Sri Lanka It's Happening

May 31, 2006

It's now two months since my trip to Thailand and I haven't quite finished writing about it. From the Bang pa in summer palace we headed off to Autthaya.

Before starting off we stopped at a shop close to the palace to buy hats. The sun is simply too bright to cope with. We also drank chilled coconut water. Coconut water is something we drink often in Sri Lanka. We drink King Coconut water more often. Sometime we keep the King Coconut in a puddle of water or in a bucket to cool off, but keeping skinned coconuts in the fridge is something that I have never before seen.

Before we arrived at Autthaya we had yet another stop, at yet another temple. I cannot remember the temple's name, but I do remember the Mango that I tucked into while walking around.

With all the delays by the time we arrived at Autthaya it was way to hot for sight seeing and the sun was way too high and bright for photography. This is not fun. In Sri Lanka we do some terrible things to our world heritages sites, but for he life of me I cannot understand why the thais have built a modern temple right in the midst of the ancient palaces and temples.

The walk through Autthaya reminds one of Pollonnaruwa, but Pollonnaruwa is older and cooler. Autthaya is in ruins because it was sacked by the burmese, Pollonnaruwa is in ruins because it was sacked by South Indian armies. Some say the Protugues finished off what was left. But the stone pillars of Pollonnaruwa still stand a thousand years later and they are in much better shape than their younger counter parts at Ayutthaya.

Posted by raditha at May 31, 2006 9:33 AM