind our other vehicle, look where they were all looking and trying to decide what we were meant to be looking at!

Oh, there's a crocodile. It's getting a little better

Peacocks, wood fowl, spotted deer (chital). Nothing new then. The monitor lizard was a little more exciting and a few buffalo, but what are our chances of a leopard? We weren't holding our breath, well not until we came upon a jeep nest. Our driver and George said nothing, the driver from our other vehicle said precious little apart from, "by the trees"! Not helpful. Frustration was definitely mounting when it stood up and walked slowly our of sight. I think we all saw it, but amazingly Brian was the only one to get a photo! We pulled off, after out other vehicle again, only to see a 'foxy' thing. A golden jackal as it turns out. Shortly followed by a flapshell turtle who was really quite cute. Not long after that we rounded the bend to a big lake and 3 elephants. This has definitely turned out better than expected.

Then we saw this Golden Jackal. It's a bit out of focus as my camera insists on focusing on the trees rather than the animal, but at least things are starting to get a bit more interesting. We went on a bit further and stopped for ages with a number of other vehicles as there'd been a report of a leopard. We couldn't see anything, some said it's up there in the tree, others said no, it's on the ground. Binoculars and cameras were searching around and nothing could be seen but then someone said, there it is next to that bush, it's just sat up. I saw movement, saw its head and quickly got my camera zoomed in. It was ambling off into the trees, so I had one chance for a photo before he disappeared.... 

We were out of the park just after 6pm with another hour and a bit to the hotel. We arrived and they welcomed us with cold flannels. How lovely, except we were all absent filthy, covered in a layer of red dust. Eat or shower? Both if possible, we ordered our food and dashed to our rooms, not a quick shower, as the red dust was everywhere. We'd been given half an hour so were very chuffed that we both managed to shower AND wash our clothes. Down for a beer with everyone else.

Got him! I was the only one to get a photo, so this has been passed round our group and shared many times to Canada, New Zealand and UK and has had lots of likes. Did I feel good!

Brian had ordered chicken curry, or so he thought, there was a bowl with chicken curry, and rice, and 5 different vegetable dishes, much like what we'd had the night before, and what the others had had for lunch! Hmm. My fish and chips was ok though.

A little bit further and there's elephants. This is turning into a fabulous safari!

Day 55

We had selected Western or Sri Lankan breakfast, with only Brian going Sri Lankan. Guess what he got? Rice noodles, fish curry and 4 vegetable dishes! I'll stick with my Sri Lankan omelette (onion, tomato and chilli), odd sausage, odder bacon, baked beans, toast and pastries.

There were three of them playing in the lake, here's the other two. I took quite a nice video of them playing, blowing water and feeding on something, but I'd have to put it on Youtube as its too long and I haven't got time at the moment. We only have two hours before we're heading out again. Some other time maybe

We were out by 7.45 as per schedule to go to the ancient capital of Anuradhapura - a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its well-preserved ancient ruins. One of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, it was founded around 500 BC. Its golden age began around 260BC, when the King and his people converted to Buddhism. The city became vast, spreading over many miles. There were hospitals for the sick, hostels for travellers and artificial reservoirs to ensure a good water supply. Of great interest are the 2,200 year-old Sacred Bodhi-Tree; the Brazen Palace, once a nine storey residence for monks; the 4th century Smadhi Buddha masterpiece and the Ruvanvalisaya Dagoba - a 90 metre-high dome-shaped shrine towering over the surrounding countryside. (From the trip notes)

On a little bit and there's a turtle. How good is this safari!

The tree is apparently the oldest documented tree as someone documented its planting. The Ruwanweli Maha Seya stupa interesting for being built 140 BC and for watching the men working on it. We are already stupa and temples out and can't work out what was the next ones we saw.

A pelican right at the extent of the zoom on my camera

We finished up at the refectory, for a bit more chat. Catherine and I decided we'd had enough and went back to the bus only to be asked by the assistant (whose name we have yet to get to grips with) why we weren't at lunch? We went back to where we'd left the others and found they'd moved on to a tank with a little table and umbrella set up just by it. A welcome lime juice, followed by a .... vegetarian Sri Lankan buffet. We'd had the juice and didn't want to offend any one, despite the fact it wasn't even 12.00 and we weren't hungry. Brian went and got a small plate which we shared, just because it was there. The watermelon and bananas were nice though. Even though we'd shared we felt we had to pay each when the time came as the work had been done, even though we'd said yesterday we didn't want lunches. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't a lot of money £6.00 each, and it was a lovely idea, but it's getting a bit irritating.

