India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 55 to 58 - Anuradhapura to Kandy, Sri Lanka

 

A couple of these giant squirrels came down the tree to pose for us at the Mihintale peak walk

Day 55 continued

Our afternoon visit was to the mountain peak of Mihintale. It is believed that this was the site of a momentous meeting between the monk Mahinda and King Devanampiyatissa, introducing Buddhism to the country. Exploring Mihintale involves climbing a flight of 1,840 shallow stone steps, and a short final section with uneven steps and a hand rail leading to the summit of the Missaka Mountain. There are excellent views from the top looking back to Anuradhapura. (From the trip notes)

Then Jackie spotted a snake

We managed to bypass many of the steps in the bus, so that was good (except for Brian and his step count). I don't think we actually did any less steps though as not only did we summit up the uneven steps which was a little hairy for some, and beautifully windy at the top, we then ascended to the stupa and to the new Buddha. We didn't see sunset however as the sun vanished behind the rain clouds, which fortunately were going away from us. 

Jackie and George at the start of the steps up to the Mihintale

Dinner was on the way back, at a different hotel, and was....a Sri Lankan buffet! Not only that it wasn't even ready. A rebellion was staged and with that we were back to our hotel for a la carte. We did arrive back to find there was a buffet set up there too for the two busloads of tourists that were just about to arrive. We stayed strong and united and had a thoroughly good dinner.

Three little peaks to do, that's the first one

Day 56

Away from the hotel by 08.00, an hour's drive  towards Giritale, we pause to view the magnificent Standing Buddha of Aukana, which stands 12 metres high. Sculptured in the 5th century by a master craftsman, it is still relatively isolated in its jungle setting. (From the notes) . This Buddha is the oldest standing Buddha in Sri Lanka, though it's actually not free standing but is supported from behind. Flowers are offered to Buddha, and apparently the offering is worth even more if you give the blossom to someone else to offer so not only were we all given a blossom, as we were leaving we've come away with a whole bunch of flowers as some locals wanted us to make their offering for them. George explained we were leaving so we've brought their flowers with us to take to the next temple at Dambulla. See our Relive video of the walk: click here

New Zealand Pete pausing for breath on the way up

Our next stop is Dambulla, where a great series of caves have been turned into temples dating from the 1st century BC. This World Heritage Site still attracts scores of worshippers. We will visit five separate caves, which contain a large number of Buddha images and a few sculptures of Hindu Gods. (From the trip notes). The cave is amazing, split into 5 sections, with painted ceilings and over 100 buddhas in total. We had all hoped they would be cooler which sadly they weren't, they were horribly hot. They were however very interesting. See our Relive video of the walk: click here

Some of our group going over the tricky bit near the top

En route to lunch we drove past an elephant by the side of the road, which is obviously a lot more exciting than a deer in the woods. There will be another one George said, and he wasn't wrong there was number 2 ambling down the road, trunk swinging, looking really cool. Despite Brian having a word with George this morning, lunch was already booked, and I was a bit hungry, it was possibly a touch cooler and certainly a little later. We arrived at the organic hotel and were shown round the gardens picking a few snake gourds as we went. A quick cookery demonstration on the gourd and lunch was ready. The same traditional style Sri Lankan buffet but general consensus was this one was the best

Safely on the top: Jackie, Robena, Pete, Richelle, Grant, Lucie, Cath and Brian

Optional trip for the afternoon was to visit a village by boat, back by tuk tuk to see a little local life. Everybody was a bit ambivalent, and it was all of us or none of us as it was on the way to the hotel, an hour away. Having had a lovely cooking demo over an open fire we all decided that the hotel and pool was calling, we'll do the optional safari tomorrow.

Then of course, there's the walk back down, which was much harder than the way up

Arrived at a very nice hotel overlooking a large and picturesque 7th century man-made lake. Just got to our rooms and the heavens opened. Very glad we are not huddling under a palm tree in some little village!

After that one there were two more to do, a big stupa that we walked around and then this last easy one to a sitting Buddha. At least it was later in the afternoon and slightly cooler. Its just hard doing all these without shoes. There's always some sharp grit hiding and waiting to embed itself into your foot!

