Crap night sleep last night, lots of bad dreams and then wide awake at 5am, I think I dosed off for about 30 minutes before the alarm went off at 8am...
An in and out shower because it was way too cold to be faffing about. Then finishing throwing everything in the rucksacks before going down for breakfast to the local tea cabin. The guy at reception asks us everyday, “uhh, ma’am’s are you leaving today? Smiley face” he wasn’t quite sure what to say we said yes and left with no bags. He look pretty confused to be honest lol.
Sri Lankan pancakes with shredded coconut and a pomegranate black tea for brekky, Ellie had a apricot and peach tea. I can’t wait to go to the tea plantations!! I love tea hehe.
We checked out and got a cheaper tuk tuk than before to the bus station, the guy was super nice he told us we’re to head to in the bus station. Basically run down the side of the fruit market whilst dodging the beeping buses trying to all fit out of the depot at once and jump on a MOVING bus with a bus conductor guy that hangs out of the door shouting “Dambulla” to us. (All sounds extremely easy when it’s not 30 degrees, the air full of super sticky sweaty humidity, there aren’t noises&smells&colours&tastes everywhere... oh and you don’t have two big f**k off rucksacks straddling your back and front.
Well lucky for us we found one, not without me first managing to somehow cram in asking how much it will cost us and how long it will take. Just incase we were getting mugged off from what I read on other blogs and we weren’t being taken around the mulberry bush. All fan dabby dosey, I jumped on to find Ellie a little hesitant. No time to think El, just jump! We got on just in time as it sped out of the depot throwing our big ass rucksacks on the pile next to the driver and surrounding the very worryingly wobbly gear stick and grabbed a seat in the front row.
Perfect! And at a bargain price of 110rupees(that’s approx. 90p folks) all for a 70km bus journey! Stagecoach need to take a leaf out of their books me thinks!
We had a giggle on the bus, I’m sure there were a few too many googley eyes looking at us.
The views were lovely, quite a peasant wobbly ride up to Dambulla. The driver found his feet a little on the way through and started getting cocky with the traffic, overtaking on bends and with on coming lorries. A few nail biters and near misses I would say, but we made it here in one piece after a two hour journey, now just to find our guesthouse which was easy as I have google maps downloaded!!
Very quaint little place with only three rooms, a building next to the family’s house and just off the main road. The guy was super friendly and welcoming, we had home cooked lunch at the place and discussed a plan for the afternoon to the Buddha cave temple and tomorrow where we were only planning on hiking Sigiriya Rock, he suggested a plan - a cheap one at that too! For £50 each he would tuk tuk is to the Pidurangala Rock which we could hike and half a day safari at Kandulla National Park. Absolute bargain that we couldn’t turn down! Not after he reconfirmed what we already thought, Sri Lanka do their yearly calculations of the elephant population in national parks between 13-15th September which means they shut the parks to everyone, not ideal seems as or plan was to be heading to another one around this time.
After lunch with our new un-welcomed friends ‘the hundred thousand of flies’ which I suppose we will have to get used to here in the middle of nowhere, hot sweaty and sticky. Time for a wash and can’t leave the clothes out, washing them old style. Put them on the shower floor, cover them in dettol hand wash that was conveniently on the sink and scrub them together. The trick is to concentrate on the smelly bits and do your best to get as much soap out of them as possible under the shower head. Then stick on a rusty rack outside to dry, just as good as a quick 60 minute machine wash!
Another Buddha temple to make us poor again and that ask us to wrap up our ‘prerogative’ bits up (knees and shoulders) only this time we could get sweaty whilst doing it, climbing 300 steps to the cave temple. Awesome! No shoes in and around the temple, it’s quite nice walking around barefoot - well I can imagine it is when the floor doesn’t feel like a furnace. The caves to be fair were absolutely incredible, who builds all these buddhas in the rock face and paints them with vegetable oil, who thinks of that now let alone in the 6th century?
We were easily outnumbered by Buddhas watching us with those eyes half opened making sure those prerogative bits were covered! Each Buddha takes one man 3 months to make with wood, clay and paint and that was a small one; let alone a 600ft Buddha lying down.
Continuing to make us poor after visiting the temple we have to buy our shoes back - not quite sure where our rights lie there...
Now to dodge those beautiful, loving and friendly monkeys. I’m sorry I mean ugly, thieving, nasty monstrous monkeys. Avoid eye contact at all cost! They’ll think you like them and want to give them something. Nooo!
Stroll down the hill, to another Buddha. Think we are all Buddha’d our for Sri Lanka now.
Picked up by Krishna (I think that’s his name) and back to the room for another shower and relax-ish. Figured out how to use the fan in the ceiling... only blows out air from the one side (Ellie’s side of the bed.) So guess I’ll be sharing her pillow tonight and tomorrow much to her disappointment, haha! Snuggles!
A few army guys turned up in a van, looked like they were stopping he night in one of the rooms, all 6 in one room mind. Cosy!
Ellie was a little uneasy about them being there, not sure why they were here but I’m sure they were just family friends? Lol.
Army presence over here at the moment is massive, there are officers everywhere in trucks and vans all holding big ass rifles and wearing the terminator sunglasses. Not sure what look they’re going for with that but I don’t want to be the one to tell them that those glasses don’t compliment their outfit or faces what so ever.
They didn’t sit with us at dinner, just a Dutch couple or brother and sister (not quite sure which one to go with) they got chatting about the Safari they did today and they got to see over 100 elephants. We’re so excited!!!!
Dinner was delicious, we weren’t expecting anything less after lunch! I tried jackfruit in a curry sauce it was surprisingly nice. I’m not a fan of the look of jack fruit at the best of times let alone eating it as a curry dish. The curd lady came around in her tuk tuk with a very strange tune to attract people to buy it. A bit like the ice cream van at home. Then the bread man came around his tune sounded like the ballerina wind up ornament you used to have as kids. Very funny but a little creepy seeing them crawl up the street lol.
Found another setting to the fab tonight, that it had lights! Four different settings - day time (white light), party time (blue neon), sexy time (a low lilac purple) and night time (light off) kept us giggling like fools for a while, I’m pretty sure we woke up the entire neighbourhood laughing.