Another blog, another tale of travel wonders and woes. This time I’m travelling with my family to the beautiful Island of Sri Lanka off the coast of India, and if the first few hours are anything to go by, it is most certainly going to be a trip to remember.
We set off at a remarkably reasonable time from my parents apartment in Vitznau, Switzerland and the leg up to our Arrival in Abu Dhabi it was a painless experience. Passport control was fast, check in straightforward, everything was going our way. The first hiccup came in Abu Dhabi itself, where our flight was delayed by a good 45 minutes. This included about 25 minutes in the airport bus that was apparent following a random path to the plane in an attempt to stall for time. Needless to say we were in a rush upon arrival in Colombo international airport. Unfortunately baggage claim was not under the same level of urgency and so we endured the most painful of waits in an airport: waiting for your bag to arrive. My brother joined us at this point and finally when we got our bags we found a taxi and drove off to the train station. This is where events took a surreal turn.
On route to pick up our reserved tickets from a ticket booker we discovered after calling the agency that there had been a mix up in dates. Our tickets were in fact for the train the following day, which threw a spanner in the works of our travel plan. This was followed appropriately by our taxi being involved in a collision. After hours of discussion we are not sure what caused the driver to decide to hit the dividing curb in the road, but hit it he did and we were like a beached whale. It took five men to put the car back on the road, and even then our taxi driver had to fill up the car. So the train we were supposed to catch was beyond our reach. Thankfully there was a train an hour later that took us to the same location, but it meant that instead of first class we had second class. And before you take me as an elitist snob it was still a pleasant enough journey for the price, it just meant that there was no air conditioning. This meant that the windows had to be kept open and any passing train prevent fitful sleep from being achieved.
We finally arrived just before midday at our hotel and were able to enjoy a late breakfast and a quick rest before we set off to see two sites in Anuradhapura.
The first was the great Mirisaveti Dagoba. This solid structure is over two thousand years old. The legend behind it is that King Dutugemunu put his staff in the ground when he went to nah in the nearby lake, but when he came back to retrieve it the staff refused to budge as a reverse to the Arthurian Legend. In honour of this auspicious sign he built a Stupa on top of the site, but tragically died before it was completed. There was not much to see but it was still a beautiful structure to behold.
The second and more amazing sight was the Sri Maha Bodhi. This was a temple complex built around the oldest Bodhi tree in Sri Lanka and the oldest tree to be continuously maintained by people. We were fortunate enough to arrive when there was a Buddhist festival happening at the site and so we witnessed large numbers of devotees dressed in white praying around the tree while priests banged on drums and played an eerie beat to the chants. A troupe of monkeys provided entertained on a nearby roof as the noise drove them slightly crazy. We left as proceedings died down but it was still a wonderful sight to behold.
The evening we had a lovely meal at a restaurant that was too rich for my blood but still affordable by European standards. The joys of travelling with your parents knows no bounds. The highlight of the meal though was when we had an unexpected visitor in the form of a gecko fall on our dinner table. He was adorable but his sudden movements through me off guard.
And so our first eventful day in Sri Lanka ends. Tomorrow we are going to visit the rest of the ancient city of Anuradhapura, the former capital of Sri Lanka. First though I am in desperate need to sleep to make for the lack of any during our transit. Until the morning!