We had a lovely evening, we managed most of the crossword with a beer while watching the sunset before we were joined by Richelle and Grant and Lucie. It was one of those evenings when the beer was flowing, the musicians were following us around and were so bad they were funny. We even did a rumba to one of their numbers which caused great amazement.

After we left we stopped by a big lake made by a long 12km dam built in something like the fourth century. Amazing construction for the time, but not impressive photos. There were also many Brahminy Kites flying round trying to catch fish. George told us its a rare sight so we might like to take pictures. I took a few, but not worthy of putting on here. I'll never get as good as the one I took a few weeks back in India. This was our next stop at the standing Buddha. Beautifully done. 14m high I think it is (or is it 12m?) 

Day 57

Brian has told me off for putting in the trip notes, but the temples are all blurring in to one so it's all I can do. Hopefully his photos will add some definition. So, from the trip notes: This morning we explore the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, which reached its height of glory in the 12th century, when it was a thriving commercial and religious centre. The city still maintains many of its spectacular buildings and monuments, with arguably the most impressive being the Quadrangle. This sacred precinct originally housed the tooth relic. It contains a superbly decorated circular shrine which is one of the most ornate buildings in the country. The neighbouring audience hall and bathing pool are also worth a visit. Close by, the curious round structure of the Circular Relic House has a beautifully preserved moonstone carved at the foot of a flight of steps. Another famous feature of this deserted city is the group of carved images of the Buddha, known as Galvihara. These four colossal figures are all hewn out of solid granite and the Reclining Buddha alone is no less than 14 metres long. We then continue driving towards our accommodation. Of all the above, on and off the bus (blessed relief) the four Buddhas were beautiful.

Interesting place and this monk was a very chatty and nice guy. After I took this photo he found Richelle and, when he found out she was from Canada he took her phone number as he wants to visit. She didn't quite know what to say, but handed over her phone number. While this was going on people were coming up to him, bowing and praying and asking for blessings, which he did while having a laugh with us. We treated him like a normal person and it was disconcerting others were bowing to him. Not sure if we were acting correctly or not

We all declined the Sri Lankan buffet for lunch, though we did have to stop as the driver and assistant need to eat. To be fair, we all needed a drink, and what have we started? 6 out of 8 had chocolate milkshake! Sadly it was a bit average! With three fried noodles and a fried rice it probably took longer than the buffet but cost half the price without the waste. 

Dambulla Cave Temples. Very old and very colourful inside. They actually go back a long way

Optional elephant safari for the afternoon, which we all optioned. Two open top jeeps (wish we'd known that when we dressed. I'd carried long sleeves on the last one which was covered so hadn't bothered for this one). Definitely picked the wrong jeep this time, our driver was definitely young and inexperienced. We drove past the elephants that I spotted in the bush despite my shouting which irritated me no end as we ended up close up behind the other jeep with a worse view. He'd been told to stay close! There were however many elephants, but there were also many jeeps which at one point all seemed to have converged on the small lake where 3 elephants were bathing and playing. This was fine, till they wanted to get out of the water and there was nowhere for them to go. We were glad we were at the back but still found it quite upsetting. This we thought was a sad way to end what had been a good afternoon (though we did see nothing except elephants) so we were really pleased to come upon a small group, with a very small baby as most of the jeeps had headed off towards the exit. We were all thrilled with this and were happy to head off to the hotel. The other jeep headed off and we reversed up to follow. For some reason our driver kept going back, and back towards the young male we'd all been watching, till he was so close it gave a little trumpet and jumped out of the way. Driver found this funny and I'm sure he thought he was doing us a favour, but we didn't. As we arrived at the hotel I called George to say to him to tell the driver that there was no need to go that close and we didn't think it was funny. George was pretending not to know what I was talking about but he didn't reckon for Richelle who had watched this from the other jeep. She is a lawyer and is incensed. She got the driver's name and there is going to be trouble! See our Relive video:  click here

A very large Buddha lying down. This was the only position I could hope to get the whole statue in

This was a lovely hotel which sadly we couldn't enjoy we ordered food, dashed off to shower, ate and went to bed.

