Continuing on from my previous post, Looking Forward To A Long Weekend At Sigiriya...
A fairly eventful weekend. We drove from Wathupiiwala up to Kurunegala on Thursday evening. The journey takes me just less than 2 hours by car. We stayed overnight at Kurunegala with our friends Dylan & Sheila and their guest Tait before driving up to Sigiriya on Friday morning, stopping off at a craft village a few Km before Sigiriya. The journey took about 2.5 hours. We were booked into the Sigiriya Hotel (not the Sigiriya Village as I had thought). They are right next door to one another, just a 20 minute walk from the rock. However the Sigiriya Hotel is about half the price and the accomodation seemed pretty similar to me. The accomodation is nothing special but perfectly adequate and for me better value for money than Sigiriya Vlillage.
In the afternoon my wife and myself went for a walk and had an animal spotting bonanza. First we spotted a troupe of monkeys in the grounds of the hotel, then I spotted a snake as we walked along the roadside. Well OK I practically stepped on it - but mercifully it was already dead. We then saw a creature that looked a bit like a beaver wandering across the road. This was followed up with a racoon like creature in a tree and finally a bird that looked like some type of kite or possibly eager (had a vivid red colour on top of its wings) It was all very entertaining. When we got back to the hotel we had a bit of a nightmare in that the bar was closed all day due to it being National Day. This is something you need to watch out for in Sri Lanka. It seems any on any public holiday/election/poya (full moon) day no alcohol is served. Luckily, as residents they could serve us in our room so I managed a swift beer whilst reading Philip K Dick's Paycheck. Not a great book of short stories but mildly entertaining. We had an excellent evening meal, although everyone but Tait and myself found the food too hot.
On Saturday morning I caught an excellent breakfast before I climbed the rock with Tait. It costs 1500 rupees - Sri Lanka residents can get half the price back but have to go to Colombo to get it and I know from previous experience it is not worth the hassle. A guide automatically attached himself to us and it took a good 5 minutes of first polite and then increasing abrupt words to convince him we really did want to walk up on our own and were not the slightest bit interested in bartering his price. We ran the gaunlet of vendors trying to sell us books, secret boxes, postcards etc. all of who seemed equally baffled when we showed no interest in bartering and actually didn't want to purchase anything.
It took us an hour or so to climb up but we were taking it easy, taking pictures and talking as we climbed. The entire climb is via stone steps, an iron spiral staircase or iron steps. I brought my walking boots with me but many Sri Lankans I saw climbed up with bare feet. One of the helpers grabbed my arm on the way up but I shrugged him off. I was warned by the guide I used the first time I climbed Sigiriya that they charge $25 for helping you even a few steps (I have no idea if the claim is true or not but I had no need of a helper) We spent a happy hour at the top wandering around. There are only ruins to see but I found them impressive. The area at the top is much larger than it appears, at least to me, from the ground.
I was glad of my walking boots as during our exploration of the summit I got attacked for the first, and I hope last, time in my life by a snake. Tait had spotted the snake and I made the mistake of moving backwards, away from it once I realised which way round the head was and that it was moving my way through the undergrowth. I didn't see it jump. All I saw was the snake about 4 feet from me in the undergrowth one second and then landing, coiled up on the floor, right by me, the next after its jump. We think it actually bit my hiking boots. Either that or my trousers which were very baggy and so the snake missed my flesh. Either way we couldn't find any marks afterwards. The snake then moved quickly off into the undergrowth again. It was a brown snake, with a criss-cross pattern around 3-4 feet long and less than half an inch wide. I don't mind admitting I was pretty shaken afterwards and we quickly made for the stairs and climbed back down.
The afternoon we spent lying by the pool, drinking beer and chatting. I can vouch that the phrase Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun as I was the last person left by the pool taking in the sun. The Sri Lankan & Australian contingent soon retired to the shade and by mid afternoon I retired there too. John, one of Dylan's colleagues from Anaradnapura joined us during the course of the afternoon. The evening meal this evening was a complete contrast to the night before and I found it rather bland, although the other members of our party enjoyed it.
On Sunday the breakfast was again excellent with a good mix of Sri Lankan and western food. We were joined at the table by a small squirrel like creature :) Some monkeys also came within 10 feet or so but these were chased off by the waiters. John, myself and Dylan watched the cricket for an hour or so and then we said our farewells to John and headed back home, via Kurunegala, where I fixed the latest problem on Dylan's laptop. It took us another 2.5 hours to drive back to Colombo from Kurunegala.