After a good night's sleep breakfast beckoned - more curry, centred around a lovely mild dhaal served with a collection of hot and spicy chutneys, gambols and freshly cooked coconut roti bread...absolutely fabulous! One of the things I love about venturing around the sub-continent is the variety of fruits and their juices: freshly juiced papaya is a thing of beauty, almost as toothsome as the Lion beer of the night before!

Today was all about exploring temples, mostly Buddhist in this country where approx 60% of the population follow that faith, with the remainder being either Hindu (25%), Muslim (7-8%), Catholic (5%) and a small minority of Protestants.

We again travelled by taxi (with a couple of stops to get local black tea, and to visit the ‘thunderbox’), towards the ancient capital of Anuradhapura - a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its well-preserved ancient ruins and considered to be Sri Lanka's first capital. One of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, it was founded around 500 BC. Its golden age began around 260 BC 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 interest is the 2,200-year-old Sacred Bodhi-Tree; this magnificent tree was damaged in a Tamil terrorist attack during the recent civil war and some of its limbs were supported by golden scaffolding….many blessings were received which were probably a good thing given the amount of beer and Arak drunk the previous evening.

The Brazen Palace was once a nine-storey residence for monks; the 4th-century Samadhi Buddha masterpiece and the Ruvanvalisaya Dagoba - a 90-metre high dome-shaped stupa towering over the surrounding countryside - are magnificent and hopefully the attached picture gives an idea of the effort that went into building these over 1500 years ago.

We stayed at a hotel by a huge man-made lake built for irrigation again over 1000 years ago, caught a magnificent sunset, had the obligatory curry and settled down for the night.


This blog was conceived and written by Nigel Buckland