Tuna
Friday 09 August 2013
A nice easy start this morning, headed off at 8.30am. We were heading for Trincomalee today, it’s on the east coast.
As we were supposed to do Mihintale today (but did it yesterday) we had nothing to do except head to Trinco. Ernest (our guide/driver) decided to show us the Avukana Ancient Rock Temple, he’s not been there before so it was a new experience for him also.
On the way there we drove along Kala Wewa which is a huge lake. Apparently you can sometimes see wild elephant on the other side, which is mostly jungle.
Avukana Ancient Rock Temple has a 12m tall statue of Buddha that has been carved out of a huge granite rock face. Simply stunning. There is also a small dagoba and a Bodhi tree in the complex. It seems that this is common everywhere, that you get the three of them together.
Next we headed to Trincomalee, dodging the cows wandering across the road, a quick stop to look at the huge Kantale Tank (a reservoir built around 4th century BC) and a quick snack of honey and sesame seed balls.
Checked into our nice hotel, Chaaya Blue, located right on the beach. Our room opens onto the beach, rather swish.
We were a bit peckish as it was 2pm and we hadn’t had lunch yet, so got a quick snack before going for a dip in the pool. After about 15mins in the pool we thought we should get out as there were huge dark clouds heading our way and it looked like it was about to chuck it down. How right we were, it started raining on our way back to our room, then it bucketed down. It was really pleasant sitting out on our balcony watching the rain move across the ocean, watching the lightning and jumping slightly when the thunder boomed.
We are sitting having a G&T watching the first day of the 4th Ashes Test. Things are ok.
Dinner was exceptional. A Jaffna Crab Curry, typical north Sri Lankan. Amazing, but rather full now.
