Tuesday 15th May 2012 - Anuradaphura, Sri Lanka

I arrived at the train station at 4.30am and caught a tuk tuk to one of the places listed in my guidebook. I was super grumpy and tired so wasn't best pleased when the place was full and the tuk tuk driver was ripping me off with his extortionate prices to take me around the corner to the next place (I agreed the price before I saw how close the next place was). Luckily the next place from my book had vacancies but the owner was sleeping so I had to knock for about ten-minutes before getting a response.  I got in my room and went to sleep until about 11am! Oops.  So Anuradaphura was the first capital city of Sri Lanka in 377 BC to 993 AD and was essentially where Buddhism was first introduced  into Sri Lanka - it was established as a major centre of Buddhist pilgrimage and learning. The ancient city saw the creation of some of the greatest monuments and harvested a cutting from the great Bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment - the tree still flourished today.  All that remains today is the ruins of the ancient city - I hired a bike to ride around to try and visit the different sites outlined in my book. I read that you are supposed to buy a ticket for around $25 which only lasted a day but I cycled around without being asked for a ticket so I didnt buy one! At one point I was asked for one at a museum but it was like 3pm already and if the ticket was only valid for one day I told them that I would leave without buying a ticket. Of course I didn't!! Lol! I continued to cycle around and managed to see a few other places. The first place I saw was the Jetavana Dagoba - it was a huge red bell shaped structure made of brick. Apparently at the time of construction it was the third tallest structure in the world at 120m - the taller buildings were the two great pyramids at Giza. It was also the worlds biggest stupa and is still the tallest and largest structure made entirely of brick anywhere on earth. My guidebook says that it has enough bricks to build a 3metre high wall from London to Edinburgh. The area surrounding was large and consisted of ruins.  I got on my bicycle and came across the Sri Maha Bodhi grounds. I had to park up my bike at the security gates and walk up a path to get to the gates into the grounds. In the distance i could see monkeys with massive tails running around - i thought they were just the standard long tail monkeys that i see everywhere but as I got closer I could see they weren't - they had black faces and long tails that long tail monkeys. Their faces were so dark it was crazy and they looked like little gremlins in a super cute way! I was taking a photo of a younger one and it went to jump towards me to get my camera but I scared it before it had the chance! As soon as I stepped into the grounds I was sad to see stray dogs laying around looking really hungry. This cute little puppy came towards me and looked at me with it's sad eyes. It really is disturbing how many stray dogs there are in Sri Lanka. They have such terrible skin and some have broken limbs and they look so thin and malnourished. Nathalie from the meditation centre said she wanted to start a dog rescue centre after going to India and seeing the awful living conditions of so many of the dogs - I could totally relate. I just wanted to give them all a bath and give them treatments for their skin, get them all looking and feeling good and get them housed.  As soon as I saw this little hungry puppy I pulled out some biscuits from my bag and gave it one. It was such a beautiful natured puppy and despite obviously being starving it took the biscuit so gently from my hand. It then followed me around everywhere! I so wanted to take it home!! Me being kind to the dog then opened up to door to this old lady that was watching to ask me for money! The poor dog doesn't have a choice how it lives and lives at the mercy of humans, but she has a choice. Also, what a place to be begging - at a temple!  I walked up to stairs to the raised level where the tree is but really couldn't see very much. The security guard there started talking to me about the tree but my attention switched to behind him where I could hear a familiar chant - the words were the same but the beautiful harmonies and pitch-perfect sounds made the chant unrecognisable!! It was the chant we had to sing every night at the meditation centre and it was being sung by maybe 7 female monks who were sitting down looking up to the tree. It was so beautiful to listen to them.  I left the tree and walked passed the Brazan Palace (nothing more than a fenced off area with concrete blocks) towards the huge white Dagoba that I could see in the distance  - this one was called Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba. It didn't look very ancient, in fact it was in perfect condition - according to my guidebook it has already been restored. It is a huge white stupa surrounded by a wall covered with hundreds of carved elephants standing shoulder to shoulder. I started walking around the structure and then heard singing again - the female monks were now here and were walking around the Dagoba singing. I walked behind them. It was so hot and I had seen as many ruins as I cared to see so I started my 5km cycle back towards my accommodation, bought some snacks and just chilled in my room.