From the Quantocks to the Sea: Day 22 of the South West Odyssey (English Branch)

The South West Odyssey was a long distance walk.

Five like-minded people started in 2008 from the Cardingmill Valley in Shropshire and by walking three days a year finished at Start Bay on the South Devon Coast in May 2019.

For various reasons this year’s instalment of the Odyssey was moved forward to April. Early spring weather is notoriously unreliable so we were prepared for anything, but hoped it might at least be dry. The forecast, though, suggested much better than that. The morning was cool as we reassembled outside the Sun Inn in West Bagborough, but once the mist burned off we were promised a day of unbroken sunshine.

Lynne, the party’s only non-walking member this year, took the obligatory photograph and then, as we walked west along the road, she drove off to research family history in the Somerset archive.



Ready to go, West Bagborough

West Bagborough (pop 358) sits on the southern slopes of the Quantock Hills. Bagborough probably means Badger’s Hill and as badgers cannot tell left from right it matters little that there is no East Bagborough. The village is best known for the ‘West Bagborough Hoard’, 681 Roman silver coins buried here in the 4th century and unearthed in 2001.

 

The Somerset section of the South West Odyssey

We turned uphill towards the church which is dedicated to St Pancras, not the London railway station but an obscure teenage martyr beheaded in Rome in 304AD.



Pulling out of St Pancras, West Blagborough

From the church our path contoured along the flank of the hill. A kilometre later, a right and left round Rock Farm led to more contouring forty metres higher up until we reached Triscombe.



Contouring from Rock Farm to Triscombe

The hamlet of Triscombe is a kilometre up a narrow road off the A358. It is too small to be expected to have a pub, or if there was one once, it would now be closed, but the immaculately thatched Blue Ball Inn looked both traditional (well as traditional as gastro-pubs go) and prosperous.

The Blue Ball Inn, Triscombe

From Triscombe we headed up Triscombe Combe (so good they named it twice), a stiff climb up a rocky gully. An even steeper climb on a grassy track around Great Hill cut off the corner to the Macmillan Way West which runs along the top of the Quantock’s southernmost ridge. The path is an offshoot of the Macmillan Way, which we encountered near Chedworth in 2011, a 290 mile route from Boston in Lincolnshire to Abbotsbury on the Dorset coast promoted to raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.

Starting up Triscombe Combe

Skylarks sang above the grassland as we paused for coffee at a point which the map calls 'Fire Beacon' though there was no obvious reason why.

 

Coffee at Fire Beacon, Quantock Hills

We followed the ridge for four kilometres. Sometimes rocky, sometimes grassy it was a lovely path through flowering gorse and heather with fine views over the valley to our left and the rest of the Quantock range to our right.

 

On the Quantocks (picture, Francis)

Brian and Francis identified meadow pipits and stonechats perching on the gorse. They hung around long enough for all to get a good look at them, but the chiffchaffs, though easy to hear are harder to see and only the serious birders got a sight of them (they are not that exciting, anyway).

 

On the Quantocks

We passed some wild ponies. 'Dartmoor ponies are different from Exmoor Ponies,' Brian informed me before asking 'Are Quantock Ponies different again?' I had no idea, which did not prevent me getting into a complicated conversation which led to our questioning whether Exmoor ponies were a 'breed' or a 'sub-species' (and what, if anything, is the difference).

It was not the first conversation I have been involved in on a subject about which my ignorance is total. Subsequent research tells me that Exmoor ponies are a particular breed related to the primitive wild horse. There is little special about Quantock ponies which have been living wild on these hills only since 1956.

Quantock Ponies

Despite the good views, the broad ridge is a little featureless. The map labels several otherwise undistinguished points such as Halsway Post and Bicknoller Post. Reaching them we discovered that the ‘Posts’ actually are posts and what is more they tell you that they are. I find this oddly reassuring.

 

The Halsway Post, proud to be a post

Nearing the end of the ridge we swung left onto a track inappropriately called The Great Road; great in neither width nor length, it is a track not a road.

