Kandy and Around: Part 6 of Sri Lanka, Isle of Serendip

Gemstones, a Great Botanical Garden and Three Rural Temples

Sri Lankan Weddings

Sri Lanka

Our hotel was a popular venue for weddings; there were two every day we were there. They monopolised the lift in the morning transporting stuff up to the fourth floor function room and again in the evening bringing it down again. A wedding is not complete without traditional dancers, their costumes covered in little cymbals so they tinkle as they walk.

Ravi was a little late, caught up in traffic, so we watched the wedding preparations; elaborate items of furniture wrapped in polythene were being delivered by van while the dancers waited patiently in the lobby.

Wedding dancers waiting patiently in the hotel lobby, Kandy

The Hills of Kandy

We expected our first visit to be to the Botanical Gardens, but on the way Ravi drove us over the hill into the next section of the city, the summit giving a fine view of the lake and the Temple of the Tooth (see yesterday's post), Kandy’s ceremonial centre, and of the huge white Bahiravakanda Buddha who has overlooked Kandy for the last 25 years (see tomorrow's post).

The lake and the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy

That was not the only interruption. Marco Polo wrote that Sri Lanka was home to the world’s best sapphires, topazes and amethysts. Today they still claim the finest sapphires and also produce a wide range of precious and semi-precious stones, so Ravi thought it would be appropriate to visit a gem museum.

The Bahiravakanda Buddha looks down over the city of Kandy

Sri Lankan Gemstones

In an upmarket jeweller’s near the top of the hill we were shown a short film about gem mining. A pit two or three metres deep is dug by hand at a likely looking spot, shored up with timber and 'waterproofed' with ferns. The chances of being buried alive in such a crudely dug hole looked alarmingly high. Excess water is pumped out and the stones and gravel at the bottom are hauled up in baskets and washed. Like gold, the gemstones are separated from the dross by panning. It takes a sharp and experienced eye to tell a rough gem from a worthless pebble, as we realised when we saw their exhibition of unpolished gemstones in their natural state.

We went through to the workshop where craftsmen were making intricate settings of gold and silver for the stones. Some of the work was very beautiful and, no doubt, would be seriously expensive. Then we entered the glittering sales room. We had no intention of buying, but despite ourselves we became involved in some serious bargaining; by the nature of it nothing was cheap, but we eventually bought a sapphire studded pendant at a reasonable price.

Jeweller's Kandy

Peradeniya Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens are at Peradeniya, to the west of the city. Ravi dropped us off at the entrance and told us to call him when we had finished. We have been to botanical gardens before and expected we would call him sooner rather than later. We were wrong.

Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, Kandy

Perhaps it was the lush tropical setting which allows plants from all over the world to thrive, perhaps it was the colours, perhaps it was the poor maps which resulted in us making discoveries in places we had not intended to go, but the whole place was a delight. It is a story best told in pictures. We saw more different bamboos than I had ever thought existed...

Bamboo, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, Kandy

...a pond full of water lilies,...

Water Lilies, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, Kandy

...and the spectacular orchid house...

Orchid, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, Kandy

...(worth two pictures)...

Another orchid, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, Kandy

...and the collection of palms.

Palm, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, Kandy

Finally we had a good look at the coco-de-mers. The fruit of this endangered species is an oddly shaped double coconut. Its botanical name is lodoicea maldivica, though it was previously known as lodoicea callypige. Callypige is formally translated as 'beautiful buttocks', though 'nice arse' (said in the voice of Leslie Philips) better captures the spirit. The husks were highly prized around the Indian Ocean as a cure-all and by European gentlemen in the 17th century as decorative objects. They were found almost exclusively washed up on the shores of the Maldives, hence the botanical name, but the palms don't grow there. Legend had it they came grew on the sea bottom and the ripe fruit fell upwards to the surface. The truth is only a little more prosaic. They grow only on a couple of small islands in the Seychelles which were uninhabited and undiscovered until the 19th century. They then found that the ‘beautiful buttocks’ grow only on the female plants while the male plants have distinctly phallic catkins. This led to a wealth of lurid legends and coco-de-mer being no longer marketed as a cure-all, but as an aphrodisiac.

