Blogs from Sigiriya, Central Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 3

We woke up to an amazing view of the beach and the blue, blue lagoon on which Negombo is situated. To adopt a phrase used by the housekeeper to a friend of ours, I communed with my G-d overlooking the golden beaches and the sea. We met up with Caroline and went down to breakfast. The fruit tasted so fresh as if it had just been picked off the tree. Then there was breakfast - a choice buffet of a full English breakfast, on a separate section a buffet of continental breakfast, on the third counter the traditional vegan Sri Lankan breakfast of string hoppers and curry. After a few cups of coffee and a Sri Lankan breakfast it was onto the van for our drive to Sigiriya. We had to start the holiday with our ... read more

We had planned to head down the East Coast of Sri Lanka however the weather forecast didn't look promising for some beach time. The North East monsoon which normally occurs this time of the year was late and the long range forecast when we left Colombo was for fine weather for some inexplicit reason decided to start at exactly when we planned to head East. The forecast was for two days of rain. We had been chatting to some people about other places and thought a place called Sigiriya, north of Kandy, where we had to catch a train back to Colombo in a few days, sounded interesting. This proved to be good advice and turned into one our highlights of the trip so far. The train we had booked our ticket on carried on past ... read more

Day 3 We had a meal last night at the King Coconut family restaurant which was nice, and headed up in the pouring rain to the Rodeo bar - we were there until it closed and they were putting up the shutters around us! We had a poor nights sleep, mostly due to the dripping air conditioning unit in the room, which by morning had left a significant puddle on the floor. The barking of stray dogs (prolific as in all Asian countries), and squawking of rook like birds added to our disturbed night. Indy was waiting for us after breakfast for the 4 or so hour journey to Sigiriya. On the way there were a Number of traffic jams caused by people's visiting the local cemeteries for All Souls Day. They take floral tributes and ... read more

A morning walk along the 'Tank' (manmade lake) before breakfast at Habarana a bounty of water lilly's and abundance of Birdlife. Janika arrives after breakfast to transfer us to our next stop Sigiriya Rock. The Rock appears majestically out of the landscape, a huge hardened magna plug of an extinct volcano. Janika gives us the history whilst he drives, popular myth states that the formation served both Royal and military functions during the rein of King Kassapa, a new theory supported by archaeological evidence, rather than local legend, suggests that The Rock was a Buddhist Monastery, whatever its purpose it is an awesome sight. As you walk towards the steps that will take us to the top of the rock you past ruins of buildings and The Royal Gardens, water gardens, and then the terraced and ... read more

Today was a very early morning. We were up at 5, ready by 5:45, checked out by 6:15, breakfast and then on the road. We had a few stops today and the first one was Sigiriya Rock, which was a Buddhist Palace and town. We arrived there by 7:15 am and started touring the area. It was massive. We walked around the grounds a little and then we started with the stairs. There were stairs and more stairs and more stairs. The trip up the rock was 2,002 and steps and we hit every one of them. At least we were there early before the crowds and before it got too hot. Plus there was a great breeze and as we climbed higher and higher the wind got stronger and stronger. It was glorious. A breeze ... read more