This meetup was hosted as a part of @PaulPavlinovich’s 2019 global 36 Walk initiative. I completely forgot about the recap post as I did a meetup one day before at Sigiriya to add missing blue lines to Google maps. I did a recap for it.
As I said in the meetup post, I am hosting this 36 walk for the third time, and previously I have hosted meetups in Anuradhapura and Kandy world heritage sites. This time it was Sigiriya World Heritage site.
Since I had another meetup, I and @Rumal95 went to the Sigiriya one day earlier. @Seedra and @vijaih joined us in the evening of the previous day, and we stayed at the ‘Pol Athu Bangalawa’(now it is a circuit bungalow), where the former archaeology commissioner of Sri Lanka, Prof. Senerat Paranavitha spent his time when he is researching Sigiriya. The output of his research, “Sigiriya Graffiti” is considered to be one of the best books on Sigiriya.
In front of Pol Athu Bangalawa - from left: Seedra, Rumal, Vijai, and Anuradha
On the meetup day(March 23, 2019) we waked up early and went to the entrance of the Sigiriya world heritage site by 6.15 am. As soon as we get down fro the vehicle, Seedra and Vijai started to add photos to Google Maps. Then we went to the ticket counter and waited until they open the counter.
As we reached the entrance, the officer at the there asked us to remove all the plastic bags, bottles, etc. as it is a plastic-free area. They will check bags to avoid any plastic in the site. @ermest I think you will love this idea.
Checking plastics at the entrance
Then we walked towards the Sigiriya Rock(200m high), where there are ruins of the place of King Kasyapa which was built in the 5th century AD. We took some beautiful photos while we are walking. There are world famous frescos in a cave on the way, and it is not allowed to take pictures of these frescos to protect them.
On the halfway, there is a large lion’s paw. We rested there and had a snack. Seedra and Vijai could not continue from there as they were tired.
Resting at Lions Paw
Rumal and I started to climb to the top. The view of the surrounding was beautiful. Once we went to the top of the rock, we saw lots of foreigners and locals.
The panoramic view from the summit was breathtaking. We walk around the ruins, and we took some beautiful photos. After spending about an hour, we started to return. We met Seedra and Vaji on our way back.
Panoramic view from the top
Once we came down we saw a Japanese or Korean guy, he wanted to throw away his water bottle, and he saw a dog. Before he put it to the bin, he fed the water left in the bottle to the dog using his hands. It was a very touching moment.
Feeding water to a dog. (Photo Credit: Rumal)
Then we had short-eats and fruit juice at the canteen.
Here is the photo collage of 30 photos out of 36 pictures I took.
Here are the 36 photos taken by Anuradha and Seedra.
Here is the shared Google photo album of the meetup.
Enjoy the recap video.
@KarenVChin @kasunaaa @ravindus @SoniaK @MahabubMunna have a look.