vaga #5/5 Sri Lanka scraps
PART V
As I did it with Myanmar, "Vaga #3", Vietnam, "Vaga #4" and now with "Vaga #5", Sri Lanka I summarise the place at the end of the country in the last chapter.
I appreciated the many temples, nothing to do with those of Myanmar, there the architectures of the temples and Bagan with its thousands of temples were impotent, instead, here there are many temples, however, not of great architecture, the icons, they are of very particular, unique, beautiful, rare and even funny curiosities. I was impressed by the religious effervescence on a daily basis. Its beautiful landscapes, being the fish and birds the ones that take the prize along with the elephants. The photos that accompany us are varied of the country and of contrasts.
The royal palace Polonnaruwa, "World Heritage Site" from the 10th century. Beautiful, in a huge expanse of land, where there is more than one palace, each king of that time built a new one with some distance between them, one travels by tuk tuk, and it takes all day The architecture is simple and very deteriorated. I was struck by the conics of this place that are rarely seen. This huge area is about 5 x 3 kilometres and is surrounded by a water channel.
Sri Lanka, in my memory was negative, thoughts of never going back even if they gave me a ticket and a free stay. I live the countries and do not visit them, and that's where my appreciation come from. I loathed it, it did not disappoint me, because I did not expect anything, I never have expectations of anything, it’s a blank page. The people and my experience with them, bad. I start with the treatment of tourists, I summarise it as piranhas, liars, thieves, con men, unscrupulous. The island has been open to tourism for 2 decades before that it was under a dictatorship where many people disappeared, were tortured, there were years of extreme violence and to this day it is about doing justice and restoring credibility, which has not been possible, they are still mired in corruption and conflicted political life. The arrival of mass tourism once the dictatorship ended and without a tradition of receiving foreigners, they were over-excited, and they suck everything , "the goose that lays the golden eggs." I was left with pure experiences without taste, pretty much close to sour, I only exclude Kumudu and a decent boy took me home me on a motorcycle from a temple, and that’s it, it was 6 weeks, it is not minor. I would have left the island in the third week, but I did not want to, due to doing a visa in Nepal since I returned in December to meet Peter at Christmas and in Nepal I only had a visa for the rest of the year for 15 days. I had to make time in another country, it would have been India, but it was not the time, three weeks were not worth it.
The photos are always taken in the same place, its gardens are wonderful, very green, well cared for with several water fountains and with an astonishing refinement, extended to appreciating the sophisticated design is perceived to the delight of this.
Everything is covered with moss, one very bright, light green, like a carpet on the floor, steps, corridors, in minor temples, it is a pleasure to the eye to see that luminous mantle that covers everything. As always, not free of anecdotes, here I had a “fucking scare” not like the one in the previous chapter that lasted for days, here it was only a specific event, but the curious thing that I told myself this in retrospect, on the night that kept me awake for a good while, and out of all danger, because there I came to realise that my little angel saved me "again”. By noon, it had rained and the walking tracks on the bricks were extremely slippery, so I walked up the side on the grass and avoided a slip, (I had already had a few). I took the photo below !!! ME !! ,zero zoom, I was only in photo mode, I was walking back to the tuk tuk with my cell phone in hand. Something moved on the ground near my feet. I clicked without hitting anything, just click, a snake, less than a metre away, I was paralysed. I don't know who was more scared, it or me. My great luck was that it was more or less scared and did not attack me and slithered away at full speed. My heart rate increased thousandfold in a second since I hate snakes and PUFF what a scare !!!. When I got to the tuk tuk I told the driver that a snake had crossed in front of me, he excitedly jumped out of the tuk tuk and made me show him where I had seen it, I did it because his exaltation was such, but I stayed on the track. He saw it and gave a tremendous shout "It’s a cobra ” A cobra, one metre from me, !!!! …. What…… !!! the man couldn't believe it, he told me over and over again "you are so lucky, it didn't bite you" I said,… . OK… . and silence, because I was speechless, he went crazy looking for the guards, about five arrived whispering among themselves and looking at me. They went on a campaign to find it and I imagined getting the snake out of the park. We made 3 more stops that day and the man told everyone what had happened to me, and they all told me “ lucky you”. Only that night did I fully realise what I was saved from, if there is no nearby antidote, something that was the case, it is death. A sleepless night due to retroactive scare .
