Seeing more of Jaffna

After another good night's sleep, and a fairly modest breakfast, we set off to see more of Jaffna with Champi and our local guide. Neither of them was especially communicative in terms of guiding, to be honest. Champi clearly didn't know the city, and the guide's English was too limited to explain things in detail. But he had some good ideas about places to show us in and around the city, not all of which were on our itinerary.

Actually, the suggested itinerary for today was to visit some outlying villages, but Champi had dissuaded us from this plan, saying it was quite a long drive and there wasn't a lot to see there! And while I would quite like to have seen that for myself, I did enjoy the alternative sights our guides showed us today.

Nilavarai Well

We started with a couple of sights that should have been included yesterday, based on our itinerary The first was Nilavarai Well. While this isn’t the most dramatic of Jaffna’s sights it holds a lot of meaning for the country’s Hindus.

Its waters are said to be bottomless and appear to be somehow connected directly to the sea. The water is apparently fresh near the top but becomes increasingly salty the deeper you go. It is traditionally believed to have been the work of Rama himself, who created it by sticking an arrow into the ground to assuage his thirst. A small but colourful temple marks the spot.

Arulmigu Sri Veerakathi Vinayagar and Urumpirai Karpaha Pillaiyar Kovil Temples

On our way back towards Jaffna Champi kindly stopped so we could photograph a couple of temples that had caught my eye on the outward journey. I didn’t know their names at the time but have since identified them (I think) via Google Maps. Both are devoted to Ganesh, as the elephants that adorn them make clear. It was these elephants that had caught my eye but having stopped I found plenty more to photograph.

Manthiri Manai

Further along we stopped again at the ruins of Manthiri Manai, also known as Jaffna Palace. According to Wikipedia (we received no information from our guides) this is believed to be one of the palaces or residences of a minister of Cankili, king of Jaffna, before the fall of the Jaffna kingdom to the Portuguese. However the Amazing Lanka [https://amazinglanka.com/wp/manthiri-manai/] website outlines several theories about its history and concludes that it might well have been built as recently as 1890 and may merely have been a gatehouse rather than a palace.

The ruins are clearly not well maintained and I suspect in the UK entry would be forbidden as they didn't look 100% safe. But we were able to go in and enjoyed wandering around the various rooms. These included what appeared to be a great hall, and the kitchen with vents in the stone walls to let out the smoke.

From here we drove back to the city centre, stopping briefly at a statue of the last Jaffna king, Sankili II.

Back in the city we went to what our guide said was a popular ice cream place, Rio. We all had an ice cream here; like our guides I chose mango while Chris had chocolate. The colour of the mango was rather artificial but it tasted good.

Jaffna Market

Next was a visit to the market and surrounding streets. I always enjoy a local market and this one was no exception. There were a lot of produce stalls selling all sorts of fruit and vegetables, including the biggest jackfruits I've ever seen! There were clothes stalls, household bits and pieces, artificial flowers, toys and much more. Many people said hello and on the whole they were happy to be photographed.

There are several market halls intersected with streets that added to those opps with street art and local scenes.

The clock tower

We made two more brief stops. The first was at the clock tower which we were told dates back to British rule. I read later that it was built to commemorate the visit of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales to Ceylon in 1875. It was funded with the residue of money collected to present him with a gift of a silver casket and set of jewels, and was completed in 1882. In addition to telling the time in its early years it functioned as a lighthouse to guide ships in the Indian Ocean.

The tower was badly damaged during the civil war in the late 1980s. When Prince Charles (now King Charles) visited Sri Lanka in 1998 he offered British assistance in restoring the tower. It reopened in 2002, and in 2013 three golden statues of Tamil kings were added to enhance the surrounding area.

The public library

Finally we paused outside the impressive library building. We couldn't go inside as it's closed on Mondays, but the security guard was happy for us to go into the garden for a closer look.

We dropped off the local guide near the fort, tipping him for his trouble, and Champi drove a short distance out on to the causeway so we could get a closer look at the prawn fishing huts and nets.

Back at the hotel I enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pool and sitting for a while under the palm trees. Then we had a quiet afternoon sorting photos, reading and writing up notes, punctuated by a visit to the restaurant for a cold drink.

We again ate in the hotel's restaurant, getting a table on the terrace with a lovely view of the gardens. My vegetable biriani was excellent, and a nice ending to our time in Jaffna.