Crazy times in the Lion City

To my utter shock (and it was quite a disorienting feeling) I actually won the first prize (Or was it second? Who cares?) at the Office Dinner Dance raffle draw, a return air ticket to the Singha Pura, the Lion City (More commonly known as Singapore). It did, however, come with conditions, the most relevant one said "Must be claimed in 4 weeks" or some cock like that. That wasn't happening in the middle of a busy time at office and during the Christmas season! Besides, my passport had expired.
But this is Sri Lanka and times are flexible things. After fuddling around, I asked if they could set up the trip in April (wanted to catch a long weekend so I wouldn't need to take time off from work). Further fuddling (Renewed the passport) and fuddling onwards, the office travel co-ordinators (who kindly took care of the details with the travel agency ppl) calls me up on Friday. I had asked for the tickets to be arranged in such a way so I could leave Friday night or Saturday early morning and come back on Monday evening (long weekend so Monday was an off-day) so I could come back for work on Tuesday. And on the said Friday, when I had given up hope of going, they called and said there is a ticket available on a flight leaving at midnight on Cathay, do I want it? After picking my jaw up off the floor, I decided to go for it.Had a few issues, like packing and figuring out lodging, but luckily I was in contact with my buddy Dilesh, who is a student at the NUS and said I could stay with him in his flat. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to get the info out to him that I was coming after all, and get the address from him, and bothered Nadisha into going home an hour earlier than than the shuttles and giving me a ride home in order to get packed. Of course, fun things happen when you pack in a hurry, which meant I went to Singapore with my laptop and phone, but without my laptop and phone charger :Major FacePalm: Also, even tho I asked for my phone to have sms roaming turned on when I went, it never worked all the while I was there. But I remembered all my camera gear, which was very important! Specially coz it took up most of my hand luggage space. If anyone thought I was travelling to Singapore without my photogear, they are flat out crazy.

I was somewhat sleep deprived, since I had to be at the airport by about 9 to make the midnight flight (security) and the flight got delayed somewhat (apparently not just a Sri Lankan Airlines problem) and I was somewhat unsuccessful trying to sleep on the plane despite trying (Economy class sucks). But the food was good and I think I managed about an hour of sleep in the three hour flight. And watched some old episodes of Top Gear on the in-flight entertainment.
Anyhoo, landed, got my bags, called Dilesh from a payphone, found a taxi and headed off. The taxi dude apparently wasn't familiar with the area we were headed too. Google maps to the rescue fortunately! Got there with minimum fuss, and apparently Dilesh sleeps late on weekends coz he hadn't had breakfast. Which was lucky for me coz it meant I had company for breakfast.

I had a plan for this trip. Day one, zoo. Day two, Jurong Bird Park. Day three, shopping and head back home. However, this not bringing my phone charger (which was plugged into a power outlet at office) changed plans a bit. Decided to go and buy a phone first (on my budgeted todo list) and then head to the zoo. So got directions and how to use Singapores public transport system from Dilesh (who very fortuneately had a spare swipe card that let me use the system) and went up to the harbourfront station to make sure I got the hang of it.

