Deer Park Hotel Polonnaruwa

Lever a 6h20 ce matin car le soleil se leve vers 5h15 et il donne direct dans ma chambre donc a partir de cette heure la je ne dors plus. A 7h je suis a la station de bus pour aller visiter le site de Pollonaruwa, un peu plus loin que Sigiryia ou je suis alle hier, je sais c'est pas logique mais vraiment pas envie de me faire chier a dormir dans le trou du cul du monde et de me trimballer les sacs en bus local.. Bref trouve facilement mon bus grace aux gens, ici il n'y a ...

... area and mosquito net and ensuite. It wasn;t the nicest place we stayed but was fine as was the food.<br><br>we went on an elephant safari - 4000rs for teh jeep and 5245rs for 2 people entry into the park at Minneya. Although we had seen lots of elephants in Africa we thought it would be interesting to see the gathering of 150+ elephants which flock to the area in times of drought... as always we were lied to and it was another month until that happens (aug). We ended up ...

... sprinkling water on the goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Prosperity) Nearby there&#8217;s a 7-storeyed, pyramid design stupa known as Satmahal Prasada; Rankot Vehera stupa by Nissanakamalla (largest in Pollunaruwa at 54m); Laikathilaka Image House, Seema Prasada (highest building in this group) built by Parakabahu, Pabalu Vehera stupa and Kira Vehera built by Queen Subhadra (Parakabahu&#8217;s consort).<br><br>From here, I travelled quite some way to visit Gal Vihara ...

We went to Pollonaruwa as a day trip from Sigirya. It's one of Sri Lanka's ancient cities and a world heritage site. The ruins stretch over a huge area and we had to take the car around to see them all!<br><br>We took a guide for the morning and he showed us firstly around the museum which had some interesting miniature reconstructions of what the ruins would have looked like before ...

... the less and less we saw other tourists. There was one guide that said he hadn't given a tour in over a week whereas before he gave up to 5 a day. We did our best to help support the locals but hearing the same lines over and over again began to wear on us. There are only so many Buddha statues we need and there is no way we believe the line, " my father is a carver and made this. This product not from Colombo." Um, we weren't born yesterday! Hehe Each ...

... The car park has a museum and huge modern Buddha statue - but the good stuff is up the hill! A long and hot climb up lots and lots of steps took us to the temple - there were quite a lot of Monkeys and touts along the way - both looking to jump on unsuspecting tourists. Along the way we got a view of Sigiriya 20km away in the distance - we're climbing that????? We got to the top, left our shoes with the shoeman so he gets his tips and entered the temple. The ...

... and they didn't take very long I decided not to stay the night there. So, on to Sigiriya, another of the ancient cities of Sri Lanka. Here there is another rock to climb, however, much bigger. Some people believe that the ruins on top of the rock were a palace, some believe a fortress, and others believe they were residences. This climb takes about an hour to an hour and a half to climb. Along the way are ...

... thought we would need far more than 2 hours to see the ruins. We decided that we would get up early the next morning and get to the site when it opened, if we were finished within a few hours then we'd catch a bus to the next town, if not we'd stay another night. So with nothing else to do we ended up chilling on the rocks down by the lake. It was an incredibly tranquil spot and in any other country would be rammed with lakeside bars ...

... both but based on her opionion that we "had kind faces" she had make the incredible leap that we were soldiers for jesus! (I know I had gone very monastic a la mode a few days previously with linen trousers, sandals and a freshly shaved head - but still?) So I suppose that's Sri Lanka for you. They used to call it Serendip. Land of unexpected and fortuitous discovery! Bless! I can say that without irony now. Whatever about walking a righteous path, I was in Sri Lanka for a ...

... ainda alguém se lembra das bombas de 5 paus?), por vezes à noite podem-se ouvir as detonações. No dia seguinte acordamos muito cedo e pelas 6.30 já estavamos a caminho de Sigiriya, fomos a pé pois eram apenas alguns quilómetros. A fortaleza de rocha de Sigiriya data do Sec. V, e está construida no topo de um rochedo ingreme de 200m de altura, rodeado pelas ruínas de jardins de água e palácios. O rochedo pode-se ver de bastante longe e é uma ...