Strange title? Our guide today , when learning our names, found that this is what our names sound like in Singhalese: Anne sounds like “come”, and Janne sounds like “go”. So now we are the Come-and-Go-girls!
Well, today, we´ve pretty much been on the go all day, here are just a few of the things we´ve seen and done.
We started the day visiting the Rock Temple at Dambulla. 5 big, natural caves were transformed into Buddhist temples of worship, filled with Buddha-sculptures around the rooms. And frescos filled the ceilings and walls.
There are some very impressive reclining Buddhas here. And loads of beautiful ornamentation, which I´ll come back to in another post.
Below is Sigiriya, one of the most special places in Sri Lanka. A naturally shaped mountain with caves, and a fort built on the top. 1500 years ago 6000 people lived on and around the top here! There are huge gardens below, fresco-painted caves, and a big pool on the very top of the mountain. And yes, we did go all the 1221 steps to the top.
About half-way up, there are some natural caves. They had been painted with fresco-paintings with portraits of all of the king´s 500 concubines. Some of them have survived centuries of monsoon rain and weather, and below you can see two of them. All the paints are natural colors from plants and minerals, and they still look gorgeous today.
We rode an elephant part of the way to Sigiriya. Since Anne is a tough woman, who carries a rifle to work, in case a hungry polar bear comes around, I got the honor of sitting in front 🙂
So exotic! I can’t even imagine the joy of seeing so many lovely new things! 🙂