Sigiriya Village

... which went up a circular spiral staircase up to the frescos - which were absolutely amazing and still looked fantastic with no renovation. There are now protected by material from the sun. There were people up there to make sure you didn't use your camera flash and they encouraged us to go through the rope onto a wooden plank through the normally sealed walkway to see extra 4 paintings - but i hardly looked as was too worried ...

... a rock cut stupa with 8 Buddha images around it, many Buddha images around the periphery of 3 walls, a huge reclining Buddha and a protected vessel that collects water constantly dripping from the ceiling. Believed to be sacred, it’s used in daily temple rituals. Over the entire area, the ceiling contains a vast number of Buddhist frescoes with associated stories since its arrival in Sri Lanka.

Maha Alut Viharaya, the 3rd cave, also has a ...

... most dagobas are dome shaped and this one is egg shaped. Mihintale- This sight is super important because it's where Buddhism originated in Sri Lanka. Despite our best efforts to avoid using a guide, we ended up giving in since there was so much to see and learn and the guide hadn't given a tour in a week. The whole site takes a few hours to check out and there are some big hills/stairways to climb along the way. As always, the entire area is surrounded ...

... it out...... After getting to the bottom of the lions paws (which is only 10 percent of the way down) Another huge group of school kids started to climb the stairs. Since it was ragingly hot I decided to take a rest in the shade. One thing that I failed to mention before was the huge wasp nest I saw on the way up. There were even random signs that said to keep quiet so as not to anger the wasp. I had thought this was odd ...

... later) but at least we had (1200) stairs. It's incredible to think that the three acres of pleasure city atop the rock was constructed without any steps in place. How on earth did they lug all the materials up there? We couldn't work it out, suffice to say that the playboy king wasn't into the hands-on-back-to-the-floor style of project management, and, once it was built, travelled between top and bottom on a bed carried by minions ...

... work, a swimming pool, water gardens. There are signs of small inhabited areas - monks meditation areas, sentry posts. We're shown some holes in the rock.....they're bond points where stones/bricks are laid to get a secure foundation - lots of the rock was covered by brick/stone in this way. A lot of the walls would have had more paintings - but they're worn away - you can still see drip lines above alcoves which would have protected the art from rainwater running ...

... top there are the Sigiriya damsels paintings, very old sensuous paintings of topless women. These are really nice and very well preserved. Once at the top, the views are breathtaking and it's also very windy. It took us more then 3 hours to visit, so we were very hungry after, but we have to say this was the place we liked the most in Sri Lanka so far. PT: A caminho de Sigiriya visitamos varios sitios interessantes. A primeira paragem foi em ...

... for the bank here in Hambantota. The house had been turned upside down b ut it was nowhere to be seen. Tehn Jasmine had a brainwave and remembered we had been in food city teh day before it dispappeared so a trek sown there in teh midday sun was successful in locating the card. Last night, Ranesh took us to the beach in Hambantota. we sat on teh sea wall and it was lovely and calm. A place i could go to escape lifes troubles I feel!

... thankfully because we were there so early there was no cloud! We saw yet more beautiful waterfalls and heard some strange animals along the way, for part of the journey we were followed by a wild hog! We saw no one on the route until Helen decided to have a wee- a group appeared whilst she was squatting... at least they had the decency to stop and look the other way!