Siguriya

We had an early start, so we were up at 6:30, had breakfast, and were packed, ready to leave by 7:30. Daniel and Sarat didn't arrive until about 8:20, blaming roadworks for the delay. We packed our gear in and headed for the fish market. Negombo has the largest fishing fleet in Sri Lanka. Some of the boats go out each day, but many are the trawlers that stay out for around 3 weeks before coming in to unload their catch. Much of the action had happened earlier, but there were still fishermen selling trays of prawns and other smaller fish. Some of the larger fish were sold in sections, and there were piles of sharks that were waiting to be loaded into trucks to be sent to Japan. They had already had the head and fins cut off.
Then we headed to a large Buddhist temple and had a look inside at the magnificent statues and paintings
We had lunch at Kurunagala, which was once an ancient capital and has lots of rocky outcrops around the city. The rocks all have names like Lion Rock, Elephant Rock etc. We continued after lunch towards Siguriya. We arrived at the Eden Garden Hotel at around 3 pm. and were greeted with a nice cold drink each. We dropped our bags in our rooms and then went for a short drive to Habarana for an elephant ride around a large lagoon. The ride went for approximately an hour. Bridget and Daniel took turns to ride on the elephants neck, while the rest of us were in a metal box like frame strapped to it's back. Along the path we purchased bananas to feed it, and as we approached the halfway, turnaround point, the elephant went into the lagoon, dipped it's trunk in the water and sprayed it back at us. Bridget was on the neck at the time, so she got a bit wet. After the ride we went and fed another elephant some bananas. This time they actually placed them on the elephant's tongue. Quite an experience. Tomorrow we go to climb over 1000 steps to the top of Siguriya, which is on the 2000 Rps note.

Some observations since we have been here:
- the roads are better
- drivers actually use the lanes on the road, and obey traffic lights
- there are many more free standing homes
- there is no rubbish

We left at around 9:30 to go to Siguriya Rock. It was raining slightly, but we thought that this would be good to keep us cooler as we climbed the over 1200 steps to the top. Being one of Sri Lanka's World Heritage sites, it was US$30 per person to enter the site. The first thing we did was to go to the museum. The entry cost included entry to the Museum, Fresco Gallery, and the Mirror Wall. There was a palace on top of the rock, and it amazing to think that this was all built in the 4th century. The steps and climbing were very tiring, and Paula had said that she would only go as far as she could. We ended up having people who offered to help you to the top, and with assistance and encouragement she did make it. Unfortunately it was cloudy with light drizzle so the view from the top was not great.