February 20 -- Sri Lanka's ancient cities, Buddhist remnants and natural beauty, made us relish every moment of this tour.
On a starlit night we landed at Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake and thence, the hotel at Negombo. Negombo, a beautiful beach resort situated by a lagoon of the same name on the west coast of Sri Lanka, had been a trading port once ruled by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. So besides its wonderful beaches, Negombo's beautiful canals and a fort built by the Dutch and churches and houses by the Portuguese are major attractions here. In fact, Negombo is often called Little Rome due to the abundance of Roman Catholic churches there.
Sri Lanka by road is a rhapsody of greenery, and I would recommend it as the mode of travel. A drive through villages with coconut plantations, banana trees, and paddy fields took us to Mihintale, the site where the seed of Buddhism was sown on the island in 247BC.
It is the place where Mahinda, son of the great Emperor Ashoka preached the doctrine of Buddhism to Devanampiyatissa, then king of Sri Lanka on a full moon night in June.
Lion's abode
Polonnaruwa, the capital from the 11th to the 13th centuries, one of the best planned archeological sites in Sri Lanka. It is now, in effect, a historical park with the royal palace, Lankatilaka temple (a brick structure with a colossal Buddha), Thuparama (a Buddhist image house), Atadage (Temple of the Tooth Relic), Gal Vihara (four gigantic rock sculpture presenting the sitting, meditating, standing and sleeping posture of Buddha cut from a single granite stone) and Thivanka House that has a three curved statue of Buddha).
The Parakrama Samudra which was a man made reservoir used to provide water for the people and paddy fields in the past now converted to a large artificial lake, a feast for the eye with innumerable storks. Before the sun dipped into the lake, we reached the lake side hotel for a well deserved night's rest.
The next day we visited Sigiriya Lion Rock, a monolith rising 200m above the jungle, that had the rock fortress of King Kassapa in the 5th century and later became a Buddhist monastery, now set in three gardens. The manmade steps, though difficult to climb, made me A giant pair of lion paws 'guard' the open mouth that was once the entrance to the royal palace. Inside was a mirrored wall and frescoes painted in vibrant colours. It is said that paintings of 500 celestial nymphs were wiped out so that they didn't disturb the monks!
All the way from Sigiriya to Dambulla was a visual extravaganza with old, massive trees creating a canopy. At Dambulla we climbed 350 steps to visit the Raj Maha Vihara, a complex of five separate caverns with numerous statues of Buddha and Hindu deities and ceilings with paintings of Jataka.