Sri Lanka Tourism Blog

The Cinnamon Lodge and Nature Odyssey in collaboration with the John Keells Social Responsibility Foundation recently opened a Butterfly Garden at the Cinnamon Lodge, Habarana. The objective of the project is to develop an ecologically rich plot of land as an ideal habitat to attract butterflies; simultaneously creating awareness among guests, schoolchildren and other visitors about butterflies and biodiversity.The garden currently comprises about 300 plants that attract a wide variety of butterflies. Situated on a ten acre block of land at the Cinnamon Lodge farm, the Butterfly Garden was declared open by Director, John Keells Holdings PLC, Sumithra Gunesekera in the presence of renowned butterfly specialist Dr. Michael van der Poorten, Head of IUCN Asia’s Business and Biodiversity programme Shiranee Yasaratne, staff of the Cinnamon Lodge, schoolchildren from the area and other guests. The consultant on the project is the renowned butterfly specialist Dr. Michael van der Poorten, who has been studying butterflies in Sri Lanka for many years.

He recently discovered a species of butterfly that is new to Sri Lanka, the Orange Migrant (Catopsilia Scylla), which is found in Asia but has never been recorded in Sri Lanka before.“We are trying to promote the development of habitats in which butterflies can live and sustain stable populations”, said Dr. Van der Poorten. “It is important to make people aware of the resources that butterflies require in different habitats.

Two of the most important resources are food for the caterpillars (larval host plants) and food for the adults (usually nectar plants).”A total of 244 species of butterflies are are found in Sri Lanka, including the recently discovered Orange Migrant by Dr. van der Poorten. Among them, 20 species are endemic to Sri Lanka. A total of 66 butterfly species are considered as nationally threatened, according to the IUCN 2007 National Red List.

Among the native butterflies of Sri Lanka, one in four species is believed to be nationally threatened, due to loss of natural habitat, decline of food plants and environmental pollution. “We are encouraged that corporate entities such as John Keells are engaged in the conservation of threatened species to help save Sri Lanka’s vanishing biological heritage. Retaining viable populations of species in their native habitats is an essential conservation response for ensuring the long-term survival of these species. John Keells is doing just that, and IUCN is privileged to be a partner in this process,” said Head of IUCN Asia’s Business and Biodiversity Programme, Shiranee Yasaratne.The project will be sustained by Nature Odyssey (a member of the John Keells Group and an inbound tour operator specialising in nature and adventure) and the Cinnamon Lodge under the guidance of Dr. van der Poorten, while IUCN will collaborate in its development by means of advice and literature.Director, John Keells Holdings, Sumithra Gunesekera said, “My congratulations to Nature Odyssey and Cinnamon Lodge for such an original, yet simple way of making a difference to our environment. We often take butterflies for granted, never realising the part they play in our ecology. Dr. van der Poorten’s contribution has been priceless. My sincere appreciation to him for the effort and passion he has put into this work. I also hope that all visitors to the butterfly garden will come away more enlightened and interested in these amazing creatures. Conservation, we believe, begins with awareness and education, and this is exactly what we hope to achieve through this project.”

In the latest edition of the travel+leasur
magazine has selected Sri Lanka’s Heritance Kandalama Hotel among the best 15 eco hotels (Green Hotels) of the world. Heritance Kandalama has been among the best ten-twenty from the inception and it is good to see they are maintaining their quality even during the hard times.
More about Heritance Kandalama : http://www.heritancehotels.com/HK/index.php

“Indulge yourself with a healthy sunrise breakfast on the shores of the lake” urged the welcome letter from Sarath Wickremasinghe, general manager of Cinnamon Lodge.
After a five hour drive from Colombo to Habarana, we had been guided to our suite by a young man introduced to us as our butler, Nuwan. Instead of Jeeves’s bow tie and tails he wore an orange tunic and an equally vivid sarong. Monkeys gambolled in the vast parkland setting while birds - including a hornbill - chortled in surprise as we walked to our suite. Tall Roystonea palm trees, my favourite of course, guarded the swimming pool that itself adjoined a mini-lake where a small rowing boat was moored by the bank.
We were staying in one of the four Master Suites in the 142-unit resort. My first experience of suites was during my youthful rock ‘n’ roll years when I toured the USA with a band and we had bedrooms with parlours attached. Since then I have stayed in so-called suites that are no more than a standard bedroom partitioned off from an alcove with a curtain. The suites at Cinnnamon Lodge are not those kind; they are more like private villas.

