Sunday in Sri Lanka

SUNDAY has arrived and we are on our way to Habarana.  We will be staiing at the Cinnamon Lodge resort.  

On our journey to the resort, we will visit the Dambulla Cave Temple. (above)

Rangirya Dambulla Cave Temple first came to be of great significance when it was used as a refuge for King Valagambahu in 1st century BC.  Convealed here by the local monks upon returning from exile to his throne at Anuradhapura, Valagambahu showed his gratitude by building a magnificent cave temple fot them which consists of a complex of Buddhist image houses.  Its rock ceiling is one large sweep of colourful frescoes, some of which date back over 2000 years, which depict Buddhist mythology, and the tales of the Buddha's previous births.  This cave temple has the largest number of Buddha statues all housed in one place, including a huge 14 metre-long figure of the recumbent Buddha carved out of the rock.  Dambulla Cave Temple is. now one of the most popular religious cultural sites in Sri Lanka. 

I might add that the hike up to see this temple in hot and humid weather was a challenge to our legs and lungs.  The rise on the sone steps can be quite steep and the grade is steep.  We climbed 320 steps and felt quite proud of ourselves for the accomplishment.  Along the way we were observed by many monkies but they are not friendly and we were advised to. ignore them.  

The temple was magnificent and photos can't do it visual justice but here are a few.  The breeze at the top was just what we needed after the climb.  On the descent, we took a long gradual type of switchback walk down with no stairs.  Lots of little merchants and vendors invited us to buy their wares and a snake charmer with his cobra.  I had to stop and capture a photo of this for sure!

Our bus driver and assistant offered us wonderfully cold, sweet and fresh pineapple as we boarded the bus for our next stop.

As we made our way to the Cinnamon Lodge at Habarana, we drove through a National Park.  As luck would have it (and we are experienceing a lot of luck on this journey),  we had a wild elephant sighting.  Our bus driver spotted an elephant in the distance so he pulled the bus over for us to observe.  All of a sudden a herd of elephants showed up and started making our way towards us.  We got out of the bus and watched as they approached and, believe it or not, crossed the road right in front of us on the cross walk!!!  It is clearly an area where they cross the road to make it from one area in the park to another.  To see these wild elephants is about as likely as to see a grizzly bear in Banff National Parik.  How blessed we were to have experienced this.  

The perfect end to a perfect day was to arrive at a beautiful resort and enjoy a swim in the beautiful pool as we watched the monkies try to steal food from the outdoor restaurant.