BUDDHA OF AUKANA AND POLONNARUWA

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Day 15: POLONNARUWA - AUKANA - ANURADAPHURA

Friday, July 05, 2013

Today we start the day at 7 in the morning with a typical breakfast of Sri Lanka that we have not managed to change for a western one for many times that we have told the owner of the hotel ... It is clear that this hotel in Polonnaruwa, the Clay Hut Village, there is not going to be a chance in our entire stay! But the day is presented with many good things and some of them are that we will finally meet the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa.
After that breakfast, Chami arrives at 8 o'clock in the morning and when we explain that we did not like the place, he tells us that he was treated yesterday fatally when he asked if they had rooms for him.
They wanted to charge him like a tourist and put him in a room with 3 more drivers!
In Sri Lanka, when you go with a driver, even if you are hired "for free", as has been our case and the hotels are reserved for us, when we arrive, the driver always talks to the hotel and as a rule, they give them free or very low accommodation Price, like the food.

This is a way to ensure future customers when the driver has to do the same route again.
So far Chami has been explaining to us that in all they had treated him phenomenally, except in this one, that in the end it has turned out to be, both for us and for him, a small click.
But today we have another of the main dishes of our tour of the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka, so we quickly forget this to think about the Buddha of Aukana and in Polonnaruwa.
And with these thoughts, we go straight to the ticket office Polonnaruwa, to pay the 3150 rupees per person at the entrance and this is where something happens that conditions us a little today.
The last day we were in Nuwara Eliya late at night, as we said that day, we changed money to try to finish the rest of the trip without having to do it again.
Once we close the deal tour by car through the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka with Chami and we inform you of the updated price of tickets in this area of Sri Lanka, we divided the money we had in piles, inside my wallet. One with the exact amount of the car and another with the ticket money. These were the highest and most fixed amounts, so we prefer to take it like this to know at all times what money we had left for extras.
So far everything perfect. The problem comes when at the box office Polonnaruwa, where there is a small museum that we came to visit, I open my wallet to get the money from the tickets and I see that the fold we had of tickets to pay Chami has disappeared.
I start to get nervous, we check the entire purse, we flip the purse and see that we are also missing 60 dollars of the 200 that we had in another pocket of the wallet for Maldives.
We looked back, trying to remember everything we did and I remember perfectly well that yesterday, when I paid the driver of the 4 × 4 of Minneriya, I took out my purse, gave him the money and told Roger that we were running out of money for the jocular extras ... At that time were the two folds of secure money.
We know perfectly well that the bag has been with me all the time, in the hotel, in the visits… less in a place, in the stop that we made in Minneriya to stretch your legs
We look at the photos and indeed, I do not carry the bag that I left in the 4 × 4, while the driver is talking on the phone inside.
In addition, we review the notes that we are making and then report the travel diary and indicate that we leave, while the driver makes some calls.
In total we have disappeared about 33,000 rupees or about 200 euros.
We will not deny that the visit to the museum of Polonnaruwa we do it with our head rather in another place than where we are and although we do not want to be bitter because of that, after all it is still money, we cannot avoid it.
Above all, because Roger keeps saying that we can't do anything anymore, so it's best to enjoy and that's it. Forget and out.
After the "half visit" to the museum, we return to the parking lot and tell Chami what has happened.
He does not ask several times all over again, to make sure what we are telling him and he does not stop saying that it is very bad for Sri Lanka and for tourism in general.
We assure you that although we have told you that one of the parts that have been stolen from us was "your share of money" from the car, do not worry that when we arrive at a exchange house we will pay you the total or pay you in euros.
After a good talk, he tells us that he has the 4 × 4 driver's card, which was exchanged after the Minneriya safari, so he calls him and doesn't pick up the phone.
After trying several times, Chami tells us that it is best that we go to the police station to report him.
At the beginning we are not very sure of wanting to do it, for not knowing exactly how the police work in Sri Lanka, for not wasting time ... But in the end we believe that it is the most logical, at least to avoid, as far as possible, because we are clear that we will not recover the money.
We will still have to thank him that he did not steal everything we had!
Although we understand that he did not, knowing that most people tip them at the end of the service and if he had taken everything, we would have detected it at that time.
At this time, all we can do is continue with the visit to Polonnaruwa and try to forget the incident to fully enjoy one of the places we most wanted to know in Sri Lanka.

The Buddhist ruins of Polonnaruwa We have been told that they are much more attractive and varied than those of Anuradhapura. They are the remains of an important Sinhalese capital that reached its religious and commercial zenith towards the 13th century.
They are another of the monumental groups included in the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites.

