by Alan Goodwin

Created on: November 11, 2009

When Biscuits are used for tips; Success is variable.

Did you ever wonder if there was a scale of importance when it comes to where you keep your history? With 'Overheard History' somewhere near the bottom, those hearts carved in trees by 70's teenage lovers somewhere around the middle and 'Written History' way up top, I knew from the fourth time I was told of Sri Lanka's 2300 unbroken years of 'Written History' that when I got home the first thing I'd be doing is getting all my history together and writing it down.

We'd had three full days of lying down and sitting up and turning over and lying down again so we were ready to explore some of the sights that 2300 years of written history can offer, and at 5am we were loaded along with another couple and a packed lunch into the back of a minibus that was to be our home for a hitherto vague amount of hours being rumoured at anywhere between four and six amongst everyone, including the driver, to get to our hotel near Polonnaruwa in the middle of the country, the first stop of our 3 day sensory packed tour of this Island formerly known as Ceylon in some history written fairly recently.


We left from Wadduwa in the south and passed through the outer zones of Colombo as the hours in the back of the bus racked up and the city and towns quickly became the odd village amongst farmland and rainforest, and just after midday we arrived at the obscure Sigiriya Rock, shaped a bit like a giant Wrekin with the sides chopped off for those who know Shropshire.

It was seven hours since we'd left our hotel but we did stop briefly on the way for a walk through some ruins and a museum of the best bits of the ruin, but I got distracted by the scores of monkeys that were running around everywhere and the street peddlers trying persistently to sell me rubbish souvenirs so I can't really tell you much about them, other than it was very hot and they were rediscovered amongst overgrown jungle in the late 19th century by a British explorer who must have been really quite surprised.

The final 3 miles or so were pretty much dirt roads leading to Sigiriya, a World Heritage site and the position of a palace fortress that can be reached by climbing the 1202 steps to the top. I opted to do 2 at a time.
It was a daunting prospect that was seized upon by yet more peddlers, people this time who will join you on your trip to 'help' you on your way up those many many steps, even if you're only 30 years old and a full 2 feet taller than them, and

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>