Entrance is from a veranda with chairs for lazing while watching wild birds flitting in the trees and tame tourists strolling to their rooms. The door of our suite, number 73, the Cedar, opened into a hall with stairs of polished coconut wood and an umbrella stand, with four umbrellas. Ahead was the parlour, a symphony of polished wood and a club-like atmosphere of which the real Jeeves would have approved.

A wooden, silk upholstered chaise longue guarded the approach to the French windows opening onto another veranda, this one overlooking the park and lake. A huge cement chaise longue, heavily cushioned, defined one end of the room, while solid wooden furniture with mini-bar and pantry cupboard marked the other end. A guest bathroom was beyond. In the middle was a massive dining table for eight guests, and there were books on the shelves and apples in bowls as décor.

Off the hallway was a bedroom for two, with ensuite bathroom and its own TV, while the master bedroom was up the stairs. Entering it was to be transported to the elegance of a Bangkok five-star hotel: an enormous, deep bed piled high with silk cushions and spread with crisp, Egyptian cotton sheets. French windows opened onto a broad balcony, an ideal spot for sundowners. In the bathroom there was a Jacuzzi with lake view, a separate vanity table and twin stand-alone wash basins, and a rain shower.

The Cinnamon Lodge suites seem designed for permanent residence, not for an over-night stay. Unfortunately tourists on a round-trip, racing around Sri Lanka, have no time to stay long at the resort. Sri Lankans are luckier in being able to settle there for a few days while sightseeing in the Cultural Triangle, or simply enjoying the tranquillity of the countryside.

In a way, Cinnamon Lodge is like a resort in the Maldives since it is horizontal and secluded and self-contained. For a holiday it offers much more than a Maldives resort, at much less cost, because of the attractions - elephants instead of fish, jungle instead of sand - as well as privacy and individual attention from a tropical Jeeves.
Ours attended us on demand throughout our stay. He served us when we dined in the restaurant on an eclectic table d’hote menu of innovative cuisine (executive chef, Senaka, even gave us his recipe for Tomato Crystal Consomme). Butler Nuwan also delivered the promised “healthy breakfast” on a table set up especially for us on the lake shore. Hearty is a better word to describe the omelette, bacon, sausages and two baskets of bread all washed down with fresh wood apple juice. Perhaps the healthy touch was the exercise of the walk to get to it.

Cinnamon Lodge is remarkable in retaining an unspoilt character despite its years of existence (it was previously known simply as Habarana Lodge) while, with its manorial suites, positioning itself as an upmarket sophisticated retreat for the cultured and discerning. www.cinnamonhotels.com
more photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/nishannthe/

Adding an extra touch of nature and concentrating on the local tourist market has helped a hotel controlled by Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings to maintain higher occupancy. This year the Chaaya Village in north-central Habarana says it has recorded higher occupancy rates than other properties in the area, despite a 22 percent slump in tourist arrivals in the first eight months of the year.

“There is a downturn in tourism, but we have withstood it better than the others,” Shafeek Wahab, Head of Branding for Cinnamon and Chaaya Hotels and Resorts told Lanka Business Report, a weekly business show.

In June 2006, Habarana Village as it was known before was re-branded as Chaaya Village, making it the flagship for the brand.
For many, the four hour journey to Habrana is unbearable after the 12 hour flight from Europe or other far away destinations but the beauty and the serene atmosphere of the hotel leave many awed.

“I think it’s really nice, it’s slightly different from what I’m used to and it’s very peaceful and quite,” said Len Collins, a guest from Abu Dhabi.

Sri Lanka has seen a slump in tourist arrivals since the middle of last year, but even with low guest arrivals the management of John Keells, went ahead with the re-branding.

With five resorts in the Maldives and twelve hotels in Sri Lanka the management was keen on using a different strategy to attract guests during volatile times. It is different from the standard beach resort that most tourists expect.

“The advantage we have here is we can cast our marketing net over a wider category,” says Wahab.

Under the re-branding process the hotel was given a new look with mud coloured walls and lines of trees along the long foot paths spreading over the 14-acre property.
Many who visit the hotel look forward to a very tranquil and serene environment, while experiencing some thing memorable. This includes a growing number of local tourists whose patronage helps hotels ride out the downturn in foreign visitors.

