Pelwehera Village Resort Dambulla

... It's packed up there as most of the pilgrims have gone up earlier & slept there. There is hardly a space to be had but a strong atmosphere & what I can only describe as a mass worship of the sunrise (including Sri Lankan TV). It's a fine day & super views but crammed! The walk down is equally chaotic including the ceremonial relics coming up. So I'm back for breakfast & Liz was woken at 3am by some ...

... and Sigirya the site of a complex of royal palaces. Sigirya is a rock in the middle of the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka that marks the site of former 5th century royal palaces – the summer palace being at ground level with a series of gardens and fountains; the winter palace at the top of the rock at an altitude of 600 feet above sea level and reached by a long climb up a series of stone and iron steps, some original ...

(After standing for almost the entire journey to Pollunaruwa, I was horrified by the actions of one selfish young mother on the bus. She was sat on a seat with a 3yr old boy asleep on her knee, whereas her mother was sat on the floor of the bus, in a space in front of the daughter, who had another passenger next to her. The mother clearly wasn't well and had to lurch her head out of the bus 3 times to be very sick. The daughter (I didn’t know that’s who ...

... of demons. Most of the demons were carrying spears and knives, but one in the corner had a bayonet! Also the tesselating Buddha tiles covering another wall were pretty cool.

While we were visiting Dambulla my parents very kindly offered to put us up for 2 nights in the Kandalama Hotel. This is a 5 star hotel, designed by the famous architect Geoffery Bawa. The place is massive, and built into the side of a ...

... we walked out in utter disbelief. The Ancient City tour was quite a whirlwind though I have to say that I don't think I could have handled seeing them all via bus since that would take well over a week. Our jam packed three day tour afforded us the ability to see way more than we would have had we used public transportation so I highly recommend using a driver even if it's not your usual style. There is a ticket you can buy that includes the entrance ...

Damulla is the largest and best preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The rock towers 160 m over the surrounding plains.There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding area. The major attractions are spread over 5 caves, which contain statues and paintings. These paintings and statues are related to Buddha and his life. To get to this place I had to climb that 160 m up a never ...

Day 3 : Friday 26th December 2008 Colombo, Sri Lanka - Dambulla We got up shortly before 6 as our breakfast was to be delivered to our rooms at 6 as we were being picked up at 6.30. It didn't materialise - we changed, packed the bags and headed to reception at 6.25 where we started to ask why our 6 O'Clock breakfast hadn't made it to the room - the receptionist looked confused and pointed to the clock - it wasn't even 6 now....... We are still confused - when we got ...

... 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 ...

10th October With only 2 weeks in Sri Lanka we needed to keep moving quickly in order to see as much as possible. 2 days in Anuradhapura had been enough and we needed to move on. Our next port of call was the final point of the cultural triangle, Dambulla. Well Dambulla doesn't really have much to offer, it's a 1 street dusty town, but there are a couple of sights that I needed to see but most of all Sigiriya. To get to Dambulla ...

... egg-yoke yellow chair ever designed. We literally were only an astrologer and a cookery segment away from launching our own Breakfast Show! After a little bit of bemused trepidation the kids took to the idea and before you could say "Time now for this week's makeover....", they were poised and enunciating perfectly to camera (and not a diva strop between them) By the end of the second full week, they had amassed enough skills to script a full tv report about their school and life ...