Sri Lanka Day 3 - Sigiriya Rock and Anuradhapura

We woke up early and had a big breakfast - egg on toast, roti and mango jam, and weird yellow pancakes that I didn't like but everyone else did.   We also had papaya juice which tasted nice but smelt of dog poo.

We drove the 20 mins to Sigiriya rock - a huge volcanic rock that used to have a city built on top of it.  It was very  high, loads of stone steps and then near the top it changes to a rickety iron ladder which was a bit scary, especially in the high winds.  On the way up we got stuck behind a group of school children on a trip, and then got hounded by them half way up.  They were quite cute really - all using the only bit of English they knew on us 'Hi, Hello, What's your Name, How are you' so we answered their questions dutifully if a little mechanically toward the end.

The top of the rock was incredible - ruins of the city (which looks really small) and a couple of water pools. The view is stunning - a 360deg view across Sri Lanka.  The winds were incredible up there too, if a little frightening that you might get blown off the top.

After our descent we drove to Anuradhapura which literally translated means '90 king city'.  It is a Buddhist temple, apparently containing the oldest buddha in the world.  As in most places, you had to remove your shoes and the ground is BOILING!  We literally hot footed it across to any shade we could find. Other parts you can wear your shoes, which is just as well as it's a little bit jungly.  I was stood taking a photo when suddenly a monkey grabbed my leg which gave me a fright.  It wouldn't leave me alone and I had to run away which must have looked a bit silly. 

We then went to the Sacred Bo tree - this was disappointing as they've built a temple around the tree so you can't really see the tree now. By this point we were tired and very hungry so decided to head home.  On the way home Roland drove us down the elephant road, a road known for wild elephants crossing. Unfortunately we didn't see any.  We also saw 2 car accidents, one of them was a truck on it's side in a small stream.  People were just stood there looking baffled, and there were no police in sight.