Angsana Polonnaruwa

... pour ca que j'ai loue un rickshaw, car je comptais marcher et louer un velo mais vu le temps...<br>Ruines d'un royaume fonde au 11e siecle, assez bien conserve, et assez imposant, au milieu d'arbres divers, de singes et de varans... Temples, bassins, palais, c'est super beau et le cadre est magnifique. A un moment il pleut tellement que je loue un parapluie a un handicape pour 100 roupies, mais bien entendu au bout de 5 mn la pluie s'est arretee et je me suis ...

An early breakfast and bus to Dambulla (which took an hour as stopped everywhere) before waiting for an hour for a bus to Polonnaruwa, which meant that we didnt get there until midday. I am sure it would have been much later if the rickshaw driver hadn't got us onto the correct bus as it really wasn't clear.<br><br>We went to Samatha guest house - disgusting and dirty stay away. The Manuels guest house (900rs a night) which was ok. The room was on the first floor so had an outside ...

... an outer moat and city, an inner moat and ramparts, a lake, entrances, a mirror wall and paintings, a Lion Platform, a palace on the summit and so on.<br><br>Nestled within a forest, this was a lovely place to visit. It&#8217;s quite remarkable what one king could transform so much out of rock! Initially, you pass over the inner moat, which is kept beautifully, with lovely clean waters. Then a short walk takes you to the royal gardens, where you can see straight ...

... the observation that if you start at the head of the Buddha and keep your eyes on it's eyes and walk towards the feet it looks like the Buddha is opening it's eyes which is pretty cool. We hired a guide for this one (though we didn't have much of a choice) and he was quite informative. Apparently President Obama was in town and took the same tour last year! One of the trinkets people sell you are these pieces of bamboo paper that monks can write on and ...

... and along my arm........ I think I squealed, I definitely jumped and Christine laughed. We got the cockroach off the bed but after that we both found it quite difficult to settle down after that. Na Mala is quite rural - there were lots of noises, lots of scurrying, something on the roof - it took some time to get to sleep - we chatted away into the wee sma' hours. All in all Chris and I found and killed 5 cockroaches in our 2 night stay - but we both still enjoyed ...

... to Dambulla, where the Rock Cave Temples are located. After climbing up a steep rock face for 20-30 minutes you reach a series of caves where there are Buddha statues (about 150 total) inside as well as cave paintings depicting various Buddhist images. After climbing back down the rock I hopped on another bus for another 45 minutes to Sigiriya. Since all there was to see in Dambulla were the cave ...

... one street town and we were the only touists. There were however a number of guesthouses and we somehow ended up in the worst one. Incredibly basic, with a very pushy owner but very cheap so I couldn't really complain. As the ride from Kandy, coupled with the 2km walk, took so long it was nearly 3pm by the time we had checked in. This left us in a state of limbo. We didn't really want to hang around in town any longer than was necessary but ...

... bread and tea. Admittedly for the first week the children stared at their breakfast with a mixture of bewilderment and shock. Most Sri Lankans start their day with string hoppers (made from rice flour) and curry and would consider this very 'continental' offering as the equivalent to starting the day with desert. They were won over eventually and got some well needed variety in their diet though we did little to alter the view amongst most Sri Lankan natives that foreigners ...

... zajimavych zivocichu vcetne slonu a opic atd. Dalsi den rano nas cekali ruiny, ktere byli take uchvatne, ale safari bylo stejne lepsi. Starobyla Polonnaruwa byla postavena v 10. stoleti, takze uz z ni moc co do vysky nezbylo, ale zbytky zdi ruznych budov se tahnou stovky metru. Hned vedle jsou do skaly vytesane 3 sochy Budhy, ktere v pruvodci vypadaly mnohem vetsi, ale libily se nam stejne. :-) Jinak to byl asi nas nejvedrovejsi den od naseho odjezdu z Evropy.

... vydali smer Sigiriya a uz kolem pul sedme jsme dorazili na misto. Skalni pevnost Sigigiya pochazi ze 6. stoleti a je postavena na 200-metrove skale (nechapu, jak to tenkrat zvladli). Kolem pevnosti jsou pozustatky vodnich zahrad a palacu. Jelikoz jsme vyrazili tak brzo, byli jsme tam uplne prvni turisti, takze mame nektere fotky bez lidi, ale kolem 8 uz se to zacinalo pekne zaplnovat a davy prijizdely autobusy. Cela prohlidka nam zabrala pres 3 ...