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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rochel1977" data-source="post: 18672940" data-attributes="member: 371">Day 12: Kandy <img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XfYYuzAF7PI/VMTgBeaTNuI/AAAAAAAAF0s/tzk0qnLwDPY/s1600/12bPostbox.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />A day biking in town, going past Kandyesque sights such as this GR-period British post box in front of a Buddhist temple (pic). So you can pray for good luck, for instance that the postcard you've sent will actually arrive.<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FPsaSo10MEo/VMTgPqRpFwI/AAAAAAAAF00/s4xJ0PKeDRI/s1600/12aTea.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />I cycled up a steep back road into the hills to the well set-up Tea Museum. I hadn't realised that the Scots, along with inventing most useful things such as television and phones and whisky, were also the pioneers of both of Ceylon's tea plantations (James Taylor) and its mass tea production and marketing (Sir Thomas Lipton). The enlightenment was finished off with a free pot of tea on the top floor (pic), which afforded excellent views of the rainclouds.<img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YIrP2XVqIjY/VMTgcCs7VVI/AAAAAAAAF08/olXG_Q2YNx8/s1600/12cLakeside.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />I had an afternoon stroll round the city's famous lakeside (pic), gamely trying to walk off my enormous lunch of a Sri Lankan special, kottu (a huge plateful of chopped-up roti with bits of, in this case, chicken). I washed it down with some fresh fruit juices: soursop and nelly. <img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-baXludaPvS0/VMTgvoqenbI/AAAAAAAAF1E/wPQWI85AWcM/s1600/12dCricket.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Cricket continues to be a big thing, both in conversations and in being played out on in parks and streets. En route back to the hotel, I saw these lads playing on the pavement with a home-made bat (pic). The bowler's arm, as so many seem to do in SL, did rather stray from the linear. I resisted the temptation to call 'NO-BALL' though. Extending an arm suddenly sideways to signal it, given Kandy's upredictable surges of street traffic passing within six inches of you, would not have been a good idea.Day 13: Kandy to Sigiriya <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--W2WkUttWBg/VMZLxl26ORI/AAAAAAAAF1U/WvQPh3HG03w/s1600/12aChaps.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Thanks to another very early start in the cool Kandy dawn, and a cloudy daytime keeping the temperatures down, this was the most enjoyable cycle so far. I'm now following the A9 up north for the last section of my End to End – a concept familiar to domestic LEJOGgers – and out of Kandy it went pleasingly downhill through unpretentious little towns.In one of them, I got chatting to a local cycling enthusiast (pic, stripey top) and his police officer chum. Sri Lankans are really a very friendly lot.<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GEqhFD2jyQ8/VMZL9YfxuNI/AAAAAAAAF1c/eRPn3Axvi-M/s1600/12bSteamroller.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />In one village I saw this steamroller (pic). Thankfully it was going the other way. Otherwise I might have suffered the embarrassment of it overtaking me.<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--OCCkab09ME/VMZMGvm-l9I/AAAAAAAAF1k/N5-EADEeLWE/s1600/12cRainman.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />There were a few rainshowers, most of which I managed to sit out in handy roadside eateries. This is how the locals coped (pic).<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HCLDwWBFdGA/VMZMN3dC5zI/AAAAAAAAF1s/OXUEmPZoeJE/s1600/12dStall.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />On a Sri Lankan road, you're never far from a banana, thanks to the plentiful fruit and veg stalls (pic). Or indeed a tuk-tuk. Or a clanky but reliable town bike.<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tkrdmoC_5Lw/VMZMUy_8CaI/AAAAAAAAF10/U_SeXvO-jgo/s1600/12eRockTemple.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />At Dambulla I did the obligatory tourist thing and paid a whopping £7.50 to visit the Rock Temples. At least you get plenty of Buddha statues for your money (pic) – dozens of them, including some giant reclining versions.Anyway, I'm now in Sigiriya, with another day off the bike tomorrow, visiting Sri Lanka's version of Ayer's Rock...Day 14: Sigiriya <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9inTLWElazw/VMeU_asx7RI/AAAAAAAAF2E/U0iFXiQ4fco/s1600/14aSigiriya.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Sigiriya is Sri Lanka's big-ticket tourist attraction, its equivalent of both Australia's Uluru (being a rocky outcrop of national identity) and Peru's Macchu Picchu (being a ruined hilltop capital). It towers over the forested plains (pic) with a breathtaking, almost arrogant, size – just like the admission fee.<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mheKl-YXlY0/VMeVNMKXTsI/AAAAAAAAF2M/vCGgQe_8WL8/s1600/14bLionFeet.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />There's a very steep walkway glued to the side of the rock that takes zillions of tourists a day up to the top (pic). Those big paw sculptures used to belong to a mighty lion gateway statue, in Sigiriya's heyday from 500 to 1400.One sign on the way up advised us to keep still and quiet in the case of a wasp attack. This wasn't hypothetical: a few minutes after I finished my visit, the whole rock was closed for a few hours because of one. The admission fee and the tuk-tuk drivers weren't the only way some tourists got stung...<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0CNO_RapUQU/VMeVZuGt1_I/AAAAAAAAF2U/ZK8Z-2Sz8AY/s1600/14cSigiriya.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Anyway, this is the view from the top (pic). You can see why the ancient Sri Lankan kingdoms wanted to build their HQ here, because you can spot troublemakers coming a mile off. Also, there's no chance of an overcharging tuk-tuk driver making his way up here.<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tlcsxZaHW2c/VMeVjzIT7VI/AAAAAAAAF2c/IQynla4de8c/s1600/14dPidurangala.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />In the afternoon I trundled round the Sigiriya area on my bike, down little dirt roads to villages (where more games of cricket were bring played) and up tiny lanes through forests. One of them took me to Pidurangala, another rocky outcrop which you can walk to the top of, to get fantastic views of Sigiriya's rock (pic). There were hardly any tourists here, nor even wasps, and for 15 minutes I had this view to myself. </blockquote>

Verification: Asuwa dahayen wadi kalama keeyada?

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