From the time I arrived at the airport and took a taxi to my guest house I ended up with threats to call the police because of the miserable taxi driver. He had me between 1 am and 3 am wandering around a central neighbourhood in Colombo for not knowing where my hotel was, he had no internet, it was inexplicable if he worked for the airport, I had arrived at that time in the morning, the flights are a lot cheaper at that time and I had no possibility of buying a SIM card. He did not find my place and I ended up in a disgusting thing to put the chair against the door to lock it, I lost my reservation in the other and the asshole wanted to charge me for 3 hours of taxiing, when he did not know the address, and was without a phone, I had the number and address of the hotel, he couldn't manage anything ... Threats there and here, insults, terrifying raised voices, he even made me talk to his boss, fucking at each other …… and I didn't pay an extra rupee. That was my welcome, the same thing happened and as that time in Hanoi, Vietnam, the taxi driver on the contrary, did everything to solve and feel responsible for finding my place and even more than that he was helpful and kind beyond what was expected, even with large Farewells, He even addressed me as "mom" and hoped me that I enjoyed Vietnam, kindness. People and people, countries and countries. I had told myself it would be a bad episode and I had landed with the wrong person. Little by little, the days went by, and you could see how the tourists are cheated, I understood, and it was common in many places that haggling is normal, for 20, 10, 5 percent of the trip, while here they raised it by 300% if you haggle you could get to 200%. An example, From the hotel to the train station 80 rupees in a tuk tuk called by the hotel and a fixed rate and the return without a hotel that controlled the same route they charge you 300 rupees. This is daily, in everything, if you get a tuk tuk with a kilometre count, forget it if you do not pay the exact amount, they don't give you change. I have already related the trains, buses, exhausting and the 10 things you do a day are the same.
In Ela, in a decent hotel, I should have had to pay 120 rupees, I asked for the bill they charged me 200, but why? “Let me check”, he returned and said taxes were added ... .yaaaa //? then I want the account, … . the printer is broken…… it is frustrating because they charge you, and you know that they do not go to taxes. I had a blouse fixed, in a passage full of sewing shops, it cost me 100 Rupees, by the end I asked for a quick darning of my backpack, I calculated the blouse that took 100 Rupees for 15 minutes of work, the backpack took 5 minutes, when it came to paying they charged me 500. Anger and rage a thousand over, allegations and allegations, they did not flinch… ..it was my fault I did not ask the price before fixing the backpack, what do you do? lose your things? do you call the police? You have nothing to do except to accept the scam and watch how they laugh in your face how they have screwed you up. I had to fix the computer screen, they kept me on a hook for a week, lies after lies, they didn't fix it and I had to pay to get it back and wait the week out without fixing it. I understand in all parts of the world there are these practices and the wretched who apply them. But here it goes from train tickets, hotels, tuk tuks, cigarettes, beers they all con you with the prices.
Always in the same place columns and columns are what remain standing, I like their repetitions, patterns, symmetric, varieties and even more lopsided, or with carvings of leaves that makes them look a little rigid as a counterpart.
The number of statues is important, there would be about 50 distributed around, many on altars, all were deteriorated, while still being beautiful. They are made of marble, they are the ones that have prevailed over time in good condition, but the common ones are made of limestone, or another soft stone that deteriorates sooner, we are talking here about the 10th century. I am very attracted to these, because it talks about time, of history, of a powerful past, effervescent and now in ruins. An enigma that intrigues me, what could have been, what cannot be seen, just imagine the shape and beauty at the time.
Another issue of the country that is quite miserable, sexual harassment, atrocious, having men who follow you, who make insinuations, as once when entering the hotel one managed to put his foot in the door, another time looking at me from the window, an older driver of a tuk tuk when he left me at the house and said casually - I come tonight? at least ask, others offered free tuk tuk rides in exchange for sex, or else they hit you with a triple fare. Or what happened to me in Kandi, walking in a tourist place, a 30-year-old guy starts walking next to me, he said - I like you -, I answered so what !! …. - Come to my room …… I answered ' get lost…… "I was dressed correctly, in public places and please, I am 60 years old, so walking, lodging, moving everywhere there is sexual harassment, A French woman that I met in Laos who was a little younger than me, asked me about Sri Lanka, She was thinking of going alone in the future, I told her - prepare for them to assault you and sexually harass you…. She told me that it is a well-known Muslim country famous for harassment in Muslim countries, Nope it’s Buddhist.
At the end of the esplanade of the royal temple there is a marble quarry with many sculptures carved into the quarry itself, with the veins, grey, bluish, ochre, as is known it is difficult to find a quarry with pure marble, that whitish, bone coloured marble and without veins, it is very rare in the world, that is why the one from Carrara in Italy, is famous for its white, its whitish colour and without veins, Michelangelo, made his famous sculptures from that quarry.
