Ah, lovely view of Sigiriya Rock
at the end of the swimming pool here in the hotel.
Beautiful.
For me? Ah, great. Thank you.
Oh lovely. Thank you.
Okay, since breakfast opened at 6:30
and I'm leaving at 6:30,
they've made me a wee box.
Dunno what's inside there. We'll find out later.
Good morning. How are you?
Good, thank you.
Looks beautiful.
Gonna burn off all the calories from last night's
buffet dinner climbing up there.
Look at this wee town. Dead.
Hopefully everybody sleeping.
Hopefully all the tourists
in these wee guesthouses and hotels, sleeping
and not going to beat me up to the top.
I don't want to be stuck
behind slow old couples,
walking in a single file
at these narrow parts of the rock, climbing up.
Nah, I'm just walking, thank you.
Guy's asking if you want a tuk-tuk.
I figure if you're gonna hike
all the way to the top of that thing,
you can probably walk from here to the entrance.
Getting a bit sweaty already.
Wouldn't mind a wee dip in here.
Looks nice and cool.
What's this? Refrain from bathing.
Crocodiles go about.
Think I'll give that one a miss.
Looks like I'm gonna stay sweaty for now.
Who cares though?
Climbing up that bloody rock,
gonna be pissing of sweat.
White man price, $30 US dollars.
How much in rupees?
One ticket, 5,430.
5,430? Okay.
7:08 AM
Definitely a bit late.
Right, thank you sir. Thank you.
Good morning. Good morning.
How are you? Fine, and you?
Good, a little bit hot.
It's okay. [Laughter]
Okay, thank you. I need to sign or not?
No, no. Okay, great, thank you.
Finally in the complex.
So is this wee dog here. Hello mate.
How are you doing?
Doesn't seem interested at all.
Right, so I'm 10 minutes after it opened and look,
there's already a ton of people ahead of me.
Let's try and start walking faster
because the path
that hugs around this mountain,
mountain? Rock! Eh,
apparently some parts of it are single file, very narrow.
And then basically you're walking as slow as the slowest person.
So aye, you're better to be first.
So apparently this area
that I'm in here
is Water Garden.
Would have been Water Garden. Oh there's the man I was talking to earlier.
Hello. [laughter]
He took the shortcut.
He got in the easy Sri Lankan
entrance. He's a guide for apparently a couple of Deutsche who are coming.
Up these steps.
See, if it's like this all the way you can get past people.
It's just apparently
there's parts that are single file
and that would be frustrating for me.
See that couple?
They're getting all the information
but by the time they get to the top
it's gonna be packed.
I'd rather just get up there.
Enjoy some tranquility
before the Chinese arrive
and then
explore these gardens
and ruins and stuff.
Excuse me. Thank you.
Hi.
Hello again.
I'm going fast. That's why I'm sweating.
[laughter]
Look at this.
All the way up there. Around there.
This spiral staircase.
There's a few people well ahead of us.
Quite a lot of white faces up there.
Oh wow, what a view.
Isn't that lovely? It's amazing.
Beautiful.
Almost makes it worth sweating my arse off to get up here.
Almost. Almost?
Yeah. [sigh]
Hopefully getting to the top will actually make it worth it.
Yeah I hope so.
I was trying to get to the top before the Chinese tourists.
Apparently, everyone's saying,
by the time they come like 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock,
it's not a nice experience.
Ah. It's a bit chaotic? Yeah.
Right, well that's good to know.
Right, they're call this the mirror wall.
Guess the sun reflects off it
when it's pointing in that direction.
Looks like we're gonna get another nice view here.
Let's have a look.
Oh wow.
Isn't that lovely?
Did you see there's a sign about not disturbing the wasps?
I was talking to this
Sri Lankan guide who's down there and was saying to me
the Chinese come, they talk so loudly they disturb the wasps and set them off.
So Imagine you're climbing the steps and then all these wasps start flying at you. You know?
[laughter]
That's,
that's not ideal. \Yeah, they said.
[laughter]
That's a bat,
that's squeaking.
Oh, what a view. What a view. What a view.
Look at this.
It doesn't even seem that far to the top.
What's down here?
More ruins.
See, that's where you could do with a guide,
telling you what all that stuff is
but it would take you like 3 hours
to get to the top if he stopped and explained everything.
By that time,
swarms of Chinese,
taking over.
Invasion.
Wasp attack area.
