Colombo, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Day 4 On day 4 in Sri Lanka our fair heroines visited a fabulous cave temple, another UNESCO world heritage site. The monks started living there 2,200 years ago, but it was remodeled in the middle of the 18th century (mid-1700s, so before American Independence). There’s several different caverns all full of Buddahs, sometimes of declining sizes because they were built to fit in the space of the cave. The cool part is that the ceiling of the caves are painted similar to the way Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, but they didn’t try to carve out the ceiling to make it even. They just painted along with the natural undulations of the cave. Needless to say, we got plenty of pictures despite the crowds of people. These aren’t underground caves formed by millions of years of dripping water and underground rivers. These are natural caves on the side of the mountains, like what cavemen, or outlaws, or sabertooth tigers, or monks would have taken refuge in. They are about 300 steps up from the foreigners parking lot, or a combination of steps and ramps depending on preference. We opted for the mix because we had enough stairs yesterday at Lion Rock. We learned a valuable lesson as well, so take note. If you are a faithful Buddhist taking a bowl of rice as an offering at the temple, beware of monkeys! Or at least put it in a Tupperware and not a ceramic bowl. Seriously, there was a family walking past a tree of monkeys and the mother was carrying a large bowl of rice that was loosely covered. All of a sudden two monkeys leaped on her knocking the bowl out of her hands and sending it crashing to the ground shattering it in half. The startled children were screaming, and the monkeys were screeching as they ran off with their spoils–a broken ceramic bowl full of rice. Those poor children will probably have nightmares for weeks of swooping, screeching, rice stealing monkeys. Plus the shattered ceramic is very dangerous when everyone is walkung around barefoot. That’s why you should use shatter proof Tupperware, plus if it has a lid on it the monkeys might not be able to smell it. We also saw a monkey eating a beautiful pink lotus flower that made a great picture. We figured out later that he probably swooped in and stole that flower from the hand of an unsuspecting Buddhist. (Flowers, especially Lotus flowers, are the most common offering.) Perhaps the most exciting part of our day was when our guide Su told us that we could take pictures with the giant gold Buddha statue outside on top of a Buddhist museum there. Finally! A Buddha selfie! I don’t know what makes this one different. Perhaps because it is outside and not in a temple, but we didn’t take time to ask because we were too excited by the prospect of a Buddha selfie after having long been denied this opportunity. The excitement level of a Buddha selfie is very similar to a 70% off scrapbook paper at Michael’s. Yes, that exciting! After that we drove to our hotel in the city of Kandy. Interestingly enough, the whole city of Kandy is a UNESCO world heritage site. I’m not really sure why. From the bus it didn’t look special or different from any other town here. All we did was drive through town on our way to the cultural dance show. We don’t like cultural dance shows. After about 5 minutes we are fighting the zzzzzzz’s. The second dance, they started spinning plates on their fingers and putting them on candelabras the way Chinese acrobats do. Do you know who was not impressed? The Chinese people in front of us. They snorted and started playing on their phones. This place was jam packed full of tourists, and there was no air conditioning. It was hot, crowded and miserable. But thanks to Sri Lankan coffee, coca cola, and candy thetwinsontour stayed awake! Woo hoo!! I think that is it for the day! Well, even if it isn’t, I am going to say that it is. Ta ta for now. Love, Thetwinsontour