A new President, Sigiriya People and Dagobas

January 10-11

A New President, Sigiriya People and Dagobas

New President Sirisena

We reluctantly leave our sweet hotel and the friendly, endearing staff at Tintagel Hotel. Our van is roomy and we each spread out reading the newspapers that our guide Karu has brought us.  The paper indicates that 81.5% of the Sri Lanka people voted which shames US voters. Sirisena is confirmed as Sri Lanka’s 6^th president taking 51.2% of the vote over Rajapaksa who has 47.5%.  We are all pleased to be part of this historic event.  Why is this historic?  First of all it has been a genuine, free and peaceful election with little violence, better than most Asian countries and unlike prior elections in Sri Lanka.  This hints at the first step of national reconciliation in a post-conflict Sri Lanka.  Secondly it is the first time that the Tamils in the north have voted freely in 3 decades. 

We embark on a 6-hour drive in our van, each of us with headphones on and listening to books and music on our I-pads.  John is engaged in the Roosevelt series while Marie and I are following the Series, a real Podcast story about a Muslim teenager who was jailed for life for killing his girlfriend.  After 4 hours we stop for a bathroom break and meet an extremely friendly Muslim Tamil family of 4 children, parents and grandmother.

10 year old 

13 year old 

They all smile with delight at seeing us. Marie and I play with the young children who pretend to be monkeys in the trees and Steve talks Tamil to the father.

He tells us about living in Saudi Arabia for 10 years to make money and now is delighted to be home with his family. 

As we find no bathroom we move on and an hour later stop at a roadside café. Here we find a rudimentary toilet in a shack out back, which does the trick. The young couple who own this place tell us they worked as a housecleaner and security guard in Hong Kong to make enough money to open this small restaurant.  This is becoming a familiar story from the people we talk to ~ I am so impressed with what people are willing to do in order to support their families and make a better life.

We arrive at the old city of Anuradhapura, a UNESCO World Heritage site situated on the banks of the historic MalvathuOya River.  First we visit a dagoba (stupa) currently being built by the army of ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa to honor peace after the war ended in 2009 and to keep the soldiers employed. 

We see the plans for the completion of the peace dagoba and wonder if it will be completed with the new President.

Bike Guide 

Next with the assistance of a bike tour guide and a rickety old bike with no gears we ride through the ancient city of Anuradhapura founded in the 5^th century BC.  

We see the remains of a number of shrines, stupas and ancient palaces of the Sinhala civilization.  

Bell Dagoba

Bubble Pagoda 

Elephant base to the pagoda 

Rice Pagoda 

At one place we see the “Bodhi tree” which is over 2200 years old and is reportedly the place where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment.  

Marie and Steve 

This 3-hour bike ride is delightful and we end by seeing the sun set and drinking coconut water.

After another 2-3 hour drive we arrive at 8 pm at Heritance Kandalma hotel for a 3 night stay. This hotel emerges from the rock and is set in the middle of the forest like a lost city. Our rooms have views of the lake and we are told to lock the doors to our balcony because otherwise the monkeys will come in our room at night.  Steve crashes and we have dinner with Marie and talk about what we learn from our travel adventures.