Rock-climbing

This was my third time climbing Sigiriya so the photos will have to do most of the talking.

We gave the guides the brush off and headed up the rock at our own pace. This winding staircase always spooks me out but at least there are some topless girls at the top.We somehow acquired a young guy to act as a sherper and it was funny watching him try to push my dad up the steps.That wasn't so bad. Storm clouds gathered but we were down before the rain. Blogtastic. Cobra plus python plus end of the day equals wasted photo opportunity.

Monkeys in the trees

I guess monkeys aren't really going to be chilling anywhere else but I was short of a title.

Took pop and sis to the cave temples on our two-day whistle stop tour. Apparently in the old days when the farmers didn't have to harvest their crops they spent their down time painting the insides of the cave temples.
There were a couple of gargoyles incorporated into the walls outside.

The fronts to the temples were built after the original Buddha statues and paintings were created, but still a fair few hundred years ago. Prior to that it was just the-drip line protecting the paintings inside the caves from water egress.

A tourist couple sat on a Buddha statue sometime in the seventies and the monks had to repaint him as they considered the statue desecrated. I'm not sure what happened to the tourists but they may be looking at new lives as cockroaches if Karma has her way. It's very disrespectful to have a photo taken with your back to Buddha.

Temple of the Tooth

I always find it a bit disconcerting when a place of worship is a tourist attraction, especially as Buddhists worship at all times of the day and there are always lots of people praying outside the golden tooth chamber.

I can't remember all the constituent parts but the creature above the door has the head of crocodile, nose of elephant, ear of pig, body of fish and tail of dragon; I may have made some of that up and I can't remember whose legs he's got.

The chamber containing the golden tooth of Buddha is only open at certain times and the tooth is never seen inside it's multiple caskets.

Museum Buddha.

An approximation of the traditional Kandian palace in the background was created from concrete in Independence Square (see previous post).

Don't touch me!

After we got back to Colombo my mum went into hospital (she's ok now) so I showed my sister and dad around during the day before visiting my mum in the evenings. Colombo isn't the best but we kept busy seeing a few sights, shopping and eating well.

Dad, sis & the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.



When we realised mum wouldn't be coming out of hospital until near the end of their holiday we decided to take a 2 day tour so my dad and sis could get a little culture. We visited my mum on the morning of the day we left and planned to get back the evening of the following day, so she would have a least one visit per day. When we booked the car and driver the hire firm also had a bunch of old cars that my dad predictably went nuts over.

All the drivers have an itinerary for their tours and I usually try and skip a few of the items. One thing I'd normally skip is the spice garden as it's just a bunch of plants and some usually overpriced homeopathic medicines. My dad and sister wanted to check it out so we went in; I maintained a suitably suspicious and cynical disposition. After seeing all the plants the host of the spice garden did a little talk on the various oils and medicines; his colleges provided massages and my dad and sis entered into the spirit of things. By this time I had become preoccupied avoiding being bitten by mosquitoes and steadfastly refused to let anyone get near me with any of the massage oils. I think my dad and sis found it funny but it was hot and I was in no mood for being covered in oil. After we left I regained my composure and managed to relax for the rest of the trip.

On our first night in Kandy we saw the Kandian dancers, which I'd never seen before (too touristy) and actually enjoyed. It was hard to get a photo of the dancers but at the end we all gathered round the front of the stage to watch the firewalker. We had intended to go to the temple afterwards but it was raining cats and dogs so we retired to the hotel.

The next morning was much sunnier and we had a busy day ahead of us so we headed to the temple early.