The hotel offers various activities ranging from elephant rides and bird watching to climbing Sigiriya, an ancient rock fortress.

One of the unique experiences that guests enjoy is the cuisine from the nearby village.

“Most of the foreigners like the Sri Lankan food and we actually go to the extent of giving them local food,” says Roland, who went on to add that lake fish is one of the favorites among the guests.

With the re-branding the hotel also developed as a training ground for the brand and also for the hotel chain.

Currently, 70 percent of the two hundred odd staff working at the hotel is from the locality, which enables the hotel to extend financial support to the villagers in and around the hotel.

“The ability to attract, recruit, retain and develop staff is not only in Colombo,” Wahab said.

Chaaya Village Habarana was one of the winners of the gold awards for its eco project at this year’s Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) awards.

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There is nothing more rejuvenating than a vacation and that too composed of cheap travel modalities. That means no cruise or casino; just cheap hotels and fun activities and eating and playing around.

England’s cricketers have just started their tour of Sri Lanka, drawing thousands of fans in their wake. Rosanna de Lisle highlights some of the treats that await the Barmy Army.

Sri Lankans never seem to stop smiling, but when the England cricket team last toured their country, in late 2003, they had genuinely good reason to be cheerful.

England’s tour of Sri Lanka starts on October 1 with a one-day international in Dambulla, followed by two more on the same ground and two in Colombo. Sri Lankans like the excitement of day-night cricket and will bunk off work to watch screens on street corners, but it’s the Test matches in December that are expected to draw thousands of England fans.

So here’s our guide to the three Test venues, along with a few ideas for the companion who’s along for the ride rather than the wickets.

If dialing any of the phone numbers from outside Sri Lanka, replace the initial 0 with 0094.

Kandy: First Test, December 1-5

The hill capital was the last stronghold of the Sinhalese kings and still has a majestic air that is not all to do with its fresher weather. Arrive from hot, heaving Colombo and Kandy’s magnificent Temple of the Tooth, its calm grey-green lake and its steep, wooded hills seem to belong to another country.

The ground
The Asgiriya Stadium is carved into a hillside. England usually play well here, helped by the kinder climate. “Kandy tends to produce nail-biting, adventurous cricket,” says Charlie Austin. “The pitch is quicker and bouncier and the Kandy supporters are very vocal - this is Murali’s home town. They take on the Barmy Army and the camaraderie is very good.”

Where to stay
Much the loveliest place is The Kandy House, but its nine rooms are already booked during the cricket. However, there are plenty of larger hotels, comfortable if slightly staid, perched above the lake and river. The best bets are Amaya Hills, Earl’s Regency, Mahaweli Reach, Hunas Falls, Thilanka; from around £50 double b & b. The scenic Victoria Golf Course has a lodge and chalets.

Where to eat and drink
Kandy is not well endowed with restaurants but the most atmospheric place to eat is Helga’s FollyPub Royal (cocktails and dinner, about £10 per person; book ahead on 081 223 4571). Bamboo Garden (081 447 6099), up the hill from the Temple of the Tooth, is a cheap and cheerful Chinese with a terrace, bar and big screen; main courses from 400 rupees (£1·75). The colonial at the Queens Hotel and first-floor Pub, both on the main drag, Dalada Veediya, will be post-match hangouts.

Diversions from the field
The fantastically gilded Temple of the Tooth draws pilgrims from all over the world. Go at 10am or 6pm to see ceremonies; don’t expect to see the Buddha’s tooth relic, which is in a casket.

The Kandyan Arts Association has dance and drumming every day at 6pm. The British Garrison Cemetery is full of tea planters, whose stories are told by the caretaker. The Botanical Gardens are worth an hour or three. The elephant orphanage at Pinnawela is well known, but you will learn more about elephants, and can ride one, at the Millennium Elephant Foundation up the road.

Senani Silks, near Royal Palace Park, is great for saris. Isini Gems, opposite, is a museum as well as a shop. Waruna Antiques on Peradeniya Road is worth a rummage.

Matale, 14 miles north of Kandy, is famous for its spice gardens and for the renowned batik artist Ena de Silva’s Heritage Centre (066 222 2404). Book three days ahead to have lunch and you’ll be served up to 20 exquisitely slow-cooked curries.

Colombo: Second Test, December 9-13

At first sight, the capital is chaotic and charmless, but beyond the ugly thoroughfares there are pockets of serenity - avenues of rain trees, parks, temples and the odd grand public building.

