North to Anuradhapura

Reasonable night's sleep since we were both very tired by the time we arrived, though we did both wake up a couple of times. Our train wasn't until 11:50am, so we headed out into the city in search of breakfast and a few sights. Colombo isn't a major highlight city, and it was still quite early (around 7:30am) so there wasn't a whole lot open.

Eventually over near the train station we found a bakery and had a couple of omelette rolls (literally just a bread roll with an omelette in it), along with some tea. From here we headed across into the Fort district to check out the old Colonial buildings and the government office buildings which were still kinda impressive.

But eventually we wandered back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff and headed to the station. Picked up our tickets with no issues (again it had been a bit of a worry since they were bought by a third party), and then had an hour or so to wait. Had another cup of tea and bought some samosa-type snacks to munch on during the journey.

The train arrived right on time. Our second-class tickets meant that we had a padded seat and plenty of luggage space, though it wasn't air-conditioned (at least the windows opened and the doors stayed open the whole time too). Not at all modern, but comfortable enough. Spent about 20 minutes rolling through Colombo before getting out into the fields - green rice paddies as far as the eye can see. Very fertile, and very pretty.

Second class unreserved and third class didn't look like much fun - standing room only! Wouldn't have been a great way to spend four hours. Arrived in Anuradhapura at around 4pm, got a tuk-tuk over to our hotel which was much nicer than the previous night's. Decided to have dinner here as we were both tired. Food was great though huge portion sizes - too much! Lots of Sri Lankan curries and other dishes which were all very tasty.Read more