Tag: Sri Lanka

Polonnaruwa And Dambulla, Sri Lanka, 19 March 1995

Early start. Morning trip to Polonnaruwa – really bumpy ride – second oldest capital (11th/12th century).

On the way to the main site, we stopped at this place, apparently the Hindu Temple of Penis & Vulva. There was no sign there saying “thanks for coming”, sadly.

[Polonnaruwa] ruins in slightly better repair than Anuradhapura – several temples to see plus more dagobas (stupas).

No, those two are not the Buddha images; that’s Ged & Daisy

Also Gal Vihara – Buddha images.

Back to Sigiriya Village for mediocre lunch then on optional tour to Dambulla.

Climb up to cave temples – wonderful old (15th century?) Cave paintings and Buddha images – well worth the trip. My feet were attacked by killer ants as we left.

Were the locals laughing at my ant-induced discomfort, my sartorial inelegance, or both?

Yes, goodness knows where those biter ants came from, but as I came out of the cave temples entrance all of a sudden my feet were covered with ants – it felt like hundreds of needles being pressed into my feet. I think I made a bestial roar and started running around and shaking my feet to try to remove the ants. For some reason, this seemed to amuse the local tourists no end. My feet went red briefly and then returned to normal within just a few minutes, as if nothing had happened.

Back to Sigiriya [Village Hotel] for mediocre dinner and early-ish night.

Perceptive readers might have noticed that I was not overly impressed by that hotel, especially in the matter of the grub. Our other beef with the hotel was the paper-thinness of the walls. Although we were in “cottages”, the rooms were semi-detached halves of cottages.

Indeed, the thing that probably put us off group touring for good after this holiday was the vocal double-entendres at breakfast the next morning from our nosy neighbours, who left us and the rest of the group in no doubt that you could hear anything and everything from the next room.

We were one of only two younger couples in that Sri Lanka group (there was also only a handful of younger travelers when we toured China in 1993). We decided after this Sri Lanka trip that we didn’t want to be the unwitting entertainment for frustrated older couples any more.

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)

Preamble To Our Trip And Travel To Sri Lanka, Arriving In Colombo, 16 & 17 March 1995

I have very few relics from this two-week holiday in Sri Lanka, apart from my trusty (though quite pithy) journal notes and quite a lot of photos, only the highlights from which have been put into an album.

No itinerary, for example, although I do have a contact list…

…and I can pretty much reconstruct the itinerary from my journal notes. It was a Kuoni tour. We had successfully used Kuoni for our previous far flung adventure, to China, Hong Kong and Bali:

This Sri Lanka trip was to be the last time we did one of these guided tour in a group things. We got a little frustrated with the regimented nature of the tour…

…and the difficulty/inability to really get to see places and meet local people on our own terms. Some of that sense of frustration will emerge from my verbatim transcription of my (at the time of writing, in early 2020) 25 years ago journal.

We must have left London reasonably early on 16th to arrive in Colombo early on 17th.

Arrive at Columbo only 40 minutes late – despite early two hour delay at Heathrow Terminal Four due to power cut.

Get to hotel early morning – everyone travel weary – therefore slept until afternoon.

Took optional tour round Columbo.

Not a very interesting city – saw municipal buildings, old colonial buildings etc.

Galle Face Hotel

Our guide, Barney, took us to the Galle Face Hotel at end of tour. He helped us to find recommended Seafood/fish restaurant where we tried hoppers, gambas, seer fish curry and Barney’s recommended tuna dish, ambul thiyal. Very good meal.

Early night for early start tomorrow

All That Fishy Food

We weren’t staying at the Galle Face Hotel – it seems we were staying at the Lanka Oberoi Hotel (latterly known as the Cinnamon Grand). We just went for a butchers at the Galle Face.

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)