The ground

The Singhalese Sports Club is Sri Lanka’s Lord’s. There’s no lighting here, so one-day matches happen at Premadasa Stadium. There’s no breeze and the ground can get hot and humid - for spectators as much as players. Leave the grass banks to the locals and find a seat in the shade.

Where to stay

The teams stay at the Taj Samudra. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you want to wake up in no doubt about where you are in the world, you’d be better off at the Galle Face Hotel. This seafront institution is decidedly worn and the older rooms are probably only for those who wish the empire had never ended, but the Regency wing now has modern bathrooms (double b & b from £47).

For more sophistication, stay at one of Colombo’s new boutique hotels. The Park Street Hotel is a quietly swish conversion of a colonial bungalow (www.taruvillas.com; double b & b from about £140). Casa Colombo packs bold contemporary design into a Moorish palace. The décor is too funky for its shirt, but the MacBook, iPod and personal butler standard to each room make for a cosseting stay (www.casacolombo.com; double b & b from £180).

Where to eat and drink

England fans congregate at Clancy’s, the bar of the Colombo Cricket Club. Bayleaf, an Italian restaurant with a large garden, is also within walking distance of the SSC (79 Gregory’s Road; 011 535 9653). The Cricket Club Café (34 Queens Road; 011 250 1384) is highly themed, with Bradman’s burger and lots of memorabilia on the menu.

The Gallery Café (2 Alfred House Road, 011 258 2162) has great fusion food and, as the former office of the celebrated architect Geoffrey Bawa, even better style; dinner and drinks from £20 a head.

Beach Wadiya serves simple seafood right on the sands. It’s barefoot-relaxed, but you need to book (2 Station Avenue, 011 258 8568).

Diversions

Cricket widows should be consoled by Colombo’s shops. Paradise Road (next to the Gallery Café) sells chic contemporary homewares at prices so tempting you may want to ask about shipping; at Barefoot (706 Galle Road), vibrant, hand-loomed textiles are fashioned into everything from clothes to toys; and Odel (5 Alexandra Place) sells clothes made locally for Western labels, but without Western price-labels.

Galle: Third Test, December 18-22

Dangling into the Indian Ocean like a chunky jewel, Galle Fort is both historic and increasingly hip, as more and more of its 17th-century Dutch merchants’ houses are turned into hotels, villas and shops. Happily, it remains a living, working town and hasn’t become a museum.

The ground

The stadium should be rebuilt in time for the Test, but it’s really only the pitch that is vital: the game can be seen from the ramparts. “It’s like the carnival comes to town - it’s fabulous,” says Olivia Richli, manager of Amangalla, the Fort’s most sumptuous hotel. “There’s a party atmosphere on the ramparts and everyone gets very, very red.” Hats and sunscreen essential.

Where to stay

The teams stay at the Lighthouse, a late Bawa masterpiece that stands dramatically on a headland a mile from the Fort. Two freshwater pools and a superb spa draw non-residents, as does the sunset over the ocean (www.jetwinghotels.com; double b & b from £85).

Galle’s clutch of boutique hotels - Amangalla and the Galle Fort Hotel inside the ramparts, the Sun House and Dutch House in the new town - are fully booked during the cricket, but will be open to diners and drinkers. Tamarind Hill, a colonial mansion near the Lighthouse, should be open by December (www.taruvillas.com, double b & b from about £110).

There are plenty of cheaper options along the coast, such as Sun and Sand and Thambapanni Retreat in Unawatuna, and Amaya Reef and Cinnamon Gardens in Hikkaduwa.

Where to eat and drink

The best spots for sundowners are the Lighthouse, the Rampart Hotel in the Fort and the Ladyhill (Upper Dickson Road). Dine at the Galle Fort Hotel (091 223 2870), which has terrific pan-Asian food, or the Sun House (091 438 0275), where there’ll be a barbecue for up to 40 in the courtyard and a plasma screen in Dick’s Bar (free tuk-tuk shuttle from the ground). The bars - and beaches - of Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa will reliably rock into the night.

Diversions

There’s so much to see and do around Galle that even a cricket tragic could be tempted to miss a few overs. Wander round the Fort, taking in the Dutch church, temple, mosque, bastions and some surprisingly good shopping (find Barefoot, Elephant Walk, Mimimango and several jewellers on and around Church Street).

