Anuradhapura was sort of intended to be a brief stop on the way to Dambulla, but it’s an ancient city in its own right. And a sacred one. While Mahāvaṃsa, the Sri Lankan chronicles date the founding of the city to 437 BCE, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement on the island for almost three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Asia. So a cursory glance around before travelling on seemed a little dismissive. So we spent a day wandering around the old city, looking at the modern stupas and the old temples. One in particular caught my eye. The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is a cutting of the original tree brought by the Buddha to Sri Lanka, so say the devout. All I can say is that it’s a beautiful tree, and the locals seem honest in their devotion. Dalma climbed a rock temple and we spent a happy afternoon wandering and discovering that the local monkeys were not toque macaques like the rest of Sri Lanka, but quieter and beautiful purple-faced langurs.

Purple Faced Langurs
The sacred bodhi tree
The view from the top of the rock temple

So, the day was fairly sunny, so we had hopes for the next day’s ride to Dambulla. This is where the rock of Sigiriya is, which we were looking forward to seeing. The day dawned overcast, but the rain held off. The owner of the guesthouse assured us that the rain was over. Famous last words.

Predictably, ten minutes after we set off, the heavens opened and it rained on and off for our trip. Once memorably we took refuge in what we thought was just a busy petrol station. The multitudes of “customers” turned out to be fellow-riders sheltering from the rain.

We’d set up to take this photo and got it courtesy of a trucker who slammed his brakes on so he wouldn’t be *in* the picture. Thank you, anonymous truckie.

We finally got to Dambulla in the driving rain to discover that our hotel wasn’t quite where we thoght it was supposed to be (up a dirt track running along a river bank). Also, it was in two locations at once, which felt like an unnecessary application of quantum theory.

Dalma in the rain at a petrol station crowded with fellow bikers.
Looking for Schrödinger’s hotel.

Eventually, we found our hotel, which turned out to be very nice. We dripped into the office, then dripped into our room, showered, and went out to see what we could find to dine upon. Sofia, our Czech server, was very helpful, and we settled in nicely. One more ride done. One more moist adventure complete. Now we could only hope that the rain had gone for good.