So finally after a good night's sleep, after many nights for both her an me, I wake up the next day suitably refreshed. She is a lot more tired and will take some more time. I spend that time sitting in the balcony reading raag darbari, watching the sea, the beach and Europeans sunbathing . I also keep on checking whether she has woken up from time to time.
Yesterday we saw masks of various mythological characters in the few shops which were open when we went for a walk . We will also start a pattern here which shall continue for the next few days, waking up late lazing around having a late breakfast, a late lunch and towards the end of the day running around trying to play catch up with time.
We leisurely have a simple breakfast, go for a walk on the beach and sit there for some time . A lot of locals have come for picnic to the beach. They are sitting under the coconut trees enjoying the snacks they have brought along. The lovers here are peculiar. All of them are enjoying their privacy and shielding themselves using an umbrella, something we will again see in Galle face in Colombo.
We come back to the hotel pack our bags and checkout. We tell our hosts about our next destination, Anuradhapuram and they suggest us some possible routes. We reach the main town bus stand in a local bus and eat at a chennai like restaurant.
A very normal way to have food in SL is when the waiter gets you a huge plate filled with Alu gondas and other such fried stuff. At first we thought that people somehow eat this whole stuff but after observing carefully we realized that you can eat whatever you want and leave the rest in the plate, you are only billed for what you eat.The pieces you have left will be presented to someone else.
Taking directions from some other locals,we take a bus for place b .Quite obviously, we overshoot place b and end up at place c. We reach C by about 2:30. A helpful auto wallah tells us that we just need to wait for some time and a bus for Vavuniya would come and take us there. We wait there for an hour and half. During this time the auto wallah gets some sawari and hands over our responsibility to another autowallah. In due course he comes back and stands up to his responsibility again. We stand there on the bus stop along with just a few other passengers. All of them keep getting their buses and moving on, but our bus keeps us waiting. I chat for some time about Bombay , India, movies etc with the autowallah. Apparently he hasn't been to Anuradhapuram ever. All the time both she and I are getting more nervous, and I have started making my back up plans. Many buses come and go and each time we look with expectant eyes towards our auto wallah and he sheepishly says no not this one. All sign boards on the bus are in the local language.
After we have lost all hope suddenly the auto wallah stops a bus which was zipping past us and yells Vavuniya . Luckily the bus stops for us and we run and get into the bus. We barely have time to say goodbye and thank you to everybody at the bus stand. The bus has some disappointments. It is pretty cramped and all seats are taken. About standing for a couple of hours later we somehow manage to get seats. She meanwhile befriends a local guy and tells him the address of our next hotel mahenela.
The journey from Negombo to Puttalam is pretty scenic with sea on our left, but we are kept standing in this journey and cannot see much out of the window. Purtalam has one of the biggest lagoons which I guess we had also seen from our flight. We run along a railway track as well, but there are no trains on it. We and the railway tracks part our ways in Puttalam.
After Puttalam we get a place to sit.It has started raining heavily and is getting dark very fast as well. We reach our destination around 8 PM. Our stranger friend tells us to follow him when getting down from the bus. We follow him blindly. After getting down he asks us to get into the taxi which has come to pick us up. He explains the driver that we are headed for Mahanela, The driver fortunately knows the address and dutifully deposits us there. My fidgety attempt to pay him his met with a smile and a No. This is the only time we get into Taxis in Sri Lanka. At all other times we use tuk tuk.
Taxis in Sri Lanka are big. Almost in the shape of mini vans. All of them are of foreign makes. If one were to bring these taxis in small towns in India, they would easily accommodate about 50 people. The taxi development seems to have missed India and directly landed in Sri Lanka.
It is raining heavily and we have luckily managed to reach both our guest house and Anuradhapuram today.
The bus ride was pretty tiresome and we eat some rice that the lady of the house offers us. Tomorrow we will have a western breakfast for the first time, and take this yuk tum story further ahead .
Yesterday we saw masks of various mythological characters in the few shops which were open when we went for a walk . We will also start a pattern here which shall continue for the next few days, waking up late lazing around having a late breakfast, a late lunch and towards the end of the day running around trying to play catch up with time.
We leisurely have a simple breakfast, go for a walk on the beach and sit there for some time . A lot of locals have come for picnic to the beach. They are sitting under the coconut trees enjoying the snacks they have brought along. The lovers here are peculiar. All of them are enjoying their privacy and shielding themselves using an umbrella, something we will again see in Galle face in Colombo.
We come back to the hotel pack our bags and checkout. We tell our hosts about our next destination, Anuradhapuram and they suggest us some possible routes. We reach the main town bus stand in a local bus and eat at a chennai like restaurant.
A very normal way to have food in SL is when the waiter gets you a huge plate filled with Alu gondas and other such fried stuff. At first we thought that people somehow eat this whole stuff but after observing carefully we realized that you can eat whatever you want and leave the rest in the plate, you are only billed for what you eat.The pieces you have left will be presented to someone else.
Taking directions from some other locals,we take a bus for place b .Quite obviously, we overshoot place b and end up at place c. We reach C by about 2:30. A helpful auto wallah tells us that we just need to wait for some time and a bus for Vavuniya would come and take us there. We wait there for an hour and half. During this time the auto wallah gets some sawari and hands over our responsibility to another autowallah. In due course he comes back and stands up to his responsibility again. We stand there on the bus stop along with just a few other passengers. All of them keep getting their buses and moving on, but our bus keeps us waiting. I chat for some time about Bombay , India, movies etc with the autowallah. Apparently he hasn't been to Anuradhapuram ever. All the time both she and I are getting more nervous, and I have started making my back up plans. Many buses come and go and each time we look with expectant eyes towards our auto wallah and he sheepishly says no not this one. All sign boards on the bus are in the local language.
After we have lost all hope suddenly the auto wallah stops a bus which was zipping past us and yells Vavuniya . Luckily the bus stops for us and we run and get into the bus. We barely have time to say goodbye and thank you to everybody at the bus stand. The bus has some disappointments. It is pretty cramped and all seats are taken. About standing for a couple of hours later we somehow manage to get seats. She meanwhile befriends a local guy and tells him the address of our next hotel mahenela.
The journey from Negombo to Puttalam is pretty scenic with sea on our left, but we are kept standing in this journey and cannot see much out of the window. Purtalam has one of the biggest lagoons which I guess we had also seen from our flight. We run along a railway track as well, but there are no trains on it. We and the railway tracks part our ways in Puttalam.
After Puttalam we get a place to sit.It has started raining heavily and is getting dark very fast as well. We reach our destination around 8 PM. Our stranger friend tells us to follow him when getting down from the bus. We follow him blindly. After getting down he asks us to get into the taxi which has come to pick us up. He explains the driver that we are headed for Mahanela, The driver fortunately knows the address and dutifully deposits us there. My fidgety attempt to pay him his met with a smile and a No. This is the only time we get into Taxis in Sri Lanka. At all other times we use tuk tuk.
Taxis in Sri Lanka are big. Almost in the shape of mini vans. All of them are of foreign makes. If one were to bring these taxis in small towns in India, they would easily accommodate about 50 people. The taxi development seems to have missed India and directly landed in Sri Lanka.
It is raining heavily and we have luckily managed to reach both our guest house and Anuradhapuram today.
The bus ride was pretty tiresome and we eat some rice that the lady of the house offers us. Tomorrow we will have a western breakfast for the first time, and take this yuk tum story further ahead .
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