Buddha and the big boys

Before leaving Dambulla and the haven of Amaya Lake, we took the kids to one of the most amazing highlights of our honeymoon. Sigiriya is a rock fortress that rises over 200 metres straight up from the surrounding low plains; colonised and made into a palace complex many years BC, and never conquered. For the eighties kids amongst us, it’s the place Duran Duran shot the end of the Save a Prayer video! Its also famous as the place I discovered vertigo for the first time, on a wobbly iron staircase with only about 75 foot left to climb, the wind howling through the open steps with a dizzyingly long view of the plains far below.

We went back in some trepidation. Can you ever repeat these things? Would it have changed, be taken over by tacky stalls and hotel developments? We were disappointed when Bastian, our driver, told us we needed a guide. In fact I was downright huffy. We hadn’t ‘needed’ a guide last time, so why should we now? But drivers have their stubborn laws and wills that can be harder to turn than elephants, so we grumpily headed up for our sunset climb of the rock to end all rocks.

Grudgingly, I must admit our guide was great. It was good to have one adult for each child, and he shared Rhys’ mountain goat tendency, so they raced on ahead. It was hard, hot going climbing up in the humidity, but it is oh so worth it. The views are breathtaking, and Sigiriya is an amazing palace in its own right, with swimming pools for the king’s 500 lady friends, incredible entrances hewn from the rock and cave paintings of nubile young ladies – only a few of which survived the embarrassed whitewashing of the monks who later claimed Sigiriya as their monastery.

I was going up in some trepidation, knowing about the last bit of the ascent (and never having made it) but we were soon made aware of another more concrete threat. Hornets nest all around the sides of the fortress and have been known to attack in swarms in response to loud noises. Did I say ‘have been known’? Well, it had happened the very morning of our ascent, and 4 people had ended up in hospital. We had no problem at all being quiet, but not so the hoards of school children here on field trips. Hundreds of excited Tamil children were charging up and down, shouting their hellos to us and crowding round the kids – an ever-entertaining tourist attraction in Asia, it seems! There was no chance of silence here, so we simply had to cross our fingers and watch the skies.

Rowan and Jen reached the lion’s gate – two massive paws hewn from the granite – took their own look at my infamous steel staircase that completes the climb to the summit and came to their own independent and very determined conclusions: “That’s enough” said Jenna. “I don’t think I want to go any further” said Rowan.

Well, I was determined to at least try and get further than last time, where I had frozen on step number 3, had to have my fingers peeled off the one handrail and be taken back down by Joe only to throw up wretchedly. So, while the kids scanned the trees nervously for hornets, I made my triumphant solo ascent. To … the top of the first staircase. Nope, I cannot delightedly report having got to the very top this second time, but I did get a good 25 steps further up! This was aided by a definite improvement at Sigiriya in the last decade: they now have handrails on BOTH sides of the staircase.

Joe, Rhys and our guide bounced happily off to the summit to admire the extraordinarily large complex atop, while we girls were offered every kind of assistance to ascend from a number of gallant men (and shrewd businessmen), and had our photo taken with families and schoolchildren alike, surreptitiously moving away when it was polite enough to do so, to try not to be near large noise sources!

I’m very pleased to say that the hornets kept to their nests while we were up there, though our guide was getting very worried when the boys made it back to the Lion’s Gate. He was muttering that we had to get out of here, and took us down the mercifully empty and quiet route that is usually used for climbing up: OK it took longer, but it was blissfully cool and devoid of the crowds. He earned his enormous tip right there.

Was it as good, second time around? You bet it was. And even more special in some ways, seeing it with our children. As we’ve remarked on this Sri Lanka trip, we’ve been busy this past decade – from newly weds to three kids – and we’ve come a long, long way.