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Published: November 25th 2005
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Ancient Cities
My guide on my day hike I never ended up going to the ancient ruins of Polonnaruwa - I realised that if I had lived in Edinburgh for three years, and refused to pay the entry fee for the Edinburgh Castle (I DID end up going when my dad got us some free passes 😊 ), then why would I pay even more to see ruins on my trip to Sri Lanka. When I'm on such a tight budget! I DID however see a few of them on my random walks around town and from the bus - maybe I'll just have to come back one day (it would have been worth it to buy a Circle Ticket which allows you to visit numerous ruins, but the entry price for the single location would have been my budget for many days!).
I DID, however, have a wonderful day yesterday. I went to Dimbulagala - which is about an hours bus ride from Polonnaruwa - to go see a Buddhist temple and to climb the 545m Dimbulagala rock which has numerous caves and paths to explore! First I went into the temple, and was immediately surrounded by Sri Lankan pilgrims who were visiting the temple that day.
Ancient Cities
Statues in Mountain Caves The paintings and sculptures in the cave were extremely colourful and I saw that some of the larger ones scared the visiting children!
Since there was no sign for the start of the train up the mountain, I asked a few of the Buddhist monks along the way. Everyone asked me where my guide was...so I started to worry about the safety of this climb. I didn't really want to be out in the wilderness by myself. Just then, a man came from behind me on the path with a few young monk-trainees. It turns out the man was an officer in the Sri Lankan army based at the temple, and one of the little monks would accompany us on the hike up the mountain.
With the accompaniment of Kamal -the army officer- and the little monk (who soon gained the nickname Monkey due to his quick pace up the steep mountain) I felt safe on our hike up to the top of the hill. The hike was just what I needed - some good, strenuous activity after days of sitting on countless buses! When we reached the temple on top, the views were amazing - when I
get my pictures onto a CD I will have to attach them here!
I think Kamal and Monkey were happy to see how delighted I was at the beauty of Sri Lanka, and told me they were continuing to another site along the next hilltop if I wanted to join them...so we ended up spending about 3 hours hiking up and down on the three hilltops of Dimbulagala - seeing lots of old ruins within the rock face - not to mention more amazing views to the surrounding land!
When we were back to the temple at the base of the rock, I gave Monkey a donation for his temple, and I continued on to the town where I caught a bus back to Kaduruwela. Once there, I decided I didn't want to go back to Polonnaruwa yet, and headed on another bus to Dambulla - another site of cave temples. The bus ride took longer than I expected, but I finally got to Dambulla after about 3 hours. I got dropped off by the entrance, and made my way up the hill to the temples which were carved into the stone. The temple was separated into five
Ancient Cities
Big Golden Buddha separate rooms, each with different Buddha carvings in them. All in all there must have been hundreds of sculptures and paintings in the caves! The view from the top of the mountain was beautiful!
My visit to the temples was quite quick, and when I was done I walked along the road to the main town of Dambulla - it is a nice walk and allows you to see some day to day life in this country! I found my bus back to Polonnaruwa - and had some fantastic corn on the cob from a stand near the bus-stop!
The next day my journey continued to Kandy. I packed my bag and jumped onto an early bus - it took about 4 hours to get to Kandy. I think I've become immune to long bus rides. On this particular ride, I spent the entire time staring out the window, without once taking out my book or feeling the least bit bored. It's either immunity or amazement at the beauty of the landscape around me! Most likely the latter!
Kandy is a beautiful town with a man-made lake at its center, and high-rising hills surrounding it. It's quite
Ancient Cities
Temple in the Mountain busy, and is said to be the only other 'city' in Sri Lanka other than Colombo. I made the mistake of hiking up to a guest house which I heard was good from Bernadette in Colombo, and when it turned out to be full, I had to turn back and hike all the way down. I ended up getting a place at a nice hotel near the lake on the southern side, and went in search for some much needed food!
Tomorrow I will most likely go on a tour of the temples in the vicinity!
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vaari 1.2-2007
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Hieno matka ja upeita kertomuksia!!