The (not very) Great Road, Quantock Hills

The Great Road soon came to its end in a car park where a small but undeniably real road toils up to the ridge. Ignoring this road, we turned right, dropping down the edge of the ridge into Vinny Combe, the steep and slippery descent made easier by a set of steps. It was a pleasant walk along the combe bottom until it widened into an ugly disused quarry from which we exited onto the A39 at the village of West Quantoxhead (there is an East Quantoxhead a few kilometres away, but why both have an 'x' when the hills are spelt with a 'ck' is a mystery).

Alison arrives in Vinny Combe

The village is a cluster of prosperous looking houses off the main road, while St Audrie’s church stands across the road. It was built in 1858 on the site of its dilapidated medieval precursor. Opposite the church is the modern looking Windmill Inn, which provided us with a couple of satisfying pints of lunch.

 

St Audrie's, West Quantoxhead (picture, Francis)

After walking northwest all morning we turned southwest through the village and continued down Luckes Lane, from where well-signed field paths took us down to Williton (yes that is its name - puerile jokes are available and you can make them yourself).

Field paths to Williton

We crossed the West Somerset Railway at Williton Station. With over 20 miles of track between Bishops Lydeard and Minehead, the West Somerset is Britain’s longest standard gauge heritage railway. The line operates from March to October running several trains daily, mostly operated by steam. It is largely single track but the station provides one of the passing places and we were lucky to see two steam trains.

West Somerset Railway steam train leaves Williton Station

A scruffy track around the Williton industrial estate was enlivened only by a few chickens marshalled by this self-important character. More field paths took us to Watchet, which sounds like another made up name though the town is much better known (though only slightly bigger) than Williton.

I'm beautiful, and I know it

Less than a kilometre of field paths separate Williton from Watchet. A perfectly good farm track seemed to run just the other side of the hedge from the path so we set off up it. It quickly became clear that it was not a perfectly good track, but a linear quagmire. We abandoned track for field only for the path to end and decant us back into the clarts.


Alison picks her way carefully round the mud, Watchet

We walked Watchet from south to north, passing the West Somerset Railway station and reaching the harbour with its statute of the Ancient Mariner by Scottish sculptor Alan Herriot. Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived at nearby Nether Stowey for several years and the setting off point for the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner was inspired by Watchet harbour. I can't say it looks very inspiring with the tide out but it did make me think…

‘Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.’

The Ancient Mariner, Watchet
'Instead of the cross, the albatross
About my neck was hung.'

Our B&B was beside the harbour - and for Lynne and me there was a sea view, though limited by the sea wall which is high, concrete and ugly but sometimes very necessary. It had been an excellent day’s walk under blue skies in a temperature that would have graced early June never mind April. The Quantocks in the morning had been great walking country, and if the afternoon was less impressive, the steam trains made up for it.

With a harbour and a muddy shoreline but no beach Watchet, unlike nearby Minehead, is hardly a holiday resort, indeed walking through the town’s landward side, it had looked a little depressed. Around the harbour, though, all we needed was close at hand. A fifty metre stroll took us to the Pebbles Tavern, which serves no food but is eccentrically rated by Trip Advisor as the town's best restaurant. Its attraction lies in its range of gravity served local beers, and an impressive selection of Somerset ciders. Somebody had to check them out and Brian nobly volunteered to sacrifice himself. I don't mind cider being cloudy, but some of the rougher, and therefore more highly prized specimens seem to me to have a flavour of rotten wood. Still at 6+% alcohol, Brian thrived on them.

Indian restaurant and our B&B, Watchet

From the Pebbles we made our way to Trip Advisor’s second ranked restaurant, which does sell food, in fact it was the Spice Merchant Indian restaurant nextdoor to our B&B. So that was it, a walk in the sunshine, a couple of pints and a curry - good day!

The South West Odyssey (English Branch)

Introduction

Day 1 to 3 (2008);Cardingmill Valley to Great Whitley

Day 4 to 6 (2009) Great Whitely to Upton-on-Severn via the Malvern Ridge

Day 7 to 9 (2010) Upton-on-Severn to Andoversford
Day 10 (2011) Andoversford to Perrott's Brook

Day 11 (2011) Perrott's Brook to the Round Elm Crossroads

Day 12 (2011) Walking Round Stroud

Day 13 (2012) Stroud to North Nibley

Day 14 (2012) North Nibley to Old Sodbury

Day 15 (2012) Old Sodbury to Swineford

Day 16 (2013) Along the Chew Valley

Day 17 (2013) Over the Mendips to Wells

Day 18 (2013) Wells to Glastonbury 'The Mountain Route'

