The Albatross
Wednesday 14 August 2013
Alright, today we went a good hour back past a lot of places we drove past on our way from Trinco and the spots we visited yesterday (ok, Sri Lanka isn’t that big, but it does take a while to get places). This time we went to the second major ancient city Polonnaruwa. Basically they got sick of being invaded by Southern India when the capital was Anuradhapura, and moved the capital south in about 1100AD, leaving Anuradhapura to fall into ruin and starting again.
The site is more compact, but equally spectacular. There are less massive dagobas, but some of the large multistorey buildings remain, and a lot of the stonework and Buddhas are naturally in much better knick (it is 1500 years younger). This time we went without a guide, which meant we could take our time and explore at will. All up about 4.5 hours on site. We were pretty well cooked by the end, and as it was 3:00pm by now a bit over having lunch. We did have a coconut each about 1:00pm.
The site is astonishing. I really enjoyed seeing some standing buildings, my favourite being a massive cathedral like “image house”, holding a massive Buddha. At the very end of the day we hit a huge granite rock which had been carved into a standing Buddha, a reclining Buddha and a small temple (with a seated Buddha in it), these guys really liked the big B.
We arrived back at the hotel about 4:30pm. It was a long tiring but brilliant day. A shower, a bowl of chips and ale makes the world better.