Coco-de-mer, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, Kandy
but I cannot spot any beautiful buttocks here

The Temple Loop

We did not call Ravi until well after twelve. We had inadvertently established a pattern of eating lunch closer to three o’clock than one so we set off straight away on the ‘temple loop’, which makes a good day trip for those who wish to do it on foot, or a good way of ensuring a late lunch for those with a car.

Galadeniya Temple

Some 10 km out of Kandy is Galadeniya, a temple built in 1344 on a rock outcrop. The friendly young man in the ticket office was working on watercolours of the site, which consists of an Indian style temple, and a white subsidiary shrine surmounted by a small dagoba covered with a roof. We had seen dagobas with pillars that once supported roofs, but this was the first with its roof intact.

Subsidiary shrine and roofed dagoba (and lily pond)

Walking onto the rock we quickly realised we had a problem and stepped smartly into the shade of the shrine’s doorway. Though shoes may not be worn around temples, socks are tolerated and we had come prepared. The cruciform shrine has, we discovered, a Buddha image in each wing.

Buddha image in the subsidiary temple

Crossing the baking rock to the temple we admired the almost circular lily pond in a depression beyond the shrine.

Galadeniya Temple

The temple hides under its (I hope temporary) corrugated iron roof. There is a Buddha image inside (are those eyes too close together?) and a subsidiary shrine to the Hindu God Vishnu.

Buddha image, Galadeniya Temple

Back in the office we bought one of the young man's watercolours.

Galadeniya

Lankatilake Temple

The drive to Lankatilake was on minor roads running round the edges of the paddy fields beneath the coconut palms. The bright sun shining on the almost luminous greens of the lush vegetation made this a delightful short trip.

On the minor roads around Kandy

The Rough Guide describes the approach to Lankatilake as finishing with ‘a magnificent flight of rock cut steps leading precipitously up to the temple...built on a huge rock outcrop’. Ravi parked among a small collection of dwellings, a hamlet rather than a village and we walked past cloves drying on mats outside the houses,.....

Cloves drying, Lankatilake

...approaching a temple on a rocky plateau up a very ordinary flight of concrete steps.

Lankatilake

Predictably, the rocks were hot and we deployed our socks. There was no one there to meet us and we thought for once we might get a free look at a temple. Then we walked round the back and discovered it was, despite appearances, the front and there were the rock cut steps leading downwards and, of course, a smiling man ready to accept the usual 300 rupees.

Main Buddha image, Lankatilake

The temple, built in the same year as Galadeniya, originally had four storeys, but the uppermost two collapsed in the 19th century. The tall central shrine contains a large Buddha image and some very Hindu looking gods.

Outside, protected by a fence, is an inscription in Pali (the religious language of Buddhism) on the rock describing the construction of the temple. The view (below) of the temple and inscription (though not, of course, Lynne) can be seen on the 50 rupee banknote.

Lynne, Lankatilake and the Pali inscription (as seen on the 50 Rupee note)

Embekke Devale Temple

As we drove on to Embekke Devale, the third and last stop on the three temple loop, Ravi stopped to show us the view of Lankatilake for those arriving on foot.

The pedestrian approach to Lankatilake

The road to Embekke Devale was as pleasing as the drive to Lankatilake. It was by far the busiest of the three temples and our 300 rupees also hired a self-appointed guide. Outside, the temple is an audience hall, like that at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. As usual in this climate the hall has a roof but no walls.

Audience Hall, Embekke Devale

The wooden pillars, which were brought from another temple, are all carved with different designs. Bhoddhisatvas, dragons, dancers, peacocks wrestlers and even soldiers might be expected, but there is also a depiction of a man on horseback, one of the early Portuguese arrivals on the island.

Soldier, Embekke Devale

In 1505 a Portuguese fleet reached Sri Lanka and noticed the abundance of cloves and cinnamon. Starting as traders, the Portuguese, in the European style of the age, gradually took over and eventually became the island’s rulers. They were ousted by the Dutch in the early 17th century, who in turn yielded to the British two centuries later. Portuguese rule left little mark on the island except this carving and the hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans who still bear the Portuguese surnames adopted by their ancestors. Sri Lanka has countless da Silva's, Fernandos and Pereiras, including the redoubtable Ravi or, more formally, J.A. Ravindra Perera (a slight spelling change from the Portuguese).

