Tour de Sri Lanka (Part One)

It felt very extravagant, on a backpacking holiday, leaving Colombo with our driver Tony! Not your typical budge traveller mode of transportation. We've been assured however, that this is the best way to see as much as possible of the country in a short space of time.

Leaving Colombo, our first stop was the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. Most of these elephants were rescued having been orphaned in the jungle, due to poachers, war and so forth. The have been looked after here and the herd now numbers almost 60, with some of the younger ones having been born here. Its a strong community, cobbled together over the years, from all over the country, of elephants who might otherwise not have survived. Once example is this lady –


she lost her front right foot when she stood on a landmine. Incredibly, she is well able to keep up with the others as they walk around and to and from the river.






When we arrived, bath time was in full flight. Twice daily the elephants are brought down to the river for two hours to bath (and for the younger ones to play) in the river. At the time we arrived, the river was quite low, leaving many of the pensioners idling in the shade afforded by the numerous river front cafes. Some of the younger ones however, still managed to wrestle and dunk each other! We left the river behind a trail of elephants and went up to the park area and saw some of the younger citizens. While watching them in the river was incredible, seeing a baby of only a few months rocking rhythmically with his foot shackled, was one of those moments that makes you wonder . . . is it all as it seems?

From Pinnawala, we moved on to Dambulla. Here there is a series of 5 Buddhist cave temples dating from 2000 to 250 years old. We managed somehow, still not quite sure how, to acquire a guide who showed us around the 5 caves. I tend to be a bit skeptical about unsolicited guides, but I was happily proven wrong here! Our guide was extremely well versed in the history of the temple but also had a curiously chirpy manner which kept me entertained. Some of the caves are man made but most are natural, in fact, most are actually one cave, divided by man made walls. They have elaborate paintings, which appear in some cases to have been restored a little and some stunning and incredibly well preserved statues. Its a beautiful setting on the hill overlooking jungle. Its not hard to see how monks would have chosen it as an ideal spot for meditation and prayer.

An early-ish start the next morning saw us hitting the road to Polonnaruwa, one of Sri Lanka's ancient cities and our first stop on the cultural triangle. There is such a wealth of history around this ancient city, I could never do it justice with words and I have no doubt I would fill this text with historical inaccuracies, so instead, I'll put some pictures up!

Our third day we started with a visit to Sigyria an incredible palace fortress, built on a gigantic boulder, 200m high! Nowadays it would be an impressive feat of architecture and engineering, but almost 1500 years ago? Awesome.

The palace itself is in ruins, but even strolling through the foundations, once can see what an incredible construction it must have been. The entrance was up a staircase, which in years gone by was through a lion shaped gateway. Nowadays, all that remains are the two paws. You are rewarded for the steep, sweaty climb to the top with stunning views across the lush, green jungle.

Incidentally, we also invented our newest leisure time activity – histrocise – exercise carried out while visiting and exploring sites of historical note – look out for it in the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary!