Travels with Kathryn

Today is the 30th December, and I awoke very rested after our busy day yesterday. Reflecting on the sites of Anuradhapura and comparing to my recent trip to China, although there have been some restorations of the various sites, there are no wholescale rebuilding and certainly no theme park experiences which was rather nice. These were genuinely places of pilgrimage, and you could see people were deeply devoted to their faith. As much as I can see the appeal of Buddhism and agree there is a lot to be said for the idea of doing no harm, acting with kindness to others, I would fall down trying to attempt regular meditation and I do need to be alowed to hate the odd person.

Also, hoppers! For the unitiated, these are an incredibly popular street food in Sri Lanka and consist of a rice flour bowl shapped (made in a special pan), often with an egg and dipped in chilli oil. Simple and delicious. I have had them before in Hoppers in London (there is a clue in the name) and have even brought a recipe book to try and recreate them at home. Just need the special pan…

It seemed rather a shame to leave our very nice hotel:

But we had a final pilgrimmage site to visit, so off we went to the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi. This is a sacred bodhi tree as it is believed to have been from a sapling taken from the original Sri Maha Bodhi in India under which Buddha found enlightenment. It is recorded in the written history of Sri Lanka that in 236BC Emperor Ashoka sent his daughter (who just happened to be a Buddhist nun) Sangimitta Maha Teri to take the sample of the original tree so this tree could be grown in his capital. At more than 2,300 years old, it is the oldest living human-planted tree in the world.

As with our final stop yesterday, there were loads of pilgrims here as it is traditional to visit and pray at this sacred site, particularly now to bring good luck for the new year. Whilst you are not allowed to touch the tree (for obvious reasons) as it is held up by gold supports, you can touch these and “make a wish” which obviously I did.

We are now on the bus heading north to Jaffna (although a stop at a supermarket has been promised for half-way which will be most exciting!). Incidentally, this should have been a train ride however the trains are still not running completely after the cyclone which means I am currently on a no-train holiday which makes me rather sad. I shall have to come back.

I have been using the bus for blogging time (I am so committed) and as I am am now up to date I shall go off at a tangent and write about social services and taxation (just to warn you if you want to skip over this paragraph). Sri Lanka has a 95% literacy rate (which is the second highest in Asia after Japan) which is perhaps something to do with the fact that education, all textbooks, and the fabric for uniforms is free from reception until completion of first degree i.e. from age 4 to 21. Sounds rather appealing? You may then think that tax is high? No. Income is taxed at between 0 and 7.5% depending on income. Sales tax is a little high at 18%, but considering its free healthcare and free education none of the taxes seem high.

Also I thought you might appreciate a photo of our bus (below) on the right we have our driver who we found out today has 32 years of experience driving tourists around – demonstrated by some excellent reversing skills this evening, on the left his assistant Roy (you always get a driver and an assistant in Sri Lanka) who hosts, passes biscuits, spots us when we wander off i.e. essential, and in the middle our guide Janith.

Anyway, halfway we stopped at Killnochi (which was the capital during the civil war) for lunch. This was a female run business with local ladies running their own hatch each serving a single item. It was incredibly busy with locals who were eating and running. Perhaps they were doing something horrid like working today?

We continued heading north from here the landscape has changed, and you really get the sense that this is a landscape ruined by war. Its very flat and there is little in the way of trees or buildings. As I mentioned in a previous post, this area has only recently become accessible for tourists as was the frontier during the civil war. There are various perspectives as to what caused the civil war, but a few places have pointed to what happened when Ceylon (as was) got its independence from Britain. In 1949 although the Singhalese were the majority, the variuos ethnic minorities co-exsisted and in the 1950s Sri Lanka was the second largest economy in Asia. However, in the late 1950s the Singhalese majority party changed the official language from English to Singhala which only Singhalese could speak. This is consided the spark (today Tamil is a co-official language). In 1978 a group of young Tamils (trained in India) killed the mayor of Jaffna, the Singhalese Sri Lankan government sent in the army and it escalaed from there. During the 1980s the various Tamil groups came together under the Liberation Tigers of Tamil (or Tamil Tigers as we would know them) who were fighting for an independent Tamil county. It was not until 2009 that the war ended with the killing of the Tamil leader. Today the Tamil dispora all over the world have been heavily investing in this region and it will be interesting to see what has happened in 16 years.

We have just crossed over the Jaffna causeway separating the Indian Ocean (India is a mere 48km away) from the lagoon. Unfortunately, today is not the greatest day from a photo taking perspective:

Tomorrow, we are doing a whole day in and around Jaffna so that will be the subject of my next post (and final post of the year!). However, after checking into our hotel we were back on the bus and heading to the Nallur Kandaswamy Temple. This was our first hindu temple of the trip and something of an assult on the senses after the tranqulity of Buddhism. This is dedicated to the war like God Skanda and is one of the countries most worshipped temples. No photos are allowed, I assume as men were required to be topless so perhaps this was to protect their delicate sensitivities? We attended the Puja which was loud, colourful, and involved much rushing about and insence burning. I can’t quite see myself becoming Hindu anytime soon either!

We then headed to the Dutch Fort to watch the sunset. Now you will note from the above that there was a distinct lack of sun so this was the best I could do:

Some of the group decided to visit the fort, I elected not to and rather just enjoyed it from the outside. The Portuguese built the first four-sided fort on this site in the early 17th, but it is known as the Dutch Fort as (unsurprisingly) it was the Dutch that built added the moat and exanded the overall structure. During the civil war it was under the control of the Tamil Tigers from 1985 to 1995 and was finally recaptured by the Sri Lankan army after a 50 day siege.

Our final stop of the day was a cooking lesson to learn how to make chilli crab curry. I got stuck in with chopping and then obviously proved myself worthy of stirring. If you would like to recreate it here goes:

• Start by pounding together a thumb sized piece of ginger and 4 cloves of garlic to make a paste.
• Chop 3 green chillis (including seeds), 2 small red onions and 1 tomato. 
• In a large claypot (because who doesn’t have one?) fry 2tbsp coconut oil and tip in 1.5tsp of cumin seeds and 1.5tsp fenugreek. Then add the chilli, onion and tomato and cook for a bit stirring constantly.
• Add in around 6 blue crabs (no idea where I am going to get these in London) cut in half, with 1 tsp tumeric, chilli powder (to taste), 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp tamarind, a few curry leaves and pandam leaf. Cook.
• Add the coconut cream. Cook.
• Add the coconut milk and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Finally add the garlic and ginger paste and then cook (I am not sure for how long as at this point they took the pot into the kitchen).

We also made a sambol which was fresh grated coconut, lime juice, a chopped red onion, salt and chilli flakes.

Somehow, magically, the one pot of curry became three pots of curry and lots of other food, and unfortunately, I did not get the recipe for how to do that which was disappointing. It was all delicious though.

It is now 10.47pm (very late) and tomorrow is the last day of the year and I shall be spending it on a whistle stop tour of Jaffna and the surrounding area. Possibly culminating in a beverage to bring in the new year and my birthday when I shall be the answer to life, the universe and everything.