Further on these caves had lots of colour and many Buddha statues

Day 58

An early night, because we had an early start to go up Lion rock. Breakfast at 06.30 and out by 07.15. Short drive and gentle walk through the gardens before we started going up. The trip notes said we'd go for sunrise but George decided that it's been very cloudy so we wouldn't bother, so although it was early it was still ridiculously warm. The fortress was built in the fifth century by King Kassapa who had assassinated his father so the suggestion is he built it, in just 7 years, for protection. it is an amazing place and it was well worth the climb with the many other people. On the way down through three of us got stuck behind mother, grandmother, auntie and two children who were being led by the 4 or 5 year old who was VERY slow. Just when those not so good with heights thought it was all over we got to the two spiral staircases going to and from the frescoes of the Sigiriya damsels. They were very vibrant in colour and just appear to be part way up the rock, so how they were done is anyone's guess. See our Relive video: click here

There are something like 153 Buddha statues in these caves and amazingly preserved painted walls and ceilings

Next stop was a spice farm, like we haven't done any of those. We were meant to be having lunch here, but George has listened so only he, helper and driver ate which I think we are all happy with (though I have to admit to being a little peckish, but not for Sri Lankan buffet!). Our guide was an interesting guy but you then are taken to a little classroom where he goes through a sheet of 36 ointments and pills you can buy in their pharmacy! We all had ointments rubbed on us, Lucie had a head massage for her tinnitus, Catherine had her fingers and knees (which she had been struggling with having fallen on them a few months ago) massages. Grant had a shoulder massage and Richelle and I giggled like school children! It was all a bit painful, and nobody bought but it was interesting enough.

Brief stop outside to see mum dog looking after puppy dog

An hour to the hotel in Kandy, the cultural capital, where washing is on the cards for everyone I think. I was going to wash, then we were going on safari which is hideously dusty, then we were doing a steep hike, so now, assuming I can catch my clothes as I expect then to run around on their own, there will be washing!

Walking back down from the Golden Cave Temple

Washing done, and almost dried, off to look at the tooth relic temple. Part of Buddhas left canine. But you can't see it, in fact you can only see the canister it is in 3 times a day which nobody was really up for. The scrum of tourists trying to edge out the pilgrims just seems a bit wrong! The museum was interesting, particularly the hall of Buddhas from different countries so all looking slightly different. This also explained why the relic is in Sri Lanka and not India, apparently Buddha had decreed that his religion would be safe in Sri Lanka for 2500 years. It was brought here about 371 AD by Prince Danta and Princess Hemamali, hidden in her hair. It is now a symbolic representation of the living Buddha and visited by many pilgrims.

I'm sorry for the slightly rude picture but Robena had bought some sliced mango and these monkeys loved it. This one was giving her his monkey eyes and holding out his little hand, so she gave him a slice. By the look of him he was very excited to receive it

Day 59

A relatively gentle start, breakfast at 7.00, bus at 8.00 AND we are here two nights so no checking out. Hurrah.

Off we went to our next event and there by the side of the road was an elephant

Off to the botanical gardens for an entirely different pace. Gentle, and for the first half, a reasonable temperature. I think we all enjoyed for the fact it was so laid back. Lots of trees planted by important people like the Queen and Lord Mountbatten who was stationed in these gardens as Supreme Commander of Allied Troops in the second world war. We all liked the flying foxes, though I think George got a bit bored so started telling us that giant bamboo grows 5cm a day so the Japanese used it as torture, strategically positioning it as they tied prisoners to it before letting it grow! That spoiled the mood a bit! See our Relive video: click here

And then, about a kilometer down the road was another one, walking along swinging his trunk in a carefree fashion

Craft visits after that, the sapphire jewellers, batik workshop and wood workshop. Peter bought a ring with his birthstone in, well it was his birthday a couple of days ago so we've all benefitted from cake at breakfast and cake at dinner, as well as balloons and streamers in the bus. Much batik was then bought, though not by us as Brian already has a batik shirt and we've bought an elephant cushion cover in India.

