Advertisement
Published: September 7th 2017
Glyn and I caused quite a stir with the many stray dogs of Sigiriya this morning. It was 5.30am and they weren't expecting tourists to go walking down the road, so every single dog either barked or howled. The residents of Sigiriya must have loved us. The manager of our lodge was perturbed, the Rock wasn't open yet. We explained that we were off to photograph the sunrise; she looked bemused and just warned us to be careful of wild elephants. 'What?!' I said to Glyn, 'that would be awesomeness!'. No. It would be extremely dangerous, I was told.
We walked to within view of Sigiriya Rock and waited for the most unimpressive sunrise ever. And to cap it off, no wild elephants, well, not yet...
Thuminda arrived at our lodge just after 6.45 to take us to Sigiriya Rock which is a massive lump of rock that rises 200 metres above the surrounding countryside with old ruins at the top. Was it a palace, a fortress or a monastery? No one knows but the popular theory was that it was built by King Kasyapa between AD 477 and 485 to hide from his brother who was upset that
he'd murdered their dad so he could succeed the throne.
It opens at 7am which is when we arrived because it is cooler and there are less tourists. There are a lot of steps and narrow walkways alongside the rock that those suffering from vertigo would not like at all. At one point is a narrow spiral staircase attached to the side of the rock, it looks very precarious but I felt quite safe on it. At the top were colourful cave paintings of topless women with boobs like bell pushes, that had survived time and weather remarkably well. Back down another spiral staircase we walked along an open passage the was lined on one side with The Mirror Wall. This once was covered in a mix of lime, egg white and honey, giving it a highly polished shine. Today's it's a brown wall.
Next was the the climb to the summit, being careful not to shout because there are huge wasps that will swarm resulting in the top being closed. The final stone steps are flanked by two giant stone lions paws. Was it once a whole lion, I do not know. It was almost clear enough
to get a good photo, but three lads spent ages preening whilst taking a selfie, to the point that a woman next to me started to count them down from 10. Lastly were long metal open staircases up to the top, where I could see the ancient stone steps worn to the point it would be deadly to use them. The top was windy and reminded me a little of ruins in Peru. There were great views across the green landscape below.
Upon our descent at the lions paws, we came across a troupe of monkeys that lets us get quite close for photos and so were being papped by the tourists. As we got nearer to the bottom, we became particularly grateful that we had arrived early because there were throngs of tourists in huge packs with selfie sticks and over-sized sun hats - it was going to get crowded up there.
We got lost looking for the drivers car park which was where we planned to meet Thuminda and ended up walking for ages in the hot sun, finding ourselves outside the paid area and the guard wouldn't let us back in so we had to
phone Thuminda to come and get us.
On the way out of Sigiriya, we saw tourists having an elephant ride which was depressing, especially after meeting Seetha the rescue elephant in Kegalle recently who had many scars from her chains when she was slaving in the tourist industry. The elephant looked so miserable with its legs chained in pairs plus more chains than Mr T around its neck.
As Polonnuruwa has been honoured with just over two double page spreads in my guidebook, I thought we'd better visit it. Thuminda drove us the 35 miles, stopping only for a wild elephant breaking its way through the trees to the road. Did I just casually slip that in? Yes! It was a big huge WILD elephant at the edge of the road, heading our way. OMG! Thuminda pulled up on the other side of the road, ready to shoot off should the elephant charge - it seemed content chomping at the trees, but best not take too many chances. Glyn and I took photos whilst also being in awe; we just don't get this close to elephants in safari parks in the UK, let alone thinking we would ever
be so near to a wild one. Did I mention it was huge?!!
Moving on... eventually... We arrived in Polonnaruwa which was the big thing in Sri Lanka after Anuradhapura waned. It was the main city of the Sinhalese Kingdom from around 1077 until it was abandoned in 1293 and consumed by the jungle. These days it's consumed by tourists and monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys. Plus a fair amount of monitor lizards. We spent hours there as each time we thought we have finished, Thuminda took us to another area. It was impressive, naturally there were shedloads of Buddhas and dagobas, but also lots of carvings and unique buildings that were once 8-12 storeys high. Naturally a lot of it was in ruin, but there was enough to see to get the idea. Some of the temples contained huge remains of Buddha statues that were many floors high.
It was mid afternoon, hot and sweaty. Glyn and I were feeling tired, especially as a lot of the time we had to remove our shoes and our feet were getting sore on the tiny, sharp stones. But Thuminda took us to more parts that were unique and
so we never lost interest.
Not many tourists made it until the end, so by the time we got to Lankatilaka which was a massive monastery with a giant headless Buddha, we were the only ones left. Thuminda got chummy with the guard who in turn opened a door in the wall to a secret passage behind letting all three of us in. It lead us around the back and through another tiny door in the wall on the other side of the building. The guard also told us about the faded religious paintings on the walls and explained how the monks worshipped three levels of Buddha, feet, middle and head on different floors level with the relevant height of the statue. After seeing a scaffolding covered mound that will take years to excavate, we saw that the time was gone 5pm and time to go.
The drive back was like any we have encountered so far in Sri Lanka: lots of beeping, lorry drivers tail-gating desperate to overtake no matter who and where. It seems that overtaking when there is on coming traffic is ok just so long as you toot your horn. The same goes for
overtaking on bends. Making a phonecall whilst driving is obligatory. And if you can overtake a bus, tuk-tuk, moped and a couple of cars all in one go seconds before a tractor hits you head on, then all the better. This sounds nuts. It is nuts. But strangely I didn't feel scared because that's how everyone drives here, they somehow squeeze past each other and just make it. Apparently there are speed limits plus a written and practical driving test to pass. Honestly!
We slowed down as a minibus ahead had to stop for a monitor lizard crossing the road - they do like crossing the road in this area to the extent that they get their own warning road sign (as do the elephants). But the main excitement was another wild elephant next to the road but safely behind a very thin electric fence as this one was inside a park. We pulled up just a few metres from it and quite a few other tourists gathered to take photos.
Thuminda took us to see his mate who organised a safari for us tomorrow, it's a lot cheaper than the Wilpattu one which we booked in the
UK. However, do we really need to? We've already seen elephants, monkeys, deer, an eagle, chipmunks and monitor lizards today!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.023s; cc: 9; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0528s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Beautiful beast
Amazing and big