We met Bill at 10.00am this morning and he handed us our challenges and has given us 5 days to complete the. We have to check back in with him on Friday 24th at 4.00pm. We are not permitted to travel the countryside between 10.00pm and 5.00am. So we collected our scavenge books, pack a backpack and have set off to see and learn and immerse ourselves in the culture of this island. Very quickly I have learnt that the country is beautiful but people are very poor. Sri Lanka has been under Tamal Tiger rule for the last 25 years. It was very dangerous for people to visit but 1 year ago they manage to kill, imprison or change the minds of the Tamal tigers and finally the country is under democratic rule. They had their first elections 1 year ago and 2 weeks ago they had their parliament elections. The country is now deemed stable thus here we are.
It is extremely hot so hot I can't describe how hot. It is 104 degrees F. We spent the first part of the morning trying to buy a Cultural Triangle Ticket. This is a ticket that permits you into some historical sites and towns. We were first taken to the National Museum to but them, which was the wrong address but it was one of our challenges. The challenge read:- Visit the National Museum; locate vthe Kings of Kandy goodies . And locate General Zheng He's tablet and explain.
Well we found the room with a huge golden throne and other possessions that had belonged to the Kings of Kandy and the large stone tablet belonging to Zheng so we completed our first challenge for 25 points.
After that we bought our Cultural Triangle Tickets (another 10 points) and we set off to the next challenge.
Visit the fish market in Negombo then take a short boat ride on either an outrigger canoe or a wooden oruwas in the lagoon area. Don't forget to eat something. Why is Negombo referred to as Little Rome? All this sounds easy but Nagombo is a 1 hour taxi ride away from Colombo. When we got their we had to find the fish market. Not as easy as it sounds. We went to the old market. It was very very old and the women were peddling their fish sitting or stooping on the ground
The biggest challenge was getting a ride in an oruwas, these are small canoes attached to a couple of floats and topped by a huge square sail. This was so difficult as all the fishing boats were out fishing. We were lucky to find some fishermen who had just come ashore and they were on their way home, we begged them to take us for a ride and they agreed to re-rig their boat and let us get on.
The boats are so weird. The actual boat is a only about 18 inches wide or smaller, it is very difficult to fit between the two sides.. We sat on the outrigger on s platform. The men were dressed in traditional dress and I found them beautiful even though they were dirty from a day's work.
Note how narrow the boat is.We bought some candy from these people in a shop, the shop really sells whole ssale rice etc but they did have candy. These poor people thought that insane people had decended as we rushed in quickly bought the sweets, took their photo and rushed out again
as we had a train to catch and hurried back to Colombo to catch a 4,20 train to Anuradhapura. This is a 5 part 500 point challenge. I am presently sitting on 4 our train ride through the countryside of Sri Lanka, writing this blog. I have just taken a beautiful picture of the sun setting over the rice fields. 
We pass through small settlements of mud house.Yes they seem to make a shell out of sticks and then coat the sticks with mud, some have thatched roves but most have galvanize. There is No electricity or running water to these homes and the floors are also made out of mud. As I fly by in my seat on the train I ponder how different my life would have been had I been born a girl in one of these mud huts in the wilds of Sri Lanka.
The train ride seemed to last forever as we swayed, clanked and screeched our way up through the mountains until we finally reached the town or city of Anuradhapura. We arrived about 9.00pm in the pitch dark. We took an old TAXI fan to Nuwarawewa Rest House. It was a very basic hotel, but it had lots of hot water, sitting toilets (not stooping ones), air-conditioning (thank goodness, it is 95 degrees at night), clean sheets and a restaurant. As Lily says "What more can you possibly want, this is better than some houses at Cattlewash because they don't have hot water". Zoe was much more squeamish about her room.
We were fine and grateful to be able to lie down in a reclined position. We went to bed by 10.00mpm because we arranged to have a TAXI collect us at 6.00am tomorrow to start our scavenges. Good-night!!!
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