He wasn't bothered by traffic, it just seems a normal thing here

Another 3 hours free time today before the cultural dance performance, so blog and then pool or doze? I suspect doze might win

A organic garden visit was next (didn't put spice photos on as we've done those before) followed by a cookery demonstration and lunch in a little mud hut. Really good atmosphere and great food. A really good stop

Beware of elephants

Finally arrived at our hotel, the Girithale, overlooking the artificial lake. This was the view from our room (and the bar and swimming pool) 

Nearly forgot to put this photo of the flowers we were asked to take to the Golden Temple to make an offering. Here's our team: Lucie, Peter, Jackie, Robena, Catherine, the lady asking us to take the flowers, Richelle, Grant and Brian

Birthday boy Pete gets a birthday cake presented to him at breakfast

After a 7:00am breakfast and away at 8:00am we embark on another busy day. First stop a visit to the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. The museum was first, which had a model of this, the circular relic house which shows how it may have looked in its heyday, but we weren't allowed to take photos there so I can't show you. It's circular, has four entrances all with a seated Buddha just inside

There were a lot of buildings in this ancient city, but that's enough of them

This was quite impressive carved from a single piece of granite. On the left is a beautifully carved sitting Buddha and in the centre a temple with pillars all carved from one piece

But that's not all, further to the right is a lying Buddha still carved from the single granite stone

A stop at a lotus leaf design bathing pool

This  is the worlds largest (but unfinished) Stupa. Its huge,  several hundred meters in diameter and intended to be so high it could be seen from India. It was started a long time ago and never finished, but there is a plan to carry on the work, hence the scaffold but, as its so huge it will take many years to build. Don't expect to see it completed for several generations.

A quick lunch and then it was time for our optional safari

Where it was elephant fest!

There were lots of them, including this mum and baby (estimated at 4 months old)

This is the other side of it though, lots of people trying to get the perfect shot

We saw swimming elephants

Adolescent elephants

Managed to get Robena, Lucie and Jackie to turn round long enough to get a photo of them in front of two elephants

We stayed and watched them in the early evening sun when most other tourists had gone and it was quiet

Got back to our room to find this little fella in our bathroom. He didn't want to be there so Jackie did frog rescue and put him outside on the grass where he hopped off

Day 58: Lion Rock

Today's walk, Lion Rock, up there. The way up is a metal stairway hugging the rock on the left hand side

Up through that opening

There's the stairway to heaven. See the two rock lion paws either side of the entrance stairway? As we'd walked up a lot and arrived at this flat area George said we'll have a little pause here. I had to introduce him to a little British humour and explain the pun of having a pause next to the lions paws. He laughed, but of course I'm the customer so he had to! Perhaps he found it funny, I don't know

On our way up the stairs and they are two way. Makes up and down a bit easier

Give us a smile Pete. What's that gesture you're doing? That's not very nice is it. Bloody Kiwi's!

We did the full experience and walked down some steps to see the old kings bathing pool. To some of our group, standing about centre of the photo under the tree, going down after all that up was not going to happen

It's a fine view from the top and down there are the gardens with geometric pools and fountains that we walked through on the way up

Now that is a very comfy dog!

So here we are on the highest point. George took this, I think he meant to take a still photograph but somehow it ended up as a slow motion video!

But its not all over yet, we came down the staircase so far and then had to walk round this walkway to see the rock paintings. Those in our group with a fear of heights were loving this bit!

And at the end of that we went up that spiral staircase

Nice view down but, funnily enough, that's not what some people said. Unfortunately the reason for going up was to see some old rock paintings but we weren't allowed to take photos of them. A pity, they were vibrant colours

We walked down past this improbably standing rock. The picture doesn't really show it, but its completely detached and overhanging the thin bit of rock at the bottom that is supporting it. Are you feeling lucky? 

Spice garden tour next. We've done this sort of thing many times before so just a couple of pictures. Nutmeg and mace

Cloves

Cardamom. That's it, there were all the other usual spices but we've all seen them before. We just wish the herbal remedy lecture afterwards was as quick. 36 ailments that can be cured using the herbs and spices. You'll never suffer with high blood pressure, arthritis, cholesterol, skin problems again if you bought all their spice potions!   

