Sri Lanka - Our Travelogue, Part 2 of 3

Our driver wisely recommended that we go either early in the morning or in the late afternoon. There are lots of steps to climb and it is very hot. Admission to the caves is US$10 per person, payable in either US dollars or Sri Lankan rupees.

You can choose whether to have a guide for the caves (and other historic sites). For me, having a guide makes the visit a more intellectual experience; not having a guide makes it a more spiritual experience. While we had read everything in the guidebooks about the caves, we felt we really wanted more background. We found that there is just not that much available about the Sri Lankan historic sites in print in the US. We let our driver know that we were very interested in Buddhism, and he arranged guides for us who were very well informed and able to answer questions as well as give us more "standard" information.

The guide was very good, and spent about an hour with us in the caves. The caves were enlarged and decorated with paintings and sculpture over a period of over 2000 years. The caves are beautiful, and very well preserved. Our driver suggested $5 for the guide, and we gave him an extra $1.

By the time we were finished in the caves, the sun was setting. The walk down the stairs was much easier and much cooler. Next trip, I'd opt to go first thing in the morning. And I'd opt not to use a guide as we now have lots of background information, so the next visit could be a more spiritual experience.

A note about photography: There was an incident several years ago when a tourist had her photo taken sitting on the lap of one of the Buddha statues. As a result, they stopped photography for a time, and they re-consecrated and repainted the Buddha statue that was desecrated. They now allow photography (including flash and including using a tripod) but the signs say that you cannot take photos of people, only photos of the paintings and sculpture. I think that's a good guideline in general at religious sites. By the way, the only place we visited that had a fee for photography was the Temple of the Tooth.

We were very fortunate everywhere we went in that we never ran into the hordes of visitors that the guidebooks warn you about. We were often alone in one of the caves with our guide. In Polonnaruwa, we were often the only visitors at a particular building, etc. Only at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy were there crowds of people.

The next day, our driver picked us up at 7:30 to go to Polonnaruwa, about a two hour drive from the Kandalama. He had again pre-arranged the "best" guide, and he was excellent, indeed. He escorted us through the museum, highlighting a number of exceptional items, and giving us a historical overview. Sri Lanka has over 2000 years of recorded history. Thus, as he guided us through the site, he was able to give us incredibly detailed information about what was written in "The Chronicles" and the confirmation of the written history in the archaeological record as well additional information that the archaeology has provided. Admission to Polonnaruwa is US$20 per person.

The site reminded me in many ways of some of the best preserved Roman cities, such as Jerash in Jordan. Polonnaruwa was the capital city for some time, but was burned by invaders from Southern India, and was abandoned and left to the jungle for about 800 years. There has been a goodly amount of archaeological work in the area, and the ruins have had toppled columns raised and some restoration work done. The ruins are a very pleasant place to visit, "set in a garden" as our guide said, the buildings and sculpture surrounded by trees and green. The city covers a large area, and we were driven from one area to another. There are both Buddhist temples as well as Hindu shrines, reflecting an influx of Hindus from Southern India.

There is so much fascinating to tell you about Polonnaruwa, but I will mention only a few of the things we really enjoyed. Many of the temples have what are called moonstones at the entrance, a semi-circular carved stone with various animal figures. These were very beautiful, and it was interesting to see how the iconography of the stones changed over time.

Many of the temples have inscriptions, but I was most fascinated by how many inscriptions had figures carved into the stone next to them, to convey information to those who could not read. For instance one stone showed a monk, a dog and a bird. The message was "If you steal from the monks, you will come back in your next life as a dog or a crow."

There was a long speech by one of the kings in an inscription. He was concerned that he was seen as an usurper by the people, as he had come from Southern India. The previous ruling family had come from the farmers caste and they had been seen as the legitimate rulers of the kingdom. So his speech said that farmers should not aspire to be kings, as that is like a worm aspiring to be a snake, etc. And this was again illustrated with figures in the stone.

In all, we spent three hours with our superb guide. Rather than the $5 suggested by our driver, we paid the guide $10.

We purchased an excellent book entitled "The Cultural Triangle" published by Unesco at the bookstore at the museum.

Next on the agenda was our jeep safari into Kandulla National Park. This park has a herd of about 250 wild elephants as well as a number of other large mammals, many monkeys and lots of fabulous birds. This is best done just before sunset. We were in the back of a truck with our driver and our game-spotter. Mostly, we saw elephants - lots and lots of elephants. We counted about 150 elephants in all that we saw.

It was interesting to observe them up fairly close. There were other jeeps in the area, and at one point, one of the old male elephants thought the jeeps were getting too close and he charged one of the jeeps, trumpeting loudly. We also saw lots of birds, including a spectacular flock of painted storks, a number of the beautiful small green bee eaters, a sea eagle, and wild peacocks. In all, we spent two hours in the park, plus about a half an hour drive each way from Habanera. The cost was US$50 plus tips to our driver and game spotter.