Portuguese gentleman, Embekke Devale

The shrine behind, was of rather less interest, though the door was flanked by a couple of splendid lions

Lions, Embekke Devale

Late Lunch and the Sri Lankan Navy

For the by now traditional late lunch Ravi drove us to a large hotel near the botanical gardens. For a set price they offered an elaborate rice and curry buffet and we made the most of it. Unable to get away from weddings in Kandy, we shared the large dining room with one wedding party and encountered a second on leaving. Fortunately no-one chose that afternoon to launch a sea borne invasion of Sri Lanka - most of the country's naval officers were dancing in a car park in Kandy.

An Evening Snack and Lemon Gin

We had a stroll in the afternoon, but our corner of Kandy that was not quite urban yet not really rural had little to offer. We failed to find an alternative to the café where we had eaten last night, but after a large and very late lunch we did not want much. Passing a small bakery we dropped in and bought two samosas and two cakes (25 rupees each - dinner for two for 50p) and had a picnic in our room, with the beer from the mini-bar.

Bakery, Kandy

Later we went down to the hotel bar to learn about lemon gin. Sri Lanka distils passable ordinary gin, but they also have a lemon gin similar in concept, I suppose, of our sloe gin. With a sharp citric flavour and not over sweetened as sloe gin sometimes is, it made a pleasant end to the day.[Update: 2015 was in those far off days before a thousand flavoured gins were on every supermarket shelf]

Sri Lanka, The Isle of Serendip

Part 1: Colombo to Anuradhapura and Mihintale
Part 2: Anuradhapura Ancient and Modern
Part 3: Polonnaruwa and Kandalama, An Ancient City and a Modern Hotel
Part 4: Sigiriya Rock and an Ayurvedic Massage
Part 5: Dambulla and on to Kandy
Part 6: Kandy and Around
Part 7: By Train to Nuwara Eliya
Part 8: The Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya and a Cup of Tea
Part 9: Through Bandarawela and on to Ella
Part 10: Ella, Little Adam's Peak and the Demodara Bridge
Part 11: The Sinharaja Rainforest
Part 12: Kataragama and the Yala National Park
Part 13: Through Hambantota to Mirissa
Part 14: Galle, Fish and a Fort
Part 15: Colombo, National Day and a Full Moon

Dambulla and on to Kandy: Part 5 of Sri Lanka, Isle of Serendip

The Dambulla Cave Temples, a Spice Garden and Kandy's Temple of the Tooth

Morning in the Heritance Hotel

Sri Lanka

In the morning we were disturbed by tapping on the window. Drawing the curtains we saw a monkey (more precisely a toque macaque) sitting on the balcony. When it comes to aggressive begging macaques have few scruples so, following the hotel’s advice, we left the door firmly locked.

Toque Macaque on our balcony, Heritance Hotel, Kandalama

Dambulla

After another good breakfast we made our way, yet again, to Dambulla. It is a small town, reputedly home to 68,000 people but feeling much smaller and if there is more than a single main street we did not see it.

The city was first settled in the seventh century BC though recently excavated graves suggest a sophisticated civilization existed in the region two millennia earlier. Modern civilization has given the city a 30,000 seat international cricket stadium, built in 2000 in a remarkable 167 days, which has hosted many one-day internationals though as yet no test matches. It also boasts the biggest wholesale fruit and vegetable market in northern Sri Lanka with a semi-permanent traffic jam outside, but for us the main attraction was Dambulla’s ancient rock temple.

Dambull Rock Temples

The temple’s modern additions include a large Buddha image on top of what looks like a restaurant but is actually a museum.

The Golden Temple, Dambulla

It may lack the gravitas I would expect from a religious building, but the locals seem happy enough and come here to celebrate their weddings.

Wedding party, Dambulla Golden Temple

The rock temple is behind and above the modern image. After climbing 200m to the top of Sigiriya Rock yesterday, the 100m climb up broad staircases and gently sloping paths was a rest cure, particularly as we did not have to remove our shoes until the top.

Lynne plods up to the Dambulla Rock Temples

At the entrance to a wide, paved ledge a monk tied a length of white cotton round our right wrists to symbolise the passing of knowledge. On the ledge five caves lurk under the overhanging rock face, enclosed by an outer wall.

A paved ledge beside a rock overhang, Dambulla Cave Temple

The Rock Temples date from the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods (437BCE-1232CE). The nearest and smallest ‘Cave of the Divine King’ was crowded and dark, indeed it was only by taking flash photographs - for once permitted - that we found it was filled by a 14m long reclining Buddha...

