Blog 87

The train ride was a gorgeous immersion into Sri Lanka life and the country. An early 5am start walking down the Colombo streets in the dull light from the street lamps and the train was only 10 minutes late at leaving so we counted ourselves lucky!

I'm not sure if the guy who sold us the tickets at the ticket office did it on purpose but we found our seats were the only ones to be facing forwards in the compartment, meaning we were the entertainment for the journey. At points it seemed like every brown pair of eyes was peering round the seats to see what the blue eyed people were up to. Feeling like a celebrity! The Sri Lankan children were the most interested.

The very jolty and rattley 5 hour train ride consisted of reading books, wildlife spotting (never seen so many kingfishers), hanging out of the train doors for fresh air and somehow I managed a little doze aswell. That's surely a sign that I'm getting old if I can sleep on a Sri Lankan train!

Jumping into a tuk tuk when we arrived, the driver took us on a budget accommodation tour to find a room. Checked in, showered up, clothes washing done and on our hire bikes to find some grub, not before being told that Anaradapura doesn't do any good food because they've got no clean water! (No rain for 8 months!). We nervously ate curry and rice, which seems to be a recurring menu theme!

The afternoon was spent exploring the ancient cities temples by bikes and being blessed by monks. ET style sarong usage was needed to shelter from the blaze of the sun while we rode between temples and singing the ET song brought back childhood and violining memories!

Templed out we got back to town with just enough light to see the way.

Love Jo x