Avukana Ancient Rock Temple

We check out of the beautiful hotel Palm Garden Village we spent our first night.  It is set amongst a rambling garden of 50 acres with individual chalets spread a fare distance from the main restaurant and pool area.  Not ideal for an older person to navigate but ideal if you want some peace and quiet.

The pool is inviting but nobody is in it.  The standard fare at these places is an all you can eat buffet.  The  tables are laden with both western and eastern cuisine and a variety of colourful deserts smile temptingly back at me.  This is not good for that diet I had promised myself I would get on.  Perhaps in the New Year?  

We set off in the morning to visit the Avukana Ancient Rock Temple.  We drive through beautiful fields carpeted by the green rice paddy plants that have emerged.  Both men and women work in the fields, spraying fertilisers to ward  off the bugs.

It is a beautiful rural area that couldn’t be more different from the congestion and urbanisation of Colombo.  I wonder what it would be like to spend a few days in one of these rural villages…experiencing the relaxed pace of life here…

 

The Avukana Statue is impressive and towers over the surrounding landscape.  Carved out of rock over 3 years it attracts visitors from around the island.  It is certainly not a site to be missed. 

Similar to the ancient temples we visited previously, devotees from around the island mostly dressed in white worship at the feet of this statue, laying flowers as a sign of their devotion.  Foreign tourist record the experience on cameras and IPhones.

We leave for lunch, excited by the prospect of our afternoon visit to another National Park.

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple." Jack Kerouac