Dambulla Cave Temple is a short drive from our hotel, so after checking out at 8.30am, we are at the base of Dambulla Rock by 9 am, ready for our ascent up to the caves which are a bit over halfway up the rock.
At the entrance road to the base of the rock there is a large Stupa and Buddha as part of a monastery that is based here.
There is a steep stairway up the rock to gain access to the cave complex where the shrines are located.
There are monkeys everywhere and as the morning progresses the crowds stsrt building, as this site is one of Sri Lankas' major tourist attractions.
At the entrance to the cave complex, we are required to remove our shoes, and judging by the number of shoes on the racks at the entrance, there must already be a lot of tourists in the caves.
This large reclining Buddha has lotus flower paintings adorning the bottom of his feet
Some of the caves are quite large, and all of them are heavily decorated
After visiting all of the caves we head back down the hill (down a very steep path that apparently was the entrance the Kings used), and we soon back in our mini bus heading for Kandy, our destination for this evening.
The forest is getting thicker and we are climbing slowly in altitude, hoping that this may result in a bit of relief from the heat and humidity.
Along the way, we stopped at a spice garden, to see how the very large variety of local spices grow, and of course. hear about all the magic medical properties of the herbs and spices. The walk through then garden is very interesting and informative, but eventually at the end, we get to the business end of the tour, where we have a rare opportunity to buy magic potions concocted from the herbs and spices. It is all very well done and they are not that pushy selling their products. There are certainly no bargains available.
Vanilla beans
Cocoa pods
This little red pineapple is unique to Sri Lanka and has magic fat burning properties
Cloves
Nutmeg (the stringy red strands are mace)
Nutmeg (the stringy red strands are mace)
We thanked our guide for the Spice Garden tour and were on our way. Sadly most of the potions were grossly overpriced.
the next major village we passed through was Matale, a Hindu town, with an imposing Hindu Temple. We stopped there only for a short photo stop.
The town hosts an important Hindu Festival once per year, and huge, carriages are towed down the street as part of the traditional procession. The carriages were being given a bit of a touch up in preparation for the procession.
One of the many carriages
After the temple stop we continued on to Kandy, for lunch sand then on to our Hotel for the night. Kandy is an elevated city located in a valley, surrounded by mountains. The central feature of the City is Kandy Lake, and artificial lake created hundreds of years ago.
Lunch is at a restaurant uo on a ridge looking down over the lake and city.
View over Kandy Lake at the old colonial Queens Hotel
Back down the hill on very narrow and windy roads, we visited a gem factory on the way to the Hotel (our choice). It was very informative and gave us a good overview of Sri Lankas' gemstone industry, which is centred around Kandy. Of course Sri Lanka is famous for the quality of its blue sapphires.
Whilst there was a showroom at the end of the tour, the pressure to buy anything was very low key and we left empty handed.
It was now approaching 5pm, and we were keen to get to our Hotel, Theva Residency. It is a boutique hotel with only 13 rooms and we were given an upgrade as it was not very busy. Located high on the hillside looking down over the lake, it was a captivating setting.
It was quite contemporary in design and the smallness was a welcome change for a bit of variation. The staff were very attentive and we dined outside on the deck next to the restaurant in very mild conditions. The food was a more western oriented, but we didn't mind a bit of a break from Sri Lankan fare.
The View from our room
There was a small infinity pool
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