I finish with this temple with the photos below, two female images with spectacular bearing that are sculpted on the wall, I love the tones, the passing of time, their simplicity and complexity at the same time.
I wonder which goddess rested on those feet or what face the other would have had. We will all possibly imagine something different, it is a riddle, an enigma, it is intriguing, magical, entertaining to play with the imagination, a gift to fantasy
I leave the photos of temples, and I am going to report on the houses that I saw and one I slept in, when there was no other option, I was in the middle of nowhere itself, it was where I had jumped off the train, there were only a couple of houses scattered around, it was what I found and happy to lay my bones. They were very precarious, all with wood stoves , but not like the ones in Chiloé, the South of Chile, which are beautiful kitchens, here there is a fire on the floor or on an adobe counter, without running water, they are always dark. No internet signal, only satellites, and they use it the least because of the cost. I put the hanging cloth because I love those batiks, here they are used daily and seeing it stretched out when passing by bus makes me smile.
I show the Buddhist temple in Dambulla "The Sacred Rock" in the centre of the island, it is absolutely unique it is inside a huge cave, there are several small temples inside as well. Photo of the entrance and inside the rock is the temple. Something funny happened to me, they only open a temple for a few minutes each, tourists pass by and close it to open the next one, and they turn off the light to protect the murals from light, and I was spaced out as always and the guard was too, they closed , they turned off the light, and I was locked up for their time hahaha , black of the black. The exterior architecture is quite modern, simple, minimalist, it is ordinary, they are generally loaded with decoration, colours and symbols.
More than 100 meters of cave, extraordinary, some fifty icons, sophisticated, mysterious, full of legends and symbols. Many of the sculptures were sculpted into the rock, so the cave was deepened and images sprouted out.
The other remarkable things are the murals, there is not a centimetre in the ceiling and walls without a mural, there are books of photos with careful studies and of international fame. This is a rarity, the photos are all taken without a flash, it is not allowed and I got very little, in hundreds of metres of mural.
on another occasion I went to the east coast, to the town of Batticaloa, for its more secluded and dreamy beaches, several hotels offer you views of the sea or the beach itself, I did not make a booking, but I took note of which ones they were, I started off on foot to see them, of the 4 none had a view, or those on the beach a wall in between. Walking and looking for a hotel on the beach, I found what I was looking for, I approached, and I was told that they are under repair, and if I wanted to stay it would be noisy, I took the top floor with a view of the Gulf of Bengal, with the sea right there, with smell of the sea and waves that almost did not let you sleep because of the sound, !!! perfect !!!. The next day the power was cut off, they told me it was the whole neighbourhood. In the afternoon it would return, at 7 pm, I saw everyone around with power, they lied, Only we had no electricity I had to run away, at that time and raining hard to find a new place to stay, thank goodness I had not paid for that night because they would not have returned my money. And the only thing I could find in those night and rainy conditions was a disgusting one looking at a car park. In the end I changed to a 4-star one with a view of the sea between buildings of no more than one metre opening. I stayed there to know that they were correct and to pay for it, for the 4 stars and not with the pleasure of paying that, I had no other choice. The beaches were a dream 10 years ago, now they are a rubbish dump.
Other subjects to photograph, because I have temples by the kilos, and it is exhausting even for me to see so many. These photos caught my attention being in Galle, a coastal city, historical and very beautiful, it was in an area of lawyers' offices, it was a block, and they were all like this and looking inside it was like an image from the 60s, I mean 60 years behind, that typewriter an antique, zero computers.
Cigarettes are almost banned by the government and if found are punished with very high taxation, so they are sold on the black market at a high price to tourists and the beers are only sold in places designated by the government and there cannot be sold in a store unless there are 20 km. between each one, !! awful !!! You have to take a tuk tuk, fight over the price and hoping they don’t make inappropriate proposals, and then you pay more for beer and take the tuk tuk back with the same luck. Practically no restaurants, nor good ones that sell alcohol, if they do, you pay 4 times the price. The cigarettes, once I took one out of my pack, they surrounded me like flies to ask me for one, not once, always, at the end I would say is the last one I have left, or I would sneak them out, begging in a shameless and obnoxious way. I comment on this because it was my daily life, I am a cigarette and beer person. So I lived daily with this issue. Let's compare this to Vietnam. Beers are sold every 2 metres on the street, for 25c to the dollar,and the cigarettes, I can say that a nice lighter cost more than a pack, those things make my day more pleasant. At least for me.
one of the rarities of his art, sculpture of Buddha in his fasting period
In the same temple area in Dambulla, there is the “Golden Buddha”. I have already shown some photos of this image of Buddha before, but they go in this chapter of Sri Lanka, I was amazed taking a photo of that tremendous Buddha, the largest I have seen, It does not have many years of construction and those images of monks on pilgrimage are unique, never before seen and less in that amount there were a hundred images of monks, in a pilgrimage attitude on the way to the Golden Buddha (it is painted in gold), and impressive.