Day 19 (2014) Glastonbury to Langport

 Day 20 (2014) Along the Parrett and over the Tone

 Day 21 (2014) Into the Quantocks

Day 22 (2015) From the Quantocks to the Sea

Day 23 (2015) Watchet, Dunster and Dunkery Hill

Day 24 (2015) Dunkery Beacon to Withypool
Day 25 (2016) Entering Devon and Leaving Exmoor
Day 26 (2016) Knowstone to Black Dog on the Two Moors Way
Day 27 (2016) Morchard Bishop to Copplestone
Day 28 (2017) Down St Mary to Drewsteignton
Day 29 (2017) Drewsteignton to Bennett's Cross
Day 30 (2017) Bennett's Cross to Lustleigh
Day 31 (2018) Southwest Across the Moor from Lustleigh
Day 32 (2018): South to Ugborough
Day 33 (2018): Ugborough to Ringmore
Day 34 (2019): Around the Avon Estuary to Hope Cove
Day 35 (2019): Hope Cove to Prawle Point
Day 36 (2019): Prawle Point to Start Bay: The End
+
The Last Post

That's All Folks - The Odyssey is over

The Story of the Emerald Buddha

The Many Connections of a 50cm Tall Jade Buddha

Attempting to talk of the joys of mathematics usually produces quizzical, if not downright unbelieving, looks. During thirty-six years teaching the subject I never stopped learning and I always took delight in the surprising links between apparently separate ideas - there's an example at the end.

The joys of travel are more widely – and perhaps more easily - appreciated. Occasionally we find the same name or idea popping up in different and sometimes widely separated locations and those unexpected links give me the same pleasure as their mathematical analogues.

Introducing the Emerald Buddha

This post is about the Emerald Buddha, a fifty centimetre tall piece of carved jade ('Emerald' referring to its colour rather than the gemstone) that we encountered for the first, but by no mean last, time in Bangkok in 2012.

The Emerald Buddha, Wat Phra Kaew. Bangkok

The Story Starts in Legend

Bangkok, though, is the end of a story that starts in legend in 43BCE when the Buddhist sage Nagasena carved the image in the northern Indian city now called Patna. There is a problem, though: modern scholarship dates the writings that concern Nagasena to a hundred years earlier and none mention his skills as a sculptor.

The Emerald Buddh Goes to Sri Lanka

The statue remained in Patna for 300 years until civil war necessitated moving it to a place of safety and the Buddha was taken to Sri Lanka. Moving important objects a short distance for safekeeping occurs regularly throughout history (see the Book of Kells for one example), but Sri Lanka is a very long way, and the Sri Lankans, who are happy to claim any Buddha connections they can, fail to mention this one.

The Thuperama Dagoba, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, the Buddha's right collarbone is believed to be beneath this dagoba

The Emerald Buddha is Sent to Burma but ends up in Cambodia

In 457 the Burmese King Anuruth requested the Emerald Buddha to enhance the development of Buddhism in his country. There are many stories of bits of the Buddha - hairs of which there were, presumably, plenty and odd body parts that survived his apparently inefficient cremation - being sent around Asia for this purpose, but giving away the Emerald Buddha sounds like uncommon generosity. According to legend, the vessel carrying the Buddha to Burma was shipwrecked on the coast of Cambodia and it fell into the hands of the Khmer emperors.

The great days of the Khmer empire ended in 1432 when Angkor Wat was sacked by the Thais. The Emerald Buddha was carried off and after visiting several locations settled in Chiang Rai in the northern Thai kingdom of Lanna.

Angkor Wat, the great temple of the Khmer Empire, Cambodia,

Wat Preah Keo, (The Silver Pagoda) adjacent to Phnom Penh’s Royal Palace contains a 17th century replica known as the 'Emerald Buddha of Cambodia'. Although, according to the legend, the Emerald Buddha was in Cambodian keeping for almost a thousand years, it was only ever theirs because they found it. Cambodia in general - and Phnom Penh in particular - have little claim on the original but they seem happy enough with their replica and an almost life size solid gold Buddha figure made locally in 1908.

