Sigiriya and Tricomalee

Each morning at the Cinamon Lodge, a Mongoose weaves it way through the tables in the restaurant while people are having breakfast. It typically stops at each table and looks up to see if any food is coming its way. Most people see it is as cute. Krishni saw it as a threat and kept a sharp lookout for a potential attack. That and the scary (*cough*) squirrels had her nerves on edge.

One morning I went up for a second course of breakfast and on the way back I couldn't help myself. I bent down and tickled her ankle from behind. She shrieked and also threw her coffee in the air which came down all over the table. It was definitely a bigger reaction than I expected. Needless to say we drew a little attention of the neighbouring tables who thought it was fairly amusing. Luckily we had a good laugh and I didn't get the rest of the coffee thrown all over me.

After breakfast we had a full day ahead sightseeing. First we went to Sigiriya, a miniature version of Ayres Rock but was home in the old days to an old monastery and a potential palace.

The walk up on a hot day was a bit of an effort. We first saw some old wall paintings which were the best kept rock paintings I have ever seen. Apparently they are a depiction of a buddhist god. Either that or the monks were a bit raunchy.

The rest of the walk up was a little daunting up a staircase that just went up the side of the rock. At the bottom there were some massive rock lion claws which were impressive in themselves.

The view from the top was amazing. It showed how green and luscious Sri Lanka really is. Most of the time travelling you are on a main road and just notice the other cars and people immediately around you. It was nice to see the bigger picture.

Needless to say we held on tight when coming back down as if you looked over the edge it was a near vertical drop. I can't imagine how they used to do it in the old days.

We got down the bottom of the rock and were nearly on flat ground again when I heard another shriek from Krishni for the day. I turned around and she was on the ground having slipped on the gravel. She had grazed her knee. Within about 45sec two separate groups of older women had fronted up with bandaids and betadine to help clean her up. She was like a wounded solider walking the rest of the way down.

We moved from there to Dambulla where there is a temple built by a grateful king for the Buddhist monks that had help quash an invasion from the South Indians. The massive Buddha out the front was impressive but apparently it was a recent addition.

The walk up was longish and the hot Sun didn't make it any easier. At the top we had to remove our shoes and walk the 20m to the front over hot and I mean hot stones. Krishni did not look like she was having fun but soon found a solution and used the bottom of the wrap around to protect her feet. Am the sure the Sri Lankan's were quite amused at us foreigners.

The caves up the hill were impressive and you definitely got the feeling they liked their buddha statues back then. In the 5 separate caves there were hundreds of Buddha statues side by side around the walls. The roofs where impressively painted also. As well as the small statues there were quite a few 15m+ statues of Buddha lying down.

The next day we headed off up to the North East Coast and the town of Trincomalee. Trinco is where there used to be a lot of fighting between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil tigers. On the road in you still saw gun emplacements setup every 1km or so with soldiers still in them.

All the houses and shops don't really have windows but have boards cover the windows and doors. A lot of the shops look like they are permanently boarded up. The guide book said it looked like a war zone and I tend to agree. While the war finished a couple of years ago, you get the feeling that people aren't going to let down their guard too easily. There are still a lot of Army with Guns manned around the place.

Amongst this 'war zone' we found our Oasis and it was like a different world. You pulled off the gravel road with potholes and suddenly you are transported into this nice hotel with a pool overlooking the lapping waters of the Indian Ocean.

We were quite happy to just spend the next couple of days just relaxing 'in our own world' chilling out with only one little excursion. I have never really stayed at resorts before but the service in the Sri Lankan resorts are impeccable. There are also there to do whatever you want. You just wave at them and they setup some beach chairs with Towels ready for lounging. You also mention about a chocolate milkshake and in 10mins later - there it is. This is the life.

Squirrels are everywhere and are pretty cute hoping about. They have this cute but scary look when they come up close and give you a bit of look. This is one of the killer squirrels I mentioned earlier.

One of the more interesting things that happened during our stay at our Oasis was the fishing haul that happened right in front of use. Obviously overnight they had put out some nets into the Ocean. In the morning/afternoon we noticed a long line of workers pulling in the net bit by bit. Throughout the day I had been watching the birds diving far into the ocean trying to catch the school of fish that were trapped. They had a rhythm and a little chant going.

It wasn't fast but slowly they hauled it in.

As they got it nearly in, the seagulls and eagles that had been circling for most of the day disappeared and suddenly the crows swooped and flew over the catch being bought up the beach.

It was definitely a spectacle. In the end it actually looked like they had a decent catch. There are few bigs ones but most were quite a small fish.

This guy here was a pretty strange looking dude. It reminds me of Ben Stiller(I think) in a movie but can't remember which one it was. Anybody know?

They all knew their place and what to do These two started fixing the holes in the net soon afterwards. They are the classic south indians you see in the movies.

I was just sitting on some steps taking a few photo's when a really nice dog suddenly appeared beside me. This one looked like it was fed well as it had a really nice coat. It had a nice spirit so I can imagine it had a Buddhist owner.