I woke up the next day to the sound of someone grating coconut and guessed that the host must be making our breakfast.
For our breakfast, we had rice served with a nice herbal (the host told us it's an "Ayuverdic" recipe) soup made from the various herbs that were picked from around the house as well as spicy coconut gratings.
Then we made an excursion to the granite outcrop that was just behind the house. From the top of the rock, we could see the Yapahuwa Rock Fortress about 1 km away.
The entrance fee to the Yapahuwa Rock Fortress was a "donation" of Rs500 per person. There was not very much left of the fortress except the stairways at the foot of the rock. To get to the top of the rock, we had to trek through forested trails and rocky paths barefooted (we have to take off our shoes as we enter the grounds of the fortress).
At the top, there is the ruins of a stupa, and you get a nice view of the surronding area.
Although nothing really spectacular, the Yapahuwa Rock Fortress was a nice build up to the later later visit to the Sigiriya Rock Fortress. If you had gone to Sigiriya first, you might find Yapahuwa a bit of a disappointment.
For lunch, we had the same rice and soup we had for breakfast again (we told them there is no need to cook more food) and bid farewell to the kind and friendly family. We were offered to stay another night so that we could catch the morning train to Aukana, but we politely declined (as much as it was exciting, it was just too rough for proper rest). For their kindness, we gave the family Rs2000 along with some gifts from our backpacks.
We caught the SLTB bus back to the Maho railway station. Our plan was to catch a train to Aukana to visit the Aukana Buddha. But the trains do not stop at Aukana. Someone at the railway station suggested we take the express train that goes to Kellawewa, which was the next major station closest to Aukana. That sounded like a good suggestion and so we bought the tickets to Kellawewa for Rs150 each. It was third class cabin, but this was the express train, and the cabins where in better conditions compared to the train we took the day before.
The train pulled into the station at 3pm and only left 30mins later. It 4:40pm when we reached Kellawewa. Kellawewa was not a big station. Only a few passengers got off the train and we were soon the only ones in the station. There was only 1 3-wheeler at the station. He quoted us Rs400 to bring us to the Aukana Buddha which was about 3-4km away. It was a reasonable price including 30 min waiting time and bringing us back to Kellawewa.
The entrance fee to the temple was a hefty Rs500 per person. I must admit that I had too much expectations of the Aukana Buddha and was a little disappointed. It was smaller than I thought it would be and was not as finely curved as I imagined it to be.
The Aukana Buddha was an active place of worship. Besides the Buddha statue, there was also a Bodhi tree and a stupa within the compound. Half an hour was adequate time to spend at the temple.
I have a picture here of me standing in front of the Aukana Buddha. I later found out that this is considered very rude and offensive by the Sri Lankans. It is alright to take photographs of Buddha images or statues. But it is considered offensive to pose with your back to the Buddha.
Here, I had my first encounter of begging children in Sri Lanka. I am not talking about beggars by the street (in fact I saw few beggars until I got to Kandy). These were children who came with their family and were well-dressed and looked well-fed. But they was asking money from us out right. The parents did nothing to stop them. I was shocked that they would beggar themselves like that. In days to come, I would encounter more of such cases. This was something that I really do not understand about the Sri Lankans.
The 3-wheeler took us back to Kellawewa where we caught a bus to Kekiwira (Rs15 per person). Kekiwira was along the North-bound road to Anuradhapura and it was easy to catch passing inter-city bus to Anuradhapura. (Rs50 per person from Kekiwira to Anuradhapura, 1.5 hours).
We checked into Lake View Guesthouse in Anuradhapura. According to the guidebook, this guesthouse overlook the lake (yes, a tiny little bit), and you can see Mihintale's Dagoba (yes, a small distant little lit triangle in the night and in the morning before the sun gets too bright, a small little white triangle). For Rs1000, we got a fan room with attached bath and hot shower. But I won't recommend this place simply because the room was so poorly lit that we could not read our guidebooks without using a torch light...
It was about 8pm when we got out to look for dinner. According to the guide books, most guesthouse served meals. However, we found that most guesthouses were not willing to open their kitchen because there had been a dearth of tourists. In the end we ate at the Cottage Take-away nearby. It had decent dhal and curries as well as fried noodles. We would go back for dinner again the next day.
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