Head of the Reclining Buddha, Cave of the Divine King, Dambulla

.

...with an image of his disciple Ananda at his feet. Despite the temple being Buddhist there is an image of the Hindu god Krishna, whose divine power created these caves, at the Buddha’s head.

Ananda, Cave of the Divine King, Dambulla

Entering the ‘Cave of the Great Kings’ next-door is one of those stop-and-catch-your-breath moments. 50m long and 25m deep, its name comes from the 1st century BCE King Vattagamani Abhaya, who honoured the monastery and is commemorated by a statue, and the 12th century King Nissanka Malla who gilded many of the Buddha statues of which there are 56 - 16 standing and 40 seated. There is also a spring which drips healing water through the roof into a stone font; it is in all the guide books but somehow we missed the drip.

The third cave, entered through a thick wooden door, is the ‘Great New Monastery’ and has 18th century Kandian style murals and mosaics and another 50 Buddha statues.

Plenty of Buddhas, Cave 3, Dambulla, Cave Temples

The final two caves are a slight anti-climax. Cave 4 holds multiple identical meditating Buddhas, while in Cave 5 the statues are more recent being of brick and plaster. A 10m long reclining Buddha is surrounded by paintings of Vishnu and Kataragama.

Reclining Buddha, Cave 5, Dambulla Cave Temples

We descended to the museum, which has the sort of artefacts you might expect and did not detain us long, then located Ravi in the car park and set off south towards Kandy, Sri Lanka's second city.

Spice Garden

After a coconut stop where Ravi insisted on borrowing the coconut vendor’s machete and scraping out what little flesh there is in a drinking coconut…

Ravi is determined to get full value from his coconut

…we arrived at a spice garden, or rather we stopped at one of a line of them strung along the roadside. The garden, surrounded by coconut palms, grew pepper vines, nutmeg, clove, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla and aloes among others. We tasted cloves, cardamom and cinnamon fresh from the trees. Before drying, the green clove bud’s flavour is intense and they are hot on the palate, while cardamom seeds explode in the mouth with a dizzying freshness. Nibbling bark peeled from a tree would normally be eccentric, but when it is a cinnamon tree, the fragrant sweetness is astounding.

Cardamom, Highland Spice Garden

We were interesting in buying culinary spices, cinnamon and cloves being the two particularly associated with Sri Lanka, but the man who showed us round was keener to sell us cosmetic oils and medicaments with heftier price tags. The hair remover certainly worked, a small bald patch on my arm proved that, but it did little to solve my real problem - the reluctance of hair to grow on my head.

Green Vanilla pods, the Highland Spice Garden

We enjoyed looking at the plants and tasting the spices in their natural state and managed to leave with the spices we wanted and with no creams or lotions. I am cynical about cosmetic products whether straight from a garden or expensively packaged. There is no way to remove wrinkles - apart from polyfilla - nor should one be sought, wrinkles are nature's way of adding character to a face.

Sri Lankan Diversity

We passed through a town where the women all wore headscarves. 'Sri Lankan Moors', Tamil speaking Muslims, who may be Tamils who converted to Islam or an entirely separate ethnic group - the issue is under debate - make up 10% of the country's population. 75% are Sinhalese who are overwhelmingly Buddhist and 15% are Tamils, largely Hindus. Sinhalese and Tamil are official languages and English is constitutionally defined as a ‘link language’. The Sinhalese migrated from Bengal in the 5th century BC, or even earlier, and their language is related to the northern India languages, though long separation has made the relationship distant. Tamils colonised northern Sri Lanka from southern India in the 2nd century BC. A long, vicious and ultimately unsuccessful war was fought from 1983 to 2009 by the Tamil Tigers to establish an independent Tamil state. A minority group of Tamils, the 'plantation Tamils' where brought over by the British in the 19th century to work in the tea plantations of the central highlands and did not, on the whole, support the Tamil Tigers. There are also some 30,000 Sri Lankan 'Burghers', of mixed European descent and 15,000 Vedda people who are believed to be the island’s indigenous inhabitants.

Dambulla is not marked, but it is a little to the south west of Habarana
(which is marked though it is much smaller!)

