Giritale Hotel Polonnaruwa

... de panneau indiquant le numero de bus, tout est a l'arrache, faut demander car en plus sur les bus c'est ecrit en language d'ici.... La misere quoi. Bon des gens bien sympas m'emmenent au bon bus, ou je m'assois devant. la quelqun de tres gentil me parle dans un anglais plus que correct que je suis a la place des moines et que si l'un d'eux venaient a rentrer je devrais laisser ma place. Lui reponds que je suis au courant, mais decide quand meme de changer de place ...

... the park about an hour and saw about 46 elephants in total. What was amazing was seeing a 2 week old baby there and just sitting and watching as the elephants ate and bathed. We are not really interesting in the birds about.<br><br>At night there were lots of midges circling the lights but no mosquitos - but still used the nets. There wasn't really any restaurants in the town so we ate at the guest house and drank beer. overnight i was bitten by something - was it fleas/ ants or ???

... 8211; a set of stunning Buddha images carved out of striated rock that was part of Parakabahu&#8217;s northern monastery. There are 4 images, all cut from 1 solid lump of granite, altho&#8217; each had previously had a small enclosure built around each one. They really were very beautiful. The standing Buddha is 7m high, the reclining Buddha is 14m and the other seated ones all have wonderful lines of the stone&#8217;s grain running thro&#8217; their faces or bodies ...

... were ruined and some really lovely stone and bronze carvings taking from the archaeological sites. It also showed some of the work done to restore parts of the buildings. The guide was very good. He not only showed us around the ruins, but explained the history behind them and the significance of some of the religious beliefs to the specific temples.<br><br>There was so much to see ...

... was really different from the next so I'm glad we saw as many as we did. By the end I was pretty much done seeing Buddha statues. I can't even count how many Buddha's we saw lying down, standing up, sitting cross legged and intricately drawn on a cave. While I loved all the variety, I was ready to take a break from the Buddha's by the end of the three days. There were also a ton of dagoba's (Star Wars anyone?)/stupas that are a Buddhist monument that ...

... dates back to 1BC and consists of 5 caves which house amazing cave paintings and lots of statues - mainly of Buddha in various poses and a couple of other historical figures. They range in date and wow-factor but these are the best preserved cave temples in Sri Lanka. Being a Holiday there were lots of Sri Lankans visiting and surprisingly few tourists like us. On the way out one monkey liked our group - Amaranga got in the way and the monkey had a go at his leg. We ...

... couple caves (without Buddha statues however), a graffiti wall from 1000 years ago, and some rock paintings/frescoes. What's left of the ruins isn't much, just the foundations of the buildings. But the views from the top were incredible. Before I continue, I have some bad news. All along on this trip I have been saving my pictures onto a flash drive and then little by little uploading them onto Kodak's ...

... and tourists. Thanks to the 20 year civil war that is still evidently occuring we were on our own apart from the locals bathing and washing clothes. It was as if we had stepped back in time 100 years. I hadn't been anywhere like this before and doubt I will experince anything like it again! With absolutely nothing else to do we returned to the guesthouse for another good curry before going to bed at 8:30!! 7th October The bedroom in the ...

... purpose. After visiting the country last year with Ed, I'd agreed - in a moment of sudden altruism - to come back and help out the Partners in Care charity. And so that's how I came to end up living in a jungle. In a boy's home. For three weeks. Armed with nothing but my wits and a very expensive tv camera. It was certainly going to be an experience! The camera bit I should explain. In it's wisdom the charity decided I should help to instigate an English language programme in ...

... bastante impressionante. Fomos os primeiros turistas a entrar nesse dia, e assim durante algum tempo estivemos sozinhos. A subida à rocha é feita por meio de escadas estreitas e ingremes, por vezes com uma queda vertical de um dos lados. A meio caminho do topo, numas cavernas, estão as Donzelas de Sigiriya, um conjunto de pinturas antigas e sensuais de jovens mulheres seminuas, as pinturas estão bastante bem preservadas. Chegados ao topo do ...