Wat Preah Keo, The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
I failed to take a satisfactory picture of the Silver Pagoda so I have borrowed this one from Wikipedia

To Thailand and Legend Gives Way to History

Another legend states it became lost and was found in Chiang Rai in 1434 inside a stupa that was split by a lightning strike. Whatever the truth of the lightning story, the first incontrovertible evidence for the Emerald Buddha’s existence is in Chiang Rai in 1434.

Chiang Rai was a major city in Lanna, but the capital was the confusingly similarly named Chiang Mai, 150km away. Objects like the Emerald Buddha gravitate towards capital cities, and it reached Chiang Mai in 1468.

South East Asia

To Laos, First in Luang Prabang, then Vientiane

In 1546 the throne of Lanna became vacant and Prince Setthathirath, heir to the Lao kingdom of Lang Xan, was invited to sit on it. In due course he became king of Lang Xan as well and in 1552 he moved the Emerald Buddha to the Lang Xan capital of Luang Prabang, where he built Wat Xieng Thong.

Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang

In 1564 he moved his capital to Vientiane, taking the Emerald Buddha with him. We first encountered Setthathirath dressed like a big boy scout, sitting in front of That Luang in the centre of Vientiane.

King Setthathirath in front of That Luang, Vientiane

He built his personal temple, Wat Pha Keo, to house the Buddha

Wat Pha Keo, Vientiane

In time Vientiane became a vassal state of Siam. In 1779, the Thai General Chao Phraya Chakri put down an insurrection and carried off the Emerald Buddha. General Chakri later became King Rama I of Thailand (the current king is the ninth of the Chakri dynasty [Update: Rama IX died in 2016, the current king is the tenth of that dynasty]) and in 1784 installed the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok where it remains to this day.

Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok

Anyone (or at least anyone who can afford the entrance ticket) may go and see the image. They must behave respectfully and sit quietly on the floor, remembering to arrange themselves in the eastern fashion with legs folded backwards. To point your feet towards the Buddha is extremely ill-mannered and will quickly earn an unobtrusive but nonetheless stern rebuke from one of the stewards.

And so the Emerald Buddha is in Bangkok, which is where, mathematics apart, this post started. The Thais consider it the palladium of their country and it is touched only by the monarch when he changes the Buddha's vestments three times a year. The sage Nagasena, who (allegedly) made, it (allegedly) said the Emerald Buddha would bring "prosperity and pre-eminence to each country in which it resides." Laos would like it; Wat Pha Keo, destroyed in 1828 has been rebuilt and awaits its return, but is doomed to remain a museum that is missing its main exhibit. The Cambodian are sentimentally attached to it but are content with their replica, while the Sri Lankan are hardly aware they ever had it – if they ever did.

Finishing where we started with the, Emerald Buddha in Bangkok
This is the uncropped version of the photograph at the start, taken, of course, from outside the hall of the Emerald Buddha. Taking photographs inside would bring down the wrath of god - or at least of the stewards

Yet to be established is where in the long journey from 50BCE Patna to modern Bangkok does legend turn into fact. Art historians say the carving style is that of 14th century Lanna, suggesting India, Sri Lanka and the Cambodian shipwreck are firmly in the realms of myth and legend. Whether it was ever in Cambodia is problematic and it may well have originated in Chiang Rai, though the lightning strike story is unlikely. It was, it seems, made in northern Thailand and now resides in southern Thailand, and that, for the foreseeable future, is where it will stay.

And to Finish a Little Mathematics

Everybody knows that for all circles, the circumference divided by the diameter gives a constant known as π.

π = 3.142.... the dots indicating that the numbers go on, never stopping and never falling into a pattern.

Anybody who took (and remembers) A level maths, should also know that if you work out the little sum below and then multiply the answer by 4, then the more terms you use the closer the answer gets to π. If you take an infinite number of terms, then it is exactly π.

1-1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 -1/11 + ....

Of course, calculating an infinite number of terms is impossible, but you can get π to as many decimal places as you want by taking enough terms.

The proof is well within the scope of year 12/13 mathematics, but the proof (which does not involve radii or circumferences) does not explain why it is true. What is the connection between this simple sequence of fractions and a circle? I do not know, I not sure anyone knows, but the connection exists.