Matale and the Sri Muthumariamman Kovil Temple

Matale is the last sizeable town before the road starts to rise into the mountains. At its entrance is the Sri Muthumariamman Kovil Temple. When it comes to colourful exuberance you cannot beat a Hindu temple. This is Sri Lanka, so there was a charge for walking round the outside; it cost more to go in, but Hindu temples are always showier on the outside so we did not bother.

Sri Muthumariamman Kovil Temple, Matale

School children were heading home for lunch. School uniforms are usually all white, for boys and girls, as though everybody was in the cricket team. Girls wear white dresses, somewhat incongruous teamed with a tie (though not, it seems in this case).

School uniform, Matale

Beyond Matale we stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant. It was clean and modern, if a little characterless. Doubling as a local shop, it was largely patronized by locals. The vegetarian rice and curry buffet was more interesting than most, but would have been better if somebody had lit the burners under the trays.

Driving through Matale

Kandy

We rose gently into the foothills of the central mountains and by the time we arrived in Kandy in late afternoon we had reached 500m. With 125,000 inhabitants, Kandy is Sri Lanka’s second city. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Kandy from the late 15th century until the start of the colonial era and was the place where Buddha’s Tooth was kept. It is still there. When the British moved the capital to Colombo in 1815 the link between Tooth and capital was broken after 2000 years.

The Temple of the Tooth, Kandy

Kandy: The Temple of the Tooth

The Temple of the Tooth sits beside a lake. I had thought this might be one of the highlights of the trip, but the temple is an unmemorable pile surrounded by the administrative buildings of the British raj. Some parts are new; the Tamil Tigers detonated a truck bomb at the entrance in 1998 killing 20.

The Temple of the Tooth, Kandy

The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but that does not mean visitors will see The Tooth. It sits inside a gold casket which is very rarely opened. In fact we did not even see the casket (my photo is of a replica in another temple); it is only displayed two days a month.

Replica of the Casket of the Tooth

When the Buddha was cremated in 543BCE various body parts were rescued from the flames. In the 4th century BC, with Buddhism in decline in India, the tooth was smuggled to Sri Lanka wrapped in the hair of a princess. Bella Sidney Woolf (a writer, wife colonial adminstrator Tom Southorn and sister-im-law of Virginia Woolf) saw the tooth in 1914 and described it as a ‘tooth of discoloured ivory at least three inches long – unlike any human tooth ever known.’ In 1597 a Portuguese traveller claimed it was a buffalo tooth. To express doubts about the Tooth’s authenticity is deeply offensive, so I will keep my scepticism to myself.

Inside the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy

Every year the Tooth is paraded in its casket through the streets of Kandy carried by an elephant. This job was done for fifty years by an elephant known as Raja. When he died in 1998 he was stuffed and put on display where he is viewed as reverently as a holy relic.

Rajah, the former bearer of the Tooth

In the courtyard is the audience hall, built in 1783, partly burned by the British when they took Kandy in 1803 and then promptly restored. It was here in 1815 that the Kandian chiefs handed over power to the British. Some of the pillars survived the fire and are originals.

Audience Hall, Temple of the Tooth, Kandy

Our Hotel, Surroundings and Dinner

Our hotel was only a couple of hundred metres from the temple, but Kandy is a strange city arranged down a series of valleys around the lake and in many places neither looks nor feels urban. Our hotel room overlooked paddy fields; squirrels ran up and down the corner of the building, monkeys played in the palm trees.....

Kandy from our hotel balcony

.......and we watched a white-throated kingfisher waiting for a meal.

White throated kingfisher, Kandy

To find our own meal we walked back towards the lake. The only option, a small business on a corner by the water was doing a brisk take-away trade but there were also a few seats inside. We sat at a rather sticky table and ate devilled chicken and rice. Devilled dishes are the only genuine Sri Lankan alternative to rice and curry. Pieces of meat come in a thick brown sauce with a flavour not far from Chinese sweet and sour but with a good chilli hit. We resorted to them on a number of occasions and apaert from devilled beef (like most Sri Lankan beef, it is too tough to enjoy), they make a pleasant change.

