We left the beautiful Heritance Kandalama in Sigiriya this morning. We will miss the amazing architecture (a Geoffrey Bawa original from the early 90s) - a one kilometre long ecologically designed building, perched on a granite outcrop overlooking the water reservoirs of central Sri Lanka,
the even more amazing views,
the robust and timeless interior design (who else would have thought of polished concrete benches and flooring and hand crafted textiles in the early 90s?)
and the high quality food at both hotel restaurants ...
Although I think we could have done without the marauding monkeys who would appear on your balcony at any time of the day or night (after snacks!). I left my iPad on the balcony at one stage and found one of these monkeys lifting it up and opening the cover (ready to Google "best hotels for snack food in Sri Lanka" no doubt!). Lucky it dropped it when I yelled at it!
So after an(other) early start we were on the road again this morning, this time heading south to Kandy - but with a stopover at the historic Dambulla Cave Temple, a bit less than an hour's drive from our hotel. It's another World Heritage Site (1991) but in a very mountainous region. Pity these sites are always so high - it was another climb for us (more than 1100 steps) to get up to the cave temple level.
So lots of stops to admire the view along the way!
The temple complex dates back to the first century BC . It's been added to over the next one thousand years by various kings, so that by the 11th century AD it was a major religious centre.
This beautiful reclining Buddha (feet only in my photo below) is in the first cave we enter in the Dambulla Cave complex (There are fives caves in total). This sculpture would be over 1,000 years old!
I love the way the roof paintings follow the layered geology of the cave roofs.
A statue of King Keerthi in the Dambulla Caves Temple...
After Dambulla it's about a 70klms drive to Kandy - through high country agriculture and bustling townships .......
Until we get to Kandy a bit before midday. Kandy is obviously a large city, a university town with a famous Buddhist temple and a very scenic lake in the centre of town.
Kandy is also a major gem centre. So first up on our agenda was a visit to the famous Hemachandras (Kandy) Limited (Jewellers since 1942). Sri Lanka is renowned for the quality of its blue sapphires, rubies, cat's eyes, aquamarines, tourmalines, topaz, garnets, etc etc. Everyone was reminded of this when Kate Middleton inherited Princess Diana's Sri Lankan sapphire ring on her engagement to William a few years back.
We all had fun for a few hours at Hemachandras... I treated myself to a small yellow sapphire ring just for fun. but I wasn't the only one in our group who bought something.
Late afternoon in Kandy today saw us at the Kandy Arts Association Theatre to catch a performance of traditional Kandy dance, drumming, singing, acrobatics,
fire breathing ..
and the scariest fire walking act I have ever seen.
It was a thrilling show full of energy, rhythm and great dance moves - and that's aside from the heart stopping work with fire that concluded the show.
We have checked into Clove Villa in Kandy for two nights. It's a small 7 room boutique hotel in an exclusive residential area of the town. It is like staying in a real person's glamorous and luxurious villa. Our meal tonight was cooked in a large and well appointed home style kitchen and it tasted wonderful - like excellent home cooking Sri Lankan style!!
We were on the road at 6.30am this morning, in order to beat the crowds and the heat at the Citadel of Sigiriya, the ancient rock fortress near the town of Dambulla - another UNESCO designated World Heritage (in 1982).
The site was selected by King Kasyapa in the 5th century BC for his new capital. The King was not a good man and was paranoid about his safety, so he needed to build an impenetrable fortress. To start with, the entry to his palace/fortress was protected by a crocodile infested moat ........
...and decorated with beautiful landscaping and water gardens .........
He built his Royal Palace on top of this massive rock outcrop - the Lion Rock.
Which is over 200 metres high and 1202 steps away for us ..........
We start climbing (and resting along the way - to admire the views) .........
There are still intact wall frescoes (paintings of beautiful women - King Kasyapa loved them all!) along the way in sheltered caves in the rock wall (but no photographs allowed)..
..... and past the "Mirror Wall" .......
There is a very large boulder at the end of this "building" below, ready to be rolled down the side of the rock fortress should any invaders get past the moat and all the other defences in place.
We're about halfway here ... ready to climb the last steep side of the actual "Lion Palace" (note the lion's paw at the base of this rock face).
And...... finally we're at the top ... along with a colony of stray dogs who seem to survive (just) on scraps thrown to them by tourist visitors (lots of bread, rice and muesli bars - not much protein).
The king loved his water features / swimming pools .....
Looking out over Pidurangala Rock to the north.
Coming down we couldn't decide whether it was worse than the pain of going up (extra hard for those with fear of height issues) .......
The Cobra Rock .......
And the cobra snake charmer ........
..... and the python charmer ..............
We were done by 8.45 and back at the hotel in time for a late breakfast by 9.30am. We were all ready for it - and ready for an easy rest of the day in this beautiful hotel after a few days of being hard working tourists.
