Sri Lanka #8 Pidurangala, where can get a great view of Sigiriya

If you want to visit Sigiriya , the local people will more recommend Pidurangala than Sigiriya. Why ? Same as Sigiriya , Pidurangala is a giant rock ,when you standing on the top of Pidurangala Rock ,you can see the whole Sigiriya Rock, and the ticket is much cheaper than Sigiriya.

Of cause you can with both of them ,the way to Pidurangala is same as to Sigiriya , so you can take the bus or tuk tuk to both spots.

Tuk tuk driver also will tell you some secret spot on the road to Pidurangala.

This lake next on the road , but hide by trees , if you take bus or drive here , maybe you will miss it . Although the lake is so beautiful , it is also danger, should be many crocodiles under water , when I arrived , there is a crocodile bask on the rock ,so don't try to swim in the lake .

I also saw a dancing elephant in another lake , cute ~

As we know ,Sigiriya is known as Lion Rock, but in some point of view , it is more like an elephant .

Back to talk about Pidurangala, it is a temple at the lower rock , so you need to remove your hat and shoes when entry , but bring it ,cause when you walk up leave the temple area , you need to wear your shoes to walk to the top. Temple ticket is Rs.500 , much cheaper than Sigiriya USD30.

And Pidurangala is more challenging than Sigiriya. First , you will see a long long long stairs , but this still a easy grade , the most challenge at the top of the rock.

A house under the rock ?! Amazing ! It looks no one living here now ,but it should not empty for a long time , I can see some modern things in the house.

Dose the stairs at right side made by old Sigiriya people ?It was dug on the rock.

A very narrow road , are you enough slim ?

The branches enough strong to prop up the rock ?

Keep walking , I saw a ruin , maybe really someone ever living here.

Look at my finger, yes , that is the way to the top , there without road , if you want to reach the top , you must climb the rocks ! that's why I said Pidurangala is more challenging than Sigiriya .

Some signal on the rock to avoid you walk the wrong way .

And you can see the road is like below ,so be careful when you climb.

Finally , I reach the top by myself , good job ~Here you can get the great view for the Sigiriya and whole town, especially when the sunset or sunrise .

Sri Lanka #7 The Ancient Town Anuradhapura

In China , I never heard the place Anuradhapura before , actually I didn't do any plan for this trip , I just buy the air ticket and go .But my first week in Sri Lanka was as a helper in a coconut farm, the farm owner is a kind man, he recommended some place to me , otherwise , I will never know Anuradhapura .

After I know this place , I check the details on web , found that such less Chinese information for this town, then I check in English , also less information , but at least ,more than Chinese.

The greatest monastic city of the ancient world that date from the middle of the 5th century B.C. remained the proud seat of kingdom of Sri Lanka until the 11th century A.D. .As we know , Sir Lanka was colonized by Portugal and the Netherlands and the UK, this town is older than the colonized period .

If you travel in this city , you should rent a bicycle or a tuktuk . If you rent bicycle , that is more free , you can go where you want to go ,at that time , I rent bicycle from my hostel , Rs 500 per day. If you rent a tuktuk , then maybe cost more , but you have a tour guide too , they are local people, so they know the history of here , and where must visit.

Below I will tell you some place where I went .

The ancient part and modern part are separate clearly on the map ,you can found the ancient at the west side , the modern part at the east side.

For foreigner , visit the historic site need to buy ticket , USD 25, for Sri Lankan , that's free, I wanna say , Sri Lankan ticket really very expensive for foreigner.

Kuttam Pokuna, the other name is the Twin Ponds, are two bathing ponds in ancient Sri Lanka. Dating back to around 7th-9th centuries AD, these were built for the use of resident Bikkhus of Abhayagiri.

There is many monkey near the ponds , they are not scare people , I feel that I was more afraid they would take away my phone , once I walked close them , them were looking at me , seems wanted to jump to me .But normally , they just pay attention at food , if you are not holding foods , they won't attack you .

Most places of the ancient part need to take off your hats and shoes before entry, make sure you are wearing socks , really very pain if you walking on small stone road.

I saw a Buddhist talking with Sri Lankan, were them taking lessons ?

Below is one of the place must visit, here is the Abhayagiri Stupa , built by King Walagamba in the 1th century BC .the central Cultural fund began the conservation of the Stupa in 1997. Ater the completion of the conservation work the Stupa is now open to the public for their veneration .

When I visit there , I found all people walk around the Stupa through the clock , just me walk the back way , a little bit shy.

I like below pond , this is elephant pond , which is for elephants take shower, it's very big , and peaceful here.