Surf at Hikkaduwa, dive at Unawatuna or head into the hinterland to Sinharaja rainforest, Samakanda, a visionary ecological project (www.samakanda.org), or Handunugoda Tea Estate (091 228 6364) which produces some of the world’s finest white tea.
# Red Dot Tours (0113 815 0864 or 01937 842846, www.reddottours.com) is the official agent for the England cricket tour. The company can book all the hotels mentioned above. Its packages are especially good value: Kandy Test, including return flights, eight nights’ b & b, airport and stadium transfers, tickets to all five days of the Test, from £905 per person, based on two sharing. Colombo and Galle Tests, with flights, transfers, match tickets and 16 nights’ b & b, from £940pp. Red Dot is also putting on events for supporters during each Test.

BUILT on the bunds of the 12th century Giritale Tank with a magnificent view of the tranquil blue water dotted with green islands as a backdrop Giritale Hotel has what it takes to be a tourist paradise.

Built in 1974 and managed by Carsons Management Services (Pvt) Ltd., a senior company in Sri Lanka’s hospitality industry, the hotel exudes a rustic charm with the panoramic view of the Giritale Tank and the surrounding forest as an enticing backdrop.

The hotel has 42 rooms of which eight are deluxe rooms, offering star class facilities including TV, IDD telephone facilities, piped music and 24-hour room service. Resident Manager, Giritale hotel, versatile hotelier, T. Ganeshan and his ever-smiling staff treat all guests as VIPs.

This has resulted in Giritale Hotel being popular among ‘repeater’ guests, both foreign and local. The restaurant at Giritale under the guidance of Bar and Restaurant Manager Malika Edirisinghe offers the very best in Western, Eastern, Chinese and spicy Sri Lankan cuisine, prepared by a team of expert chefs. Giritale hotel is popular for family outings, conferences, workshops and for honeymooners due to its romantic setting.

The hotel is offering special discounted packages to Sri Lankans and expatriates. “This is a golden opportunity for Sri Lankan families to spend a memorable holiday in the rustic charm of the Giritale Hotel” RM, Ganeshan said.

The hotel offers Jeep Safaris to Kawdulla, Minneriya and Wasgamuwa National Parks, excursions to Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Kandy and Anuradhapura. Elephant rides, Nature walks, Jungle Tracking, Bird watching, Village Tours and Indoors Games, Cricket, Badminton and Volleyball.

“No flash! No Flash!” It was too late. I had already captured the Lady of the Lotus on film as well as many of her companions, all half nude and gorgeous. I thought the guide would rip the film from my camera. Instead he actually held my left elbow and moved me along the narrow rock trail of Sigiriya and lectured me. “Light destroys color. Picture is 479 AD.” He said the last as ‘Ayedeee’. I felt bad and said that I had moved the setting from flash to auto, but clouds and shade at the instant I took the picture brought the flash. Sorry. I like my color picture better than the black and white one in Ajit Mookerjee’s The Arts of India, 1966! But his is pretty good too. I actually missed the lotus in his picture the first time I saw it.

So where in the world is this place? Sigiriya, or Sinhagiri, or Sihagiri which means ‘lion of the rock’. It is in Sri Lanka. What a wonder it is. Ayers Rock in Australia is grand but this stone, this monolith is huge and appeared black when I first saw the massive rock with the sun behind it. It rises out of the green steaming jungle like a supine lion. It compares to Machu Picchu or the Masada. The latter comparisons are appropriate in that both were places of human settlement, on the rocks, as was Sigiriya.

Our party spent the night in the Sigiriya Village Hotel. The rooms were wonderful, though we did have to ask for bug spray. Buzzing mosquitoes in the room make for whining, irritable, unhappy campers. The next day our gang of four was deposited at the base of the big rock and we began our hike to the top. The first two hundred feet were relatively easy. That is where I got into trouble taking pictures of the naked women. The rest of the climb was up to us. The guide had been up those metal ladders a hundred times and we did not look like the type that would leave a big tip. He glanced up at the top, at the snaking, spiraling metal rungs and ladders that stuck to the face of the rock like clinging ivy. He smiled politely and left, shaking his head and muttering, perhaps some words like pagal amni.