Not that far to the top.
Oh aye.
Not much longer.
Be up there.
Lovely.
It's the same way up and down, right? Yes.
Okay, I'm glad I got here early.
Don't want to be doing this when it's busy.
Oh wow.
Guess this is the original steps the monks probably would have taken. Yeah.
And we've got the tourist steps, specially built for us.
Ah, don't know about trying those ones.
Seems a little bit dangerous.
Over there is the other rock.
That one only $5 to hike up.
Oh wow,
so pretty much at the top. Was it worth it?
Not much here but some ruins
and
it's certainly not Siem Reap.
It's certainly no Angkor Wat or anything like that.
There isn't much here
but was it worth the hike up? Well,
for the view, aye.
For the view it certainly was
worth the hike.
Look at this. Lovely.
Absolutely lovely.
Get away from all these other white face
and just enjoy
a little bit of tranquility.
... the reason he dig this one and rake it and make a pond.
I wonder if I can go for a swim?
But now you see, it's dirty now.
Maybe a bit too dirty, huh?
So, it was rock like that one, he
broke it, and dig it and make a pond.
And when you're going down there I'll show you the other things.
Couple of wee squirrels there.
They're trespassing.
They definitely didn't pay the 5,400 rupees to get up here.
You want a picture?
I'm a bit sweaty. I don't know if I want my picture.
I don't know if I want my picture taken. \It's more for the view, you can [inaudible].
Can you imagine what this would have been like
all those years ago?
What would have been going on here.
What this would have looked like.
Magnificent I reckon.
I reckon this would have been something pretty special.
Central bathing pool.
Wow, huge.
If that was the bathing pool, I reckon that looks like a swimming pool.
Would they have had swimming pools back then in like
the year 500 BC or whatever?
What's it say? Oh, it's a pond.
Of course. Looks,
correct diameters to be a swimming pool though.
Ah, lovely.
This looks like it'd be a nice spot for me to sit and eat my breakfast
before all the tourists come. Just gonna sit on this ledge.
Right.
Right, let's see what Hotel Sigiriya has prepared for me
in this breakfast box.
A little ketchup,
some bananas,
croissant, muffin,
boiled egg,
slice of pineapple,
ham and cheese tomato? Oh nice.
Very nice of them.
Ah, this is nice.
Well glad I got here before the crowds.
Mmm.
Look at this, coming, coming to try and eat my breakfast.
I've already eaten most of it.
Okay, he's gone over to see them.
Here he comes.
[laughter]
Do dogs eat pineapple? I don't know.
Do dogs eat pineapple?
I think that dog will eat anything.
Yeah, I just don't want to make him sick, but, like, okay.
Do you want it or no?
Oh, he's taken the plastic
which my sandwich was is in,
which I shouldn't even have up here, so,
okay, okay.
Okay mate, okay. There we go.
I don't have anything for you.
Banana? I only have banana.
You think he'll take it? eh?
No. No, you think it'll make him sick, right?
I don't think it'll make him sick but he didn't take the pineapple, I don't think he'll take it.
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Where you from? Scotland..
You from the states, yeah?
Where in Scotland?
You know Dalkeith?
Dalkeith, it's near Edinburgh. It's kinda,
usually I just say Edinburgh because it's eh.
Yeah it's easier. It's easier right? Yeah.
I've been all over Scotland. Oh have you, yeah?
All the way out to the Isle of Skye and the Orkneys and Thurso and Wick.
And Inverness and Oh, you've been more places than me.
[laughter] Yeah but you're here, so that's better.
Yeah. [laughter]
Oh I love Scotland. Oh really?
I'm finished mate, sorry.
My breakfast is finished.
If I knew you were gonna be here I would have brought you some doggie biscuits or something.
But I didn't know.
I didn't expect to see a wee dog up here on Sigiriya Rock.
I don't even know how the heck he got up here.
He took the steps or what? Hmm?
Sorry, nothing left.
Very very sorry.
I don't have anything in here. It's empty.
I promise you it's empty.
I would not lie to you.
I would not lie to a wee dog.
Right, had a lovely breakfast. Now time to get back down.
I wonder if we have to go back down the same way we came up.
If so, that's gonna be tough.
Hopefully there's a one way system.
Sorry. Ah it's alright.
No worries. Gonna have a wee jump down here.
Oh, just a snake.
No worries.
Okay, another wee pond area.
