We are back from Anuradhapura. Today is Wednesday and we leave again on Sunday for the east coast where resources are scarce. We have no idea if we will have internet access but we will be there a full week so may not be able to post while there. It is an eight hour road trip. Having just completed a five hour trip, I can tell you I don't look forward to it. I love the scenery but if you get off the primary roads onto a secondary road (they call them Class B) it is hell. They are a little wider than a single lane and the surface is very rough so you do a lot of bouncing. It wears you out, frankly. I think we will be on Class B roads for part of the trip next week. Oy!

Now for the good parts. We were in Anuradhapura, where there are ancient ruins. I forgot to bring my book to the internet cafe so will give specifics on my next visit. The sacred city is about 2,000 years old. So while Ron was working I was a tourist. Apparently about a million people lived in the region way back when. The irrigation sytems was something to behold. They have urinals carved into stone that went into a filtration systems that consisted of three very large ceramic jars that were stacked on top of each other. Each jar contained a filter-pebbles, sand, and charcoal I think. This prevented the ground water from being polluted apparently. Pretty darn impressive! The oldest living documented tree in the world is here. It was a sapling from the bo tree where Buddha attained enlightenment. It is a very holy site with Buddhists as you can imagine.

I also visited Mintale. There were 1,800 steps to reach the dagoba where a collar bone of the Buddha is housed. Fortunately, we went early in the day and there was a cloud cover so I was able to make the trip with no sweat so to speak. One of my favorite sites there was a carved standing lion whose open mouth was the spout for a shower for the older monks (60+) who could not climb to the top for bathing. Apparently 1200 monks lived here. This site is where Buddhism was introduced to Ceylon. Again I'll give the specifics when I have them in front of me. How I long for internet access at home.

There was great birding at our hotel. One day I was across the road from our hotel, where there is a reservoir built about 2000 yrs ago. I was looking at water fowl. A young boy followed me on his bike. He didn't say anything but stood close to me and watched me. I turned to him and asked if he wanted to use the binoculars. He shook his head no. After another ten minutes I asked again and he looked through the binoculars. Then he said 'money'. Ha! I said no but I have a school pen. He seemed pleased with that but stayed until I left.

My tour book described our hotel as 'shabby'. They didn't lie. It was built in 1957 and we don't think they have done anything to the place since then! The food was good but it was run down. I went to the front desk two days in a row and they couldn'tmake change for 1000 rupee note: that's $10.! Pretty sad.

We chose to move our last night to a lovely place that cost about $20 more. It was five year old, owned by an Italian firm. It was built in the colonial style about 20 minutes out of town in a lovely setting. The food was incredible. Internet here was $9. hour which is two days wages for many here. Needless to say we didn't use it.

On this trip we saw mud and thatch huts, lots of rice paddies, water buffalo, monkeys. On the way over, we stopped for tea at a rural resthouse (like a small hotel) and it started raining hard while there. I watched an old man cross the paddy with a bamboo staff in one hand and a large umbrella in the other. A short while later I looked out and saw these large lumps that turned out to be water buffalo. I thought 'were those there before I and just didn't see them?' Turns out he was the herdsman. What a cool sight. On the way home, we stopped at some rural vegetable and fruit stands. You can get better produce outside of Colombo. We bought mangos for ten cents each. I bought two small pumpkins, two ears of corn and a kio of orka for $1.15. I also saw wood for sale. I asked our friend Suba and he said outside Colombo almost everyone cooks with wood in their yard.

Another frequent sight here that I keep forgetting to mention is laundry: hotels and individuals line dry wash. When they run out of clothes line, they simply put the articles on the grass to dry. There are ants everywhere here and in my experience, if your damp clothes touch the ground or bushes, you will get lots of ants with your laundry.

Well, the rain is slacking so I will make a dash for home. Hopefully, I can fill you in on the ancient cities before I leave on Sunday.