Finally we enter the amazing Polonnruwa !! Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Polonnaruwa It is one of the three major landmarks of Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka next to Sigiriya and Anuradhapura.
The ruins of Polonnaruwa They are divided into five groups, the Royal Palace, the Quadrangle, which includes most of the buildings, the North Group, the South Group and the next to the Rest House.
The Royal Palace is adjacent to the entrance to the ruins, making it the first to be visited.
They are remains of buildings from the oldest period, under King Parakramabahu I. From the remains of his palace he deduces that he had good dimensions, a plant of about 30 meters by 13 and several floors.
From the Hall of Audiences there is a frieze with carved elephants and images of lions carved in the stone at the end of the entrance steps. In the Pond for the Baths we can see two water pumps in the shape of a crocodile head, which are repeated in other ponds of Polonnaruwa.

Polonnruwa !!

The Quadrangle is located a few meters north of the remains of the Royal Palace. It has the highest concentration of buildings in an area that is not large and is in very good condition.
Coming from the Royal Palace the first building we found in the Quadrangle is the Thuparama Gegide, at the southern end of the group of ruins.
It is a quadrangular Buddhist temple with stone walls and red brick. It is the only temple of Polonnaruwa which has kept the roof almost intact and inside there are several statues of Buddha, some standing.

Thuparama Gegide. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Interior of Thuparama Gegide. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Almost in front of the Thuparama, we find the incredible Vatadage, a circular chapel dedicated to the relic custody and is also very well preserved.
As is typical of these monuments, it is surrounded by two circular terraces, the exterior almost twenty meters in diameter.

Vatadage

Each of the four entrances is flanked by stone guardians of beautiful bill and also in very good condition.
The Moonstone of the northern entrance is the one in the best state of all of the Polonnaruwa. A few steps lead to the center of the Vatadage from each entrance, where four other seated Buddha statues appear before the small brick dagoba.

Vatadage Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Vatadage Center

Vatadage Details

Opposite the northern entrance of the Vatagade, the Hatadage is an old building to guard relics relics and dates from the time of King Nissanka Malla.

Hatadage Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Hatadage Details

To the west, behind a small Buddhist chapel, stands a tiny dagoba between columns, unique by the stone fence that surrounds it, is the Latha-Mandapaya.

Hatadage Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Just east of the Hatadage we can see one of the great testimonies of Polonnaruwa and one of the most original, the Gal Pota, Stone Book, which is an elongated stone, nine meters by 1.5 meters wide, with inscriptions in the manner of Buddhist texts embodied in palm leaves.
The inscription refers to King Nissanka Malla and explains that the 25-ton stone was transported from another Ancient City, Mihintale, neighbor of Anuradhapura and about one hundred kilometers from Polonnaruwa.

Gal Pota

To the right of Gal Pota we can not fail to see a brick temple in the shape of a ziggurat, nothing common Sri Lanka.
It is the Satmahal Prasada, with six levels that narrow as the tower rises.

Satmahal Prasada Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

A little south of Shiva Devale there is a large dagoba, Pabula Vihara, which is the third largest in Polonnaruwa and dates from the Parakramabahu I period.

Pabula Vihara

In the middle of the visit to Polonnaruwa We stop to refresh ourselves and Chami recommends that we try a coconut, which we will like.
And since we cannot refuse, we do that, sitting in a beach bar, where after drinking the coconut water, we eat inside, helped by the woman of the beach bar 😉

A stop to freshen up !!

At this point Chami tells us that he has continued calling the 4 × 4 driver, but there has been no way to locate him.
The North Group comprises a series of buildings scattered over a wide area of land, so they cannot be visited on foot and it is best to travel from one to another by bike, tuk tuk or as we are doing, by car.
Immediately north of the Quadrangle we find a collapsed dagoba, the Menik Vihara and right next to it, we find the huge Rankot Vihara dagoba, which is the largest Polonnaruwa, with almost 55 meters high.
It is surrounded by a wall and a platform and its huge dark brick vault, no longer retains the canning, is topped by the characteristic hatarae kotuwa, a quadrangular structure, which in ancient times was the reliquary, from which the sacred parasol springs, cone shaped

Rankot Vihara. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Next to the Seema Prasada Buddha we find the mysterious Lankatilaka, with its 18-meter-high brick walls that keep a standing statue of Buddha without a head, probably torn off in some vandalism.

Lankatilaka

Lankatilaka Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Headless Buddha inside Lankatilaka

The next large northbound building is the Kiri Vihara, a dagoba, very similar to the Rankot, but of smaller dimensions. It is considered the best preserved pagoda of Polonnaruwa without having gone through restoration.

