So. Anuradhapura (ignore previous spellings!)

The home of the king around BC/AD (so I guess that means 0). And lo it came to pass that the king decided to build a giant mushroom shaped building (as you do) and said to his builder (Adrian) “Get it dome”. So Adrian designed and built a huge circular building out of brick - it was also solid and filled with bricks apart from a temple. It was called a Stupa.

The first one we saw was the earliest and had since been rendered and painted white. It is a pilgrimage site for Buddhists who bring offerings and donations I.e. flowers and gifts such as food, razors etc for the monks who are not permitted to work. Fortunately, these are easily obtained from the stalls outside!

Everyone has to remove their shoes - you can hand them over at a stall which gives you a good chance of getting them back. Inside the temple is a large garish statue of dead Buddha (eyes half closed, see below). Following this, we walked around the outside of the stupa admiring the floral decorations. Our next ‘adventure’ was to walk some 800 metres over quite hot paving to see The Bodhi tree. This is reputedly a cutting from the original tree under which Buddha found supreme enlightenment some 2500 years ago and which, at some stage in the distant past was brought to Sri Lanka (yeah right!). It is only half the tree - indentifiable as it is held up with golden props! A walk around and then back for shoe collection (thankfully) over ever heating paving!

Next the biggest stupa built of brick. Same shoe stuff! This temple had a statue of the sleeping Buddha (eyes closed, to show he wasn’t dead!) but this time we declined the opportunity to walk around the circumference. Next onto see the statue of the meditating Buddha (usual lotus position). So we had a full Buddha set!

A couple of other historical things and then the kings and queens swimming pools. The king’s was Olympic size but considerable deeper, the queen’s about half the size. This is why we now have king and queen size beds!!

At this point, we felt we had seen enough history (the ancient city is a UNESCO site) and opted for a beer and a pool back at the hotel where we spent the afternoon. The villa is equipped with bikes so we went for a ride - back to the main building but without electrical assistance!

I think I will call it a day here in case I lose this blog for the umpteenth time!

ADO/LMA xx

PS. Our friend Adrian is a builder!