Rock and Roti

Friday, February 27, 2015
Dambulla, Sri Lanka
Today we were up early at 6am, had breakfast, walked to the bus stop, and caught a local bus to Sigirya, Sri Lanka's premier archaeological site. Sigirya, or The Lion Palace, is a former citadel surrounded by ancient gardens and lakes. It's kind of like Sri Lanka's version of Angkor Wat- though unlike Angkor Wat, no buildings remain.

The bus ride was a mere 45 minutes, and rather entertaining because the 7am local bus is filled with starchly uniformed, pigtailed schoolchildren . Given their stares at us, it was probably more entertaining for them. Their teeny bodies fit far better on those narrow bus benches than our large American butts did.

Sigirya is a giant rock fortress, with endless (ENDLESS!) stairs leading up to a magnificent summit with views of the jungle for miles in all directions. But those stairs are a bitch, especially in the South Asian sun. So we were advised to climb those stairs straightaway first thing in the morning, before the sun began beating down on the rock, and before the site became overrun with large tour groups on very narrow stairs. This was good advice, because it was a sweaty, hot 45 minute climb, even at 8am. But the view of the rock itself as we ascended was breathtaking- it's so bizarrely huge, and appears to have just been plunked down in the middle of the jungle. And the higher you climb, the more you can view the astonishingly well-preserved 2,000-year-old paintings on the rock.

The first summit (oh yes, there are two) is the famous Lion's Paws . These paws are ginormous sculptures hewn right out of the rock, and apparently back in times of antiquity there was a ginormous lion's HEAD to go with the paws- visitors would enter up a staircase right into the lion's mouth, much like a funhouse clown head. Sadly this no longer exists, and no one knows what happened to it. Poop.

The rest of the climb was thankfully on metal, handrail-assisted stairs- and I say "thankfully" because after Machu Picchu's Handrail-Less, Slippery Stairs of Death, I have noted that I prefer not to plummet off a cliff to my death while on holiday. But anyway, the summit was spectacular. I'm not a huge fan of aerial views, but this one was jaw-dropping. I could see why a king would want that view as his palace home. It even had a massive swimming pool built into the rock! We sat on the fortress' edge for a while and just soaked in the view. It was really amazing. (side note: this had damn well better be amazing, because Sri Lanka charges the exorbitant, unbelievable admission price of $30 USD per person . To give you an idea of how unbelieveably expensive that is for this cheap little nation, our 5-hour bus ride cost $1 USD; our guesthouse cost $10 USD; a large bottle of water is about 30 cents. But hey, I get that Sri Lanka is emerging as a tourist destination, and they want to preserve their antique treasures, so why not pass that charge onto those who visit them. I get it, I just don't LIKE it. Note that locals are free. Grrr, as the Lion says.)

(second side note: I'm a big fan of technology when I travel (that concept is even built into the mission statement of the company I work for), but in the last year, I'm starting to think it's gone too far. Case in point: While several of us were enjoying the quiet peace of the summit views, some douchebag was walking around ON HIS PHONE yelling "I can't hear you! What?" and carrying on an inane conversation...because you know, this site and view just weren't entertaining enough. And don't get me started on the NarcisStick users, though I will admit it was a bit fun watching them take a selfie while trying to avoid plummeting off the mountain. Anyway.)

We wandered Sigirya's museum and gardens, then went to a little cafe for a lunch of Sri Lankan curry and rice, and possibly the best roti I've ever had (a kind of bread-thing). And just as we were finishing, the local bus pulled up right to the cafe's entrance for our return to Dambulla! We arrived early enough in the afternoon to spend some time reading and relaxing in our guesthouse's garden.

Tomorrow we are heading two hours farther north to the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. More time on a public bus, wheeeee

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