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We saw a lot of temples and ruins in the last couple of days. Since we were looking forward to some relaxation time in the south, we took the last chance we had in the north of the country to visit two of the main heritage sights on the island - Dambulla, a place of worship carved into the mountain, and Sigiriya, a giant rock a king found in the jungle and decided to live on.
After we got back from our safari on the day before we asked the hotel management to get us a car and a driver for the entire day. Since there were only three of us and we had no luggage, we didn’t need a big van like before, we got a nice sedan instead. In general the driver was quite good and didn’t force a conversation on us, but showed us things he thought might interest us. It’s really unfortunate that I forgot his name.

Dambulla

After driving for about 2 hours we reached Dambulla and visited the Golden Temple and The Rock Temple. At the entrance to the golden temple we were greeted by what is supposed to be the biggest sitting-down Buddha statue in the world.

A small way led us up to the slightly elevated entrance to the rock temple where we once more had to take off our shoes and leave them at the entrance. The entire temple was made up of many bigger and smaller chambers carved into the bar stone.

The entire temple was made up of chambers of varying sizes, big and small. There were also gigantic standing, sitting and reclined Buddha statues carved out of rock or made of plaster. Most of the walls, ceilings, some of the floors and even the statues were painted in natural colors.

All the rooms were not properly lit for any kind of serious photography. In order to preserve the colors they kept the lighting to a minimum. This gave the entire complex an even more sacred feel comparable to big and dark churches in Europe where sometimes only a single ray of sunlight enters the room.
Since we were on a little hill we walked down slowly and visited the golden temple with the giant sitting Buddha on its roof next. This was not a real temple but rather a Buddhistic museum showing where and how Buddhism is practiced all over the world. Having not rushed but also not over excited we passed through the halls filled with gifts from different parts of the world and little tin-figure models of parades and religious clothing.

After finding our driver we made the short ride from Dambulla to Sigiriya to climb a rock in the jungle.

Sigiriya

Our driver dropped us off right at the entrance of the Sigiriya World Heritage Site which contains ruins of a former castle in the jungle, with working watering systems, fountains and a giant rock on which the king decided to build his summer residence. The tickets to the sight weren’t cheap and we even took a local guide with whom we bargained at the entrance but once in it was definitely worth it. Even though, the size and dimensions of the stone got more clear with every step. The guide explained the first water reservoir and mentioned that there used to be crocodiles in the moat. All out of the sudden the guide got a phone call and had to leave but left us in the good hands of another guide. I also don’t know the name any more. Nevertheless, he explained very carefully and extensively and even while climbing up the metal staircases he kept talking.

He was explaining that the whole castle had been built symmetrically with the lion rock in its center and that they were only excavating on one side to show to tourists and leaving the other side covered up in order to preserve it longer. About half way up the rock there is a very big crave paining depicting only women with and without any clothing. The king did this to provoke the monks that were living on the mountain just a couple of kilometres way. Our guide even knew about the colors used and how the stone absorbed the colors and that they could not be washed out by some rain.

Along the way up we encountered several warning signs telling us to be aware of wild hornets. There were also hornet shelters along the way in case a swarm should attack all of the sudden. Form the top of the lion rock the view was just amazing and breathtaking but this could also have been to the fact that we climbed a 200m rock in less then 45 minutes with ambient temperatures of about 28°C.

The king decided to have all his summer residence building be erected onto the lion rock and if possible hammered out of the stone. This was the case for a natural stone swimming pool that was also used as a water reservoir for the fountains in winter time when the king resided at the foot of the lion rock.

On the way down from the rock the guide took a different route through the castle area and explaining how they worked with the massive stones they had there and how they closely integrated the natural stones in the defensive structures. After climbing up and down we were glad to be back in the car and on our way back to the hotel where we packed our suitcases for the day trip we had in front of us.

Train ride to Galle

In the second day in Anuradhapura we planned our way out of the city and towards the south of the island. For the first leg of our trip we booked us 3 seats in a first class train wagon. The booking could even be done online and paid by credit card. In the early morning, we went to the train station and entered our first class wagon.

On the train there was a meal offered and even some entertainment program. This trip towards the capitol city of Colombo took us about 3.5 hours. But since we were smart, at least at this point, we didn’t ride until the final destination of the train but left the train one stop early in order to be at the starting point of our second train towards Galle. We paid only a fraction of the price as we did for the first train but therefore it was a 2nd class ticket without any seat reservation. After waiting for a couple of hours at the tracks, the train entered the satiation and even before it stopped people were fearlessly jumping on the train. Since we had a little bit of luggage we could not jump as fearlessly and had to wait until the train came to a full stop. This left us with only 2 (well 1.5 european) seats for 3 people. Maria was mostly sleeping and Daniel and I were alternating between standing and sitting.

The route is very scenic along the west coast of the island mostly only a couple of stones between the open wagon doors and the ocean. After about 4 hours we finally reached the station in Galle and were picked up by our hotel.
The last part of our vacation will be put into one last post in the upcoming days/weeks with a nice video.