The Cultural Triangle

We're still experiencing difficulties uploading photos so, for now, we will have to do our best to paint pictures with words (yes, that sentence is Richard's doing). Also, this is quite lengthy post, so brace yourself...

After our first stop on the cultural triangle, we reluctantly left the excellent Milano Tourist Rest in Anaradhapura and got on a bus to Dambulla. The bus was air conditioned and therefore a bit more upmarket than we have become used to. It's layout was quite strange, with two seats on one side, one on the other and one that folded down in the middle - you felt like you were sitting in a cinema. Despite it's plushness, it still only cost us 90Rs each - about 60p - for the 1 and a half hour trip.

Our hostel for the two nights was equally plush. MPS Village, although off the beaten track, was right on the edge of a lake surrounded by jungle and mountains. Dedicated travelers that we are, we were the only one of six couples that turned up to the retreat and so the staff took us on a tour of its grounds between rain showers. We saw their rice fields and fruit trees (mango, pineapple,papaya, coconut, banana and what may have been sharon fruit) all of which were used in its restaurant where we ate a dinner of 'sea fish' (tuna?) and vegetable noodles later that evening. For this we were originally sat outside, but after a bat flew over a couple of times and a small bird perched on the top of a lamp shat next to Ashley, we opted for the safety of inside. Don't get us wrong, it was a lovely place and very clean - it's just the price of being surrounding by what is essentially jungle. 

The two of us posing for an appropriately cheesey shot on our balcony at MPS Village

Our tuk-tuk (3-wheeler) driver for the following day was Kalu (Sri Lankan for black...) who took us to Sigiriya and Dambulla. Sigiriya is an ancient royal citadel, a world heritage site and apparently 1 hectare in size. It's grounds contain a series of water gardens fed by its own underwater channels, boulder gardens and fifth century cave paintings. The main event, however, was the lion staircase, which sat about halfway up the 1.5km rock formation. Today, all that remain are two enormous lion paws, which are part of what used to be a larger structure of a complete lion - you would ascend a staircase into its mouth and then into its throat.

At the top of a narrow set of stairs, which were steep, high and rickety enough to scare the crap out of Richard, lay the Kings palace. A sneaky tour guide had readied himself on these stairs just in front of us and as we approached we had no way of passing him. He therefore ended up walking us to the top. He did impart the fact that the King used to be carried up Sigiriyas 1,202 steps by four servants though, so we didn't begrudge the inevitable payment too much. As it was raining, some of the stairs on the ascent were like waterfalls - judging from the shocked and impressed expression of the hostel manager later that evening we did well to get to the top.

At the foot of the final climb to the top of Sigirya, between the lions paws

Kalu 'kindly' took us to a spice garden to see how everything from pepper and almonds to saffron and vanilla are grown. Our 'free' guide was even kind enough to show us how their saffron-based hair removal cream works right in the centre of Richards leg. He also offered it to Ashley! As they plied us with free cocoa drinks stirred with fresh vanilla pods, we smelt a sales pitch. We weren't wrong and at the end of the tour paid 2,500Rs (15 pound) for a 150ml pot of almond cream. We were annoyed at ourselves for not haggling on what was clearly a ridiculous price, but tried to focus on the positives - a half drunk cup of cocoa (we're still treading on egg shells with the water situation), an insight into how things we use daily grow and an enormous bald patch on Richards left leg.

The leg in question...

Dambulla was incredible and one of the highlights of Sri Lanka so far. The Rock Temple sat at the top of a lot of stairs, which Richard obviously enjoyed climbing (Ashley obviously did not). There were five caves temples, each with 10's of Buddhas inside that had been carved from the natural rock.This created a moody yet peaceful atmosphere added to by the somber face of Buddha and the lack of light in the room. As if this wasn't amazing enough, the walls and ceilings, which still had the natural undulations of natural rock, were adorned with bright and vibrant paintings. As this - like the other temples we had visited - was a place of worship, we had to remove our shoes. We actually enjoy the experience of walking around these places bare foot, but we thought it was a bit wrong that we were charged 25Rs for the pleasure. Maybe we were still getting over the Almond Cream Incident.

Stone-carved Buddhas and the painted ceilings of 1 of the 5 Rock Temples

We also visited The Golden Temple, a sort of Disney-esque dedication to Buddha, which, to be honest, was a bit shit.

Our third and final stop on The Cultural Triangle was Polonnaruwa for one night and one night only. For a change, we decided to explore the ruins on foot with the help of a map. Covering what must have been at least 6 miles over the course of an afternoon, we saw the remains of what was once a fortress city protecting the surrounding area from attacks from the Colas (said "cholas", aka South Indians).

We made our way back to the hostel with BBC (blisters, bites and chaffing), waving to the tuk-tuks, cars and motorbikes as they beeped and waved themselves. One minibus actually stopped and offered us a lift back into town. We are sure that the offer was genuine, but you never know and so we politely declined.

After dinner in our hostels dingy restaurant, we went back to our dingy room in the Gajaba Rest House and nested into pillow that felt like sacks of potatoes and smelt of old towel. Although we wouldn't recommend the Gajaba, the locals in Polonnaruwa were really friendly. As we waited for our bus to Kandy, we spoke to one guy who recommended a place to stay further into our journey and told us about his Russian girlfriend.

We're in Kandy now (and have been for 5 days) but will have to update you on that later!

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