The locals kept coming for the take-aways, but by the time we had finished all the tables were filled by Europeans escaping from various hotels. We drank fruit juice; Lynne's lime was fine but my pineapple was so thick I gave up on the straw and resorted to a spoon. Despite the doubtful cleanliness of the place we suffered no adverse reaction, indeed we had no problems the whole time we were in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka, The Isle of Serendip

Part 1: Colombo to Anuradhapura and Mihintale
Part 2: Anuradhapura Ancient and Modern
Part 3: Polonnaruwa and Kandalama, An Ancient City and a Modern Hotel
Part 4: Sigiriya Rock and an Ayurvedic Massage
Part 5: Dambulla and on to Kandy
Part 6: Kandy and Around
Part 7: By Train to Nuwara Eliya
Part 8: The Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya and a Cup of Tea
Part 9: Through Bandarawela and on to Ella
Part 10: Ella, Little Adam's Peak and the Demodara Bridge
Part 11: The Sinharaja Rainforest
Part 12: Kataragama and the Yala National Park
Part 13: Through Hambantota to Mirissa
Part 14: Galle, Fish and a Fort
Part 15: Colombo, National Day and a Full Moon

Sigiriya Rock and Ayurvedic Massage: Part 4 of Sri Lanka, Isle of Serendip

Climbing a 200m High Rock to what was once the Sri Lankan Capital and a Relaxing Massage

Sri Lanka

Morning in the Heritance Hotel

We awoke in our suite in the Heritance Hotel, considered for a moment how pleasant it was to have been upgraded and then looked out the window and saw monkeys - more precisely, Tufted Grey Langurs - swinging in the trees.

Tufted Grey Langur seen from our balcony, Heritance Hotel, Kandalama

The breakfast buffet was comprehensive as befits such a hotel. In the balcony alongside the usual omeletteer was a man making egg hoppers, rice flour pancakes cooked in a small bowl-shaped pan with an egg fried on the flat bottom. You can fill hoppers with whatever takes your fancy, on this occasion coconut sambol and 'Maldive fish', a spicy condiment made from dried and ground tuna.

After breakfast we set off for Sigiriya. We had first caught sight of it yesterday as we drove to Polonnaruwa; we could even see it from the hotel - if we stood in the right place - and as the hotel is a kilometre long there were several right places.

Sigiriya Rock in the misty distance across Kandalama Lake

Sigiriya Rock

Sigiriya is a huge rock some 200m high and we were going to climb it. We drove round Kandalama Lake and the closer we got the more daunting the prospect became. My rock climbing days are over (if one fear-filled afternoon in 1972 can be described as 'days') but even with steps all the way up it looked a stiff climb.

Just a Little History

First used as a refuge by monks during the early days of Sri Lankan Buddhism, the top of the rock became the island’s capital for 18 years in the fifth century AD. What sort of a king builds his palace on a rock? A frightened one, obviously, but also one blessed with organisational skills. To erect an entire palace compound in seven years was good going for the time, but to do that after first hauling all the material to the top of a huge rock was a remarkable feat.

Sri Lanka - Sigiriya is near Polonnaruwa

Although much closer to Polonnaruwa than to Anuradhapura, Sigiriya is part of the Anuradhapura story. King Dhatusena (ruled 455-473) intended his oldest son Mogallana to succeed him. Kapassa, an ambitious younger son of a concubine, rebelled, forcing Mogallana into exile and imprisoning and then killing their father. Even today respect for one's parents runs deep in Sri Lankan society, and fifteen hundred years ago parricide was particularly severely frowned upon. Fearing the wrath of god, his people and, most importantly, Mogallana who had vowed to return and claim his throne, Kapassa opted for safety over convenience and built his palace on top of the biggest rock he could find. In 491, 18 years later, Mogallana eventually got round to honouring his vow and in a fit of bravado Kapassa came down from his rock to meet Mogallana’s army on the flat. Unfortunately his war elephant bolted and his troops, thinking he was fleeing, fell back. Facing certain defeat and capture Kapassa killed himself. There are other versions of the end of this story but the moral is clear: be nice to your dear old dad; he's the only one you will ever have.

Getting to the Bottom of the Rock

The museum and ticket office is a couple of hundred metres from the base of the rock. We paid the usual exorbitant ticket price - £17 each for the third day running - and had a look round the museum which gave an idea of what life here might have been like fifteen hundred years ago. Despite his faults, Kapassa was a capable ruler who not only built palaces on rocks, but also looked after the irrigation system and organised the planting of mango trees, which kept his people fed and regular.