There are actually a number of infinite series which converge to π. This one, known as the Gregory-Leibniz series, is the simplest. Should you pick up a calculator to check I am telling the truth, be warned that it converges painfully slowly; after 5 terms you get to 3.396…. , others can be much quicker.

Colombo, National Day and a Full Moon: Part 15 of Sril Lanka, Isle of Serendip

Colombo on the Night of the New Moon and Sri Lanka's National Day

02-Feb-2015

Colombo: Arrival and Orientation

Sri Lanka

We reached Colombo from Galle in mid-afternoon, checked into our hotel and went out to orientate ourselves and scout for likely restaurants.

Our hotel, the boutique branch of one Colombo's best hotels, was modern and comfortable, occupying the seventh floor and upwards of a tower block. Our walk quickly revealed that it was in Colombo’s jewellery quarter where finding sapphires and rubies was easy, but not so rice and curry.

Colombo from our hotel window
Towards the top left are the cylindrical Bank of Ceylon Tower and the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, (see later)
and that is not an inappropriate attempt at humour, that is really what they are called.

We shared the lift back up with two large, athletic east European young men and their tennis rackets. Their body language was grumpy and they muttered unintelligible swear words when the lift refused to move after they swiped their room key. We used ours and headed upwards together. We had, we learned in the lobby, hit Colombo at the same time as the Internation Tennis Futures Tournament, the third level of professional tennis where wannabe superstars travel the world in search of ranking points to get themselves into the Challenger Tournaments. Clearly we had shared the lift with a couple of the day’s unhappy losers.

Colombo is two thrids of the way down Sri Lanka's west coast

Resorting to Google we found that had we walked the other way, just round the corner next to the Iranian Embassy we would have found an Indian restaurant called the Mango Tree.

It seemed eccentric going to an Indian restaurant in Sri Lanka, but it was good if a little expensive and we were reminded how different the Indian approach to spicing is. After poppadums and chutneys (more English Indian restaurant style than Indian Indian) I had mutton with chillies in a tomato gravy while Lynne chose a vegetarian dish of cashews and peas. We shared one nan, though it was big enough for a family.

The Rehearsal for the National Day Parade

Masked Dancers, Parade rehearsal, Colombo 

The following day, our last in Sri Lanka, would be poya – the day of the new moon. Poya is a holiday and also Sri Lanka’s monthly day of abstinence when no alcohol is sold. The day after would be National Day, another holiday, and there would be a big parade but as we were flying out we would miss it. Leaving the restaurant we observed that a dress rehearsal was in progress just down the road. After dinner Lynne was tired and retreated to the hotel to watch from a distance while I went for a closer look.

Dancers, Parade rehearsal, Colombo

Groups of dancers, each with their own musicians and drummers,.....

Drummers, Parade rehearsal, Colombo

alternated with richly caparisoned elephants. I took many photographs, but in the dark with a hand held camera so not all shots were usable.

Elephant, Parade rehearsal, Colombo

Each elephant was attended by a man with a shovel - no doubt the roses of Colombo will look beautiful this year.

The man with a shovel, Parade rehearsal, Colombo

Lynne's view of the parade rehearsal, Colombo

03-Feb-2015

In the morning Lynne had fried eggs and a banana while I went for the fusion option, scrambled eggs, herby potatoes and a coconut roti, followed by curd and treacle.

Poya not only meant that we had drunk our last Lion lager, but that our tour of Colombo would be curtailed as nothing much would be open.

Gangaramaya Temple

Temples, though, are always open and we started at the nearby Gangaramaya Temple down the road to the right of the elephant in the picture above. A Buddhist religious and intellectual centre, the 19th century temple has an eclectic mixture of architectural styles and includes a shrine designed by Geoffrey Bawa (see the Heritance Hotel, Polonnaruwa), but its cramped position on a city street means the architecture was hard to appreciate. Somewhat strangely we entered past a collection of vintage motor vehicles.

Vintage cars, Gangaramaya temple, Colombo

A stupa dominates the main courtyard…

Stupa, Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

… while near it is a bhodi tree, a cutting from the venerable tree in Anuradhapura. Many visitors were making clockwise circuits of the tree, reverently touching the large horizontal bough on each circuit,…..

Bhodi Tree, Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

….while some placed offerings of oil, incense, fruit or flowers at its base.

