Travel Blog #2 - Sri Lanka Part 2: Sigiriya, The Castle in the Mountain @Dambulla + Kandy City

Hi, Steemit Community!

After our small excursion to Trincomale and Nilaveli, we took another 2 hour bus ride to Dambulla, to visit a famous location called Sigiriya Lion Rock. It's location is near to the center of the island and is situated in the mountain areas, so the temperatures were a bit lower than Colombo/Nilaveli. From Dambulla, we took a tuk-tuk to Sigiriya which took us about 30-35 minutes and started us off on our epic journey to the Castle on the Mountain.  Sigiriya is a really unique place where Srilankans built a castle INTO the rock/mountain. It's in the middle of the forest and supposedly had really great views at the top. 

*As usual, we took a selfies and other photos at the bottom of the rock and kept asking each other "Are we REALLY going to the top??" 

*After climbing a lot of stairs and rocks, we got near to the middle of the fortress where we saw a lot more stairs and kept asking ourselves "Are we there yet?". The walls you see in the left side was called the 'Mirror Wall' where guests of the castle left comments or things to say (or their initials).

*We finally got to the base of Lion Paws, which was about half-way up the mountain. As you can see below, a long time ago, it was said that a entire lion was part of the entrance to the Sky Palace and now only the paws remain. 

*We were really tired when we got up there and getting a breather when we found that the wasps near the staircase actually stung a tourist at the top. We heard he ended up getting around 100 stings and was immediately hospitalized. Please be careful and follow the instructions of the staff there at all times. The black blob in the middle is actually a wasp hive and imagine 6-7 of those near each other. 

*So we took photos! 

*After waiting for about 90 minutes, the staff told us it was safe to go and we finally got to go to the top and it was WORTH IT!! So we got busy taking photos!

So why did Srilankans build a castle/fortress into a rock? The story is that one of the king's son from a non-royal blood woman usurped the throne in a coup helped from within the king's royal family. The rightful heir of the king narrowly escaped and fled to southern India where we massed troops to avenge his father and reclaim the throne (Sounds like Game of Thrones...). So the usurper prince? or the new king fled the capital and built the new capital city/fortress at Sigiriya Rock getting ready for battle. Ultimately, the rightful heir came back with troops and upon impending defeat, the usurper prince committed suicide. 

*After we looking at the views and surrounding areas, we went back to Dambulla and headed to Kandy City, the 2nd largest city in Sri Lanka. The drive from Dambulla to Kanda took around another 4 hours because of the traffic... Below is a photo of the city center!

*We got tired from the climb and bus ride, we went into a small cafe where we relax and yes. took selfies.

*The food was great and inside were students who were playing the guitar setting the perfect mood for us! Thanks guys!

*Yummmy.

*After all the climbing and a long bus ride, we need to get some dinner and beers to call it a night. In Sri Lanka, it wasn't easy to buy beer and we had to ask around on where we could get some. After a short trip, we were ready for dinner and some beers!! So we ended up getting street burgers (which was ranked #1 on tripadvisor...)

I think that's about it! If you have any questions or comments about Sri Lanka or our trip, please let me know! Next post will be my favorite location we visited in Sri Lanka!! 

 Thank you and cheers!