I felt I had to take this as George, our guide, told us its their National bird. I've forgotten it's name now, but it looks like a chicken to me! Very pretty though Jackie says its a junglefowl

We are back at the hotel for a few hours, the pool is sort of tempting but hot and not enough shade, so we are in, doing the blog! We are out again later before stopping on our way home for dinner....a Sri Lankan buffet! I wonder who is going to crack first and rant at George!

There are a lot of these around. Keep all valuables safe and secure!

A Hornbill. There were two in the tree and this isn't a perfect shot as our driver was hurrying back through the park to get back before they locked the gates at 6:00pm. I shouted at it to wait a bit and this was the best I got. I saw a couple majestically flying past but no chance of getting a photo

A quick stop to photo these water buffalo enjoying a late afternoon dip

And to get this painted stork nicely illuminated by the setting sun

And this egret sitting on a soaking water buffalo. He didn't seem to mind the egret taking a free ride

We were back through the gates in time to get the sunset

Breakfast this morning. I decided to try a Sri Lankan breakfast and this is what I got. All this was for me! I ate probably less than half, but it was yummy. The bowl of red stuff on the left by the toast was very spicy. George said it'd be too spicy for me - ha! He knows nothing - it all went! The potatoes on the right were spicy too. I have to confess to my eyes running a bit at the end from the spice (but don't tell anyone!) 

This is our tour bus. There's only eight of us, the driver, a helper and George, so there's plenty of room to move around in

More of these pesky things as we embark on our tour of the ancient capital, Anuradhapura

First stop, the world's oldest recorded tree and this buddha shrine. You can take photos, George told us, but don't turn your back on Buddha and no selfies!

That there, apparently, is the world's oldest recorded tree. They know it's 2400 years old as a cutting of the original tree in Sarnath, India (where we visited a few weeks ago) where Buddha first preached to his five disciples was taken and brought here, introducing Buddhism to Sri Lanka (now 85% of the population follow his teachings here)

Flower offerings to the oldest tree

The shoe store where we had to leave our shoes to visit the tree. We had socks this time, no more burnt soles of feet for me!

Arriving at the Ruvanvalisaya Dagoba. It's a solid structure with a huge foundation underneath to support the weight

But like all buildings, they need maintenance, so there's scaffold around the top part and a man just climbing down a bamboo ladder

The stupa is solid, but a building in front houses this huge Buddha statue

Our bus comes to collect us from a bit of off roading. The silhouette stupa is our next visit

It was excavated by the British, when they were here having been covered in earth and weeds for centuries. Our cynical Canadians and New Zealanders said it was so the British could look for priceless artifacts to take back to London, but they might also have had a genuine interest of archaeology (I'll just say nothing out loud!)

Twin ponds, originally used to collect water for drinking for the huge population that used to be here

This was (is) the water feed for the ponds with a sophisticated system of settlement tanks so the cleanest water would enter the pond

Today it's home to a lot of monkeys

Who use it for drinking from

Managed to get a photo of this monitor lizard walking across the road. I'd taken a photo of one on the safari yesterday but it wasn't good, so I leapt out of the bus to get this one

The Buddha statue at Samadhi. Shoes off again and George told us that western statues all look lifelike, whereas Asian statues radiate emotion and feelings, so he said, when you stand in front of this close your eyes and then open them slowly, focusing on the face and it may instill a calmness into you. This is the teaching of Buddha, an inward calm and wellbeing. I tried it and I can understand what he meant, it sort of worked - but then, I'm calm anyway!

There was another Stupa, but I got out into the heat to take this photo of a photo. It shows the stupa on the left as it was when the British (those robbing British who stole everything of value and took it back to London) started excavation and, on the right afterwards 

The Moonstone. It marked the entrance to a room with a Buddha statue. There's fire round the outside, an elephant, house, ox and lion next, something else next, a row of geese, something else and the lotus leaves on the inside. I haven't remembered it well have I! It's the lotus leaves on the inside that mark it out as Buddha

Lunch by the Elephant Pool in the middle of the ruins of the ancient city. They had put on a great spread in a great location, but I don't think any of us were hungry!

Elephant pool

Sitting in the shade after lunch trying to keep cool. We left here and came back to the very nice hotel to rest. Some have gone to the pool, we elected to come back to our air conditioned room to write this blog. Soon we'll be out again for a late afternoon temple visit on top of a hill. Up many steps apparently, hence the reason we're going when the sun may not be as hot (less hot is a relative term, as opposed to scorching!)