Sigiriya rock across the water garden

We approached the base of the rock through the surrounding wall and across a water-garden where dozens of young men were hanging around offering their assistance as guides and trying to make out they were in some way 'official'. They pick their victims and stick to them like mud. They require determined brushing off which we tried to do as gently as possible but when one of them put his hand in the small of my back and pushed me up a flight of stairs, I was distinctly short with him. That one disappeared quickly enough.

Boulder garden at the base of Sigiriya Rock

A Detour to the Gallery

We climbed a series of well-made stone staircases through the ‘boulder-garden’ to the base of the rock itself and eventually joined a gently graded path across the rock face. Then we encountered a metal spiral staircase. We could have continued on the graded path, but we took the stairs, it apparently offered a quick way of screwing ourselves into the sky.

Spiral staircase, Sigiriya Rock

Twenty metres higher we emerged onto a ledge tucked under a section of overhanging rock. Once Sigiriya’s western face was covered in paintings. Time has taken its toll, but in this sheltered spot a number of frescoes have survived in remarkably good condition. Given the artist’s subject matter, it was ironic that we were there the day after the Sun published its last Page 3 Girl. While welcoming the Sun's long overdue decision, I cannot help observing that a pretty girl flashing an ample bosom never has been (and never will be) short of admirers.

Page Three frescoes, Sigiriya Rock

At the end of the gallery another spiral staircase took us back down to the main path. We had gained no height, as Lynne bitterly observed, but it had been an interesting detour.

From the Mirror Wall to the Foot of the Lion Steps

We were now passing the 'mirror wall', the rock so highly polished that the king could see his face in it. It is now rather disappointing and in places covered in graffiti. Modern graffiti would, no doubt, occasion much tut-tutting and maybe criminal charges, but this is the graffiti of ancient tourists so it is carefully protected. Vandalism and titty-ogling have been human activities since we first walked upright; tourism, it would seem, also has a long and not always glorious history.

The Water Garden from the Mirror Wall

As we gradually climbed across the rock face we encountered what appeared to be a choice of routes. Although most would-be guides ply their trade at the bottom of the hill, there was still one watching us. We paused. He swooped, told us which way to go and suddenly, without wanting to, we had employed a guide.

The Lion Steps, Sigiriya Rock

His indicated route took us up to a large ledge at the northern end of the rock. From here the 'Lion Steps' once led to the top, but apart from the lion’s feet little survives.

The 'final pitch' above the Lion's Feet

The Steps to the Top

Above, the last part of the ascent is by a set of metal steps anchored in the wall. On the way we paused to look at some of the ancient steps hacked into the rock. The Lion Steps may have been fine for a monarch, but the monks and the workers bringing up the building material would have scrambled up these. Kapassa’s building site was not one in which health and safety had a high priority - it was not even a hard hat area.

Ancient steps, Sigiriya Rock

On Top of Sigiriya Rock

The top was once entirely covered by buildings, and their remains vie with the spectacular view to be the main attraction.

Looking south from the Palace Platform, Sigiriya

All that remains of the palace is a square brick platform on the highest part of the summit, but it was clearly a remarkable structure in a remarkable place. Below are the low walls and foundations of the servants' quarters.

The Palace Platform, Sigiriya Rock

Our new guide showed us around diligently, though the labelling was adequate and the King’s Bath was easy to spot – it was full of water. Some water was captured from the monsoon rains; more was pumped up from below probably by use of windmills. Hill forts are not uncommon, Uffington Castle in Oxfordshire and 'British Camp' in the Malverns feature elsewhere in this blog, but the ascents were much easier - no shallow steps hacked into solid rock - and the size and complexity of the buildings bears no comparison.

The King's Bath, Sigiriya Rock

We paused beside the king’s throne. It is not for sitting on, though I suppose it must have been once, what else can you do with a throne? To answer my own question, kneel on it – such, we have learned, is the Burmese way.

A throne 'not for sitting', Sigiriya Rock

The Descent of Sigiriya Rock

The ascent had been hot and sweaty, the descent was a little easier though more painful on the knees. The route was slightly different as, like most tourists we had approached form the west across the water garden, but descended to the southern car park where Ravi would be waiting for us.

Starting the descent, Sigiriya Rock

There is evidence that not all of life was conducted on the top of the rock. A polished flat rock at the base once had a wooden roof and walls and is known as the ‘audience chamber’, though its purpose was probably religious.

