Exploring Anuradhapura

Up early, had our hotel breakfast of Sri Lankan food and then headed out on our borrowed bicycles, heading for the nearby ruins of Anuradhapura. This was the ancient capital of Sri Lanka, originally starting around 500 BC, through to around 900 AD.

Quite a bit to see, though it was spread out over quite a large area and cycling around proved to be tough work in the sunshine and heat. Lots of large stupas to see, including several that are still active Buddhist shrines, attracting pilgrims from across the world. Not many western tourists about, surprisingly, mostly Sri Lankan and Indian tourists.

Biggest mistake for the day was that we hadn't realised we needed to pay our entry tickets (a very steep USD $25 each) in cash, and once we'd paid that we had basically no money left. This meant we couldn't have lunch until we made it back to town, a 20 minute ride away. Thankfully we had enough for an extra bottle of water which was definitely needed!

Rode around checking out various things until about 3pm when we'd seen most things and were extremely hungry and thirsty! Back to town we went, stopping by the ATM and then getting some much needed food and drink.

Such a late lunch meant we weren't particularly hungry for our hotel dinner, which was a shame because there was a large spread on with lots of great curries and other foods. Managed to get through about half of it!Read more