Now I will make a point that I have had in the pipeline for a while and I won’t miss the opportunity to comment on it with images. Reading a fantastic book about the history of Silk Road that is called the "Silk Road", published recently in English and how the Middle East was the birth of mankind, Mesopotamia, developing multiple cultures, religions, (Muslim, Christian, Hebrew, Hindu, Buddhist, (almost all religions) mathematics, art, and it was this unique route of contact between East and West for centuries before commercial navigation and how this history was established as the axis of humanity and not how we have learned it in Europe as the centre of art and culture. Europe, was born after the Black Death, at the end of feudalism, we are talking at the end of the 12th century and is still in a precarious way, while the Middle East and East had already 18 centuries of culture, literature, architecture, religion, and much more. That said, I found an explanation for the 100s of Buddha images. Buddhism is based on personal growth and not on deity, therefore there are no idols. In so many wars and almost all because of religion, there came a time when it was necessary to demarcate which religion the region belonged to, and from there the image of Buddha was born, as a symbol of the religion of the area to define its territory among other religions.
The classic pagodas, always white or painted with an imitation of the colour gold, the last photo of its crooked plume, its inclination is not seen from any other point of view, curious, only on one side is it appreciated.
The safari in Yala National Park, near the south coast that they sell you as extraordinary, is a scam, you see 2 elephants after 4 hours and a supposed tiger that was said to be hiding behind a bush, we were waiting in the Jeep parked for a long time and not only that, there were about 20 other jeeps all there for the same reason and all blocking each other, well if there was a tiger and I have serious doubts that there was, I just think it was to create expectations for tourists and say Too bad that you didn't see it, it was a tiny possibility of the chance of seeing it the three rows of jeeps parked in front of you. My jeep companions were 3 young Germans who were in the same hostel (this was decent, nice, it was a move for by my little angel) we had connected well the day before, and we took the jeep together, thank goodness I was entertained by them, and they saved me the most boring 12 hours safari, the truth is that I never get bored, but sitting there with no possibility of anything. They took photos of buffalo, peacocks as they were the only thing to see on safari. Buffaloes are all over the town and our hostel had about 3 peacocks to enjoy all day with their wonderful plumage, their routines, strange sounds they emit. I was always silent, zero comment, again they scammed me, but I didn't say anything to them. I had done a couple of safaris in Tanzania and Kenya many years ago, and Yes I have seen safaris at its best, mind-blowing, scenes from movies and seeing this here, fury, rage, and it costs dearly.
Buddha images in their different postures, the symbols of the hands have different meanings, in Kandi
I realise that I am not very into landscape photography, because I looked for them on my cell phone and I did not have one. I find them to be very spacious, they do not motivate me much, I think my thing is architecture, detail, light, composition, I find it close.
Shortly after being in the country I started and more and more followed with the: "leave me alone, please", then "get lost", then "back off" and for the last week and I no longer tolerated anything just saying " Fuck off" no matter who it was. This is not my thing, I am not a person who goes around swearing, never and to no one, it kills the joy, the pleasure of knowing even walking. I was even thinking of going to the historic northern city Anuradhapura, very beautiful, they say, I did not go at all apart from what I have already said, and I settled in my house in Kandi for about 20 days and without much pleasure, but the owner was decent, and I was tired of being on the defensive.
I have counted all these miseries, it was the country and its people, they are like that. In all of them uncomfortable things happen, but I tell them here because it is what there is, and it is daily, it is Sri Lanka, for me. There are those who travel in tourist bubbles and without contact with people, obviously they do not see it, nor do they suffer this displeasure and baseness, I saw them, I wanted to live the countries, their people, get involved, it is my thing, but Sri Lanka was bad, a pair of piranhas and vampires. Yes, surely there is much redeemable and I have shared it, but for those who want to visit it take this into account, here tours are the best and single women are discouraged whatever age they are.
I end up with what is left of this image. She, or he?, I am impressed that even in its deterioration it maintains a mystery, it sits with that posture that transmits peace.