Down the Market

Markets are still the most popular way to buy all your food (except bread) in Sri Lanka. So Sundays are a beehive of activity, seemingly the most busy day of the week as housewives and husbands head out to do their weekly shopping. So I went along too and received many a strange look, as well as lots of smiles and "hello! how are you?!" - the marketplace is very loud and quite a squeeze, not much fun on a hot day!

On the way to the market I visited the Sri Lanka version of B&Q

Which sells a healthy supply of Asbestos!!

Dried fish

Pradeep and his pal

Market scene

Weighing potatoes

Nice sarong

Nice vest

Banana leaves

An exchange

Pumpkins

More pumpkins

Spices

Young salesmen

Packaged spices

Leeks

She wanted a photo, I gave her a photo!

Friendly ladies

Counting his earnings

Green chillies!

Beans, limes, lady-fingers and chillies

Lots of ladies were sitting on knives which they then used to effortlessly chop all sorts of things

All sorts of grains

Red chillies

Market scene

Does this need a caption? Standard Sri Lanka hygiene.

Nice use of old tea boxes - pull toys that click!

Walan cooking pots.

A Trip to Anuradhapura

Last Saturday I went for a chinese at a not-so-chinese restaurant with my friend Pradeep, his family, and his friend Roshan and his family. While politely eating some crackly prawns (I had asked for prawn crackers!) they informed me of their planned outing to the Sacred City of Anuradhapura the following day, and invited me along for the ride. After deliberating whether I wanted to wake up at 5:45am on my only day off, I decided it would be silly to miss out on such an experience and happily accepted the invitation.

And so the next morning 14 of us set off in a van for the 3 hour journey north along a mix of roads - wide and narrow, smooth and bumpy, tarmack and no tarmack. We eventually arrived at midday, somehow the journey taking a lot longer than it should have done.The Temples were lovely and it was exciting to see a lot of monkeys. But my favourite part of the day was probably the actual journey there and back, looking out the window and taking in the foreign tropical scenery. The rest is in pictures.....

(click on an image to enlarge it)

A farmer and daughter on a trailer.

An old hut made from mud bricks and palm leaf roof.

Rice being cooked to separate the white rice inside from the shell.

Close-up of rice being cooked. After cooking it is dried in the sun before it can be separated.

A cow in the morning heat.

What's with the long face?

I can think of better ways to sleep.

An old tree by the temple.

Carved stone in the temple.

A cheeky monkey sitting on a post.

Colourful flags and women wearing white.

Happy elephant gate.

Flags in the temple.

Man and girl in the temple.

Buddha temple scene.

Coconut oil candles.

Coconut oil candles.

Incense sticks.

Close-up of incense sticks.

The pillars used to support a large house where the King of Sri Lanka use to live.

Runawali Temple.

Pradeep and his son Chathum infront of the Temple.

Elephant wall. Very strong.

Pradeep and Chathum.

A 'bathing tank' - man-made lake for swimming in. This one is called Kala Oya.

A lonely bike by the lake.

An interesting looking bug that I found upon my return home that night. I think it was drunk.