This leg was by far the hardest so far, that’s why it’s a “6”. By the number “6”, each leg is ranked on difficulty and 6 is the highest. The two words I would describe Sri Lanka are “beautiful” and “steps”.
Even though it was hard, we had a lot of fun and I did some things that I never thought I would ever be able to accomplish.
Our strategy for this leg was to hit all the bonuses because they are worth A LOT of points and also the bonus seemed like a lot of fun and they were.
So the first day we head off on a 4 hour train to Anuradhapura ,since we didn’t start scavenging that day until the evening, we got into the town at 9. So we just went to a hotel and went to bed. But the train was the most interesting train I have ever been on, it was this old train with no air conditioning ( just to let you know it was like 100 degrees outside) and it really made me think about how great my life is at home; because I have house, and its not made out of mud and sticks and I have electricity and showers…and I have food. Also the train station didn’t even have a proper bathroom just a hole in the ground which had rats playing in the hole. That freaked auntie Zoe out…so she would just giggle randomly when she thought of it.
So in Anuradhapura we went to see this is a really old tree, over 23 centuries to be exact. This is supposedly a sapling of the tree where Buddha got enlightened under. It is being held up by big pieces of iron. To get to this tree took a lot of effort because to get to the tree you have to pass through a temple and even though I was wearing pants to just above my knee and a sleeved shirt, I was inappropriately dressed and so was Auntie Zoe and Uncle Rainey so we had to go and buy pieces of cloth to cover and this is how we ended up looking.
After the tree, we had to go to 3 different types of temples. One was the third tallest structure in the world. It was this huge “Stupa” in the middle of nowhere, but it was beautiful and it was completely monkey covered. There were monkeys everywhere. Another we had to visit was the “Ruwanwelisaya” which looked like a white bubble coming out of the ground and there is 100 elephant statues, surrounding the bottom of it. Then the last one we had to do was climb up this mountain to get to the Mihinitale, which is another bubble shape temple and you can see most of Sri Lanka from up there. It was beautiful. This was the start of the million steps we did in Sri Lanka.
After we left, Anuradhapura to go to our next town, (sorry but i dont know how to spell the name of it). Guess what happens…our car breaks down. So we have to hitch hike in the back of a truck. Just to let you know…this is 2nd time on the trip we had to hitch hike. Uncle Bill’s motto is “Trusting Strangers, in Strange Lands” and we have done that.... a lot.
In the town, we had to look at all these old sculptures made years and years ago. And they are all in like perfect condition. This is the place where supposedly Buddha’s tooth was held for many years.
Then we were off to Sigiriya, where we climbed the 2nd set of steps for the day. The climb was up this huge rock, where the King decided he wanted to build his house years ago. He built his house up on the rock so he could get rid of his fear of heights and he built it in a shape of a lion. There is nothing left of the house and the only part of lion left it the paws.
Afterwards, we had to go to this hotel, He knew we would need it after the hike. And while we were there, there was this old couple by the pool and she had red hair and this little leopard print swimsuit and he had his little African print spedo on. Sorry, that was just hilarious so I had to blog about it.
Im just going to skip some of the other scavenges, because im on a train right now in Europe ( that’s how far behind on blogging I am) and we are about to get off in 20 minutes.
The last thing Im going to write about is that fact, that now I CAN DO ANYTHING IN LIFE NOW!! Because I have climbed Adam’s peak which may I say is 4870 steps to the top….and 4870 steps back down in took us 5 hours to go up and down. And yes I felt like I was going to die half way up but Auntie Zoe had magic beans which are like jelly beans with vitamins which give you energy. I wont lie, it was one of the hardest things I have ever done or will ever do. I knew I was going to make it to the top because there were old ladies running up the hill and one woman was going up on all fours, so I thought if she could do it, I knew I could do it.
Im sorry there are no pictures in this blog....but it takes extremely long and right now i dont have the time to put them up.