Isurumuniya Rock Temple, here is the second on I think must visit . Its special is the temple build on a big stone , when you come at the evening , you can claim on the top of the rock ,and get a great sunset view .

Sri Lanka #6 How to make Sri Lankan Curry

In different country have different culture , even in same food , such as curry ,different country have different style .

In Thailand , have Thai curry . In India, have Indian curry , of course in Sri Lanka, have Sri Lankan Curry .

Sri Lankan eat curry almost in all of their meal , breakfast , lunch , dinner all are curry , curry congee, curry fried rice , curry noodle .

This time ,I want to introduce 2 things which are the soul of Sri Lankan curry. The first one is curry leaves.No matter in the rice , noodle , or in a bread, you can found some leaves in it , that is curry leaves. In the farm where I stay for one week , there have 2 baby curry leaves tree , but they don't use that , they also have a big curry leaves tree at the other side of the farm .

The other one is coconut, maybe because too many coconut in Sri Lanka, they also use coconut in food ,every meal they would open a coconut , there have a chair dedicated to plane coconut, mix with water , then squeeze the juice fill in the food , so Sri Lankan curry you will have coconut taste.

Another special in Sri Lankan food is , they like to cut all the food in small pieces, maybe because they eating by hand , cut in small pieces are more easy to mix the food. Even the noodles they also in small pieces , but Omal told me , they also have the normal noodles , and after I went to city , also see some normal noodles in supermarket .

Sri Lanka #5 How the coconut become coconut oil ?My job in a coconut farm

Hello, as I ever said ,I went to a coconut farm as a volunteer in Sri Lanka , then , what should I do in the farm ?

Below is my daily schedule , seems many things to do in one day ,but actually ,I feel I just need to water plants every day , other time I am too free to look for something to do .

Besides coconuts, the farm has many other plants, such as tomato , sweet potato, beans , papaya ,chili and so on .They almost no need to buy food , all vegetable can pick in the farm, but sometimes want to eat meat , will buy in town .

This bean I never seen in china, but I saw many in Sri Lanka, could anyone tell me what is it named ?

Baby coconut trees , I found that coconut trees are plant by whole coconuts, some coconuts drop from trees , leave them , they will grow some new coconut trees from that coconuts.

Guess what is this ?it's vanilla. Normally , we buy a vanilla is a vanilla bean, but this one still a baby vanilla, it will grow up , and open flowers , then grow to beans.

Our coconut farm is producing coconut oil , the most popular oil in Sri Lanka , many family use coconut oil to cook. So what did I do for Sri Lankan family in these days ? Maybe I have made some oil for them .

Every week Omal will ask some worker to pick coconuts on trees, some collected here .

Then we need to remove their shells, I tried , but even use my Chinese Kongfu, I still not enough strong to do that , so leave it to the strong man, I just keep watching.

After remove the shells , we need to open the coconut , cut in half, and dry them , them they will turn out the coconut oil , seems our skin , more dry more oil .

I just know that not every coconut inside is water , some coconut like below , Omal told me that's because the coconut picked from a baby coconut tree.

When they are enough dry , we will cut it to small pieces and keep drying , I never cut such many things before .

In my free time , I would follow uncle to cook , to feed the cow , and sometimes walk in the farm pick some coconut back , some coconut drop on the floor and if we shake it , hear some water inside that means the coconut can be used , we will pick it back .

Sri Lanka #4 take shower in a open bathroom

Per my last post , I said I went to a coconut farm as a helper in Sri Lanka, also share the environment for my living house , why the bathroom separate to write another post ? 1st , the bathroom separate with the main house, 2nd, the bathroom is very special .

The bathroom is at the next side of the farm ,every time I went there need to ride a bicycle ,If I can't ride a bicycle, may be I need to walk for 10 min to reach there.

Sometimes , will meet someone stop the road , "hey ,friend , could you give a road to me ? I think the grasses at the right side are more delicious, do you think so ?"

This is a reasonable cattle, after a few talk , it give a way to me , here is our shower room , do you also think it is so special ?

This shower room without any door, it is open type , so when I arrived I saw someone here , I would go back and wait , then came back again to see does that guy still here.

Sometimes ,Omal would ask uncle to ask that guy leave, then I can come and take shower.

Normally , If I didn't see anyone surrounding here , that means really no one , cause here is no any hiding place, and when I took shower, I would look surrounding .

Water pump from the lake next to the shower room, the cattle use that water to take shower , I also use that water to take shower.

The switch for water pump on a tree behind the shower room.

One time , after took shower , I saw many cattle surrounding the shower room, they also wanna take shower?