India & Sri Lanka 2019

Busy day today. Packed up and left the guest house around 7am in a tuk tuk, heading for nearby Sigiriya. This is an old city centred on a massive rock, which was topped by a palace in around the 12th century. Another of the old capitals of Sri Lanka, but by far the most visually impressive. Being a Sunday and a religious holiday, it was bound to get crowded (although it's generally a crowded spot anyway), we wanted to get in as early as possible. The climb can also be quite difficult, so it's better to tackle it in the cooler morning and before the crowds arrive.

So we got there around 8am, paid our extortionate $30 USD per head entry fee, had a quick look around the museum and then set off. The city is quite large, though most of the remains aren't much more than a foot or two high. But you can clearly see the layout of the city, where they had gates, houses, water cisterns and the like. The whole time you're gradually climbing up a gentle slope towards the main rock outcrop.

Then after a series of stairs, you arrive at a place called the mirror wall, polished stone with ancient graffiti, and then a tall 100+ spiral staircase winding its way up to a Buddhist shrine with well preserved cave paintings. No photos of these unfortunately, and we were lucky enough to see a shouting match between a Chinese man and a local after the former started taking pictures in front of the NO PHOTOS sign.

Back down the staircase and around to the side of the rock, where the Lion Staircase begins. It's named because it was the gate up to the palace on top of the rock, and either side of the stairs is a huge pair of lion paws. Originally it would have had the lion's head and shoulders attached as well, though these have been lost to the ravages of time.

This was probably the hardest part of the climb, much of it on metal staircases affixed to the wall, and a bit crowded too though people going up and down were separated. Finally we made the top, and were rewarded with great views across the surrounding plains, and down over the rest of the palace. Again, most of the walls and so on are only about a foot high, but you can clearly see the layout of buildings and the like.

Spent an hour or so up here exploring and wandering around before heading back down - much easier! By the time we got back down to the lower levels the staircases heading up were jam packed, people standing in single file and shuffling slowly like a ticket queue. Can't imagine spending a couple of hours doing that, although I guess it wouldn't be as strenuous.

All told we were done by 11am and rode our tuktuk back to Dambulla, where we hopped on a bus heading south to Kandy.

Much the same as previous bus rides: fast, cramped and slightly terrifying, though at least we had seats. Two thirds of the way there, our bus broke down and everyone had to pile onto the next bus, which I didn't even think was possible. Must've been over a hundred people standing in the aisles! Had to stand up for most of the last 30 minutes, and it felt like being thrown around inside a washing machine.

But anyway, we made it to Kandy and got to our guesthouse by mid afternoon. Decided that we'd head straight out and look around the city which wasn't as hot since it's up more in the mountains a bit.

The city centre here is also a world heritage site, mainly because of the Temple of the Tooth Relic. This temple is home to a tooth, allegedly saved from Buddha's funeral pyre. Unfortunately you can't actually see it, since it's kept inside a bunch of Matroyshka-style boxes, and then behind a curtain and door. Twice a day at sunrise and sunset they open the curtain and door so you can see the boxes, but we decided to skip on that since it was already crowded and getting worse (Sunday + religious holiday). But we spent quite a while looking around the temple which was nice.

Heavy security here too, a reminder that in 1988 a bomb was detonated here by the Tamil Tigers rebels - a religious and ethnic conflict that lasted right through until 2009. Makes you realise that a lot of the beggars you see are likely displaced people from the conflict, orphans/widows and the like. Sad.

Wandered through a few of the streets here, checking out the colonial buildings since this was also a colonial headquarters of the British, though most of the buildings have pretty faded grandeur by now. Since we'd had a late lunch, we just had dosas (sort of like Indian crepes) for dinner and then headed home.Read more