Just About Everything

Dambulla, the Golden temple Dambulla cave temple complex (the Golden Temple) in Sri Lanka is a World Heritage Site dating back to the  first century BCE. Dambulla has one of the best preserved cave temples in Sri Lanka. The five main caves have exquisite paintings and beautiful statues. Dambulla is located around 160 km from Colombo, and is well connected by road. It took us around 5 hours to reach Dambulla by road. After resting a bit we set off to see the cave temple complex. Our plan was to do Dambulla caves first, and Sigiriya first thing in the morning the next day. We started for the caves around 5 pm which was quite late.The temple complex is open until 7 pm, but it is best to do the caves during daylight hours since climbing down may get a bit difficult with less or no light. This place is a must visit if you like ancient structures, paintings, and sculptures. There is a bit of climb involved...around 360+ steps to reach the caves, but believe me you wo...

Two km walk to Petra City Petra - 'a rose-red city half as old as time'. (from John William Burgon's sonnet) Petra (from Greek word Petros - Stone), known to its inhabitants as Raqmu, is listed as one of the New Seven Wonders of the world (decided through 100 million votes in 2007). Whether on any list or not, it stands out as a stupendous creation of a desert tribe called the Nabateans who lived there over two thousand years ago. It is located in the rocky deserts of southern Jordan. The Nabateans were trading nomads and established Petra as a trade hub. A two km walk through the Siq, takes you to the city. The Siq is a natural sandstone gorge. You see a number of rock-cut structures as you move ahead like the Dijnn blocks that are the oldest structures in Petra. The Obelix Tomb and the Triclinium is also an interesting building. This memorable walk suddenly brings you to the Treasury or the Al-Khazana, seen first through a gap in the Siq. This is actually a...