(5) Eye You’re Better

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Wednesday, July 21st

Pollanaruwa (I kid you not). More immense Buddha statues carved from the rock and a seven story palace with 1,000 rooms and a harem of 300.

Sigiriya /sky fortress - a 200 meter high rock outcrop is one of the most extraordinary monuments in Sri Lanka, designed with an enormous lion sculpted at the entrance. We climbed the steps through the huge paws up to the city in the sky. This king stole the throne from his brother by killing their father and spent his entire life preparing for the day when he knew his brother would return seeking revenge. The form is much more colossal than the sphinx in Egypt and is reminiscent of entering the New York Public Library. Disney could have adopted this site for its next “Honey I shrunk the…” film as mom looked minuscule standing between the paws at the bottom.

Eye you’re better - or Ayurbeda is a natural homeopathic type of healing for whatever ails you and we were eager to try it. The full body massage included virtually bathing in oil. Then we were led wordless to a facsimile of Dracula’s bed which was decked in dry leaves and once we were enclosed with only our heads protruding proceeded to get HOT. I can still smell the oils on my pores and hair follicles.

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