Evening visit to the Sri Dalada Maligawa where the Buddha tooth relic is held. A terrorist bomb was set off here in 1988, explosives packed into a truck. Unsurprisingly there's tight security round here now

Quite impressive inside. Imagine the size of the elephants those tusks came from. This is the ground floor, but the tooth is held on the first floor as it always has to be higher. Queen Elizabeth II has been here

This is the first floor and where the tooth relic is kept. Apparently the brown door with the three dots looking like an inverted triangle is slid open to reveal the casket in which the relic is stored. It has been stored in many palaces and temples over the years including the circular temple shown in one of the photos above in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa

This photo shows what the casket looked like, so we decided queuing with lots of other people to see this through a door for 15 minutes was not worth the wait. George has seen it and we asked him if he sensed an aura on seeing it, to see if it might be atmospheric. Not really he said, so we went for beer and dinner instead! 

We walked past this new Buddha shrine on the way out with many Buddhas that had been donated. Around the hall were various paintings about Buddhas life from his birth through to the tooth relic arriving here. Apparently when the British were here they looked at the relic but presented it back to the monks (without taking it back to London). Thank the Lord the British did something right for a change!

This is a stuffed elephant, but a very famous one. He lived here for about 50 years dressed like the smaller model on the left, carrying the tooth relic around on his back. Apparently everyone was very sad when he eventually got sick and died, so here he is!

Just outside, this building is very famous. It's where Sri Lanka was willingly signed over to the British. Apparently the British were already stationed around the coast of what was then Ceylon and the locals wanted rid of the old king for some reason. They asked the British to help remove him and in return they can become their masters.

Between our hotel and the tooth relic shrine is Queens Hotel, a very opulent heritage hotel where Lord Louis Mountbatten stayed during World War II as Supreme Commander of South East Asia forces

Day 59 now:

Kandy Botanical Gardens and this is a Kauri tree from New Zealand. We saw many of these when we were there and visited the Kauri museum there at Robyn's request which was a fabulous visit. We put this on especially for you Robyn and Murray

This couple were being professionally photographed as they walked through the grounds and George told us it was after their honeymoon (celebrations go on a long time). He went into long detail about her dress and how it differs from an Indian sari. After they'd past he mentioned almost as an afterthought that he was just in a western suit

Under a spreading tree that, left to its own devices will reroot once a branch touches the ground

Lord Louis Mountbatten was here and planted this tree

And here it is

With these very pretty flowers on it

King George and Queen Mary planted one two, possibly on their first official overseas visit after the death of Queen Victoria. There was also one planted by Queen Elizabeth II further on

They are beautifully laid out gardens. Originally they were the old kings private garden but after the British took over they were converted to Botanical Gardens with a man from Kew Gardens London put in charge

Some of the trees had large populations of Flying Foxes, a type of fruit bat and here is a photo of some hanging upside down. As some were flying around, it became a challenge to try to photograph them in flight. We were all having a go...

Here's one of my better efforts. I have many more of these including a large  number of just the sky

This is a travellers palm and, if you are ever lost in the jungle and need a drink, this is the one to go for. Apparently you cut off one of those green vertical leaves and you can get up to 5 litres of water that has collected in there from rainfall. Useful to know if ever you plan a jungle trek without map and compass

They had an orchid house with a huge variety of them. This one's a dancing lady. I've got other photos but I'm sure you've seen similar before

A Durian tree, that spiky, smelly fruit that actually tasted OK as long as you don't smell it. A grown Durian fruit can weight up to 11kg and, apparently elephants know not to walk under one when they are in fruit as a falling 11kg fruit with spikes on the outside can do serious damage. George didn't know of a case of a human being killed by one, but you feel it must have happened sometime

A lovely visit to very pleasant gardens

We did the local craft tour next. This mans cutting a gem stone in a jewellery factory. We also visited a Batik dying factory and a wood carving factory. Pete bought himself a blue stone ring and all the others (except us) bought some Batik textiles. We didn't buy anything as we've already bought several shirts and dresses and been given a wood carved elephant by Magic Tours in India

Last photo for this blog (it's been a long one!) from a panorama over Kandy. Down there on the other side of the lake is our hotel, right in the middle of the town and the tooth relic temple. Bye for now, we are off shortly again for an evening local cultural dance show and an evening meal in a restaurant overlooking this. This trip is full on, we're on the go all the time, but we have really melded with this group, they are a great bunch of people. We've already got invites to stay with Pete and Cath in New Zealand and with Robena and, separately Richelle and Grant in different parts of Canada. I can feel our next trips starting to form....