So off I went to the specified station and found the famous Mustafa's looking for a phone. Not an experience I wanna repeat. The most "don't care" sales staff ever. Obviously don't work for commission. But somehow picked up a LG GW620. Not sure if its supposed to not have a CD, but mine came with a CD from some kinda Singaporean teeny bopper pop duo. Also didn't realise that the thing came with a 2Gb memory card and that damn fool salesman didn't tell me so I ended up buying another 8gb mem card.
Anyway, trying to come outta there, I got lost. I'm pretty sure I went under the street to the building on the other side of the road and came out that way. While wandering around trying to find the train station, I found another funky mall, advertised as the first eco mall or something. So since it was there and it was lunch, thought I'd get something to eat. It was ... interesting. There were lots of unidentified meats. Language barrier was a bit of an issue :) But finally settled one some duck rice thing. The conclusion is that chicken tastes better.
Anyway, found the station again, and proceeded upto Ang Mo Kio, where I was supposed to catch a bus to the zoo. Luckily, as I exited the station, I found a zoo arranged shuttle that carts people to the zoo from the station, and was about to leave, so I caught that.
Singapore Zoo is a funky place. Thanks to my jaunt around Mustafa's I didn't really get the time to do the full tour, so I really need to go back. Also the fact that I obsessed at the white tiger enclosure and spent an hour at the Elephant show didn't help. Also just missed the Polar Bear show, got there just as it was wrapping up. :( But still, got a few nice photos. That Lion cage was crazy, there is a place that people can view the Lions from that is basically just a glass seperating the cats from the people. Which doesn't look particularly thick. I shudder to think what will happen if a 500lbs lion decided to test its strenght on it! Quite possible if people keep using pocket p&s cameras in there, which was flashing away. Nobody is gonna get a good pic, coz of the flash reflecting off the glass. Hopefully the Lions will ignore it as if it was lightning or something.
Of note, white tigers are a dream to photograph. Even in dim light they light up so well :) The pic on the left was quite late in the evening. Kitty cats they are not tho, they have mauled a zoo-keeper to death after the man fell into the enclosure. See the wikipedia.
It was somewhat after dark when I found my way back into the campus. Missed the stop and got down at the next one, but found my way back ok. Was a bit worried there, since I didn't have a working phone. Wasn't very sure I was in the right place until I saw the stone rhinos at the resteraunt. Or were they hippos?

I think I'll cover the next day in another post, this is getting too long. So until whenever I feel like blogging again, the end.

The longest climb

The adventure began when the G-man called up outta the blue and asked if I wanted to go on a trip. He temptingly dangled lunch at Kandalama Hotel as bait. Its very hard to say no to lunch at Kandalama, even when he mentioned the dreaded word Sigiriya. The sheer mention of the word gives me vertigo.
But anyhoo, chance of a nice trip, meet some new people and take a few pics was interesting, so what the heck, I was in. Details came in slowly. Dambulla and Sigiriya. Great, more climbing.

So, historical background. The rock temple at Dambulla. This from Wiki.
"Dambulla Cave Temple (also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla) is a world heritage site (1991) in Sri Lanka, situated in the central part of the country."
What the site doesn't mention is there is a lotta steps to climb to get there. Why can't these people install walkways or elevators at these sites!? The altitude change leaves you short of breath anyway.

And Sigiriya the famous "Lion Rock"
"Sigiriya is an archeological site in Central Sri Lanka. It contains the ruins of an ancient palace complex, built during the reign of King Kasyapa (477 – 495 AD). It is one of the seven World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka and is one of its most popular tourist destinations."

The G-man promised an early start with a 6:00 am pickup. Sometime after 6:30, he arrived with a van. Popping on over the Mount Lavinia Hotel to pick up Hermy (newly christened courtesy yours truely) we headed out. The point of the trip was to show Hermy sites of historical interest in SL, as she is interested in this kinda thing. (In case u missed it, shes from America, with a complicated ancestry. So America will suffice :) ) Why G-man didn't think of a tour of Mt. Lavinia Hotel is beyond me. Nice old historical place with lots of stories attached.... I'd have conducted the tour personally if it consisted of visiting the restaurants. :) Oh, well, maybe it wasn't old enough.... But I digress...

Sooo, off we went in the van, bouncing around at what musta been 100kmph (can't see the speedo from the back). In the pic from left to right, Buddhika (G-man) (front row), Coomerene (back row)(hope I got the spelling right), G-man's sis (front row) Thusitha and Hermy in the hat.

Stopped for breakfast at some joint outside Kaduwela. No recommendations from me, service sucked and the food was so-so, tho the toilets were good. Setting was decent too, with a nice large garden to view while eating. Saw a Brown-Headed Barbet, but I had left the camera back in the van.

