Sri Lanka - Day 3 Mihintale Mountain

Sri Lanka, Monday 11 December – Day 3

Early morning climb on Mihintale Mountain

We left our hotel at 6 am this morning for the short drive to Mihintale, 12 km east of Anuradhapura.   Mihintale, revered as the birthplace of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, is a temple complex and pilgrimage site set on a 300m high rock.  There are over 1800 steps carved out of the granite rock to walk up to reach the top, hence our early start while it was cool.

Wide stairway at Mihintale Mountain

We were alone as we started up the wide stairway and even though we walked slowly, and the sun wasn’t shining, we soon felt hot.  It’s a pretty walk with trees and shrubs lining the wide staircase and at various levels along the way monastery ruins and monuments are dotted about.  We didn’t linger to inspect these but kept going, stopping frequently, and reached the plateau at the top after about half an hour.  Although we were the only visitors up there that early the plateau was buzzing with young monks in bright orange robes sweeping the sand around Ambasthala Dagoba, a small stupa dating from 165-193 A.D. 

Ambasthala Dagoba at the top of Mihintale

Right on the summit of the hill, reached by more steps, is the white painted Mahasaya Stupa 67-79 A.D.  From here fabulous views of the surrounding landscape, although it was a bit hazy.  Back down to the plateau, there was just one more ascent to be done, a rock called Aradhana Gala.  By hauling ourselves up the rock using the iron railings we were quickly at the top admiring the 360 degree view.  Well worth the climb.  Once again we marvelled at the human effort and religious devotion that was the focus of this ancient complex.

View of Mahasaya Stupa (top left) from the rock summit at Mihintale

The rock summit at Mihintale 

Climbing up the rock at the top of Mihintale

By mid morning Rohan was driving us south to our next stop in the cultural triangle, Polonnaruwa.   He recommended a place for lunch so we turned off the main road and the car bumped along a very narrow track between rice fields, arriving minutes later at a house beside a small river.  We’d arrived at Jaga Restaurant and Jaga beamed at us as we strolled into the open air eating area.  We were the only people there.  As we admired the river setting Jaga drew our attention to the wildlife....some very vicious looking monitors.  We’d never seen monitors before, and as they crawled lethargically along the river bank, just metres from where we were standing, they looked just like  crocodiles.  Jaga feeds them, which explains their close presence.  We chose a table set back a little way from the water, in spite of the wooden batons  placed along the river bank to prevent the ugly creatures dragging themselves towards us! Lunch was the usual Sri Lankan rice and curry buffet, and we helped ourselves from the vast selection of curries made by Jaga’s wife.  This curry buffet was the nicest we had during our week in the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka, as the curries were hot and tasted fresh, as well as being in a pleasant setting.  Jaga is proud to be ranked the number 1 restaurant of Polonnaruwa on Trip Advisor, so worthy of the detour off the main road.

A scary looking monitor on the rive bank beside Jaga Restaurant

Rice and curry buffet at Jaga Restaurant

A few kilometres on from Jaga Restaurant we reached Thidas Arana Lake, a small hotel overlooking Lake Parakrama, about 1 km off the main road into Polonnaruwa, our hotel for 2 nights.   Our basic lake view room was spotlessly clean with a modern bathroom, and from the large window there’s a lovely view of the pool and lake beyond.  We decided to do the sights of Polonnaruwa the following day, so the remainder of today was devoted to chilling out at the hotel.  Sitting in the gardens we were excited to see elephants on the shore of the lake some distance way and the hotel staff reported that elephants are a common sight near the hotel.  Happily there’s a good fence around the hotel so no danger of them wandering into the grounds. 

Sunset over the lake at Thidas Arana Lake Hotel, Polonnaruwa

Late afternoon we enjoyed excellent gin and tonics and hot roasted cashew nuts in the garden, and watched the sun go down while playing rummy, feeling very happy and content to be in such a beautiful tranquil place. The lake setting reminded us a lot of Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe.  Later, when it was dark, as we had a solitary dinner in the dimly lit open air dining area, we could hear elephants thrashing about in the bush just outside the hotel fence and local fisherman shouting and waving torchlights at them, presumably to ward them away from their boats.  We wondered if the elephants would be back later, but we'd never have heard them over the roar of our air conditioner!