Pagoda. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Pagoda

And finally you get to the most famous monument of Polonnaruwa, the images of Gal Vihara.

Gal Vihara. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

We follow a path, where we find some ticket offices where we have to show the entrances again and we arrive at a fragment of rock that shows four images of Buddha carved in granite, in what is considered the maximum apogee of this discipline of Sinhalese art.
the frieze belonged to an ancient monastery and shows a reclining Buddha 14 meters long, a standing figure, seven meters high and two seated Buddhas.

Reclining Buddha Gal Vihara

Details of the expression of the reclining Buddha. Gal Vihara

The weather in this area of Polonnaruwa It seems to have stopped. Now we understand why most of the people who have been here speak in a special way about these Buddhas.

Gal Vihara. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Being in front of these 4 sculptures and being able to approach in total solitude, it already makes it deserve the trip to Sri Lanka.

Gal Vihara. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

Details of the seated Buddha. Gal Vihara

The expression of sadness of the standing Buddha and the unusual position of his arms have given rise to the hypothesis that it could be a representation of the disciple Ananda crying the death of the Master, but this theory is rejected by most experts.

Standing Buddha. Gal Vihara

We cannot deny that the entire visit to Polonnaruwa It has been a "icing" difficult to overcome, but it is very clear that the images of Gal Vihara is the maximum expression of what we were looking for in this trip.

Gal Vihara. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

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Gal Vihara in Polonnaruwa

One of the things that warn us as soon as we get to the ticket office, apart from taking off our shoes, something we do without being asked, since it is our own “body” that asks us to feel Gal Vihara, is that we cannot take pictures of us under any circumstances, even without turning our backs on the image of Buddha as elsewhere.
We do some, almost without realizing what they have warned us ...
One of the areas where Gal Vihara's images can best be seen is climbing on a rock that is right in front of you.
As soon as we see it, we can't help it… it's our “place” here

Enjoying Gal Vihara

Schoolchildren admiring Gal Vihara. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

We have been here for almost an hour and when we look at the clock, we believe that it is time to return, although we cannot deny that it costs us a good time to say goodbye to Gal Vihara.

Gal Vihara

Returning to the path and going north, we find a small lotus-shaped pond, which should have been used for ritual baths.

Lotus Flower-shaped Pond

In the end we have been in Polonnaruwa 5 hours!! We had read everywhere that the average visit is about 3 hours, it is clear that we have exceeded the average.
But we had reason to do so: Polonnaruwa is awesome!!
It's a little after 1 noon and we comment with Chami that it is best to stop to eat before going to the police station, so he takes us to a small guesthouse where we eat for 1485 rupees.
Before we go, we have tea and after chatting for a while with the guests of the guesthouse, we meet again with Chami, who tells us that he has been thinking that since he cannot contact the driver and we have to go through Minneriya to go to our next stop, which is the Buddha of Aukana, we can stop at the same park to explain what happened to us right there.
We approve and we do ... we are on our way to Minneriya!
We arrive in Minneriya in just under 45 minutes and as soon as we arrive we see the driver that as soon as he sees us he turns white. He approaches us nervously and when we ask him if he has taken our money, he tells us that he has not taken anything.
We do not let him talk anymore and we go to the park ticket office where after explaining what has happened to us, they give us a blank page and tell us to explain it there ...
Yes, it is true that they have many people in the queue to pay the tickets, but it is not logical that they "dispatch" us like this, so we tell them that we are going directly to the police station to report.
And that we do ... although we repeat to Chami that we are already a bit saturated with this and that we do not know if it is better to leave it, he insists that it is best to denounce it.

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On the way to the police station, he keeps telling us that the driver had a different face than he had yesterday and that he had noticed a lot that he had been, because of the way he treated us.
He gives us a life lesson, explaining that he, being a Buddhist, cannot steal and if he does, he will be reprimanded in the next reincarnation and he is sure that the driver will pay him in another life, because he has behaved badly ... that we must be patient, but that life will give him his due for not behaving well.
We arrive at the police station that is very close to the park and Chami explains what happened and they make us go to an office where there are more children than policemen playing between the tables!

