The Cultural Toblerone

Unfortunately, this is not a tale of a classically educated chocolate bar, nor an account of my Dad and I visiting temples and museums munching on Swiss chocolate (not recommended during an Asian summer).

Instead, it is an attempt to make my tale of Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle slightly more entertaining for those of you who aren't that bothered by ancient ruins or for those of you who, like my Dad and I, are interested for the first day but start to dwindle in enthusiasm on the second and third days.

And so, The Cultural Triangle will from this time forth be known as its chocolatey counterpart.

First stop on The Cultural Toblerone was Dambulla's cave temple - the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. We looked around the 5 caves, each ornately adorned with countless Buddha statues and paintings, some enormous in size. (NB do not have your photo taken standing next to one of these images, you will be nothing short of rugby tackled to the ground.)

Hurling our backpacks with us, we then headed to Sigiriya rock, an even more impressive affair! Also known as the Lion's rock, this ancient fortress - standing at 370 metres - once had a palace perched on top and is surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens and reservoirs.

After being dropped off at the gate, we decided to walk to the public entrance with all our bags, assuming it couldn't be that far from the main gate. How wrong we were! In the piercing midday heat, this walk was akin to military training...and then we had the rock to climb. Someone get us a towel!

Described by my Dad as "the stuff of heart attacks", we made our ascent up this huge rock - a hardened magma plug from an extinct and long-eroded volcano. Two adorable wrinkled Sri Lankan ladies in front kept turning around and putting their fingers to there lips, pleading with us to be quiet. We were bemused between our heavy breaths until we saw the sign: 'Noise may provoke hornet attacks'. We looked up to see huge hornet nests clinging to the edge of the sheer rock face and continued to the top sheepishly.

To our delight, the top of Sigiriya provided incredible 360 degree views of the surrounding, untouched landscape and was more than worth the sweat-busting walk up. Just don't pick a fight with the monkeys! I learned that the hard way.

Next on The Cultural Toblerone was Anaradhapura - one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka and a place name that took me 3 whole days to remember correctly. We hired some bikes from our hotel to explore the town - they didn't have functioning breaks or gears but I did get a basket on the front of mine. You can't have it all!

Anaradhapura is a popular destination for Buddhist pilgrims because of its many ancient Buddhist monuments - and we were to witness this in its full glory! The town is scattered with dagobas (or stupas), which are huge mound-like structures that contain Buddhist relics, typically the remains of the Buddha or a saint. So, they're Buddhism's answer to the pyramids.

We cycled up to the Sri Maha Bodiya (a sacred Bodhi tree grown from a cutting of the tree the Buddha gained enlightenment under) and it's neighbouring dagoba. We were swept up in a bustling crowd of white pilgrims who were here to make offerings to the Buddha, known as snana puja. The pristine cotton and the white of the towering dagoba was blinding and we were disorientated by the heaving, busy crowd. Near the Bo tree, the pilgrims sat shoulder to shoulder, chanting and worshipping the tree with such intensity and number that we hastily made a quick exit.

Around 6 dagobas later, we were hot and heavy-legged so we bid farewell to Anaradhapura and headed to Polonnaruwa - further east.