Tag: Sigiriya

From Sigiriya To Kandy, Sri Lanka, 20 March 1995

Damsels keeping abreast of the fruit plate

Very early start to Sigiriya Rock – climbed all the way to the top – via the Sigiriya damsels (5th century wall paintings) – so high has a splendid ruined castle.

So high, but look at the crumbling old ruins…and product placement opportunity

Returned to Sigiriya [Village Hotel] for swim, packing and lunch (best meal at Sigiriya) before leaving for Kandy.

I wasn’t going to miss that place, despite them saving the best till last food-wise.

On the way we stopped at a wonderful spice garden where all the edible and medicinal herbs were explained to us.

We had massage and tried spice tea at that herb garden
There we saw a wood carving man using his feet as part of the process

We then stopped at a daft batik factory before going on to Kandy.

We were starting to find these commercial breaks quite tiresome, especially when, as the day went on, the scheduled touring was seemingly more like a short break between these daft commercial visits.

Before dinner we went to a performance of Kandyan dance including firewalkers.

Let’s hope he knew what he was doing

Dinner at Hotel Suisse – better than Sigiriya. Early night.

Part One of our two-part photo album for this Sri lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below there are 69 photos therein:

01 17 March 1995 - Ornate Hindu Temple, ColomboSRI_I1 (16)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)

Anuradhapura And On To Sigiriya Village Hotel, Sri Lanka, 18 March 1995

So there we were, on a Kuoni tour around Sri Lanka.

Lucky us, in 1995, we were able to go as far north as the ancient city of Anuradhapura -it was often out of bounds for tourists in those troubled first few decades of Sri Lanka’s independence.

Long drive out to Anuradhapura, stopping at Kurunegala Rest House for rest and Miridiya Hotel for lunch – not bad.

Kurunegala Rest House scenic view

Then round ancient city – Most of which severely ruins.

Sacred Botree temple highlight – 2000 year old tree – sapling of Buddha’s enlightenment tree.

Yon Sacred Bo Tree

Drove round park – many stupas (dagobas).

In A Bit Of A Stupa

Drove on to Sigiriya Village Hotel – food mediocre – early night (even earlier start tomorrow).

Part One of our two-part photo album for this Sri lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below there are 69 photos therein:

01 17 March 1995 - Ornate Hindu Temple, ColomboSRI_I1 (16)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)