Sri Lanka Police Station. Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

This is Asia! 😉
After a while there are several police and administrative (we believe ...) and we explain again for the third time what happened. Everyone agrees on the same. This case is very bad for Sri Lanka and now, after almost 24 hours, it is very difficult to recover the money.
We explain that we do not want to recover it, we simply want to open a file so that they know that this has happened and try not to happen again.
After almost an hour they tell us that they can't do anything because Minneriya belongs to the Habarana police section and that we have to go there ...
If this does not happen to us, they explain it to us and we do not believe it! It looks like a movie ...
In the end, although it is not funny, we find the point to the situation, almost surreal that we are living.
When we leave, we tell Chami to take us to the Buddha of Aukana and now is when he stands and tells us that he will do what we tell him, but the best thing is that we go to Habarana and finish what we have started.
We return to the car and as we cannot deny that he is right, we take the road to Habarana.
We arrive at the next police station in about 30 minutes and the only thing we are afraid of is that with so many stops we don't have time to get to the Buddha of Aukana, which is one of the points we most want to know about Sri Lanka.
Upon entering the police station, the process of the previous one is repeated and after Chami speaks with them, they pass us to an office where we receive the highest police charge in the area.
With us enter like 10 more police and another 5 or 6 men dressed as civilians ...
They do nothing but argue among themselves that what has happened is a very bad case for the country and that they have to solve it, but now it is impossible for the driver to carry the money in his pocket.
The senior official asks us if we want him to be arrested and if that is the case, send someone to Minneriya right now to do it.
That seems to us major words and we explain again that we are only doing this to "keep an eye on" this issue and try not to happen again.
In the end, after a good time talking with this senior official of our country and his, we said goodbye with a handshake and with the affirmation that they will take action on the matter.
This time we do return to the car with Chami telling him that now, whatever happens, we are on our way to Buddha of Aukana!!
Halfway Chami receives a call and we see him altered ... when he hangs up he tells us that the 4 × 4 driver has called him very angry because we have gone to the police station and they have called his attention and that we should have gone to talk more with him before going to the police station ...
We apologize to Chami because the one who has eaten the brown has really been him and we agree that it is best to try to forget the subject, since it is taking us the longest time of the day and we do not want it to continue like this ...
Now we want to focus on our trip to Sri Lanka and Maldives and especially the Buddha of Aukana!!
It's 4 in the afternoon and it takes us more than an hour to reach Aukana.
After parking, we see some stairs and the first thing we ask Chami is if you have to climb a lot to get to Buddha of Aukana 😉 He looks at us with a smile on his face and assures us that it won't be like Pidurangala!
And with that security we go up the stairs and the path that take us to a ticket office where we pay the 750 rupees per person that costs the entrance.
Here we go barefoot again and feel again Sri Lanka After the afternoon we have been between police stations and police ...
Just follow the path a few meters, we have in front of us one of the most beautiful Buddhas we have ever seen, the Buddha of Aukana.

Buddha of Aukana

Awesome!!! Buddha of Aukana

Perhaps, only comparable to Buddhas of Polonnaruwa How excited we were this morning.

Details of the Buddha of Aukana

We do not want to move or look the other way, so as not to lose ourselves for a second what we have in front of us.
We sensed that the Buddha of Aukana we would be impressed, but we did not think at any time that he would do so much.

Day we visited the Buddha of Aukana and Polonnaruwa

We are in Aukana almost 45 minutes, which is already a lot telling that in the enclosure "only" is the figure of the Buddha.
But it is difficult for us to leave there. There is a spectacular light and it is getting dark ... and there is no one, only the two of us.
We cannot ask for anything else today, which after all has given us an excellent ending.
We return to the car, where Chami awaits us and we are on our way to our accommodation in Anuradhapura, where we will spend the last two nights of our tour of the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka.
We arrive almost at 9 pm at the Anuradhapura hotel, the Gamodh Citadel Resort, we will not deny that very tired. Today was a "complicated" day for the issue of police stations ... and although all the rest has been spectacular, this incident has marked, even unintentionally this day.
Today we meet in Anuradhapura with Blai the author of the amazing blog A Life in a Thousand Trips and although we had exchanged messages to see each other tonight, it has been impossible for the short time we have had ...
As they once told us, the world is too big to dream and too small to meet again ...
After check-in, settle in our room and order dinner tonight, we go out to the dining room terrace, which is right in front of the door of our room and Chami is waiting for us to tell us that tomorrow is one of the most sacred days in Anuradhapura.
It is a holiday attended by thousands of faithful and the whole city will be full of people, so it is difficult to move in the car for the different visits we have to do.
We ask the prices of a tuk tuk and they tell us that for 2500 rupees we can have one to make all the visits of the day, about 5-6 hours.
After today we do not really want to haggle, so we give you confirmation and we meet tomorrow at 8 in the morning at the Anuradhapura hotel to start getting to know the city in the best way possible ... on a holiday !!
About 10 at night we eat on the terrace of the Gamodh Citadel Resort and go straight to rest.
Today, almost about to end our trip ... we are still dreaming ...