Dambulla

We'd been planning to spend two days at Polonnaruwa, but as we'd seen everything in one, we jumped on the bus to Dambulla to see the famous Buddhist caves there. While it was worth the diversion in the end - the caves aren't as impressive as the ancient cities - and the government seems to be running a bit of a scam by not including them in the $50USD round ticket.

Which means it's an extra $10USD to get in. If you've got deep pockets then it's worth it - if your on a budget then I'd probably give it a miss...

Having found a place to stay, we decided to head back in the pouring rain to get some food and have a look around. There's not much to recommend Dambulla itself, and after eating we found the only bar in town. The only problem was - the manager would only sell us beer at twice the local price...so we headed to the local grocery store and bought some beers and sat in a closed shop front like a couple of winos...

The next day we had breakfast and headed off to the caves. Here's a picture of the museum at the bottom of the hill:



From there, it's a long steep climb to the top where the caves are. Here's a rather unusual sign we spotted on the way up:



The view from the top:



And a pic of the outside of the caves at the top of the hill:



And a selection of pictures inside the caves:











And then we headed back into Dambulla to get the bus to Kandy. For anyone wondering what bus travel looks like in Sri Lanka - it's a lot like this (click the pic to view the video):