Polonnaruwa

Having spent two days in Anuradhapura I was pretty keen to move onto the 'next' ancient capital known as Polonnaruwa. Aside from having an easier name to say the capital is known as being more centered and easier to navigate around. So getting up early in the morning, which is in itself a rarity for me, I made my way somehow to the right bus and headed for the city on the 4 hour journey.

Sri Lankan Bus Stations
All the bus stands in Sri Lanka are crazy places where people run around selling food and drinks and no one seems to quite know what the hell is going on. Unlike in the West buses don't have a 'departure time'. Rather they leave when they get full which inevitably means a lot later than you expected or just occasionally early which really pisses you off when you are late. As buses leave when they are full this usually means when no one else can be crammed into the odd centimetre here or there. If this is possible then it is just not full!

The city is one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka which was overrun by the jungle for 700 years. The guesthouse was a rather fortunate find. Upon arriving I remembered that Australia where playing Sri Lanka in the 1st cricket final which was being played in Adelaide. The owner of the guesthouse was watching the game and invited me into his house to see Sri Lanka finish off their 50 overs. They scored 50 runs in their final 5 overs and played with immense style and character. As I sat watching the game with a Sri Lankan and his family the bonds of sport and its ability to cross boundaries really stood out. I would spend the rest of the day touring the ancient city chatting to Sri Lankans about the score and getting 'progress reports'.

Renting a bike I set out at 1pm with the aim of finshing by about 6pm. As I made my way through the citu I kept on catching up with this tiny Japanese girl who was also cycling the same route. After a while I got chatting to her and we toured the city together.

Coming from the south of Japan Hiroko was a very pretty laid back Japanese girl. As we cycled around the ancient city we discussed all manner of things and I quickly found out that she had a strong interest in British rock music. In fact her knowledge was considerable knowing more British rocks bands, new and old, than I did.

It's difficult to explain what the city looks like as its considerable in size and extremely diverse. Buddhist temples mix with Hindi shrines in the jungle. After 700 years of jungle growth the ruins remain impressive, enabling you to imagine what the buildings must have looked like in their peak. One particular building had a Buddhist statue which must have been 50 feet high surrounded by high walls. When it was built the building must have contained 7 or 8 levels which is an impressive size.

Sri Lankan wildlife
Since arriving into Sri Lanka I have got a sense that the country's wildlife is diverse and extremely interesting. As we cycled down the road back towards the town I thought I could see something moving across the road slightly ahead of our bikes. As we approached it the animals slivered off into the bushes and it was only then I realised what I had seen. Coloured black and white with a wide head I had just witnessed a cobra cross the road! Yes a cobra, which could have killed me if I had been bitten by it! When we reached the checkpoint I told the guides what I had seen and at first they didn't believe me. After describing it they began to believe me and went off to see if they could track it down!

Tanks not lakes!
The 'Cultural Triangle' forms the ancestral heart of Sri Lanka yet the area is an arid dry zone for most of the year with only a few months of rain. Inevitably this led to problems with irrigation and water supply for the area. In an effort to stem these problems the ingeneous Sri Lankans built massive water works, essentially lakes, which they labelled as 'tanks' to hold water during the dry season so they could irrigate crops year round. One of the largest tanks was built by Polonnaruwa stretching far into the distance. As we cycled back the sun set over the lake forming a stunning evening image.

Birthday drinks
As I got back to the guesthouse I met two English girls called Selena and Holly who had just arrived. It's difficult to explain these two fascinating characters, both of them are full of life and energy especially Selena who jumps about and is keen to do just about anything. As soon as they heard that it was my birthday the next day they proceeded to take me to thelocal restaurant where we drank beer and ate the Sri Lankan rice and curry. Afterwards we returned back to the guesthouse where I opened the free bottle of Merlot which Cathay Pacific had given me and toasted to being another year wiser! All in all a good way to see in my birthday!