Cycling around the Ancient City of Anuradhapura
Caught the 6am train to Anuradhapura from Colombo Fort train station. It was a long and boring train ride that lasted 5 hours! I actually brought my laptop with me because I just couldn't imagine spending 5 hours doing nothing. However, because of the heat from the sun, my laptop got super heated up. I decided to stop using it because I was afraid it would spoil from the insane heat. Managed to nap a little, but I kept waking up whenever someone walks past, trying to sell food and snacks.
Anuradhapura Railway Station
When we got to Anuradhapura, we decided to tuktuk directly to our hostel, Levi's Tourist. Rented bicycles from our hostel and we cycled to Seedevi Family Restaurant for lunch! It's ranked pretty high on tripadvisor so we decided to check it out. Initially, I didn't really want to go there because from the reviews, it seems like it's a buffet lunch and I don't like eating buffets because I tend to stuff myself with too much food. When we got there, it turned out to be buffet lunch indeed. They had a ala carte menu as well, but it's totally not worth it. Since we went all the way there, we decided to just have the buffet lunch. I'm glad we made that choice! It was one of the nicest place with traditional Sri Lankan cuisine! :)
Levi's Tourist Hostel
Lunch feast
With my bicycle outside Seedevi Family Restaurant
After lunch, we headed directly into the Ancient City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with lots of historical monuments and ruins. I really enjoyed cycling around this place, as we were able to just move around freely, away from tuktuk drivers and all. It's nice being in a place where you don't get constantly harrassed by tuktuk drivers! Also, whenever there's someone like following us or just being damn annoying, we could just cycle away from them as well. (We usually experience having random people stalking us and it can be quite freaky and annoying.)
Sri Sarananda Maha Pirivena
Initially, we thought this was the Sri Mahabodhi Tree, which is the oldest historically authenticated tree in the world (2200 years). However, we later realised it's not! This tree looks much prettier asthetically as compared to the real Sri Mahabodhi Tree though.
Isurumuniya Vihara
Thissa Wewa - this lake was huge and beautiful!
Loha Prasada - Palace
The Bodhi Tree - oldest in the world
Look what we saw while cycling!
At night, we also visited the night market near the Anuradhapura Train Station. It was nice to just soak in the atmosphere. Also, as it was really crowded, we didn't experience being surrounded by stall owners (which usually happens in other markets when we are in the only tourists/customers inside).
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