Up, up we climbed. No big deal as long as you don’t look down. Stretches of the climb were steps carved into the rock itself which were shiny with a paten of hundreds of thousands of feet that had polished it since the 5th. Century. On top at last! At one time there was a small city at Sigiriya. There are cisterns and baths, foundations for many rooms, strolling areas, cooking areas, (slave quarters were down below, they had to commute-climb to work each day). The drop-off was something to write home about. It had claimed the lives of quite a few, we were told, including unhappy princesses and concubines left all alone, perched high above the jungle floor, their lord and masters slain in a fraternal war.

The legends of Sigiriya feature Kasyapa, who according to some was a security nut who used the rock as an impregnable palace. Our guide had mentioned that this usurper of the throne of Anuradhapura loved beautiful women. He had five hundred of them, each one more beautiful than the other. And he was really smart; he had their pictures drawn on the rock surfaces, kind of a Playboy fresco thing. Really, that is what the guide said. I think Kasyapa had read about Solomon of old who had a thousand, but had never left any pictures to prove it. Was Kasyapa an ancient historical role model for Hugh Hefner?

Solomon of old, wise old Solomon reputedly had a thousand wives, but that is just a story that emerged from the Old Testament. No pictures please. (Muslim and ancient Jewish guys didn’t like to have other men snoop around in their private zennanah or harems. Some covered up their women so only their eyes could be seen. They had strong religious inhibitions against displaying the female form.) But one of Solomon’s favorites was enshrined in history in the Song of Solomon. His words still have a pretty good ring to them. “Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor… Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins…Thy neck is a tower of ivory… How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights.” Wow!

Kasyapa left no flowery words behind, he paid artists to draw his beauties. The Lady with the Lotus is a knock-out. Let me name her Sita. When I see her there, high on the cliff above the jungle far below I say, “Tell me, female of the forest, who thou be and whence thy birth. Much I fear thou art a Raksha wearing various forms on earth.” (From Romesh C Dutt’s translation - Book 6, The Ramayana, Sita Lost). She holds a lotus flower that I had not noticed at first. Typical occidental reaction, the prurient first, the artistic second and the meaning behind it all, the religious connotations, last. “To the oriental and especially the Buddhist, the lotus flower is sacred and its blossom is filled with meaning. For the occidental this flower contains little more than satisfying beauty.” (William Ward, The Lotus Symbol: Its meaning in Buddhist Art and Philosophy, 1952, page 135.)

The historical version that is least liked in Sri Lanka is the one put forward on Remyc.com.

“Think Devil Tower with a health spa on top. “Rising 650 feet out of the ground, this Eighth Wonder of the World, long believed to be the fortress of a mad king, has been revealed for what it really was: a Tantric sex initiation. King Kasyapa had 500 wives. He was a 5th Century Hugh Hefner. Sigiriya was his Playboy Mansion.”

I found it very disappointing to read in this person’s account that he had never even been there. Terrible. Playboy themes sell.

One who did visit at a time when the pictures on the walls were fresh was John Still who in 1907 observed that; “The whole face of the hill appears to have been a gigantic picture gallery…the largest picture in the world perhaps.” The pictures covered an area, 140 meters long and 40 meters high, and there is ancient graffiti which refers to the 500 ladies in these paintings.”

The story goes that later on, this glorious wall of paintings became a disturbance, a distraction. Sigirya had become a religious monastery, and the young monks kept sneaking down to take a peek and neglected their holy books and uplifting thoughts. You have it, most of the best pictures, frescos, were destroyed. That hurts philosophically. Remember the Bamiyan Buddhas that were destroyed because of religious zeal? Amazing!

The gardens at the foot of the monolith are beautifully laid out. In their hay day they must have been stunning, filled with jasmine and rat ki rani; the fair ladies must have taken excursions down from their high life to stroll and sit beside the pools and listen to the birds and watch the peacocks strut. The gardens have three aspects, Water, Cave and Boulders. The water gardens are the most sophisticated in design and water fountains work today that were designed long, long ago. A visit to them will give a grounded perspective to Sigiriya.

I took out my photograph of the Lady with the Lotus from the album yesterday. The Ektachrome colors have faded; she looks pale, washed out. There is only one way to fix it. I must visit Sri Lanka again, this time with a digital camera so I can download Sita and make her my screen saver.

Sita’s Dream
The lotus seed sinks into muck
Sleeps, then awakens from calls of ancient past
Listening, it stirs, shudders open and puts forth
Green tender leaves seeking sun and airThe lotus lies deep within black ooze
Awakens, draws life and strength from dark decay
Raises a brave and jubilant head within a day
Lifts its gold-pink face to kiss the sky