Sri Lanka (August 2002)

Besides seeing elephants, we also visited a lot of other cool places while in Sri Lanka. Here are just a few:

Helga's Folly: This is one of the most fun hotels I've ever stayed in... It is in the mountains outside Kandy. It's very over-the-top, and the bedrooms certainly weren't great, but I forgave them that for the experience of being able to hang out in the main rooms and the amazing feasts we had each evening. This is years ago now so I would check out recent hotel reviews before going there, but certainly back then it was worth a visit. In case you're wondering about the choice of music, it's because they had this playing on the old gramophone when we first arrived. :-)




Polonnaruwa Temple: This was my favourite of the temples we visited, I wish we'd had more time to explore the ruins as everywhere you looked there was interesting detail.



Sigiriya Rock Temple: It was a *long* way up. I didn't make it all the way, because the last part of the stairs were metal slats that you could see through and I got really dizzy... so I stayed down on the level below and watched the monkeys playing, while Dave went up to the top - with the camera.



Potgal Vitara statue: This giant buddha wasn't far from the Polonnaruwa Temple.




Dambulla Rock Temple: Speaking of Buddhas, we also saw a whole hall full at them at the Dambulla temple




Driving in the Tea district: We went up in the mountains for a few days, lots of winding curves and rural vistas occasionally mixed with spectacular views.



Visiting a spice garden: Amazing to see it all growing..