Sri Lanka Day 1

Today we left the hotel at 2:30am to catch our 5am fight to Sri Lanka. We had an uneventful morning landing in Sri Lanka at 9am. We were picked up by our fantastic guide and driver Dilon who met us with two beautiful bouquets of flowers!

After clearing customs we started on our 3.5 hour drive to our first hotel Water Garden Sigiriya. The country is BEAUTIFUL and extremely clean. On our way mom asked to stop by an ATM where she took out 4,000 rupees and got in the car complaining about the big bills she would need to break - I couldn't stop laughing...she took out $13.50 🤣. Subsequent banks were closed so we will need to find another ATM tomorrow.
OK well this is not going wellq
Our hotel is very unique and beautiful and situated in the cultural triangle of the country. After a quick lunch, we headed out on an afternoon tour.

At 3:30 pm we headed out to Sigiriya or "Lion's Rock". This palace (fortress) was built around 495 AD. Mom walked through the water and boulder gardens but elected to stay back and not attempt the ascent. I continued on up 1200 steps to the top where the royal palace was situated. This is an incredible monument and I could almost visualize its grandeur - simply amazing.
What they don't talk about in the brochure is the swarming wasps! While at the very top hundreds of wasps started to swarm and my guide expertly guided me to drop to the ground and cover my head while remaining silent. The wasps passed me without incident but did get another group that did not have such great advice.

We capped off the day with a 90-minute massage and a very late dinner!Read more