Resuming our epic adventure, we headed off into the horizon, giving Hermy history, geography and political lessons on the way :) After a confused time at Dambulla trying to find our way to the temple, we stopped at the Golden Temple. Immediately, we were beset on all sides by a bunch of fortune tellers who insisted on calling me "manamala mahathya". Honestly, the nerve! They gave Hermy an interestingly generic fortune, tho we really couldn't keep the translation up with the speed of the flow :)


Very much the Golden Temple as you can see. A looong flight of stairs later, we headed into the famed cave temple. Somewhat out of breath too. However, it was nice and cool in the caves. There are all kinds of restrictions on the photography, like no flash, but I got some dim shots. Going to have a try with a tripod and prolonged exposure if I ever go again.



The place is infested with monkeys. Just like I remembered it from a long time ago. Wanna be players those monkeys, kept going up to the girls and trying to climb on them. Easy to satisfy them, just need to give them a flower. Gave the girls a bit of a fright tho!



Got the team to pose in front of the bell tower. I'm taking the photo, just in case someone thinks of asking.


Came down again after having a refreshing thambili (king coconut for the benefit of internationals) on the way down, we got back to the van to more calls of "manamala mahathaya" from the 2nd shift of fortune tellers. Honestly, these people!
Onward to Kandalama Hotel and lunch! 10km according to the sign posts, but it felt quite longer than that. Wish I thought of taking a few more photos at the Hotel, but it was near 2 and we were worried about missing the buffet, so we rushed right through to the restaurant. Standard at Kandalama, A+, definite recommendation for anyone with pockets deep enough.
The Salad
And the main course.

After all that, I was definitely feeling like not climbing and a relaxing soak in the pool and a nice drive back to Colombo was an idea that was very appealing. However, we had a mission, (show Hermy ancient sites) so off we went.

Sigiriya has this effect of looking more and more forbidding the closer we got to it. Introduced to the delightful new abbreviation, GNT (gaanu naana thana, or place where women bathe) we headed across the moat into Sigiriya. Old king Kashyapa definitely liked his GNTs, with the miniature GNT just after the ramparts, the pictures of the women in the GNT on the frescoes, and the GNTs on the summit with a throne were the pervy old king could sit and check out his NGs. According to some quick net research, he is supposed to have had 500. Oh well, kinda isolated spot, what with the center of everything at Anuradhapura and there was no Internet in those days, so the man had to do something with his time while he waited for invasion. Amazingly I survived the climb while all the while needing to pee. I was tempted to find a corner on the summit but it was very windy up there.

The old Perv's GNT. More extensive than it looks from here.
The Forbidding rock face.
The team setting out. We must be nuts!
The stairway leading through the boulders and on into exhaustion.
The team at the famed Lion Paws at the entrance to the citadel on the summit.

That is definitely my last trip to the summit. if I ever go again, I'm going to explore the lower palace structures and halls. I'm amazed I made it back with my knees intact. Curses on the idiot architects that designed that place! They could have at least had some wider stairs. Feel like a mountain goat on those things. Not the place for a person with feet as big as mine. Also, the wind god must have been offended by Buddhika's hat (which I was wearing) coz he was trying his best to rip it off my head. No jokes, the wind was blowing so hard it pushed me back a couple of times. Batteries ran out on the camera at the Paws, so no more pics :(

It was a relief to come down again, and an even bigger relief to empty the bladder. The van had come to the tourists car park, which was at the base of the rock, sparing us the need to walk further, thanks to Hermy's tourist pass. One souvenir book later, we were on our way home. Stops at Jinadasa's for Aluwa, and Ambepussa Rest House for dinner and we were home sometime just after midnight. Word on the Rest House, its a nice place and the toilets are excellent, but the dinner menu isn't great. Get the feeling they are catering more towards the people who want to stop for a drink and chat than people who want dinner. That seems to have been outsourced to the restaurant by the main road, which I was informed had hoppers. My bad, that.