POLONNARUWA & SIGIRIYA

10th - 13th June 2015

It was with a heavy heart that we left Arugam Bay. We bid Gecko farewell and caught the 5.30am bus to Batticaloa. To add a little spice to the journey Will stepped in a massive cow pat in his flip flops just as we jumped aboard, making the journey out of A-bay even more fragrant than the journey in. It was here that we parted ways with Mima, Joe and Bananagrams. We had a delicious cheap breakfast (and wondered why we'd be spending so much in A Bay). Then we caught a train to Polonnaruwa. We found a guesthouse then attempted to find some food, which proved difficult as around the guesthouse there wasn't really anywhere to get anything. We had read on Trip Advisor about a place called Jaga Food and on the map it looked within walking distance... It wasn't! We soon found ourselves in the middle of nowhere and all the tuk tuk drivers didn't know what we were talking about. The situation was getting critical, I was not in the best of moods and it looked like Will was going to have to endure a grumpy Helen tirade, but then a tuk tuk driver named Kithsiri came to our rescue. He could see that we didn't know where we were going and came over to help out. He said he knew a nice place that he would take us to. We have been quite sceptical of people like this in the past (especially when hotels are involved) as they usually get a commission for bringing customers and the cost gets passed onto us. But Will said something that turned out to be very fitting... "Let's just trust him and see what happens" The end result of this simple decision to go with him was attending a Sri Lankan wedding the next day. 

But let's start from the beginning.

We drove quite far away from where we were staying and found ourselves in outdoor huts with palm leaf thatched roofs and seats made from dried mud. We were the only people there, and the lady said it was a fixed price menu of 850 rupees each (£4). Thankfully they had beer. After a little while they started bringing out dish after dish and laid them out on the central high table. There was 2 types of rice, chicken curry, fish curry, fried fish and various other dishes I can't remember right now, but it was all delicious. As we were the only people in there, we got talking to the owner, who said it was his daughters wedding the next day. He took us to see the traditional wedding Poruwa being made. This is the wooden platform on which the ceremony takes place. It is decorated with different coloured strips of palm leaves. He said they would be working through the night to finish the display that would become the centre point for the wedding ceremony.

We met his daughter Piyumi, who was 23 and entering into a love marriage. The wedding was to start at 8.30am, meaning Piyumi had to go to the salon to get ready from 2am to 6am! Her father asked if we would like to come long and we said yes please! We then had to work out what we were going to wear. They said all the ladies would be wearing saris and that Will should be in trousers, a shirt and smart shoes (no flip flops allowed!) so then there came a mad dash in the evening to find everything we needed for the next day. Will managed to borrow shoes from our guesthouse owner, and a shirt from Kithsiri's friend. I had to go to the Kithsiri's friends salon to be fitted for a sari jacket (that goes under the sari) and to pick a sari, jewellery, hair style and shoes. Once that was done, we bought a gift, then headed back to finally sleep!

The next morning I was at the salon by 7, where I was transformed into Barbie. She worked magic on my hair, with more back combing than I had ever imagined was possible and slapped on tonnes of makeup. I had only worn make up once in the last 3 months. She also managed to tell me in her broken English that I had a big forehead that she would have to cover up with a side fringe and badly shaped eyebrows. Cheers.

Then it was time to put on the sari. I had wanted to try on a sari the whole time we were in India but the situation had never arisen. Now was my chance!!! First I put on the cropped 'jacket' that is worn under the sari and fastens at the front, and an under skirt. She tied a string tightly around my waist, for the sari fabric to be tucked into. Then she begun to tie to sari. The fabric was wrapped around my waist once, then pleated at the front and tucked in to form the skirt. The remaining length of fabric was wrapped around my upper body once then pinned at the left shoulder. It was tied using the Indian method, and thankfully she pinned it so my pasty midriff wasn't out. It was cool but god knows how I was to go to the toilet!!! 

Will arrived looking dapper in his Indian wedding shirt, and then we were off in the tuk tuk to the wedding! We arrived just in time to see the traditional procession with dancing and drum banging. Then we were filtered into one of the huts for breakfast. A huge feast of treats was laid out and we tucked in. 

After this was the ceremony, which played out under the canopy that was being constructed the night before. The ceremony involved many different traditions with different meanings. Ones that I can remember were the bride and grooms little fingers being tied together with string and water poured over, the brides mother handing them a plate of rice cake and they feed each other a piece, the groom giving the bride a gold necklace, the grooms brother passing the bride and groom betel leaves with coins on top which they then drop on the Poruwa, the groom presents his bride with a new sari in white.

We started talking with a lovely couple who lived in Colombo, who turned out to be the grooms adopted family. Dimitri had English and German grandparents, and worked as a tour operator in Sri Lanka and India. He whisked Will away at one point, apologising to me and said that this was the time when the men went off and drank Arrak together and the women had to stay behind and drink tea. So I stayed with the women and talked about everything, including the differences between this kind of village wedding where the women are very conservative, and the weddings in Colombo where all the women apparently hitch up their saris and dance all night. During the man time, Will ended up speaking with the Governor of Trincomalee, the owner of the areas biggest wood carving business, the Chief of police and a large number of his officers. Will asked who was guarding the city and they all looked at each other and giggled. 

