[Recap] 36 Walk Sigiriya-LK

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.

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I love your recap at first, @AnuradhaP and the beautiful place that you choose for it.

And yes, of course, I think that everyone should love the idea of a “plastic free” environment.

Thank you for that beautiful photos

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Hi @AnuradhaP Bhai,

What a great recap is that with wonderful photographs. I really in love with your photography. I hope I can meet you some day to learn about it from you.

Thank you for sharing such a beautiful recap.

Shurkiya :pray:

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@ErmesT You are welcome.

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@KashifMisidia Thank you, we can meet next time. I will take you to these places.

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Super recap and great picture @AnuradhaP :slight_smile:

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This was a great meetup and waiting for the next one.

This is cool @AnuradhaP I am curious why they don’t allow drink bottles? Do they sell one that you can buy inside?

I’m also curious about not being able to photograph the frescos - I can understand not allowing flash photography as that has been shown to affect stone over time but non flash photography would not affect it unless the restriction is for cultural reasons.

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Only I can say --Excellent@AnuradhaP, thank you very much for sharing those moments.

Wish you all the best.

a very good initiative @AnuradhaP

I like this adventure, I am also of heart with the project of @ErmesT to fight against plastics

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