We arrived in Dambulla, having seen a herd of wild elephants just off the side of the road at a watering hole (very cool), and set about visiting the only thing worth visiting in the area, the cave temples. Now how we have been getting into all of the cultural triangle areas without paying is a letter from the Cultural Triangle office, saying that we are doing research and need to access these areas. We assumed that as long as we had some collection tubes with us, we should capitalize on this opportunity and visit some of the areas whilst we were separated from the main research group.
To reach the entrance to the cave temples, there is a 150m vertical ascent (over about half a km horizontally), which we surmounted with vigour, to reach the ticket office at the top. We took off our shoes (sacred site etc) and paid 25 rupees (tourist rip off anyone) to store our shoes. We were then promptly denied entry to the site as we didnt have a stamp on the letter by an extremely Jobsworth security guard. We dutifully (still without shoes) descended the mountain, got a stamp, and re-climbed the monster in the 35 degree heat, to be told that we had got the wrong stamp, and would have to go back and get another from some kind of head monk.
I decided that it was a waste of energy for both of us to repeat the down and up journey, so valiently let Ben wander down and back up again in search of the stamp. Seeing a dispondant Ben re-emerge 25 mins later having been told by the monk that "you are white, you are foreign, you must pay full price" didn't fill me with much hope. Lukily the security guard took pity on us and let us enter, although for the hour and a bit we had spent wrangling a free entrance, the 5 caves weren't quite as impressive as we hoped, so 10 minutes later we were walking back down the hill, slightly dissapointed, and waving away touts with slightly more vigour than normal!
After this we got a bus to our Guest house near Sigiria, and settled in for the night quite early, as apparently wild elephants roam the road after about 8pm, and thus that was when the gates were closed... *cough* guy wanted to go home early? *cough*. The next morning however we woke up, and decided all of a sudden that today was a good day to go ride an elephant, having read about the possibility in the guide. We made our way to Habarana, and were presented with at least 10 people flocking to try and sell us elephant rides. We settled on the most legit looking person (mainly judged by the number of teeth, and ability to speak english), and after some furious bartering from 20 euros to approx 10 pounds, we approached Raja, the elephant to ferry us around the place for an hour of pure stereotypical gap-yah-ishness. It was an incredible experience, especially being perched on his neck for 10 minutes, with my previous riding experience consisting of sitting on a pig whilst it was walking, once... It was a once in a lifetime oppertunity, but I still felt saddened at how the elephants were treated, being shouted at by the mahoot who was effectively weilding a pike at the elephants knees... which left me in 2 minds about it.
From here we moved on to Sigiria town, and the "other rock"... a large rock near the main Sigiria rock (see my facebook again for pics). We climbed the rock by steep steps for about 20 mins, and after a 5 min scramble over boulders we made it to the summit, which was incredible. None of my pictures can do the panorama justice, but the view over the unsullied landscape was breathtaking, and the view of Sigiria Rock itself was postcard perfect (and I in fact recognised from many post cards)! All was well and good until an elderly Sri Lankan walked over and sat next to us, started pointing at things and naming them "jungle" and "rock". This flagrant disregard for our privacy really ruined the seclusion, so we decided to leave, with the tout in rapid pursuit. He started holding out his hand asking for money for his services, which did not go down well, having not asked to be stalked up the rock by a "guide". He was dismissed somewhat harshly, but the fact that he just wandered up to us and expected money really ground our gears! After descending the rock, we drank some water from a random well (again 35 degree heat is not good), and lived to tell the tale, and headed back to the guest house before we would inevitably be killed by an elephant!
The next day was Sigiria day, when we would mount the "lion rock", and would finally meet up with our research companions in Dambulla. My highlight of the walk to the site entrance from the bus stop was undoubtedly Ben walking along with his loaf of bread for breakfast, and suddenly being surrounded by monkeys hissing and bearing their teeth! We beat a hasty retreat with the monkeys pawing at Bens loaf, and him throwing chunks in our wake to try and quench the monkeys hunger before our face was next on the menu! Luckily this was successful and we progressed onto the site entrance.
After much less hastle from the ticket office at Sigiria, we entered the complex, which is the large rock with the palace situated at its summit, surrounded by endless ruined gardens and buildings. We decided to summit the rock as soon as possible, as it was 10am, and would only get hotter and more sweat provoking. The ascent was steep, but filled with things to stop and see such as the mirror wall (a wall covered in ancient graffiti and poems) and the cave paintings, so we made the top of the 200m rock in about 45 minutes, and got to look at fantastic views similar to those of the day before, but in the setting of the ruins of an ancient temple... not too shabby! We made the most of our free entry to the site (which normally costs 25 dollars) by having a nap on top of the rock in the shade, and playing a game called "avoid the rabid stray dogs" which is always fun!
After a couple of hours we descended the rock and via the Sigiria museum made our way to Dambulla, where we were to meet with the rest of the researchers. Now there had always been a bit of contention over who was supposed to pay for hotels, us or the Japanese researchers. When we met up with the others in Dambulla, they told us the room price and asked for the sum. At this point myself and Ben had between us less than half the sum of the room, having expected another night in a hotel, so we decided it was best to ask for a lift to the bus stop and head back to Kandy a day early (we didn't want to pay money for a night in a hotel purely for the pleasure of picking up more piles of steamy science). After 2 hours standing on one of the crazy death buses we arrived at Kandy, went to KFC to satisfy our need for cooked meats, then headed home for a MASSIVE SLEEP!
As I write this I am 2 days and a lot of relaxation after this epic journey to the Cultural triangle, and having made the acquaintance of some other foreigners in the university (Australia and France), we are planning a weekend of westernised exploits, followed by a trip for me and Ben into the Hill country early next week, and the promise of trips out with an elephant tranquilizer team towards the end of next week... all signs point to a lot of hard research work in our immediate future!
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment