Where’s our goat?

Day 7 Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka’s ancient capital from 5th to 9th Century BC.

Jane reminded me that the van der Peet family had purchased a goat for Kris Kringle back in 2008, which may have ended up with someone called Kamala in Anuradhapura. She was wondering if we had checked it out but with lots more historical and archaeological sites on the tour itinerary there wasn’t really time. So instead we started off visiting a very large white dagoba (relic chamber) originally built in the 2nd Century called Ruwanweliseya, said to be the most famous of the dagobas.  I think dagobas might be called stupas in some other places.

We got to look inside and also take a look at what was said to be the oldest documented tree on earth – the “Srii Maha-Bodhi” said to be over 2200 years old, but it was difficult to get a proper look as it was behind so much protective fencing. The write up says it was brought as a sapling from the tree under which Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment, but I think they might mean a cutting.

The stone floor outside the cave temple yesterday had almost been too hot to walk on in bare feet and so just about everyone today went for the sock option. What a glamorous look combined with the cropped cotton trousers (no bare shoulders or knees allowed either). Even the local birdlife was struggling with the heat, at least I think the bird with the brilliant blue wings was spreading them to try and cool off.

Elephants feature heavily in the fresco paintings, bronze statues and even gates but our guide told us that there is still a lot of conflict between farmers and the wild elephant population, hence the existence of two elephant orphanages (more on those later). Anuradhapura apparently also had an impressive irrigation system comprising reservoirs and canals.

Tania was quite keen that we should all get to try the King coconut or drinking coconut so on the way back to the hotel we stopped at a roadside stall and all piled off the bus. The guy was a wizard with the machete and very quickly served up around 20 coconuts. Their son or grandson wasn’t sure what to make of all these strange people.