Lion's Rock and Beautiful Buddhas

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HAPPEEEE BIRTHDAY MUM! 😊 x

Helene's friends Claire and Nicola are lovely 😊 and they're mad enough to take me with them on a 2day action-packed adventure around Sri Lanka. I'm a little over-excited about having travel companions for a change!

We're on a bit of a mission to take in half of Sri Lanka in a very short space of time. In about 36hours we're squashing in some of Sri Lanka's finest sights including ancient Sigiriya, the Dambulla rock caves, and the amazing annual Kandy Perehera festival (a massive street parade with about a thousand Kandian dancers and about 60 elephants). There's no time for sleep on this trip.

We take the train from Colombo up to Kandy which is a lovely relaxing trip. The rocking of the train makes you want to sleep but I fight it all the way so I can enjoy the lovely views.

We end up climbing Lion's Rock in the midday sun (not the best plan but the only way to fit everything in!) The views from the top are worth it. I'm quite freaked out by the moving masses of hornets nests on the way up. eeek!
The rock caves at Dambulla are as peaceful and lovely as I remember them to be and so are the brightly coloured Buddhist monks that are wandering around.

In the evening there's no time for dinner it's straight into Kandy to get some roadside seats where we can watch the Perehera from.

It's totally hypnotic.

Fire dancing, hundreds and hundreds of Kandian dancers prancing about energetically and elephants lit up like christmas trees. Drums beat wildly, the boys dance energetically, elephants sway, and the whole event becomes a surreal swirling seemingly never-ending soiree!

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Photos

The Hat Girls!
Fashionistas Nic and Claire get their hats out for the train trip to Kandy!

Rockin out at Lion's Rock
"I swear I used to be thin before all those curries!"

Comments

[Nic M]

what a lovely hat!!
Thanks for forgetting to mention the part where all the school children of sri lanka laughed very loudly at the sight of two stange ladies in big hats ;-)

[Travel Cass]

heehee that moment in time still makes me chuckle :)