When most people think of Arugam Bay, they think of the beach and the surf... Not us.
Sure, the beach is lovely! Actually, it was more than lovely - it was beautiful. And I shouldn't say "it" because there are SOOO many beaches, most of them completely deserted, but all equally beautiful. 

Although we were literally run off the road by safari drivers who just couldn’t believe that we would come to Tissa and NOT do a safari, we didn’t do one. Nor did we ever plan on doing one. The main highlights of the Yala safari are elephants – tick, and leopards – wow.. 
But, unfortunately, as so often happens in suddenly touristy areas, the drive to sell a safari tour and show a leopard and in turn make a quick buck, has taken precedent over the safety and wellbeing of the animal. We have heard from people who did the safaris of the drivers calling each other and of 20+ jeeps surrounding the one leopard.. poor thing. As much as we would have LOVED to have seen one, that just isn’t a practice we can condone..

Such a beautiful place, with such amazing artefacts dating back more than 1500 years ago, deserves more pictures! So here are a few more.    

According to both the LP and the rough guide, Tissa is nothing more than a convenient place from which to explore the nearby areas of Kirinda, Kataragama and Yala National Park. We had also heard similar stories from some travellers we had given a ride to, so we originally hadn't planned on even staying at all. But by the time we arrived, we were simply too tired to carry on to the coastal village of Kirinda, and so decided to stop for just one night...

Temples are EVERYWHERE here in SriLanka. It's really quite overwhelming just how many there are and how old they are!!
On our big road map, there is a symbol for either a temple, or historical ruin site every centimetre or so.. Literally.. It would take you years to visit them all! We normally aren't huge historical buffs, but we've really enjoyed the ones we have visited.


At Unawatuna there is a lovely big Buddha and Dagoba built on the rock pinnacle at the end of the beach that offers beautiful views over both sides of the coastline. We met a lovely man who I don't think was able to speak, and through signs, gestures, laughs and writing on the ground he told us about the temple, but also about how it saved the lives of 450 or so people when the Tsunami hit. He said he was one of those people and they stood on top and watched as the waves just wiped out everything from below... 

Just inland from Dickwella (yes that's it's real name!) is the interestingly kitsch temple of WEWURUKANNALA. Now say that 5 times fast!

The temple is famous for it's HUGE standing Buddha, but also for it's "chamber of horrors" which depicts rather graphically what hell is waiting for those who dare do wrong in this life. 

Inland from Tangalla is the rock-temple-monasteru of MULKIRIGALA. 
It dates back to the 3rd century BC and is very similar in style to Dambulla and Sigiriya, in that there are layers of meditation chambers and temples built into the rocks over 4 terraces. It's quite the hike! At one stage I didn't know if we were going to make it all the way to the top! And honestly, the view from the 3rd terrace was actually much better than from the top....

But still a wonderful excursion into the countryside. 
The history and beauty here just continues to blow us away..

Having driven through the chaotic traffic that culminates in madness when the Colombo-Galle road finally reaches Galle, many times now, we were not overly taken by the city.. The road and traffic had totally tainted our opinion of the city before we even stepped out of the tuktuk.
But, I hate making judgements without fact, so we decided to go and see Galle Fort, even though we were convinced it was going to be an over-touristy, over-expensive, noisy, polluted place....

What we found was a complete shock to us!
Inside the fort is a still fully working city.. Modern with signs, lights, cafes, shops, wifi-signs etc.. But at the same time, it's a total time-warp. All of the buildings are as they were hundreds of years ago, and MUST be maintained/restored to conform with the historical nature of the fort.
It's quite simply, stunning..

The first building we entered just happened to be one of the many museums. The guide asked us our country, then casually remarked that at 380years, the building we were in was much much older than modern day Australia.. Which is a thought that is truly mind-blowing..

Walking around the streets and lanes of the fort was just so relaxing and interesting.. But we still weren't prepared for what we found when we climbed the fort walls..

For such a big city, with sooo many people, HOW can the water be so clean?? So unpolluted? So inviting....
Shall we go for a dip? Why not?!?! It's not everyday you get the opportunity to swim outside a fort!

And so we swam.. It was so nice - just the 3 of us. Then a school group saw us.. It was still nice - the 300 of us.. 

We spent a good half a day walking around the fort, and we left with it being one of our favourite places in Sri Lanka so far. It's funny how easily our opinions change. 
As we left Galle, fighting the traffic once more, Roh and I had a chuckle.. Galle's not so bad afterall!! 
And for those of you who haven't visited yet, definitely consider staying a night at one of the super cute (and not overly expensive) guesthouses within the fort. 

After much deliberation, we decided that we really did want to see the 5 buddhist caves at Dambulla, even if it did cost 1500 rupees (US$13) each to enter.
From a far, the mountain looks huge. And well, up close it wasn't much smaller..

Down the bottom of the mountain is this really big buddha - built from donations from Japan just a couple of years ago. How can you not LOVE those gaudy decorations?!

Inside the main area are 5 caves, all of them are covered in the most amazing frescoes and filled with some beautiful Buddha statues. The sheer number of statues, the understanding of just how old they are and how old the caves themselves are (B.C times!!) was mind boggling.  
The colours in the frescoes were so amazingly beautiful but calming aswell. 

It really was such a peaceful and awe inspiring place. Well worth the trek up the mountain and the entrance fees!!

Following on from my blog last night about ridiculously high entrance fees here in SriLanka, I thought I would give you a little update on costs here so far.. So here you go.

