We said goodbye to Kandy this morning after another wonderful breakfast at Amigo. Our first stop is a spice and herb garden where the owner is promoting Sri Lankans' tradition herbal medicines. We were shown lots of herb and spice plants which we have heard about but haven't seen before like vanilla (a vine which needs artificial insemination to bear fruits because only small bees in Madagascar can fit into the small openings to pollinate!) and cinnamon tree (Sri Lankan cinnamon is the most sought after variety in the world and the dried tree bark is the cinnamon)!
Next, we visited some of the best preserved cave temples in the country in Dambulla. There are a series of five different cave temples, each completed in different era and each getting more elaborate as the art form evolved.
Just 30 mins away from Dambulla is Sigiriya, meaning Lion Rock, a 200m high massive rocky outcrop resembling a crouching lion which appears out of nowhere on a plain. King Kashyapa chose to build his palace and citadel on the TOP of this massive rock around 850 AD. It's considered as the 8th wonder of the world. This guy was basically a playboy who kept 500 wives in his sky palace for sexual pleasures. We saw some beautifully preserved wall fresco paintings of his wives on the rock face. There were also tons of palace intrigues and power struggles going on with this dynasty.
Sigiriya is indeed an awesome place to behold. It took us over 4200 steps to climb to the top and I cannot believe why this guy would build a whole palace on top of a rock. It's scary enough to climb up on modern metal steps and staircase. Imagine going up and down the rock several times everyday on the old steps chiseled roughly on the slippery rock!! Unfortunately, not much of the palace survived the ages except for its foundation. There is another clear and present danger for the climb: there are numerous huge "wasp" hives on the rock face and they are easily provoked. When they swarm, there is nowhere to hide for the climbers! The trail would be closed and no refunds would be given. When we were there, the sounds of the wasps in the hives were deafening!
After Sigiriya, we went on an impromptu safari trip to a nearby National park reserve to search for wild elephants! It's our first safari and it was FUN! Standing in the back of a Jeep and keep searching the horizon for elephants and other wildlife is an once in a lifetime experience! We were extremely lucky to see almost 40 elephants, including one with two huge tusks. The best one is a family of three, mom with a youngster and a baby elephant! Our guide told us that since these are wild elephants, there is a slim chance that they can charge us if they feel threatened!! There are about 6500 elephants left in Sri Lanka and this reserve has about 400. It's not bad to see 10% of the population! What a way to end our exciting day!
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