Bawa's Kandalama and the Cave temples of Dambulla

Erin in the James Bond style foyer of the Kandalama.

View more photos 

We used the same driver, Fawmy, to take us on a 4 day trip around the Ancient Cities area. The first day saw us visiting a spice garden, an ancient temple and dagoba (stupa), a modern Hindu temple, some cave rock paintings, eating a scrumptious lunch in Geoffrey Bawa's Kandalama Hotel, as well as seeing the magnificent cave temples of Dambulla at sunset. What a busy day. Lots of colors, fragrances, incense, and deities and Buddhas.

The spice garden was only a small sample of the richness of the flora of Sri Lanka, as well as an attempt to get tourists to buy over–priced herbs and spices. We had a very knowledgeable guide who later made some skin creams for us and hot chocolate from beans from their cacao trees. We walked amongst pepper and vanilla vines, rubber and bread fruit trees, nutmeg/mace, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, as well as some indigenous medicinal trees.

Nalanda Gedige, temple and Dagoba, from under the Bodhi tree.

View more photos 

The ancient temple we saw this day was called Nalanda Gedige, and was of uncertain age and origin. It might have been originally a Hindu temple that was later converted to Buddhist and decorated with carved tantric images and jolly fat dwarves, with the addition of a low mound of a dagoba (stupa) nearby. It was around 900 to 1200 years old and quite weathered, but in a serene setting overlooking a large tank, with saffron robed monks walking along the tree lines under black parasols (umbrellas in a different context).

The hindu temple we visited was called Sri Muthumariammam Thevasthanam, and was still under construction. The outer facade of brightly colored beehive-like tiers and tiers of deities and gods was spectacular though. Similar to some of the temples in Southern India, or like what we saw in Rishikesh.

Sri Muthumariammam Thevasthanam temple.

View more photos 

A series of rock paintings and sculptures at Aluvihara showed the believer what the inferno had in store for them for particular crimes on earth. These punishments were graphically displayed and included having organs raked out, being chopped up, split apart, impaled - what ever you could imagine in your worst nightmares. The giant boulders that these were painted on had been used for centuries by monks for shelter, and I wonder what consolation they had sleeping next to all these terrible reminders of the suffering they could face.

We swung by the Kandalama Hotel to eat lunch, and found that it lived up to it's swanky reputation. The building itself includes numerous tiers with grassy and rocky levels, as well as large natural screens of over hanging live vines. The windows look out onto the plains and a small lake where elephants could be seen bathing and the plateau of Sigiriya pokes out on the far horizon. Lunch was dee-lish, and the hotel decor groovy, including an entrance through a James Bond style boulder lined curvy hallway.

A family of red faced monkeys waiting in ambush on the path up the hill.

View more photos 

We made it to the Dambulla Caves for sunset, which was great timing. These caves are high up a hill, and only accessible after fending off the numerous red faced monkeys trying to grab your food and bags during the climb. The Hanuman Lemurs were a far more peaceful and respectful group of individuals, they even looked more refined compared to their red faced cousins with bad hair cuts. We preferred the lemur company, but they were a little shy. The caves though were fantastic, filled with numerous and varying sized Buddhas, as well as having the walls covered in colorful frescoes of Buddha and his disciples. Ponds filled with lotus and a large Bodhi tree were protected and nurtured just outside the cave mouths. It was beautiful in the orange and yellow light of the sun set.