Kataragama-a-rama

So, a dusty, hot, 4-hour ride through the mountains in a tuk-tuk, rumbling in the dark over a half-closed road for the last 30 minutes, sleep deprived and itching from attacks by mosquitos and jungle leaches, and sticky with sweat. One arrives at his refuge, the place where he will lay his head for the night, in the hands of the people who will be in charge of his comfort for the next three days. What does one immediately ask of these people upon arrival? Yes, of course: a simple beer.

However, one might not realize he is staying in a city that exists to serve millions of religious pilgrims who might only be looking for a comfortable, peaceful, affordable place to stay. Needless to say, I ended up with a Sprite to go with my rice and curry (don't worry, more about beer later).

ANYWAY, we stayed in a lovely bungalow (deserving of the name this time), but were a bit creeped out by being the only guests at this hotel, under the watchful eye of the sometimes-too-attentive manager. Nice guy, had a few conversations about him about his family and his career path and his collection of foreign items given to him by other travelers; just wish he had a few more guests to pay attention to.

Gajari the gecko, a much more welcome hotel-room-companion (sorry Sanjit!)

 The first night was recovery: we slept in, messed around on the internet trying to figure out where we had gone wrong with our accommodation choices, and trying to figure out what to do with ourselves in this out of the way place. We took a walk into town through some blistering heat, past a lake that somehow produced gale-force winds (threatening to shove us off of the 2 inch shoulder of the road into oncoming traffic), and dodging the cat-calls of locals who COULD NOT BELIEVE that we were walking in this heat. Tramped around the town looking for a place to get lunch, and found a cafeteria where we got some fried rice. Got some snacks,

Gingelly balls, gingelly balls, gingelly all the way!

got denied at a few ATMs, and got a ride back to the hotel, where we took a heat-stroke nap.

Dagoba (not the Star Wars kind)

Back out in the evening to visit the Kataragama sanctuary, the reason this town exists. This is a collection of really important religious sites for Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims and the goal of a pilgrimage from Sri Lanka's far north to it's far south. We're missing the big event by a couple of weeks, which is a little unfortunate because it's one of those things where pilgrims pierce their flesh with big hooks and walk through coals and other things that would be interesting to see. Even with the tour and a bunch of reading, I still have trouble understanding the story behind it, and how it links all of these religions together. We were there for an ordinary evening puja, witnessing a dizzying conglomeration of Hindu and Buddhist prayers, artifacts, shrines, temples, etc. I don't really know how to describe it, but it ended up with me joining a mad scrum of people through a temple, getting a slash of holy oil on my forehead, and eating "temple food" (some kind of sweet cake with lots of grains and fruits and nuts). Glad I did it, but still a bit confused.

Hmm, what's in here?

Ready for action

Next day is national park day, and we head out at 4:30 to Udawalawe (super fun to say out loud, just try it) national park, where we took a jeep safari and saw elephants, tons of birds, and many other things.











Then back to the hotel for another heat-stroke nap and some lunch, and back out in the afternoon to Yala national park, where we saw fewer elephants, some monkeys, lots of water birds, some crocodiles, and a pretty cool leopard. It was fine, but Africa really ruined me for national parks and wildlife; where are the giraffes and rhinos, Sri Lanka? Come on!

On the way home, I talked with our jeep driver and guide and found out the ONLY place you can get a beer in this town. We stopped at a bar in the back of a hotel just down the street from ours and paid steep rates for a couple of beers, but it was worth it, and all was right with the world.

Next day, and it's off to our next destination, which you'll be hearing about very soon...