Offerings by the Bhodi tree, Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

I liked the row of dwarves holding up one of the buildings around the central courtyard.

Dwarves, Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

There was also an image house, where several of the decorative elephant covers had been rather thrown down after the parade rehearsal.

Upstairs was a gallery of posters depicting the fates that await sinners. I will never covet anyone else's wife now I know what will happen.

Warning poster, Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

Beyond there is much building and restoration work so we retreated to the entrance and a museum of sorts; a random collection of artefacts - Buddha images, Egyptian gods, oil lamps, old watches, china, wood carvings - resembling a large junk shop.

Collection of stuff, Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

Outside, an impressive series of panels describes the early life of the Buddha. I particularly liked the one of the Buddha fasting. His road to enlightenment had many twists and turns, and a prolonged fast was one of those twists; moderation in all things is the Buddhist way, avoiding over-eating (yes, I know!) and over-aggressive fasting.

The Buddha after fasting, Gangaramaya Temple, Colombo

Little Beira Lake

A park containing the small Beira Lake (there is a much larger lake of the same name – they are linked by canals – a little to the north) is the other side the parade road.

Beside it I saw the advertisement below. There are some foods that do not cross national boundaries. Tibetan tsampa (barley pounded with yak butter) and Icelandic Hakarl (fermented shark) to name but to. I have tried both but would not say I enjoyed either. I do like Marmite though, which is arguably in the same category. Clearly it has travelled to Sri Lanka but, fan as I might be, I find it difficult to believe it has anything to offer a chicken curry.

Marmite advertisement, Beira Lake, Colombo

We walked through the park and over the bridge to a small island. Pedalos in the shape of geese made their stately way round and round. We had seen boating lakes all over Sri Lanka, they all have pedalos, but apparently the goose is the only design available.

Another goose pedalo, Beira Lake, Colombo

Galle Face Green and Around

A little to the north is Galle Face Green a five hectare space between the city and the Indian Ocean. Perhaps we did not realise the significance of Colombo's most important open space, but it looked like a large patch of worn grass and we did not even stop the car for a photograph.

The Fort is a promontory beside the docks where the Portuguese, Sri Lanka's first European visitors, built their fort, though nothing remains of it except the name.

We entered the area past the old parliament building, now the President’s Office. Behind it are the circular Bank of Ceylon tower and a pair of twin towers known as the World Trade Centre, smaller than, though still eerily reminiscent of their New York namesake (see photo at start of post). They were built as part of a new modern city centre but the area has never fully recovered from the massive bomb left outside the bank tower by the Tamil Tigers in 1996.

President's Office (the old parliament building), Colombo

At the centre of the fort is a clock tower lighthouse. The clock tower was constructed in 1857 allegedly because the governor’s wife was exasperated by oriental time keeping. The light was added ten years later and signalled to approaching shipping for a century until the surrounding buildings grew too high and a new lighthouse was built in a more appropriate location.

Clock tower-Lighthouse, Colombo Fort

Behind the lighthouse - and a blanket of security - is the Presidential Palace.

Nearby is Cargill's department store. In 1844 William Miller and David Sime Cargill started a general warehouse and import business. Cargills became a public limited company in 1946 but owned little beyond the moribund department store until an aggressive expansion in the 1980s. Cargill's Food City shops, Sri Lanka’s largest or perhaps only supermarket chain, are ubiquitous but they are only the tip of the commercial iceberg. The old department store is now the company headquarters.

Cargills, Colombo Fort

Past the Docks to the Pettah District

We were able to have a look at the docks…

Colombo Dock

… on our way to Pettah, Colombo’s most culturally mixed and colourful district. The street market is worth visit – at least when it is open, which it was not today. Authorities always feel a need to ‘clean up’ districts like Pettah and the floating market, a collection of twee craft stalls on a pontoon in a section of Beira Lake, was opened in 2014. Ravi was determined we should have a look at it – probably because it is purpose built tourist attraction and we were tourists.

Pettah Floating Market, Colombo

We are resistant to such attractions but it did provide us with a pleasant coffee stop. Most of the stalls were closed, but even open I would have found them less interesting than the pelican paddling around on the lake.

