We're ready to take on the Hot Coals walk

Our latest adventure is underway.

We arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka at 5 am on Sunday morning, following 2 overnight flights, losing 12.5 hours in time zone changes along the way......time we can apparently 'bank' for the trip home! Our daughter, Rachel, arrived 4 hours later, and our country / island tour started right away.......adrenalin infused since we forgot how tired we really were after not getting much sleep on the planes. Patrick, our guide and driver for the week (and the one we want if we ever make it onto the Amazing Race Seniors Edition), drove us several hours to the ancient city of Anuradhapura, the original capital of Sri Lanka. It wasn't a long distance away from the airport, but the number of vehicles on the roads, variety (cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes, tuk tuks, bicycles) and varying speeds, resulted in traffic chaos and ensured there was little chance of falling asleep during the trip. We spent most of the afternoon walking around the Sacred City which was full of ancient Buddhist treasures, dating back to the 3rd century B.C. and continuing on until the 10th century. There were ruins of temples, palaces, royal baths and gardens. There were also many stupas, monuments that the King's built to mark their place in history (something that the taxpayers wouldn't think too fondly of today). Oh yeah, the hot coals training. When you enter the sacred temples, you must remove your shoes and hats.....no surprise to us, we have done this many times before during our travels. Our previous experience however, involved going into restored buildings, not ancient ruins where the roofs had long since crumbled and were still considered 'sacred temples'. As a result, with 30C sunshine combined with an afternoon visit, the rock / concrete sidewalks had heated up to oven-ready temperatures and we quickly found ourselves searching for any tiny spots of shade that existed. Rachel and I survived the best, but Rhonda ended the day with very red soles and a few blisters......perhaps the foot bath she had at home before we left (to remove any dead skin) wasn't such a good idea after all. The girls are now leaving their socks on when they tour the temples.

The next day we moved on to Polonnaruwa, the second capital of Sri Lanka (11th - 13th centuries), where we saw more ancient ruins. The highlight was Gal Vihare, where 3 massive Buddha's were carved into a large rock wall. Yesterday, early in the morning, we hiked up to the peak of Sigiriya Rock Fortress where a nasty King killed his own father to attain the throne and then built his palace, swimming pool, and fortress on the top of a  massive rock column (200 metres high), making it very difficult for any challengers to come after him (and tourists to get there!). The climb was a good work-out (many, many steps) and the views from the top made it all worthwhile. After breakfast and a quick shower, Patrick drove us to Dumballa, where we did a short hike up to the Cave Temples, which date back to the 1st century B.C.  They were still in good shape as a result of being protected from the elements and contained more than 150 Buddha statues along with over 2,000 square metres of ceiling paintings. We finished the day off driving to Kandy (3rd capital of the ancient King's) where we watched an evening performance of the Kandayan Cultural Dance. We also made a visit to the impressive Temple of the Tooth where one of Buddha's teeth (recovered from his pyre) is securely kept and revered.

Today we went to an Elephant Orphanage in Pinawella where we followed the huge residents (although not as large as the African Elephant) to the river for their daily bath and then had a close-up experience with the milk bottle feeding of two baby elephants. We are now in Nuwara Eliya which is in the southern mountain region (2,000 metres above sea level) and surrounded by tea plantations. We will spend another day in this area before heading further south to Yala National Park where we will do a half day safari.

 Ayubowan ("Live a long and happy life." in Sinhala)

Anuradhapura and the Sacred City - our first taste of hot coals in bare (and tender) feet.

Polonnaruwa - The very large reclining Buddha was just one of the three carvings out of the same massive rock.

Sigiriya Rock Fortress - we discovered the Lion's Paw three-quarters of the way up the mountain. There were still many more stairs to climb but it was easier than the original path which had tiny steps carved into the rock face.

The King's Pool within the fortress.

Dambulla - The Cave Temple Museum and the start of the climb to the caves.

One of the many cave rooms with multiple statues and paintings on the stone ceilings.

Kandy - Temple of the Tooth. The outside wall was recently built following a Tamil terrorist attack in 1998 that did major damage to the Temple.

Kandy Hotel - a lovely breakfast view from the balcony.

Pinawella - returning to the Elephant Orphanage from their river bath. Close to 30 of them walked right down the middle of the street with their handlers out in front clearing away the pedestrian and car traffic.