The next day we left for Sigiriya at 7 am. It's only a 30 minute drive from the Kandalama to Sigiriya. As it is quite a climb, you really want to get there early in the morning to avoid the intense heat. When people think of Sigiriya, they think of the "rock," but Sigiriya also includes the best preserved city site from the fifth century. Admission to Sigiriya is US$20 per person. You walk through gardens with pools, both ornamental and for swimming, as well foundations of buildings from that time.

The rock (actually an ancient magna plug from a volcano along worn away) is over 600 feet high. There are a number of modifications in the structure of the rock made by the people, some mimicking natural features of other parts of the rock such as creating what appear to be natural arches, shaping rock to look like elephants, enhancing natural depressions in the rock into caves, etc. There is a long series of stairs climbing the rock. Mercifully, there are lots of breaks, "landings" in the more than 1000 steps. Perhaps half way up are the famous frescos of Asparas. They are remarkable, really stunning!

There is a plateau perhaps two thirds of the way up the rock. We stopped and rested. The view from the plateau was stunning and from the top, even more so. We went down a slightly different route, allowing us to see the paintings in the boulder garden area as well. There are many areas of the rock that were formerly painted. Indeed, it appears that the rock was originally painted in a band about 140 meters long which includes the still-present asparas. As before, we had an excellent guide who enhanced our experience of the site.

This is considered the holiest Buddhist site in Sri Lanka. The main street in front of the temple is closed and there is very tight security as the temple was bombed by the Tamil Tigers in 1998. You pass through several layers of security before entering the temple, the last of which is a pat-down search just before entering the doors of the temple.

As we entered, there was drumming beginning, and it lasted through much of our time in the temple. It was wonderfully atmospheric! Upstairs is where the sanctuary for the tooth is located. There were a group of white-clothed VIPs there, and they were admitted into the room in which the tooth is kept (apparently an unusual occurrence).

There were lots of people waiting to parade past the tooth when the gold doors are opened for a few minutes (you don't see the tooth, but the gold casket in which it is kept). There were a number of women with infants, as it is considered important to take a child to the Temple of the Tooth before they are 18 months old. The women with the infants were allowed into a gated area to await the opening of the golden doors. We decided to stay to be able to walk past the opened doors to the tooth. The long wait was a wonderful opportunity to observe the local people in this holy shrine.

The Temple of the Tooth was the one place that had a charge for photography, 150 rupees (less than US$1.50).

That evening, we went to a performance of Kandyan Dance (300 rupees per person). There are two different shows, and both our driver and the manager of Kandy House named this as the best one. The dance show was very good, and was the only place we'd seen lots of westerners. The traditional dance was followed by fire-walking.

The next morning, we left for Tea Trails, located in the hill country. It was probably a 3 hour drive from the Kandy House to Tea Trails. This was a very interesting drive through small towns in the hills. We began to see tea fields and continued to climb higher and higher. The road was mostly ok, though it was narrow and we had to share the road with buses, trucks, tractor-like vehicles (called land masters), bicycles and motor bikes, ox carts, dogs who like to sleep on the road, people often crossing without looking, and the occasional wandering cow.

All vehicles feel compelled to pass the vehicle in front of them. You'll pass a bus that is picking up passengers, and a few minutes later it will roar past you just before a curve. Drivers use their horns to communicate whether it is safe to pass, etc. Everyone cooperates to make this insane system work. The closer we got to Tea Trails, the more narrow the road became. We were driving though tea fields, watching the tea pickers, seeing the children coming home from school. Eventually, the road became a one lane dirt road.

This was a lovely place to relax, all of the bungalows set amid the tea fields and two over looking a lake.

There are walking trails, and we were given a map and headed out to walk through the tea fields. While it is cooler than other parts of Sri Lanka, the best times to walk are after breakfast and/or after high tea. We loved walking there! Everyone around is so friendly. We waved to various workers, the children came and talked to us, all wanted to practice their English.

There are a number of activities available, such as white-water rafting perhaps an hour's drive away, bicycling, and spa treatments available in your room. We didn't any of these. I guess we were so relaxed we didn't need them! They offer a (free) tour to the tea factory that was really excellent. We learned so much about the process of making tea from the growing of the plants to the plucking of the leaves through the fermentation process and the tea tasting and auction process. You can buy the Dilmah teas at the bungalow, and we brought back some unusual single origin teas that I have never seen for sale in the US.

We spent four wonderful days and nights at Tea Trails. We loved it, and will return. The setting is idyllic, the bungalows are lovely with every comfort, the staff is gracious and helpful without being intrusive or fawning, the food is excellent. What more could you want?

Our return: Alas, all good things must come to an end. The day came when it was time to go back to Negombo to fly to Bangkok. It's about a 4 - 4.5 hour drive from Tea Trails to Negombo. We took a different route than when we came. The roads were narrower and the country more rural. We drove past rubber trees being tapped. Slowly, the country became more populated, more urban. Eventually we were on two lane, then finally a four lane road.

We had only a very brief stop at security as we drove into the airport. We tipped our driver very generously - he earned it - and bid him a warm goodbye.

Within a couple of hours we were winging our way back to Bangkok.