Kandy and the "cultural triangle"

Tea pickers - viewed from our train
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After skirting far too close to danger on the buses we decided that we would travel from Ella to Kandy by train. Of course, with the escalating fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers there was no guarantee that the train would be safe but as yet no trains had been involved in any bombings (can't believe I am having to write about bombs...) so it felt psychologically a bit safer. It also helped that the train journey  lasts about seven hours and is one of the great train journeys in the world.

Kandy - temple of the tooth
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The day before leaving we popped into the train station that wouldn't have looked out of place in Surrey, to book our tickets into the "panorama" carriage that has limited seats but allegedly offers the best views. Finding the ticket master gone we spoke to his assisstant who dutifully wrote our names and requirements on a post it note and left it on the ticket master's desk. Of course, when we presented ourselves the next day there was no sign of our note or booking and we were told that the train was fully booked (another important lesson in there somewhere). After a few minutes of "discussion" it turned out  that it was only the panorama carriage that was full and we were welcome to buy  tickets in second or third class.  Lucky us.

Sigirya rock
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Of course this being Sri Lanka I was only welcome to buy tickets when the ticket master was good and ready. The train was delayed by an hour or so, so after about forty five minutes the call went out and I joined the scrum at the little window to buy our tickets.

The journey itself was stunning, and for the rest of the day we were taken  through the hills past sheer cliffs, waterfalls and picturesque tea plantations (this is where Lipton made his fortune). Our train was actually going to Colombo, so we got off at a junction about ten kilometres outside Kandy and then rather than wait for the next connection  we treated ourselves, and after some deft negotiations we were speeding to Kandy in the back of a tuk tuk.

Lovely ladies in the caves at Sigirya
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Kandy is a lovely town situated right in the middle of Sri Lanka. The climate is cooler than the south and it is the perfect place hang out and to organise trips to the great sites of Sri Lanka, which are all within two to three hours drive north in the so called "Cultural Triangle'. it was also a bonus that our hotel "Sharon Inn' was one of the cleanest and well run we had stayed in and had a reputation for making one of the best rice and curries in Sri Lanka ..(so great curry and lovely clean sheets...heaven)

Steep climb down from Sigirya rock
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We spent the first day exploring Kandy itself which sits on a lake and is very pretty. It's top "attraction" is the "Temple of the Tooth" which allegedly is the home of a tooth that originally belonged to Buddha (his left canine to be precise) and is Sri Lanka's holiest shrine. Whether the tooth thing is true or not is irrelevant when you witness how devout the Buddhist faithful are when in the Temple.

The next day it was time for some serious site-seeeing, so after a very early brekkie (6.15..ouch!) we were in a people carrier being driven by Anil, our driver for the day, and heading north to Sigiria, possibly Sri Lanka's most famous and  certainly most striking attraction.

Ancient temple
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Sigiria is a huge rock outcrop, think Uluru (Ayres Rock) to get the idea. However, this is no ordinary rock. The Sri Lankans call it the eighth wonder of the world. About two thousand year's ago a mad and bad king killed his own father and needed somewhere to protect himself from his understandably annoyed brothers. So he built an entire palace, including pools and servants quarters, on top of the massive rock. At the base he also built extensive water gardens and monasteries. It is a truly remarkable place and definitely a highlight of Sri Lanka.

Ginormous dagoba
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To get to the top you have to negotiate rickety old cast iron stairs that were built one hundred years ago to a cave with frescoes of half-naked lovelies - very racy for Sri Lanka, so racy infact that 1967 some bloke tried to paint over and deface the frecoes, he managed to destroy about half before they stopped him.  After the caves, you walk along very narrow and not particularly well built metal paths that are bolted onto the rock face and the final acent to the top requires slowly working your way up the creekiest and narrowest set of rusty stairs with a sheer drop below (anyone with vertigo should seriously not bother).

Inside Dambulla cave temples
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As if that wasn't enough of a challenge the locals who clearly had more confidence in the stairs than us took great joy in shoving tourists out of the way to get to the top faster.  Our sharp London elbows didn't stand a chance against Sri Lankan grannies and children alike.

After Sigirya we drove for about and hour to get to the ancient city  of Polonnaruwa.  The site itself is massive, so large that our driver drove us around the complex to the various palaces, temples, dagobas, monasteries and pools.  We were completely blown away by the thousands of years old buildings, for their size, beautiful carvings and sculptures and to top it all off 3 huge ancient Buddha statues carved out of sheer rock.

Dambulla cave temple paintings
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The final stop on our grand "cultural triangle" tour was  the rock temples at Dambulla.  Once again, Anil kicked us out of the van and pointed us at some stairs that led us on a 10 minute stiff climb  straight up the hill to the rock temples.  These 2000 year old caves were covered in the most incredible  frescoes, some depicting the life of Buddha and many more Buddah statues.

Absolutely knackered, we stumbled back to the hotel for rice, curry and beer and are happy to report that Sharon Inn does indeed do the best rice and curry we tasted in Sri Lanka.