And that's the other big rock
that's beside this place,
that I'm probably either gonna hike tonight at sunset or tomorrow at sunrise.
Oh, not that many people coming.
And it's been cloudy for a while, so I'm not sweating,
as much!
Right, so that's the way I came
and it looks like there's an alternative way down here.
So, it's like a loop when you get to this stage.
Which means, no having to
fight against people coming in the opposite direction.
Which is nice.
Alright, and this used to be an audience hall
and the king would have sat up there
on a bench on this big boulder
and people would have come to meet him and greet him.
And below the king's audience hall
a wee cave and another wee cave below that boulder.
Apparently that's where the monks would meditate,
back in the 8th and 9th century,
according to this.
It's like a scene straight out of Tomb Raider or something isn't it?
Just imagine running through here.
Through the caves, under the boulders,
through these boulder arches,
shooting at enemies,
trying to run away from enemies,
doing all your Lara Croft adventuring.
Oh wow, he is massive.
What are you?
Are you a squirrel on steroids?
What are you? What kind of creature are you?
You're looking at me like you're gonna jump at me.
A [inaudible] squirrel.
I know that squirrels in my country, they run away from you.
This one looks like he wants to attack me.
He's following me. Okay.
He wants breakfast.
He wants breakfast? I'm his breakfast maybe.
Hello.
What are you called?
Look at the bloody size of you.
Your huge mate.
You're bloody massive. [laughter]
Check this out.
It's called the Cobra Hood Cave.
It does look like a bloody cobra as well. Look at that.
Amazing.
Big bloody cobra.
Really cool.
Look at this.
Sri Lankan tour guide speaking Japanese. What a talent. Look at this.
Sri Lankan tour guide speaking Japanese. What a talent.
He must earn way much more money
than the other tour guides
with that talent.
How many Sri Lankan people do you think can speak Japanese?
Not very many, I'm sure.
Right, that was less than 2 hours. It's 9 AM.
And already it's starting to get pretty damn hot.
The crowds are starting to come.
So definitely, if anybody's thinking about coming here
get here early.
Get here 7 o'clock.
Any later, you're facing this.
You're facing the extreme heat of that
beltering sun
and the crowds.
Definitely a 7 AM start required before you come here.
So, just coming back from Sigiriya Rock,
where I did my wee hike.
My shoes looking absolutely filthy.
Look at them.
The one pair of shoes that I brought with me to Sri Lanka. Traveling light.
What's this? Sri Lanka's favorite Ice Cream.
Wonder Cone. Elephant House.
Looks like a Cornetto. Might try that.
Do you have any of those ice cream cones? From the sign? Yeah.
Okay, that'll be nice. How much is one?
Ah, sorry, no electric power. No ice cream?
Oh, no electric huh? No electric, no ice cream.
[laughter]
Oh, this melt, melt? Ah, okay, no problem, thank you.
Aye, that's the problem,
these remote places in Sri Lanka,
they're having frequent power cuts.
So, even if the guy does have a stock of ice cream,
it's turning to milk about an hour after the power goes off.
So, I'm without one, oh
that might be nice for later. A wee massage.
And in case you want to like a right mug tourist,
why not get yourself a pair of elephant pants?
Or an elephant sarong?
And walk around
and get hassled by every single tuk tuk driver and tourist tout and scammer
that sees you coming a mile away
with your baggy elephant pants, saying
come and scam me, I'm a clueless.
It's my first time ever outside my own country.
I think I'm cool wearing my elephant pants.
Nah, your gonna get scammed.
Right, see here's another Sri Lankan Hotel,
which is actually a restaurant.
They call restaurants "hotels" here, which is confusing.
So, Milo, that's quite nice.
Might get a wee Milo.
Hello.
Can I have just one of these Milos?
Oh, they not cold?
Oh you have cold? Oh, okay.
Good, you have cold one.
Ah, thank you. How much one?
Vanilla. Okay, how much this?
Hundred? Okay.
Okay, this and this will refresh me.
Okay, so I did get an ice cream cone after all and it's solid.
So, obviously that place didn't have a power cut.
It's right beside the other place so
obviously not a village-wide power cut,
just probably for that guy's shop.
Anyway, a nice cold Milo
and a solid, vanilla, fake
Sri Lankan Cargill's Magic Cone
Cornetto
is gonna refresh me, right, up.
Mmm, pretty much is just a Cornetto.
It's nice. Good morning.