'Audience Chamber' at the foor of Sigiriya Rock

We dropped from the royal site through a cleft between two rocks resembling a massive pair of buttocks, known without a shred of irony, as Boulder Arch Number 2.

Lynne plops out through Boulder Arch No 2

Here our unwanted guide left us. He was the first (and only) person in Sri Lanka to request payment in US$. 'Up and down ten dollars,' he said, as though it was the officially recognised fee. I could have pointed out that he did not join us until near the top, that we had never actually asked him to be our guide, indeed we had not wanted or needed a guide at all. On the other hand he was a poor man trying to hustle a living and as a rich man it was my duty to pay for unrequested and unrequired services. Having bargained him down to $6, I paid up with good grace, though his acceptance was a touch grudging.

Ayurvedic Massage

We found Ravi in the car park as arranged and he drove us back, yet again, to Habarana. Lynne, who has an exaggerated respect for time, even by western standards, had been fussing since the top of the rock that I was going to be late for my massage. I took my lead from Ravi who had suggested the time I had booked - he seemed unconcerned. I was eventually over an hour late, but nobody cared.

Lynne had no desire for a massage so she sat in the shade, wrote her diary and drank herbal tea.

Lynne sits in the shade and drinks herbal tea, Habaraba massage centre

I was shown to one of the thatched huts where I removed my clothes, girded myself with a towel and for the next hour a young man rubbed fragrant hot oils into (almost) every inch of my body.

When he finished I had a steam bath. Undergoing the same process in India a few years ago, I had sat in a sealed wooden box with my head protruding and been steamed like a chicken. This time I sat alone in a room like a sauna with leaves draped over the seats. Steam was introduced from above and I was gently stewed with herbs. 'Stay there as long as you can stand it,' was the instruction, but I have a high tolerance for these things and in the end, when the sweat was flowing freely, they came and hoiked me out.

The masseur is coming to rub me all over!

I luxuriated in the feeling of health and well-being, knowing from experience that it does not last long. After the steam bath in India I was shown into a shower cubicle and given some abrasive soap to remove the oils. Here I was thrown a fresh towel and instructed to dry myself and replace my clothes. My feeling of well-being evaporated as I struggled back into a tee shirt still damp with sweat from my earlier exertions.

I re-joined Lynne and was provided with a cup of herbal tea which I found refreshing, though it was now past two and after a long and arduous morning I wanted my lunch.

Ravi drove us to another tourist feeding station. The rice and curry buffet looked tired so we opted for noodles with chicken (Lynne) and pork (me). Such dishes appear in all menus and are usually described as Chinese. There is little of the flavours of China about them, but they are pleasant enough.

Back to the Heritance Hotel

Then it was back through Dambulla, down the lane and along the unpaved road back to the Heritance Hotel. The dirt road offered us glimpses of white throated kingfishers, magnificent (and very common) birds notable not for their white throats but for their fluorescent blue backs.

The minor road from Dambulla

A mongoose waddled across the road in front of us. ‘The snake killer,' said Ravi though it is difficult to imagine these portly, self-satisfied creatures becoming involved in life or death struggles with cobras. Further on, a jungle fowl bustled across the road. They are Sri Lanka's national bird despite being little more than wild hens.

Five-star elegance or ludicrously over-designed glasses?
Heritance Hotel, Kandalama

We reached the hotel in late afternoon and spent the rest of the day in decadent five-star luxury. It was pleasant, but not really like being in Sri Lanka and far too dull to write about.

Sri Lanka, The Isle of Serendip

Part 1: Colombo to Anuradhapura and Mihintale

Part 2: Anuradhapura Ancient and Modern

Part 3: Polonnaruwa and Kandalama, An Ancient City and a Modern Hotel
Part 4: Sigiriya Rock and an Ayurvedic Massage
Part 5: Dambulla and on to Kandy

Part 6: Kandy and Around

Part 7: By Train to Nuwara Eliya
Part 8: The Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya and a Cup of Tea
Part 9: Through Bandarawela and on to Ella
Part 10: Ella, Little Adam's Peak and the Demodara Bridge
Part 11: The Sinharaja Rainforest
Part 12: Kataragama and the Yala National Park
Part 13: Through Hambantota to Mirissa
Part 14: Galle, Fish and a Fort
Part 15: Colombo, National Day and a Full Moon