Kevin - The cost of renting a bajaj (tuktuk) greatly depends on how long you rent it for. We rented Kevin for 2 months, so were able to get the price down to 900rupees (US$7) a day plus US$50 for comprehensive insurance for 6 months. 
We also needed to get our international drivers license changed into a SriLankan driving permit which cost 2800 rupees (US$24) valid for 1 year.
We get about 25km per litre and petrol is about 160rupees (US$1.50) a litre. We fill up every morning as the bajaj only holds 8 litres and on average costs us between 500-800 rupees a day to fill, depending of course on how far we drove the day before. 
Repairs - knock on wood, so far the only repairs we have needed is to fix the brake light, which cost a whopping 60 rupees (US$0.40). Hey big spender~~!

Accommodation- don't believe the guidebooks. Cheap accommodation is available and remarkable easy to find. Guesthouses and homestays are everywhere, and even if you don't see the ubiquitous "rooms" sign, you can just ask in any town and they will be able to point you to somewhere to spend the night. We spend between 1500 and 2500 a night (US$12-23), but usually 2000 rupees, and have always had a private bathroom, and 9 times out of 10, 2 double beds in the room with mosquito nets!!

Food - Food costs varies greatly from restaurant to restaurant. Tourist restaurants with spaghetti, pizza, pancakes etc, exist in the major towns but are stupidly expensive and usually, not overly nice.. We avoid them, however pancakes and omelettes were a welcome way to ease Gypsy into SriLankan food for the first couple of days.
Mostly we eat at "hotels" as restaurants are called here. We usually get 4 paratha and a thali (a mix of dahl,curry and 2 veg), along with 2 cups of tea, for between 150-250 rupees (US$1.20-2.30).
Lunch and dinner is the same. Gypsy loves fried rice and Kothu Roti so we eat alot of these too. Prices are around the same. 
It's really interesting how the food culture changes so much here. In the north string hoppers are for breakfast, but in the central highlands, they are for dinner!
Drinks - Water is pretty cheap, about 70 rupees for 2 litres. Fresh fruit juice ranges from 150-200 rupees, and tea is between 30-40 rupees a cup. Ginger beer (super delicious and refreshing) is 50-70 rupees, pre-mixed juice is expensive! 110 rupees for 500ml!! Coke etc are 50-70 rupees, and last but not least, beer (only available from dedicated "wine stores" usually with a compulsory deposit of 20-30 rupees for the glass bottle) are 150-200 rupees for 700 ml.  According to Roh, the Lion is quite nice but the "Bison extra strong 8.8%" tasted like petrol.. Arak is just gross.. cheap but gross...

So that makes a daily budget of 2000 for accommodation, 500 for petrol, 1500 for food/drinks, and 1000 for tuktuk rental.  A total of 5000 rupees (US$45) for a family of 3. Not too bad..

Taking all of this into consideration, the entrance fees for everything are just ridiculous. The smallest temple or national park is at least 1000 rupees each!! As much as the government thinks it is making lots of money this way (which I'm sure it is from the package tourists), it's also losing alot of money from the backpacker tourist and I hope they wake up to this soon and re-instill the historical SriLanka pass, so us on a budget can afford to see all of the sites Sri Lanka has to offer too.

Sigiriya is one of the most famous places in SriLanka, and for good reason. It's just amazing.

The rock is covered with frescoes and buddhist meditation caves dating back to the 3rd century B.C.!! It is rich in history and a very important site archaeologically. (read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigiriya)

BUT.... It costs US$30 each to visit... 
We debated and debated.. But seeing as US$30 is our combined daily budget, we just couldn't commit to going..
So instead, we visited the smaller rock, just next door. 

The smaller rock is neglected from the tourist trail even though is is equally as archaeologically important and old. It is full of it's own frescoes and Buddhas and is an amazing mountain to climb, yet only costs 300 rupees (US$2.5)! Less than a tenth of the price. 

This Buddha is from 2 B.C.

 Although for the most part, the trail is pretty much non-existant.. We literally had to scramble over boulders, passing Gypsy between us!

But at the top, the view was pretty amazing. And seeing the sheer number of people queued up to climb the main rock, made us glad we hadn't.

And, as if climbing 1 mountain wasn't enough for the day, some friends told us about another mountain near where we were staying from which we could watch the sun set over both Big and Small Sigiriya. So up we climbed again.. Although it was all too much excitement for Gypsy who was oblivious to the beautiful sunset!

We really enjoyed our time in Sigiriya and are still undecided about whether to climb the main rock or not. We plan to come back at the end of our trip, so will see how much money we have left. 

Anurandhapura is hailed as being one of the most important ancient temple sites in South East Asia. We have already visited Bagan in Myanmar, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, so we were super keen to see what Anurandhapura had to offer!!

Unfortunately the weather wasn't the nicest, but regardless, the temples didn't disappoint! 

A ticket to the ruins and temples isn't cheap. US$25 per person!! But, as we didn't head there til around 4 pm on the afternoon we arrived, most of the guards and ticket-checkers were gone so we were lucky enough to be able to see them for free!!

We also went to Mihintale, about 11 kms out of the city. Hiding in amongst the thousands of monkeys, are some of the most amazing ruins we have ever seen. We were mesmerised by this place!!

As a town Anurandhapura isn't anything to write home about. But the surrounding sacred areas are stunning, extremely easy to access and definitely worth the trip! History/ archeology buffs could easily spend weeks here!!