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We had an early start - off at 8:30 to the bus station. The plan was to go to Sirigiya, where we had booked a hotel before going on to see the famous rock temples. We had some confusion about which bus to get on - we had been told one bus but the bus people insisted on another one but at least it went straight away. It dropped us at the crossroads with the road to Sirigaya - some 9km away. After a quick negotiation with a couple of TukTuk drivers, we were off. to the hotel. It is called Flower inn - a good name as it was in a pleasant garden - it seemed OK if basic.
We then set off to Dambulla on the local bus to see the rock temple. The journey started off OK but the bus quickly became jammed with people. After a hot 30 minutes we arrived and went down to see the rock temples. Unfortunately the ticket office was closed for lunch and we had to hang around to get the tickets. Eventually we set off - up the wrong set of stairs - round a gigantic Buddha and back down again. Then we found the real set of stairs which we climbed, and climbed and climbed. It was the normal formation - Ken miles in front negotiating with the vendors, Judi trailing behind and me trying to encourage Fran to climb faster! Though it was very hot in the sun.
When we reached the top, the view over the plains were good. The rock temples were supposed to be 2000 years old but it looked like the paintings had been heavily restored or redone. Still the large caves were quite impressive. It was back down the stairs, running the gauntlet of hawkers (at least the Sri Lankan ones are friendly and have a sense of humour). After this exertion, we decided it was cold beer time so we piled into a tuk tuk and found a guesthouse that would server us. Our request for snacks and cakes produced a packet of chilli peanuts, some crisps and a packet of jelly sweets.
Then back to the hotel - found the drawback with the place - it was full of mosquitoes and other insects. Still a good dinner consisting of 7 types of vegetable curry - each served either heavily spiced or mildly spiced, rice and omelette.
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