Pelican, Pettah Floating Market, Colombo

The Captain's Garden Hindu Temple

Across the road from the floating market is an area where railways lines converge as they approach Colombo’s main station. Driving along empty and rather desolate roads between high fences is a strange approach to the delightful Sri Kailasanthar Swami Devashthanam Kovil. It is reputedly Colombo’s oldest Hindu temple, but no source says how old it is, nor explains why it is known in English as the Captain's Garden Temple.

There is a large gopura, at least by Sri Lankan standards, though it is not particularly brightly painted.

Gopura, Captain's Garden Temple (Sri Kailasanthar Swami Devashthanam Kovil), Colombo

By contrast the main hall is full of colour….

Main hall, Captains' Garden Temple (Sri Kailasanthar Swami Devashthanam Kovil), Colombo

….and has a pleasing version of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, one of our favourite Hindu myths. I have a whole post (2017 with later udpates) dedicated to (paintings, sculptures and models of this myth.

The Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Captain's Garden Temple (Sri Kailasanthar Swami Devashthanam Kovil), Colombo

The Temple, dedicated to Shiva, has many smaller chapels….

Chapel, Captain's Garden Temple (Sri Kailasanthar Swami Devashthanam Kovil), Colombo

…. and coconuts and flowers were on sale for those wishing to do Puja. Our attention was drawn to a father and his young son who were introducing the son’s new born sibling to the temple. The baby looked to be only days old and its mother sat on the floor nearby looking understandably exhausted.

Coconuts for Puja, Captain's Garden Temple, (Sri Kailasanthar Swami Devashthanam Kovil), Colombo

The Independence Memorial

We progressed via a Dutch Church….

Dutch Church, Colombo

…..to the Independence Memorial with its statute of Don Stephen Senanayake, the first prime minister of an independent Sri Lanka, then still called Ceylon.

Independence Memorial, Colombo

There is an independence museum here, and Colombo also has a fine national museum, but both were closed and Ravi was running out of things to do. We made a short detour to Victoria Park  - it was renamed Viharamhadevi Park on independence but the old name has clung on - a large open green space much in favour with those who wish to play cricket, picnic or canoodle. We took a stroll to fill in some time.

Don Stephen Senanayake, Independent Sri Lanka's first Prime Minister, Independence Memorial, Colombo

Lunch at the Colombo City Hotel

We moved on, passing the town hall, to have lunch at the Colombo City Hotel, a rather old fashioned and fusty hotel with a rooftop restaurant, though at midday it seemed wiser to stay in the covered air-conditioned section. We knew there would be no beer, but the lack of lime soda was less predictable; at least there is always ginger beer. I chose Nasi Goreng as the Indonesian staple - Chicken, prawns and chillies in rice with Satay sauce - had been on so many menus and I had previously ignored it. It was very good as was Lynne’s fried cuttlefish with rice and vegetables.

Colombo City Hall

A Low Key End to an Excellent Holiday

After lunch we drove around a bit more, but Ravi had clearly run out of ideas and we soon returned to our hotel. At its best I think it is fair to say that Colombo is not the world’s most interesting city, but with everything closed for the holiday it was far from its best. We had enjoyed a wonderful Tour of Sri Lanka, but it was now petering towards an anti-climax.

In the evening, with nowhere much available or open and only requiring something small, we visited the hotel’s snack bar. We were not impressed by the menu, and our final dinner in Sri Lanka consisted of chicken burgers washed down with ginger beer…. not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Next morning Ravi took us to the airport, and that brings us to the end of the 15th and last post of our Sri Lankan adventure.

Sri Lanka, The Isle of Serendip

Part 1: Colombo to Anuradhapura and Mihintale
Part 2: Anuradhapura Ancient and Modern
Part 3: Polonnaruwa and Kandalama, An Ancient City and a Modern Hotel
Part 4: Sigiriya Rock and an Ayurvedic Massage
Part 5: Dambulla and on to Kandy
Part 6: Kandy and Around
Part 7: By Train to Nuwara Eliya
Part 8: The Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya and a Cup of Tea
Part 9: Through Bandarawela and on to Ella
Part 10: Ella, Little Adam's Peak and the Demodara Bridge
Part 11: The Sinharaja Rainforest
Part 12: Kataragama and the Yala National Park
Part 13: Through Hambantota to Mirissa
Part 14: Galle, Fish and a Fort
Part 15: Colombo, National Day and a Full Moon