We celebrated Jurgen's birthday last night with a special dinner in the seafood restaurant at Galle Face Hotel - a beautiful meal in a wonderful setting with the sound of Indian Ocean waves breaking in the background. We'll never forget this birthday dinner Jurgen!
We had a long drive ahead of us today so it was goodbye Colombo and back on the road before 8.00am - heading north along the coast and then north east towards Sri Lanka's ancient capital, Anuradhapura.
It was a long drive but very interesting to see the sights along the way ......
including a stop for a "King Coconut" drink ...........
And a close up sighting of one of Sri Lanka's Giant Squirrels (eating one of Sri Lanka's 18 different varieties of bananas) .............
After a lunch break at a "tourist rest stop" it was around 2.00pm by the time we'd arrived at the ancient capital of Anuradhapura (one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world - going back to the 4th century BC, and a UNESCO World heritage site). It's considered sacred to the Buddhist world and it's HUGE in scale - we only saw a few edited highlights in our short visit today ........
First, the sacred Bodhi tree - which is over 2,000 years old - grown from a sapling of the original Bodhi tree under which Lord Buddha attained enlightenment (brought to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC).
knotted poems (horoscopes) .......
The Bodhi tree leaf .....
Next stop was the beautiful Mirisawetiya Stupa (built in the 2nd century BC) - thought to contain a relic of the Lord Buddha (his hair?). I really loved this massive and classically austere stupa!
Shoes, hats etc are not allowed when visiting these scared places. We all had very tender feet from walking barefoot on these burning hot stones. Sophie was jumping with excitement in the pic below - or agony?
Every year the stupa has to be freshly painted. These guys are working on this section at the moment - all has to be completed by June. But first you must construct your ladder!
This stupa below was built in the 2nd century AD. It was one of the tallest structures in the world at that time - and is still the world's largest brick made building. Another beauty!
Next stop was the Isurumuniya Buddhist temple (and attached pond), built in the 3rd century BC ....
.. Including the famous carving of the Isurumuni Lovers
.. and a small stupa ......
And the Elephant Pond carving .....
We'd seen such a small area of this huge complex of archeological and spiritual treasures - but we still had over an hour and a half of driving to do, past Dambulla and into the beautiful world of Heritance Kandalama in Sigiriya, our home for the next three nights.
We arrived just on sunset ........
The views from our balcony ..........
the even more amazing views,
the robust and timeless interior design (who else would have thought of polished concrete benches and flooring and hand crafted textiles in the early 90s?)
and the high quality food at both hotel restaurants ...
Although I think we could have done without the marauding monkeys who would appear on your balcony at any time of the day or night (after snacks!). I left my iPad on the balcony at one stage and found one of these monkeys lifting it up and opening the cover (ready to Google "best hotels for snack food in Sri Lanka" no doubt!). Lucky it dropped it when I yelled at it!
So after an(other) early start we were on the road again this morning, this time heading south to Kandy - but with a stopover at the historic Dambulla Cave Temple, a bit less than an hour's drive from our hotel. It's another World Heritage Site (1991) but in a very mountainous region. Pity these sites are always so high - it was another climb for us (more than 1100 steps) to get up to the cave temple level.
So lots of stops to admire the view along the way!
The temple complex dates back to the first century BC . It's been added to over the next one thousand years by various kings, so that by the 11th century AD it was a major religious centre.
This beautiful reclining Buddha (feet only in my photo below) is in the first cave we enter in the Dambulla Cave complex (There are fives caves in total). This sculpture would be over 1,000 years old!
I love the way the roof paintings follow the layered geology of the cave roofs.
A statue of King Keerthi in the Dambulla Caves Temple...
After Dambulla it's about a 70klms drive to Kandy - through high country agriculture and bustling townships .......
Until we get to Kandy a bit before midday. Kandy is obviously a large city, a university town with a famous Buddhist temple and a very scenic lake in the centre of town. 
Kandy is also a major gem centre. So first up on our agenda was a visit to the famous Hemachandras (Kandy) Limited (Jewellers since 1942). Sri Lanka is renowned for the quality of its blue sapphires, rubies, cat's eyes, aquamarines, tourmalines, topaz, garnets, etc etc. Everyone was reminded of this when Kate Middleton inherited Princess Diana's Sri Lankan sapphire ring on her engagement to William a few years back.
We all had fun for a few hours at Hemachandras... I treated myself to a small yellow sapphire ring just for fun. but I wasn't the only one in our group who bought something.
fire breathing ..
and the scariest fire walking act I have ever seen.
It was a thrilling show full of energy, rhythm and great dance moves - and that's aside from the heart stopping work with fire that concluded the show.
