Hambantota, Sri Lanka is on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon and before that a Serendeb, is a teardrop-shaped island nation off the southeastern coast of India. The name Sri Lanka is Sinhalese for Pearl of the Ocean. As with a number of the Southeast Asian countries we have visited on this trip, Sri Lanka has little in the way of a middle class. People are either very poor or are rich enough to have a vehicle and a decent place to live. It can be very tough to be riding on a bus through some of these places and realizing that the cost of your ride represents almost a week’s  or a month’s pay for some of these folks – those who have jobs or shops..

The day in Hambantota was an easy one for Bonnie. She decided to make it a “sea day” and stayed aboard the ship to read, nap, and indulge in female sports (read: the on-board beauty salon). I took a ship’s tour to the sacred city of Kataragama (Cat-are-a-GAM-a).

Our first stop was at the Buddhist Kerilahera Temple. That roughly translates as the Milk Temple because it is painted bright white and can be seen for miles in the relatively flat countryside. It was originally built in about the 3^rd Century and has been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times. There are still traces of the original scattered throughout the current structure. We had to remover our shoes and hats to step into the temple grounds. It was almost 100º out and the stone and sand surfaces were very hot. Several people did not heed the warning to wear socks and had to immediately return to the bus. Fortunately, I am pretty good at following directions and wore wool socks, so I could get right up to the temple.

Our welcoming committee was a troop of black-faced Langur monkeys (and an occasional cow). Our guide is a Buddhist and he was very forthcoming about how he worships and how Buddhists are different from the other eastern religions. He believes that, as do most Buddhists, Buddhism is not so much a religion as a way of life.

After our visit to the Milk Temple we made our way to the Kataragama temple complex. What is so unusual about this particular complex is that it celebrates many religions and faiths. There are Buddhist and Hindu temples on the grounds, along with an Islamic mosque and a Catholic church! Kataragama was another site that began about the 2^nd or 3^rd century and was built and re-built and added to by various kings and conquerors over the years. The original temple of Kataragama honored Shanda, the Hindu god of war. With his six faces and 12 arms, he is believed to be a most benevolent god and is consulted at the onset of new ventures by the faithful. This site is particularly important to the Buddhists as well because it contains a tree that has been growing from a sapling from the Bohdi tree under which Buddha gained enlightenment and is believed to have been planted by the Buddha himself during a visit to Sri Lanka.

The Hindu temple at the Sacred City

The faithful taking a ritual bath in the river prior to entering the temple grounds. Believe it or not, there are crocs in these waters...

The Buddhist temple. Note the "Electric Buddha". We have seen these embellishments on many of the Buddhist temples that we have visited.

The sacred tree.

 All of this visiting took place in broiling sun with no shoes and no hats – but we were permitted to take pictures, flash and all… We then retired to the nearby Mandara Rosen Hotel for a delicious Indian buffet lunch. The buffet contained several of the usual rice and vegetable dishes one might expect from Indian cuisine, but we were also treated to several that were entirely new to me. For instance there was a shredded cabbage and pine nut concoction flavored with cardamom and saffron that had me going for seconds. There was a riata and a potato dish that were prepared slightly differently than I am used to and were simply wonderful. I had an opportunity to taste coconut sambal. If you know sambal, you know it is very spicy (Hot, Hot, hot!). However, combined with the coconut as a condiment, it lent a rather piquant flavor to all of the rice dishes. The coconut really tamed it without dumbing it down.

After lunch and a short nap in the lobby, we rolled into the bus and back to the ship. Tomorrow we are in Colombo and have a full day planned with a train ride to an elephant sanctuary. That should be very interesting.

 

Can you figure out which is the Men's Room and which is the Ladies' Room????

By now you know that I have been captivated by the children in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka is no exception. This little girl came running out to wave and say hello. She didn't understand English, but she did understand "camera."

Stay tuned…