A day in Polonnaruwa

Got the early morning Government red bus to Polonnaruwa – again very cheap. The local transport is extremely cheap here and in relation to this, food is very expensive. Journey was overall fine with some local songs being played in the bus [ Many of them had same tune as Bollywood songs]

We reached Polonnaruwa in 3 hours and were at our homestay by 10. It looked deserted, we kept knocking and ringing the bell, and finally even yelling "hello anybody there", but in vain. We spotted one more house adjacent to this one in the same compound with door opened. Could recognize it from the pictures I had seen in airbnb. Again this was deserted - We looked for any note our host might have left, but nothing. We were contemplating going to some neighbour house and requesting them to make a phone call to our host. Thankfully just then the mother of our host came in. She couldn't speak English, but we got directed to our room.

We had not taken any sim card for phone, because we didn't feel it was really required. Every place we stayed had wifi and through Internet we were connected. Before leaving for next destination I would drop a note to the next host giving all the details of our arrival. Anyway we freshened up and realized it is very very hot. We wanted to go and get something to eat and apparently the town was some 1-2 kms from this place. Walking in sun with Ishu was out of Question. Finally we decided to eat bread nutella and bananas for now and buy something to eat on way to the ruins.

Polonnaruwa Vatadage

Gal Vihara - Carving on a single rock face

Reclining Buddha in Gal Vihara

Our tuk tuk came at around 2 and we reached directly to the archaeological site's office to buy tickets. There were no shops in between to buy eatables. Since the ruins close by 5 – 5:30, it was better to see the ruins first, and eat later. It was super hot, and many places we had to remove shoes and hats. So we kept Ishu in shade, and took turns to see the ruins. By around 5-5:30 we had seen most of the important ruins, but were exhausted and damn hungry. On our way back we bought some eatables and got some dinner packed ( some chicken fried rice and rice and chicken, hoppers - All were horrible ). Once back to our homestay, we knew that going out again won’t be possible, so getting food packed was a sensible decision. 

Deceptive Looks - Super hot and humid, unlike the freshness that oozes in this pic

After an exhausting day, was lined up a very uncomfortable night. It was so hot and humid in the night. So still, not a leaf was moving. And just one swing fan. My god, sweating like hell, somehow got through the night.