The journey started very early in the morning and it was around Oyamaduwa that we saw the first light of the day. Arrived at Madhu Church before breakfast and we had the whole place to ourselves. The weather was perfect with a slight drizzle and no Sun beating down on us. I last visited the church with my dad. This is considered as the holiest catholic shrine in the country with a history of over 400 years, which was visited by Pope Francis several years back. Then on our way back to Colombo, we visited the Holy Cross National Shrine which was this cute church in Marawila where all around the church were graves and the church floor was made out of sand, where everyone had to either sit or kneel on the sand. It was my first time there and a great find. 

Exploring Ata-mas-thana at night in Anuradhapura was truly a blissful experience. We were feasted with a very rare “Budu-res” around the Mirisawetiya temple. Afterwards we explored Sri Maha-bodhiya, the oldest living tree in the world with a known planting date, which is also a sapling from the Bo tree under which Lord Buddha attained enlightenment. We kept exploring the remaining sites and it was a pure serene experience, having the entire temple sites all to yourselves at night.   

The landscape at Vayu had changed drastically from a dry desert to a somewhat wet marshland since my last visit. I immediately felt like I was a true disturber of noise, when I heard hundreds of birds flying all over the horizon, chirping away with only, the sound of the waves crashing from the Indian Ocean and the sound of the wind playing background music. 

Am I disturbing these beautiful sounds of nature by being here? It’s one of those selfish moments where I didn’t mind being the disturber and experiencing everything that’s unfolding right in front of my eyes and ears. A nice road-trip with Malinda, Poornima, Dinesh, Poorni and Dinesh’s family.