A day off, and travel to Batticaloa

We took a day to just stay at the hotel and enjoy the facilities. It was a very nice place, called Jetwing Lake, just outside Dambulla.

In the morning we used the bicycles there to ride around the lake. We passed some houses on plots of land and the children always waved 'hello' as we rode past. In the afternoon we just hung out at the pool and enjoyed the scenery.

The next day we travelled east for about 4 hours to Batticaloa, where Celene is working. As we travelled east, the weather became hotter and the landscape drier. 

I'm staying in Batticaloa with Celene for the next two weeks. Batticaloa is a small city on the east coast, and there are nice beaches nearby. The city itself is built around a lagoon and you often see someone fishing.

I will be seeing much more of 'Batti' over the next couple of weeks.

Dambulla Cave Temple

Another couple of hours north of Kandy, first through more tea-growing region, and then into the sprawling flat agricultural area of Dambulla. We arrived at our hotel just outside the city. After settling in we caught a tuk-tuk for a 10 minute ride to the Dambulla Cave Temple. This is a short climb to the entrance to several large caves.

Each cave is full of Buddha statues that are eerily lit up in the dark of the cave.

From the caves we continued on the path downward to the Golden Temple, with a large golden Buddha statue and  a museum. 

This is a picture from behind the statue, with Sigiriya Rock in the distance, which is where we planned to go the next day.

We got to the tuk-tuk just as the rain started. It is same type of weather pattern here as we've seen recently: nice in the morning and heavy rain in the afternoon. But today it really poured, with lots of lightening, for the whole afternoon and evening.