Sri Lanka '13 (Part 1): Negombo/Dambulla

Hi guys! I know I haven't posted in ages and I'm sorry :( Hopefully this long post will make up for it. SO. What have I been up to lately? Well, I got into my dream school Lasalle College of the Arts for one! That's right guys, I'm going to Singapore to do performing arts in July. Only my ambition since I was 5, no big. Also, I've started reading the 'Game of Thrones' book collection. Was so intoxicated by the first book that I dragged dad to Popular book store to buy the whole set wtf. Have any of you watched the tv series 'Once Upon A Time'? I'm on Season 3 and it's really impressing me so far. I love fantasy stories, especially fairy tale characters that come to life, which is what it's about, coincidentally. 

Ok I digress, was supposed to be talking about Sri Lanka, like it said in the header haha. I went to SL from somewhere in November to December last year, the dates are slightly fuzzy. We boarded AirAsia X and flew transit, from Kuching - Kuala Lumpur - Maldives - Colombo (capital of Sri Lanka). Took us almost the whole day, but luckily we reached our hotel in Negombo (neighbouring city to Colombo) before nightfall. The next day, we went to the Muthurajawela sanctuary, which is a huge protected marsh towards the West of SL. There, we took a boat around its canal, marsh and lagoon. 

peaceful boat ride on the Hamilton Canal at 7am

life along the canal.........

a monster of a monitor lizard basking in the sun

at the canal's opening to the lagoon, we saw a small outdoor church and the stations of the cross

luckily for us, it was a very cool morning without much sun 

quite impressed at myself for this shot, looks like something from Nat Geo, no? *shameless self praise* it's a cormoran drying its wings

rather blurry shot of a heron in mid-flight cos i was on high res zoom

a funny little marsh inhabitant

went to Dambulla after our boat ride, it was a peaceful little town about 3-4 hours away. visited the dambulla produce market at night, where farmers from all over the province come to sell their fruits and vegetables in bulk to retailers. the market shuts down at 3am, who says little towns don't have good night life?

guavas by the crate

it was extremely easy for us to get around sri lanka as we had hired a driver, mr menaka. he was a nice and sporting guy with a great sense of humor! after the market, we went to see dambulla's famous golden buddha. fact: majority of sri lankans are buddhist. unfortunately, the 5 caves temple was closed so we could only view the giant majestic buddha from the outside

new movie starring my dad and 2 brothers: revenge of the golden buddha

came back the next morning and it looks even more impressive in the light. really huge and shiny as. its really expensive to visit special protected sites in sri lanka, so my brothers and i got international student cards which are applicable anywhere you live. by using them we got a half price on all our tickets! great way for our parents to save $$$

there were monkeys everywhere, especially these type that were temple dwellers. i really like monkeys but they're so fierce.... "a mango? for me? this must have fallen from the heavens and must be a gift from hanuman the monkey god! or the golden buddha"

climbed up many steps carved from the rock to reach the top, where the rock temples were. saw many locals dressed in white, it isn't compulsory but the women in their white sarees looked lovely

not to sound geeky but the hill behind looks like it was imported straight from middle earth.... *stares intently at the top in hope gandalf will appear*

inside one of the cool and dimlit caves

unflattering double chin shot of a massive buddha as i was shooting upwards #paiseh

lady in prayer

a wall covered by buddhas

flowers at his feet

ancient cave paintings on the ceiling

5 caves make up the royal rock temple complex

mum posing for the camera "candidly"

my little friend

fantastic view from the top

too bad they're not jumping off a cliff #kidding #notreally

after the caves visit we went to see some prehistoric tombs near dambulla. here's a rather intact tomb

the tombs were quite small.... were people a lot smaller back then? most definitely

an hour or so's drive away was the ritigala monastery. an ancient monastery which once covered a huge area now looks like something out of tomb raider, but it isn't hard to imagine how it may once have looked. lucky monks!

our lovely driver! i generated plenty of strange looks for wearing these pants from cotton on... apparently pajamas weren't in that year

gigantic tree in comparison to my mum

the monastery hospital.... it's really sad that the only remains left of this place is the original base structure. the wood and cement that may have been the walls or roof are all, sadly, gone

*
I'm exhasted. This post took longer than expected. I'm having a pretty hard time uploading my pictures as well as resizing / organizing them! I promise the next post will be longer and more interesting.

Till then, goodbye! x