Sri Lanka: Sigiriya, Christmas 2016

Next we traveled to Sigiriya, Sri Lanka but our travels didn't go exactly as planned.  Ripley got sick in the car and we chalked it up to car sickness because the roads were very bumpy.  On our way to Sigiriya, we stopped at the Dambulla Cave Temple.

The temple dates back to the first century.  Dambulla is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in the country.  We were able to tour five of the eighty caves which contain statues and paintings, which are of Buddha and his life, including statues of Sri Lankan kinds and many gods and goddesses.   

The outside of the cave complex, which has been enclosed for visitors.

The reclining Buddha's feet.

Thousands of Buddhas carved into the rock walls.

Teddy loved the caves!

An elephant drawn on the ceiling of the cave.

The outside of the cave complex.

A beautiful tree outside of the cave complex.

The tree was filled with monkeys!

As we walked down the mountain back to the parking lot we walked past the largest seated golden Buddha in the world.  Pretty cool, huh? 

From the front.

After we finished at the cave temple complex and checked into our hotel, Ripley started acting very strange.  He began running a fever and nothing we did for him brought his temperature down.  Ripley and I ended up in the emergency room in a very rudimentary field hospital.  We stayed there into the night but decided at 3am to return to the hotel to be in the air conditioning and have a working bathroom (things the field hospital didn't have).  

We were planning on visiting the city of Sigiriya the next day but we cut our visit short and returned to the capital to be closer to a more modern hospital in case Ripley got any sicker.   

Sri Lanka: Kandy, Christmas 2016

 We drove from the Nature Reserve up to the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka.  Kandy is on the top of a mountain and we enjoyed driving past waterfalls and little towns.

We ended up stopping for some lunch in Nuwara Eliya, a little town on the mountain.

We even ended up seeing some friends from Dubai along the way.  Ripley was sleeping so we only got a photo at the car.

We also ended up stopping at one of the many tea plantations in Sri Lanka.  It was a beautiful location and we enjoyed some tea and cookies as a snack.

We arrived in Kandy just in time to catch a beautiful sunset across the lake looking toward the city.

A new of Kandy's most famous landmark, the Temple of the Tooth, after dark.

The next morning, we went to the Temple of the Tooth to see the most famous relic that Sri Lanka has, one of the Buddha's teeth.  They have built a huge shrine to house the tooth, which is actually not on display here.  Oh well!  It was still a super cool temple.

The tooth is kept inside the huge wooden room behind curtains.

Lots of beautiful plays to pray.

The outside of the wooden room where the tooth is held.

Exploring the temple.

Outside the temple, we walked around the city of Kandy and I fell in love with these signs advertising local lawyers.

And we loved the cats on the roofs of the buildings. 

Sri Lanka: Udawalawa National Park, Christmas 2016

After having an awesome time on the beach, we traveled by car to the Udawalawa National Park, which is a nature reserve in the middle of the country.  While the park has a lot of animals, we were most excited to see the elephants.

We were picked up from our hotel by a "Jeep" which was really a pickup truck with 6 elevated seats stuck in the back of the flatbed.  Sounds a little strange but it was actually a great way to see the animals.

From inside the Jeep.

There were tons of other birds and animals in the Nature Park.  Here are a few:

And back to the elephants because they are so amazing.  We even got to see a baby with it's mother.

My favorite picture of the entire trip.  Ripley and I looking at a little baby elephant and it's mother.

The gang from inside the Jeep.  I loved that even the driver got excited about seeing the elephants.

I think we could have looked at the elephants all day, but 4 hours in a Jeep with two little people deserves some fun at the hotel.  They had a pool but this swing next to a horse was way more fun!

 We had a few hours to kill so we went to a local temple that clearly doesn't see too many tourists.  I think people took more pictures of us than we took of the temple.

Sime primitive drawings in the rock.

A cool reclining Buddha encased in glass inside one of the temple's rooms caved into the rock face.

Paintings on the rock walls.

From the top of the temple looking down the mountain.

We had a very special Christmas dinner at our hotel, Nil Daya Mankada Safari Lodge, during which Ripley fell asleep.  He never does that!  It was a Christmas miracle!

The next morning we drove to a nearby Elephant Orphanage, called the Udawaldawa Elephant Orphanage, to see the baby elephants.  More baby elephants - hooray!

The elephants are let in four at a time to feed.

They are given bottles of milk, just like baby bottles.

Ripley loved it so much he couldn't take his eyes off the baby elephants.

 We then went back to the hotel to hang out.  We absolutely loved this hotel that was all concrete (done in a super cool way) and nature.  Very cool!

A playground made out of a fallen tree.

The hotel rooms.

The entryway.

The main courtyard with a turtle pond in the middle.

We love turtles!