After the men had downed many Arracks, it was time for them to dance. Hilarious drunken dancing then followed, and of course, Will was pulled up to dance with them. The women sat around the edge watching the show. 

By 4pm the party was over and we went back with Kithsiri to chill out for a bit, as Will had arranged with someone from the wedding to go to their house for dinner. They cooked us a lovely meal, but insisted we go back up for seconds, thirds and fourths in Wills case.

The next morning we were up early to go to Sigiriya Rock. The drive took an hour and so we chilled in the back of the tuk tuk. Sigiriya Rock is a huge lump of rock 200m high, dumped in the middle of a very flat plain. There used to be a huge fort on top of the rock built by the King around 480 AD, but now there are only vast ruins. When we got there we had to walk through the ruins of an old settlement before climbing the rock. 

It was insanely windy. We saw the frescoes, which once would have covered much of the face of the rock although now only a precious few remain. We also walked alongside the mirror wall, which has ancient grafitti dating back to the 8th Century, which archeologists have deciphered and used to piece together what life was like then. Half way up the rock was the Lion Gate staircase. The view from the top was out of this world, with the ruins of the old fortress to explore.

In the afternoon we drove back and went to Jaga Food on the way. There was an amazing spread of different dishes to try. We were starting to get used to meals consisting of 10 different dishes! They encourage all the guests to leave a message on the walls and handed us some markers just before we left. It must be a very popular place, in the end we had to leave our little message on a roof beam as all the wall space was taken.

Then it was time to look round the ruins of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. Polannaruwa is the second most ancient of Sri Lanka's Kingdoms, and was built in the 12th century. It was chosen as the new city after Anuradhapura was conquered by Southern Indian rulers.

The ruins are spread over a huge distance, and we had heard a good way to get around was by bike, but after speaking to a couple that had done it the day before and had baked in the heat, we decided to tuk tuk around. As we only had the afternoon, we went to see the main sites: Council Chamber, Royal Palace, Polonnaruwa Vatadage which was built to hold the tooth relic of the Buddha, a Hindu temple that was built after the other buildings, and Gal Vihara.

The city was destroyed by invaders from India. The ruins that we see today were found in a jungle that had completely overgrown the whole site, and had to be painstakingly cut down and the buildings pieced back together. The jewels and treasures were all taken when the buildings were destroyed, but a lot of the stonework can be seen, albeit half buildings. There are huge stone tablets that the King had engraved with a documentation of the building, and this is what was used to piece back the buildings and to create models of how they would have looked.

We went into a temple with many stone Buddhas inside, there once would have been a huge seated Buddha at the end of the room, whose eyes were made from large precious stones. The window at the opposite end of the room would have shone light into the eyes which would then have been reflected around the room, casting an atmospheric coloured light over the rest of the Buddha statues. That must have looked really cool.

The circular building 'Polonnaruwa Vatadage' was by the far the most impressive in the complex. However to get inside to have a look, we had to take our shoes off and the sun had been fiercely heating up the stone all day. We had to make a run for it, and step in the shadows to save our burning soles! It had a really intricate moonstone entrance that was carved with animal patterns.

The last place we saw was the carving of 4 Buddahs from a single piece of granite rock, known as Gal Vihara. They were unique as they were extremely well preserved. This is because the King got word that the attack was coming and ordered the entire thing to be covered in earth to keep it hidden. This was done with the help of elephants! The carvings were beautiful because of the strata lines running through the rock. The carvings show different stages of Buddhas life, there are 2 seated images, one standing and one reclining. And they are HUGE.

We headed back to the hotel via a sunset, checked out of our room then dashed across town to the train station to check into our carriage for the night. Being just a normal train carriage with slightly reclined seats it wasn't the best nights sleep and we ended up rolling into Colombo round 6am. We immediately checked in to a cheap hotel to get a few hours sleep before going out to explore Colombo for the day as our flight was at 1am that night. Our first stop was Barefoot to get breakfast. It was a beautiful shop full of incredibly vibrant fabrics and products made from the fabric, with a gorgeous outdoor cafe. We could only buy a couple of things, but wanted to buy the whole shop. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside so these have been pilfered from their website. Check it out http://www.barefootceylon.com/fabrics/

After this we took a walk and ended up at the Viharamahadevi Park, where we saw a seated golden Buddha and an amazing bird. It was a very pretty place and a nice way to kill a few hours.

We had a quick bite to eat in a near by cafe then it was time to head back to the room, collect our stuff and say goodbye to Sri Lanka. The journey to the airport was an interesting one... Catching the bus back to the hotel we met a guy who helped us find the right bus and even paid our fare. Catching the bus to the airport we met a guy who also seemed helpful, he said he was going to the airport (although he had no luggage) and would help us out. Once we were on the super packed minibus, he said Will could pass our luggage to him as there was more space by him. We didn't do it, and a second later he jumped off the bus... 

We have really enjoyed our time on this little island. The hills and waves have been particularly great, but best of all are the people we have met along the way.