I hired a driver from my hotel (Sunny
Hill Residence) in Kandy, to take me to Sigiriya. I could easily have
taken the bus (not enough easy way to get here by train) here, but
was kinda hoping to see things in between those cities and specially
Dambulla. And it was a good choice. I paid 8000 rupies to the tour
manager for the car, driver and tour manager (“Nihal”) for the
trip. I wasn't actually first so happy about the tour manager to come
with me on the trip, but he insisted on it and it was a good choice
in the end. Driver wasn't so good in english and tour manager was. He
also helped me to do some things, which was good.
First we got to the post office, I
wanted to send souvenirs to Finland by parcel service. This wasn't
easy and cheap task (cost was like 7000 rupies, so prices of
souvenirs got much higher than they originally were). Even finding
the door to the actual post office was hard, and arranging the
sending even harder. ;) Well I didn't even have to try it, because
tour manager did arrangements for me.
Then we tried to find an open Photo
Studio, but none were open (even as it was saturday, but probably
because (once more) for the New Year holiday).
Next thing was to travel to Matale.
There we went to a Hindu temple, which was actually quite interesting
to see.
Then we went to a spice garden in
Matale. I got a presentation of their plants and what they use them
for. A lot of natural cures by these oils or syrups or similar
things. I was much more looking for spices, than oils or those
things. But I did end up buying a bunch of spice bags to make curry
back home. Also I got an advise, that I should use Cardemom (I am not
sure it was this spice) by just braking it. And using the shell of
the seed also inside curry. Just crunching it and leaving the shell
behind, doesn't give same flavor. That place was quite pricey, if you
ask me. Oil bottles were mostly from 3000 rupies to 8000 rupies. And
most would have been too big for me to take home. It was nice that
they had a lot of explanations in paper for the oils and their uses,
because I had already forgot so much from the presentation. ;)
After that, we went all the way to the
Dambulla. Tour manager's plan failed here, because it was planned
that we eat after and near the temple, but actually we ate after the
Buddhist temple in Dambulla. Which was too late for me. Though all
that heat and everything didn't me much hungry.
Dambulla was SO HOT! It was only 36C
according to my cell phone's internet weathercast, but it felt like
39C or 40C. You need to climb also in Dambulla's temple. But the
worst part was, when they asked you to take your shoes off at the top
of the temple and I didn't have socks with me. I have a very thin
skin in feet and damn those tiles were burning hot in the temple.
They had been in sun for whole day (it was like 15:35, when we were
at Dambulla) and gathered all heat to be just one burning stepping
stone. Not everybody liked my cursing, when running in the shadows
(where I could find one), trying to avoid the burning tiles.
After this we drove a little bit and
ended up eating a buffet in a very popular place. There were a lot of
bigger groups (seemed mostly Indians) and couple westerners too. Paid
650 rupies for buffet (now I really got at least four pieces of
chicken, because there's always too little chicken pieces in rice &
curry with chicken dishes.
I have heard that Anuradhapura is at
least as hot as Dambulla, or maybe even more hot, so I doubt if I
really can and want to go there. Currently I'm avoiding that option
and still thinking about going to Trincomalee as my final destination
in this trip.
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