At 5am we left our hotel with the hopes of beating the heat and crowds to Sigiriya Rock. The climb was higher then the day before but much less technical. This was just steps all the way up. We made it up just after sunrise and spent an hour wandering around the ruins of an ancient palace that once sat upon the rock. The view was epic. Lots of monkeys too.
Afterwards we returned to our hotel, showered and jumped back in our Tuk-tuk. We cruised through the country side with our music pumping, just loving Sri Lanka. After stopping for a snack we found our way to the Dambulla Royal Cave Temple. This Buddhist temple is perched 160 meters high on another mountain. Our 3rd climb in 24 hours! It was nice but we are getting a bit of temple fatigue by now. Just like when we toured Europe, the first church was beautiful, the second church was beautiful, the third church was beautiful but by number 10 it was just another church. At this point it had better be an amazing temple to peek our interested. Although I know Thailand is up to that challenge. After this we found another off the beaten path restaurant for lunch. These places are family shops, so small that they are lucky to have electric let alone a mention on the interweb, but we love them. By the time we returned the Tuk-tuk and walked to dinner we were exhausted. We walked 10 miles today and most of it was climbing. It’s been 2 weeks of nonstop action everyday. Having the Tuk-tuk for 2 days was so much fun. I can’t wait for next year’s Tuk-tuk tournament. As much as we would have loved getting off the beaten path the entire trip we have no regrets using the Tuk-tuk only for a small portion of the trip. So glad we didn’t miss the train ride.
