Standing on Top of Sigiriya

Posted on August 21, 2014 by jipp

I was first interested to come to Sri Lanka when I saw a picture of a massive column of rock with ruins of an ancient palace on top of it – towering out in a vast area of flatland. The best thing about it is the availability of steps for visitors to climb up on right to the top and view the breath-taking scenery from there. I was so fascinated by it that I instantly searched it on the internet. One name immediately popped up – Sigiriya. Apparently, it was located in Sri Lanka. I knew then that I would someday be heading there. Yippie!

Sigiriya

True enough, when I finally came to Sri Lanka, it was high on our list of must-go places, together with the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, from where we then drove off to Sigiriya. After burning another USD30 each over ticket, we walked over towards the rock with growing excitement. Continue reading →

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Visiting the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa

Posted on August 18, 2014 by jipp

Malaysia might be much bigger in size than Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka has twice the number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites than it is in Malaysia. There are currently 8 UNESCO Sites in Sri Lanka compared to 4 in Malaysia and there are mostly concentrated on the southern half of the island. Naturally, we wanted to visit all of them but due to logistic and time limitation, we could only visit 6 of them. Sri Lanka might be just an island but traveling from one place to another takes longer than you might expect it to be.

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Thanks God three of them – the Ancient city of Polonnaruwa, The Golden Temple of Dambulla and the Ancient city of Sigiriya are located quite close to each other so they can be visited within one day. Continue reading →

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Kandy – The Gateway to the Highlands of Sri Lanka

Posted on August 12, 2014 by jipp

SRI LANKA had always been in my bucket list for such a long time. The fact that it was probably one of the most under-rated countries at least among most travelers made my curiosity grow stronger – so much so that when my friend Audrey contacted to ask if I was interested in joining her to this ‘little’ island off the south coast of India, I had to say yes.

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With so many things to catch up with in the office, I decided it was best for me to go there during the long break of Eid Mubarak when all my other colleagues would leave the office deserted to go back to their respective kampongs. It was one of those rare times when a green light for a week-long break would be guaranteed from my boss. Heh.  Continue reading →

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