Aukana and Yapahuwa

Wednesday 4th June 2003. Ceysands Hotel, Bentota.
We are now gathered at our hotel on the narrow spit of land between the Indian Ocean and the wide Bentota River. Access from the mainland is by motor boat from Aluthgama. After crossing the river by moonlight we alighted at the hotel landing stage to be met by a beautiful lady wearing a pretty tangerine-coloured sari. She hung garlands of fresh frangipani flowers around our necks and we were presented with chilled towels to freshen our sticky hands and faces. We were then given glasses of pure orange juice with REAL ice by a smartly-uniformed waiter. Meanwhile our luggage was unloaded from the boat to magically appear later in our rooms. It all seems amazingly opulent for us, but what the heck! We’re here so we may as well accept it all and enjoy a lifestyle for a few days we’d never experience in England!

Kate and Rob arrived here mid-afternoon. We didn’t get here until 9pm. and they were beginning to worry. It was so lovely to see them again. They’ve back-packed around the country and had a really good time, getting to Trincomalee, Sigiriya, Kandy and Polonnaruwa. Marc parted from them a few days ago and hasn’t turned up here yet. We expect him tomorrow.

Kate and Rob cannot believe the splendour of their room, which, like ours, is air-conditioned with a balcony overlooking the Ocean. The rooms have marble floors and are beautifully furnished with armchairs, coffee tables, desks, a huge double bed, television, a fridge full of drinks and even headed notepaper. When they went off to supper, the staff entered their room, turned back the sheet and arranged flowers in a beautiful pattern all over the bed! Perhaps, knowing we are all here for a wedding, they thought they were honeymooners!

To summarise the day, it’s been a very long one! We left Anuradhapura at 8am. Our first stop was at a family run batik works where we had the pattern-making technique, using delicately applied liquid wax, demonstrated. We were all impressed and bought some items at very reasonable prices. I bought a long, wrap around skirt with pink elephants on. It’s great fun.

Next we stopped at Aukana to see the beautiful Buddha we'd had to miss the other day. This pleased Margaret in particular as she’s been rather disappointed not to have seen it. The statue is very well executed being unpainted, twelve metres high and carved directly out of the solid rock. A huge wild bees nest dangled from Buddha’s elbow.

Aukana Buddha

The statue is said to have been carved during the reign of Dhatusena in the fifth century AD. There is a peaceful, pleasant atmosphere to the place and nobody pestered us to buy souvenirs. Ian chatted with a happy young monk who told him proudly that he’s spoken with Queen Elizabeth during her last official visit when she came to see the Aukana Buddha.

We then drove on to Yapahuwa, a rock fortress rising one hundred metres from the plain, rather like Sigiriya but far less well known. I preferred it in that there was nobody to bother us and it was a far easier climb. Constructed in the twelfth century it was the original Sinhalese capital and it is believed to be from this fortress that the invading Indians, called Kalingas, carried away the sacred tooth of Buddha. (It was returned in 1288 and is now in Kandy.) The fortress is constructed from stone - a change from the brick we have seen until now. There are some beautiful carvings of lions and elephants on the steep steps leading up to the fortress. (In fact, one of the lions actually appears on the 10 rupee bank notes!) Around the top of the steps are dancing dwarves.


Stone steps up to the royal palace showing animal carvings

Remains of the palace of Yapahuwa affording lovely views over the surrounding countryside

Here I nearly trod on a very thin, bright green, three foot long snake. Until it moved in the grass it was quite invisible. I saw its head flicker just as I went to put my foot down. I don’t know if it was poisonous. It was certainly very pretty and seemed unconcerned at us gathering around to watch it with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness. I described it to Sunil who thought it was probably a vine snake.

It was intended that from here we would go for a special lunch in a local village. We drove for miles down sandy, unmade tracks through banana and coconut plantations. We passed many little wooden or stone dwellings, most with a well outside the door. Then we came upon workmen who were repairing the little bridge. There was no way forward and nowhere for the coach to turn so our poor driver was forced to reverse a good kilometre back along the narrow track, with the trees scraping the coach on either side, before he was able to find sufficient space to turn around.

So much time had been wasted, and with no other access to the village we were obliged to cut our losses and set off on the long drive towards Bentota. Susantha phoned ahead to a restaurant on our route and they had forty rounds of sandwiches waiting for us when we arrived an hour later. We ate them as we drove along after a brief stop for urgently needed loos and cups of tea. The rest of the day was spent entirely in the coach and it seemed a very long journey indeed.

We passed through an interesting variety of scenery with many reservoirs and canals irrigating the rice fields. There were fruit trees, rubber plantations and endless linear villages along the wayside where daily life is lived on the road itself. Within these villages the road teemed with people, many carrying enormous bundles. There are school children, cyclists, workmen, lorries, tractors and tuc-tucs. There are stalls selling bananas, coconuts, mats, baskets, tin buckets and brooms. There are people with bundles on their heads, children carrying younger siblings, trucks crowded with people standing in the back as they rumble along, whole families on one motorbike.

The tarmac roads, particularly in the rural areas, are ill-made, broken away at the edges with just a sandy, dusty roadside along which people live their daily lives. Vehicles weave recklessly through it all, the drivers’ thumbs permanently on their horns. Road markings, where they might exist, are purely decorative as they are completely ignored. Crossing the country as dusk gives way to darkness and the bikes, tuc-tucs and people continue their dice with death - generally without even the benefit of lights – is a frightening experience. Sometimes there would be groups of fifty or more people who would suddenly appear in our headlights as they stood on the unlit roadside waiting for the buses.

Then we encountered torrential monsoon rain. The road became awash with surface water but street life continued unchanged. Still the cyclists peddled through the rain, the swirling road water and the potholes.

Then came mile upon mile of road works that reduced the traffic to a single track. In each direction the traffic moved so slowly that we were delayed by about one and a half hours. We all felt so sorry for our poor driver and we were all very relieved and exhausted when we finally arrived at Bentota. Here our tour officially ended and we said farewell to our driver, to Sunil who will be at the wedding on Friday, and to his relative Susantha, who has been such an excellent guide and friend and whom we are unlikely to see again.