Sigiriya (Lions Rock)
We climbed up Lions Rock which was a fortress, built from 477-485. It's a steep climb of 600 stairs and ladders and there are masses of Sri Lankans visiting along with us since it is a weekend. This creates a "ladder and gapers block" which moves very slowly. The highlights are the frescos which are still so colorful and a highly polished rock with original graffiti - verses written between the 7th and 11th century.
About half way up, the Lion Terrace marked by a staircase between Lion's Paws, starts the remainder of the climb up to the ruins of the summer palaces. There are just crumbly ruins at the top and the visibility isn't too great.
We are staying at the Kandalama hotel (which is absolutely beautiful) surrounded by jungle. The room is huge with a sunken jacuzzi in the bathroom surrounded by ceiling high windows.
Every now and then, bands of monkeys come along our balcony and bathroom to watch us. I can just imagine their conversation.... "Hey Mabel, look at that human...have you ever seen anything so disgusting?"
The Kandalama also has bird watching, jungle trekking and horse back riding. My bird watching consists of "what a pretty yellow bird". We were told NOT to wander off the jungle paths. Sri Lanka is very proud of it's 7 varieties of the world's most poisonous snakes. Trust me...we are NOT wandering off any paths.
There are very few Americans in Sri Lanka - primarily English and Germans. As a result the very lovely people of this country are thrilled to see us and welcome us to their country.
