Adventures Around The World

The second UNESCO World Heritage Site we saw during our day trip from Colombo was the Sigiriya ancient rock fortress, dominated by the massive column of granite. In the 5th Century, King Kashyapa selected the rock and surrounding area for his new capital. On the top of the rock are archeological ruins, but we didn’t have time to climb up and explore. So we settled for a tuk tuk tour around the area checking out the surrounding ruins. -J 🇱🇰

Here is the Sigiriya rock:

No monkeying around - there are many ruins to see:

The Ruins:

Cairns in a circle:

Many ruins have this bright green moss on them:

I said quit monkeying around:

Oh, the weird Buddha with the Cobra behind him will definitely scare the monkeys away:

During the tuk tuk ride, we noticed many of the roads contain these fences - it’s to keep the wild elephants from getting to close to homes and tourists (just like deer fences in the US):

While in Sri Lanka, we did a day tour from Colombo to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the first of which was Dambulla Cave Temple - the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The complex dates from the second and third centuries BC. The main site is spread over 5 caves and contains paintings and statues relating to Gautama Buddha, Sri Lankan kings, and gods and goddesses. -J 🇱🇰

Here is what the Temple looks like from the outside:

The cave ceilings are adorn with vivid paintings from centuries ago:

The caves themselves have many statutes of various numbers and sizes:

If you haven’t seen our first post about our leopard sighting already, go check it out.

A langur monkey with baby

An Asian green bee-eater out for a stroll

These painted storks give off some flamingo vibes

“Which way did he go George, which way did he go?” I could have posted an entire album of these two looking in various directions, both of their heads swiveling back and forth surveying the landscape. It was quite comical.

Asian elephants are different than African ones; here you can easily see how much smaller their ears are.

Man, I just really wanted to give this guy some lotion. Look at all those wrinkles!

When you just wait for lunch to magically arrive in your mouth

We haven’t seen nearly as many reptiles as I had expected on this trip, but we ran across a whole bunch of monitors here

These are spotted deer, and they seem like a perfect snack for a leopard, as we nearly witnessed.

Licking its chops, perhaps starting to get a bit hungry

Getting a bit more interested…

But it seemed like the leopard wasn’t willing to work too hard for dinner, at least this early in the evening.

This little guy seems like a crotchety old character

One thing I don’t get about peacocks is how colorful they are…but only from the waist up. It’s like they went over budget during development and had to skimp on the lower half.

How close does the wildlife get on a safari? Well, sometimes they have to walk around the vehicles.

Awww shit, that’s the end of the safari photos! (sorry, but we’ve had to see this far too often the last several weeks, so now you get to see it once, too 😝).

-S 🇱🇰

Cheers to country number 100 for Jen!!!! Sri Lanka was the lucky country and we ended up having the best leopard experience there.

It has definitely been a journey to get here, and it hasn’t always been the easiest ride. But that is what travel is all about and I’m lucky enough to have a husband who loves it all just as much as I do ❤️

To honor the occasion, Scott and I found a bottle of Prosecco—which my dear friend Helen always loved. Helen was the person who started me on this quest when I met her back in 2013. While she isn’t with us today to celebrate, I know she would have been ecstatic for me and would have raised a glass too. Cheers, my dear friend. I will never forget you ☂️🍷♾️ -J 🇱🇰

One of the first places we saw in Colombo, Sri Lanka, was the Gangaramaya Temple, one of the most important Buddhist temples in Colombo (completed in the late 19th Century).

It had some interesting “guards” out front.

It had many Buddhist figures and other interesting artifacts displayed through out the museum.

But it also had a bunch of “stuff” (the best I can describe is stuff from your weird grandparents’ estate sale). Notice the Atlanta Braves bobble head in the third picture. (Apparently these are “offerings” to the temple)

Last but not least, Scott took a short video of a very interesting room.