Sri Lanka
Well, we're finally here. We arrived in Colombo to a warm welcome - literally - it's about 30° over her and very humid. Anyone attempting to play cricket must be totally bonkers. An interesting flight, including a spectacular sunrise over the mountains of Iran - the picture doesn'the do it justice at all. Very nice hotel overnight in the shadow of Colombo's latest high rise building called the Lotus Tower, completed last year, financed by the Chinese but still not open to the public yet. Colombo's rush hour is utter madness, coaches, cars and these little 3 wheel motorised tuk-tuks all apparently competing for the same space. Glad we weren't driving!
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Colombo city is an odd mixture of ancient and modern, often existing side by side. The Chinese are investing heavily so there is much construction of (very) high rise blocks in the city centre, overshadowing impossibly narrow streets lined with tradespeople of all descriptions. Lots of temples, mosques and old colonial buildings. The country was Dutch, then Portuguese before the British took it over so an odd combination of architectural styles. And, of course, many statues of the Buddha and lions, the national symbol of the country.
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Tomorrow we head inland to Habarana where it's cooler and less humid. Which is just as well as we're going to attempt to climb the 1200 or so steps to the summit of Sigirya Rock, the Sri Lankan equivalent of Ultra, apparently, with spectacular far reaching views. Pictures to follow if we actually make it!
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Enjoy this year's holiday M. We will keep looking in at your travel log having decided to stay closer to home this year for several reasons. Sri Lanka is still on the cards for next year. Hopefully your contributions here will whet the appetite for making that trip.
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Great pictures M, have a good holiday. 👍
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Wow! What an adventure. Enjoy but take care crossing the roads. lol
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Have a good one, M. It’s a tad cooler here.
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Habarana couldn't be more of a contrast to Colombo if it tried! (For a start it's only 29°!) Here we are staying in forest eco lodges right on the shore of a huge lake which is a real magnet for birdlife. The hotel has it's own organic farm and garden with several cattle and, of course, where there are cattle there are egrets, hundreds of them! There are notices in the rooms telling you to keep your windows closed so that thieves can't steal your food or posessions; fortunately they're not the human kind but these little blighters that hover in the tree tops and swoop down as soon as you open your door. The hotel has a small inlet of the main lake with several impressive Royal Palm trees bordering it. It makes for a very pleasant atmosphere.
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This morning we headed for Sigiriya Rock, a 200 metre high edifice which appears to rise almost vertically out of the surrounding plains. Unfortunately, what seemed like just about the entire population of the island had the same idea! There were huge queues!
This was the location of one of the ancient kings of Sri Lanka, 1500 years ago. The impressive thing is that all the surrounding walls and boundaries are made from fired bricks - they had the technology way back then to produce them.
The king was the only male allowed to live on the rock, along with his 500 concubines (and I have enough trouble keeping 1 lady happy!
)The final ascent was originally guarded by a gigantic stone tiger - now only the paws remain at the entrance and they are about 10 metres high.
It was quite a slog on the final ascent up a very narrow staircase but we'll worth it for the views once up there.
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That's, M. Great pictures. You're certainty going to see lots of amazing sights.
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Great photos moulesy. It looks a wonderful adventure. The photo of the traffic when you arrived reminded me on Bangkok. Take care crossing the road!! Keep the photos coming.
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Very interesting. That rock palace looks wonderfully preserved and tended. Keep ‘em coming M.........
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The food is really excellent. Most main courses are curry based, but quite mild which apparently is the local tradition. We had a really good fish massala on the first evening. The meat tends to be a bit tough and overdone so we've mainly stuck to fish dishes of which there is a great variety.
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Today we've arrived in the ancient capital of Kandy, now a world heritage city and famous, as I told Mrs M, for having the highest above sea level test match cricket ground in the world (but apparently that's not a very interesting fact!
)On our way we stopped at two temple complexes. I had wrongly assumed that the main religion in the country was Hinduism but, in fact, over 70% of the population is Buddhist.
The first we visited was the cave temple complex at Dambulla. As the name suggests, the temples are carved out of caves. There are 5 of them, all lined with multiple statues of the Buddha in various poses, but it was too dark inside to take really good photos on my tablet. It is definitely taboo to pose with these statues. There was also a Buddhist school on site and the children, from 5 years upwards were desperate to pose for us!
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The highlight of the day was a visit to the most sacred location in the country, the Temple of the Tooth, where tradition has it that a tooth belonging to the Lord Buddha is housed inside a series of intricate gold and jewel encrusted containers, kept behind the solid silver doors in the last photo. These doors are only opened on very special occasions and attract huge crowds of pilgrims when they are open. The whole site is strewn with colourful Buddhist flags and streamers. It was a truly fascinating and awe inspiring visit.
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Thanks moulesy. Lovely photos and very informative. I didn't really know much about Sri Lanka. Is Buddhism the main religion?
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The traffic in Kandy seems even more chaotic than in Colombo if that was possible!
But today we escaped to an oasis of calm just outside the city, the Royal Botanical Gardens. We spent a fascinating morning there. The area was used as the HQ for the South East Asia command under Louis Mountbatten during the war and, apparently there is even a scene in Bridge over the River Kwai showing this. The large conical shaped tree is the very one used in the film!
Other very impressive specimens include a stunning Bronze Shower tree, an avenue of Royal Palms and a huge Japan Fig Tree, the canopy of which covers about 250 square metres. It is an offshoot of the original tree which was said to cover 10 times that area.
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There is also a stunning collection of orchids and a thriving colony of gigantic fruit bats, which can be seen roosting in many of the trees, but you'll have to look very closely at the last photo to spot them.
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