Today we were travelling in a tuk tuk. I can only describe this a similar to the runaway train ride at disneyland. Its not too bad on the main roads, there is the cooling breeze and the incessant papping of horns that can be from your driver overtaking something or from another driver about to overtake you. However once we were on to the unpaved red dirt roads, thats when the ride became a bouncing jolting fairground ride. It does add to the fun.
We had left at 6:30 without breakfast but with both our water bottles full so we could be at sigiriya when it opened at 7am. The Lion Rock has the ruins of a palace at the top but its a steep climb to get there and as there is only one narow staircase to go up and down on, when the crowds begin to arrive in their droves at 8 it becomes very crowded and of course moves at the pace of the slowest individual as there isn't room to pass most of the time. The other factor is the heat, the staircase is in shade in the early morning but gets very hot once the sun is on it.
Our dtiver dropped us off at the ticket entrance and explained where everything was and drew a little map to show he would be in the foreigners car park when we had finished.
The rock is surrounded by water gardens. Its the dry season so very little water was in them as we walked through but its easy to see the effect they would have when full. And then we started to climb. And climb. And climb.
There is a second ticket gate just before a winding metal staircase and here no photos were allowed. We climbed up to where, sheltered under an overhang, are paintings on the rock of beautiful naked women from the waist up. The policy of not taking photos is strictly enforced and even though Jonos camera was turned off, because the lens cover wasn't on it, they weren't happy. We were allowed to keep going but there are people who, having taken a photo, have had their cameras confiscated, been detained for a couple of hours by the police and had to sign documents stating they knowingly commited this act of desecration. Best just to visit the museum afterwards and photograph the copies in there instead!
 |
| These arephotos of the copies |
After seeing the paintings we had to climb down a second metal stsircase to the mirror wall. This is no longer anything like a mirror so imagination has to play a big part here. The views are amaxing as you look down on the water gardens.
Another set of steep stairs up and up brought us to a plateau where a safety cage has been installed in case the wasps attack.there are even special coats that can be used to get visitors off the rock if the wasps are annoyed that day. Thankfully they seemed to be unbothered because they were massive.
The plateau leads to the steps that go right between the lions paws. Originally there was a lions head that the steps would have entered but its long gone.
Big millipede?
 |
| Wasp safety cage |
 |
| Before someone makes a comment, this is a photo of a monkey and Jono. |
We took a moment to pause here. Despite being only 7:30 it was still hot, the sun was just coming on to this face and we were only part way up. Still at least the site was not too busy,no one was coming down the stairs yet so it was possible to pass people or pause to take a breather without stopping everyone else.
On this set of stairs there were monkeys everywhere. Sat on the stairs, on the railings and on the rocks above us. I got hit by monkey poo from above, luckily it's dry stuff that bounces off!
Finally we were at the top and in the slight cool breeze that was blowing. We drank one of our water bottles completely. That had been a tough climb.
The remains of the palace showed what an incredible feat it had been to build up here. Just getting all the bricks up to the top was a mammoth task. We spent half an hour wandering around the ruins, admiring the fabulous views on all sides and getting our heart beats back to normal.
 |
| We could see a group of monks arriving far below |
 |
| Throne |
What goes up, has to go down. Now there was a steady queue of people walking up so as we went down they had to move into a single file to let us pass. Unbelievably I got hit by flying monkey poo on the way down as well!
 |
| This was one of the few places with separated up and down parts |
The way down takes people on a short cut to the foreigners car park. But we didn't want to go there yet as now we wanted to see the museum which was right back at the entrance where we had purchased our tickets and on the other side of the ticket checkpoint. It was a struggle going against the tide of people walking up to Lion Rock as by now, 8:30, tour groups had arrived.
 |
| The group of monks we had seen from the top were walking up |
The museum had a short film, lots of archaeological finds, well documented and the recreations of the paintings. Mostly its no photos but its worth seeing.
The next challenge was to get back to our tuk tuk. The foreigners car park was the other side of the entry gate and we had used our ticket. We had to explain why we wanted to go in and as well as checking the date and time stamp on the tickets they insisted we showed them the photos we had taken on the site before we were allowed in. There were quite a few tuk tuks in the car park and lots of them were red so its a good job the driver had suggested we take a photo of the license plate so we could find him!
It was 10 am, we still hadn't had breakfast and we had another rock to climb before we did.
Pidurangala rock was just a few minutes of runaway train ride and this time the car park was right outside the entrance. Its cheaper to climb this than Siguriya because it doesn't have a royal palace on the top but it does have great views of Lion Rock.
You have to have knees and shoulders covered to enter as there is a temple just inside but as soon as we were past off came my skirt and jonos "legs" and we started to climb again.
The leaflet that comes with the ticket warns you to take plenty of water, to only attempt if fit, that it is a far more strenuous climb than Sigiriya and to give about 2 hours to do it in. We already knew that at the top of the steps there would be a bit of rock climbing to do before the summit.
Oh boy, the steps seemed to go on forever and our water got drunk pretty quickly. At least this climb was through plants pretty much in the shade.
 |
| Buddha statue near the top |
 |
| Time to scramble |
At the top the views of Sigiriya and the surrounding area was great.
 |
| Jono having fun with perspective |
 |
| The top is a massive slab of rock |
 |
| Link to 360here |
 |
| Lion rock where we climbed earlier |
We spent a couple of hours relaxing in our treehouse before setting out on ournext sightseeing tour at 3. This was the Dambulla caves. Our hosts called us a tuk tuk and off we went again. The tuk tuk driver stopped a few minutes into the journey, broke off a flower growing in someones garden outside their wall and presented it to me saying something about my skirt.
 |
| Narrow roads so we were forced half off anytime anything came towards us |
 |
| Breakfast! |
 |
| Our tree house balcony |
Shoes off at the top and we went in to see the 5 caves. Two are not very impresive but the other three are. The ceilings and walls are completely covered with paintings and statues of Buddhas are everywhere.
U
After leaving the caves a path and more steps, tnis time heading down, took us to the golden temple where a sign said this was the largest buddha in the world at 30m tall
At this point we realised that to get back to our driver we had to retrace our steps and go up again. It was not a happy thought!
We got partway up and noticed a path going off to the side. Hoping we could skirt around the hill rather than climb it, we took the path only to find it ended in a locked gate. As we stood there, a uniformed guard approached us. "Come this way", he said. Slightly nervously we followed him, he led us down past the gate......and then around the other side! It wasn't joined to a fence! "Easy when you know," he said as he walked away.
We were able to skirt the hill, passing yet another small buddha shrine til we got back to our driver. I'd rather forget about the toilets by the carpark but for anyone else that visits, try to make sure using them is not needed and if thats not possible antisceptic handwipes would be good. Don't count on there being any water, or tissue, or doors that close
Back to Mutu, passing two separate elephants crossing the road, each one causing traffic to suddenly stop. Another great dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment