Books read for the first half of the year 2018

Book quote (Pic source: Google.com)

Sorry it was a bit late to post this as I was busy and only today I had time to gather all titles I had read and put the list up here :)

Below please find the list of the book I read for the first half of the year 2018:

January 2018

January 2018: 
1. The Mummy Bloggers - Holly Wainwright

2. Something Like Happy - Eva Woods

3. Into the Water - Paula Hawkins

4. Harmless Like You - Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

February 2018

February 2018:

1. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng

2. It's Always the Husband - Michele Campbell

March 2018

March 2018:

1. Embracing Each Moment - Anam Thubten

2. Singapore Siu Dai 3 - Felix Cheong

3. Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur

4. Si Cacing dan Kotoran Kesayangannya 2 - Ajahn Brahm

5. The Path - A Guide To Happiness - Khenpo Sherab Zangpo

April 2018

April 2018:
1. Introducing Tibetan Buddhism - Samuel Geoffrey

2. Tales for Transforming Adversity - Khenpo Sodargye

May 2018

May 2018:

1. Always Present - The Luminous Wisdom of Jigme Phuntsok

2. Passu Diary - Chablop Passang Tshering

3. An Ocean of Blessings - Heart Teachings of Drubwang Penor Rinpoche

4. The Zahir - Paulo Coelho

5. Still Me - Jojo Moyes

June 2018

June 2018:

1. The Sun and Her Flowers - Rupi Kaur

Well, I had no idea how I could read 19 books for the first half of the year since I spent most of my time traveling around. And if you notice, lately I read more books on Buddhism. I just felt good reading about Buddha Dhamma as it was written by many wise Lama, Khenpo, and Rinpoche. I felt that I need to be reminded all the time about Buddha's teaching while at the same time trying to do my best in practicing it daily, since I did not have any spiritual teacher in real life.

There would be less books read for the second half of the year, again due to more traveling haha... but I would do my best spending my time with reading while I could. Hope all of you continue your reading passion as well. Keep going guys!!! :)

Travelling with parents tale - Welcome back!!!

Welcome back!!! (Pic source: Google.com)

We were back in Malaysia!!! But only starting from today, three of us shared a room, just like before. It's been a year since the last time we came to this same hotel. Even the Manager had well recognized me and knew my name upon my arrival! What a good memory he had! :) Too good until I couldn't run away from him - will tell you the story soon, lol! :P

We were given a room at the most back and at the toppest floor (total of 4 storey high) since I requested a room with window and with no noise. We stayed at the room after lunch and after such an early flight (I had to wake up very early this morning), I wanted to take a nap. But my dad, like usual, was watching TV with such a loud noise. Ugghhhhh...... I regretted not bringing the ear plugs to stop the noise. Since I was very tired, eventually I fell asleep but soon I was awaken by nightmare :(

Irritated by the TV sound!!! (Pic source: Google.com)

So I got up and went inside toilet. Hmm... I found my peace there. The air suction sound could cover the noise from TV sound outside. So I sat on toilet bowl for a while. But soon, someone knocked my door and grrrrrr..... I had to go out and lose my peace.

When I went out from toilet, TV had been turned off. And soon, it's my dad's turn to sleep. I decided to put on earpiece and listened to music from my phone, browsing and chatting. But this time, my mom had been awoken from her nap - quite energetic, or perhaps her revenge time - she was watching those videos sent around virally, complete with the music all blasted with full volume from her mobile phone, disturbing my dad's nap. Lol!!! 

"They were really meant for each other after almost 50 years of marriage together," I told myself inside my heart. Because even with such noise, my dad was still able to sleep peacefully right next to her, and he was even snoring so loud... ^^"

Durian season - Penang, Malaysia

When he got up, they said they wanted to buy fruits. I said, we had durian in the fridge. The day before, we packed fresh durian to a vacuum-packed plastic container from Penang, as I had ordered and drunk a glass of beer mindlessly while waiting for the rest to come for dinner. (We couldn't mix durian and alcohol on the same day as it would give a very bad reaction to the body). And we brought it all the way here and stored in the minibar chiller. And by right, durian was not allowed in many areas starting from airport, taxi, mrt or train station, mall, even hotel as the smell was pungent and strong, not everyone could accept it.

Wrapped durian with plastic, put in plastic container, then vacuum-packed it to avoid the smell to spread out

We opened the window wide and ignored all that restriction. We opened the packages and started enjoying it happily. Once finished, I packed the seeds together, wrapped inside the plastic bag, went out from the hotel downstairs through the staircases (not lift), and threw the rubbish outdoor, in front of the supermarket nearby. I came back, took lift, came inside the room, then went out again near lift to take some water. While waiting for the lift and while filling up the water bottle, the receptionist staff and housekeeping staff were there watching me. I just acted blur and smiled to them, went back to room and soon I felt sleepy and took a nap again. Lol!

While taking a nap, suddenly the room phone was ringing. Half sleep, I could sense the question marks from my parents' heads, like who's on earth would call us. No one else knew we stayed here. My mom picked it up and after that, she passed the phone to me. It turned out that the hotel Manager who remembered my name was calling, looking for me, and asking if we ate durian inside the room. Lol!!!  Still acting blur I asked why? Hahahahaha.... 

Not everyone loves it!!! Either you love it or hate it! (Pic source: Google.com)

He said the smell was so strong that they could even smell it from downstairs. Hahaha... Even when our room was at the most back and toppest floor, the durian smell could still travel to the first floor. And you know what? When he called, an hour had already passed since the time we ate. I really couldn't lie or say no. He made a call to inform us that there was a hotel policy that durian was not allowed inside the room and thank God there was no fine for such act. Some hotel might give nasty treatment for having durian inside the room as they would have hard times to chase the smell out from the building.

Oh my!! I felt very ashamed after that. I immediately opened the room's window so wide to let the smell going out for some time. I felt blushed on my both cheeks. How to face him later?? He even knew my name!!! Lol!!! I felt as if I made such huge mistake in the world!! Oh man!!!

Blushing all over ^^" (Pic source: Google.com)

When going downstairs for dinner, he was there with his colleague. I looked at him and with my right hand next to my ear, I showed a hand-sign meaning 'I'm sorry, please forgive me. Won't do it again next time.' Luckily he was really kind. He was just laughing, did not know what and how to react. Just laugh. Perhaps smile and laughter were the best medicines for every situation, especially the awkward ones. Hahahahaha... Yeah, I was forgiven. And luckily no fine and was not asked to leave. Lol.

Full Time Traveller

Wander lust - Rimareyka.writes

Every time I meet someone new, they always ask me this question, "What's your occupation?" or "What do you do in life?" as if the answer will determine and judge on who I am, what kind of person, how much I earn, and all sorts of things that will derive from it.

It's been two years since the last time I worked and in the beginning, I would tell them that I wasn't working. And when applying visa, I'd simply fill the blank up with a word "housewife," although I couldn't really be called one as the time spent at home was almost equal with the time spent outside home and/ or home country (around 55% only).

My heavens on earth - Rimareyka.writes 

Below is the summary of my trips abroad so far this year:

1. 31 January - 26 February: Melbourne (Australia)
Family time - Celebrated Chinese New Year (Dog year)

2. 7-11 March: Jakarta (Indonesia)
Visit hometown

3. 6-30 April: Colombo - Adam's Peak/ Sripada - Anuradhapura- Dambulla - Sigiriya - Kandy - Nuwara Eliya - Ella - Galle - Unawatuna - Negombo (Srilanka)
Buddhist Pilgrimage plus celebrating Sinhalese New Year and Vesak Day

Live with no regrets (Pic source: Google.com)

4. 1-5 May: Batam - Bangka (Indonesia)
Family time - Prayed 100th year Popo (Grandma)

5. 31 May - 14 June: Regal Princess Cruise: Copenhagen (Denmark) - Oslo (Norway) - Berlin (Germany) - Tallinn (Estonia) - St. Petersburg (Russia) - Helsinki (Finland) - Stockholm (Sweden) - Freetown Christina

6. 8-18 July: Kolkata (India)
Visit friends and watch World Cup Final :P

7. 30 July - 4 August: Pematang Siantar - Lake Toba - Samosir Island (Indonesia)
Visit Bale Batoba

8. 4 August til present: Penang - Ipoh - Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
Health screening - accompany parents

Flying horse - Rimareyka.writes

And it's already August now!!! I'm still that white horse with flying wings that keep traveling around the world.

Some trip was planned but many were decided on the last minute basis. And back to the question that people often ask me earlier, I think I can confirm now telling them that I'm a full-time traveller :P:P:P

World Cup 2018 and Its Life Lessons

FIFA World Cup - Russia 2018

Since June everyone all over the world had been excitingly welcoming the World Cup 2018, after one of the world historic event - Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's visit and summit in Singapore had over. I had missed both important events (the summit and the world cup's opening ceremony) as I was still on holiday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Throughout few decades of my life I had never shown any interest in football, ever!!! But since most of my Bhutanese young friends loved football so much (many had so much passion in it and played them very well - including what I had witnessed myself during my trip in Sri Lanka not long ago on how they would purposely travel to another city just to participate in a match, play it under the rain, etc.), plus my brother and nephews' great interest on some football teams, I had slowly been developing the interest towards football.

Final FA Cup 20 May 2018 - Chelsea VS Man United (Pic source: Google.com)

I watched my first football match with interest back on May 20th, 2018 - the FA Cup final Chelsea VS Manchester United - at my brother's house, when I stayed there over night. My brother supported Chelsea while my nephew supported Manchester United. I was waiting for my friend to reach my brother's house as she participated in running event that night. To be honest, I had zero knowledge of football. So many times I would comment unnecessarily which at the end, irritated my brother. Hahahahahaha..... :P

And now, this World Cup games.

It was very expensive to subscribe the football channel in Singapore, especially for this World Cup event. So we did not have an access to watch the games conveniently at home. During dinner meeting with friends, she told us her experience of searching the free streaming match and she ended up listening to other then English languages comments given by the commentator, i.e. Arabic, Thai, etc.

World Cup time!!! With Durian :P

However, sometimes, our local TV channel (Okto) broadcast the match (not regularly though), and I watched my first match on Sunday, 24th June, England VS Panama. I still had no knowledge about football so someone suggested me to just see if the player made goals or not. Hahahaha.... And instead of having beer while watching, I had durian (if you had durian, no alcohol was allowed to be consumed). And from that match, I knew few players such as: Harry Kane (the 25 years old English's footballer who made 3 goals on that match), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United player ), and John Stones (Manchester City player who made 2 goals).

Then followed with Japan VS Senegal match. I watched it on streaming online this time since it was not broadcast in local TV. Thanks to someone for giving me the link so that I could watch it on my laptop at home :) From this match, I also learned to know few good Japanese players like Takashi Inui, Keisuke Honda, cool-looking Maya Yoshida, and Shinji Kagawa. Although the result was draw 2-2, they managed to go on the next match.

So, from that day onward, I tried to watch one match per day (due to the time difference I could not wait and watch the 2 am game here). Sometimes hubby taught me some rules on the game too, which increased my knowledge a little. Many times I asked around what people thought about the result of the upcoming game like which team would win, how many scores they would make, and so on.

Friends were helping up in broaden my knowledge too by saying who were good from the team, and associated the country with its good players, e.g. Argentina - Messi, Portugal - Ronaldo, Brazil - Neymar, French - Griezzman, etc. Hehehehe... :D From Facebook post I also knew some of the good-heart players, e.g. Messi,

Some matches were good, in the sense you could see how strong the team, e.g. on Korea match against Germany. The Korea defenders were defending very well and the goalkeeper did his job very well on the match too. There you could also see how weak the Germany striker. They had so many opportunities to make a goal but they could not use it well. Some games were too much of fighting, bringing the players down, injuring players neck, head, legs, and so on, and not worth watching.

Many games were unpredictable. Those who people thought supposed to win, they lost, and who supposed to be weak, they won, even after the 90 minutes game had over (Korea VS Germany match).

I learned new things on every match as I was really having 0 knowledge on it. Just like yesterday's match - Russia VS Spain. In this match, when the result was draw, they were given 30 minutes to play and see which team could score a goal and win. In the event they both did not score any goal, both teams would do penalty kick - 5 kicks were given and those scored the most would win).

World Cup's betting (Pic source: Singaporepools.com.sg)

Apart from it, I also learned about the betting system from Singapore Pools. Hahahaha.... I haven't put my money on any bet so far, but usually the World Cup event was the only event most Singaporean would put their money and bet on it. Like from the above figure, I had to ask my brother what was the figures showing. There were many bet type available too, e.g. Pick the score, total goals, halftime, halftime-fulltime, etc. P.S. I do not encourage you to bet, to be interesting in betting, and other kind of betting interest by posting about it here. I just wanted to share what I learned from this World Cup event.

World Cup 2018 - Round 16 Chart (Pic source: CBS Sports)

So we are now at the Round 16 match. Many good teams have been taken out like Portugal, Argentina, and Spain. Will more good teams be out from this World Cup??? Hopefully not. And which team you predict to be World Cup champion this time round?? Many of my friends hope that Brazil and England would be one of the champions. But with so many went out so far, it would be hard to predict right??

That how the World Cup lessons apply to our lives journey. So many things are unpredictable. No matter how good the team or the person is, sometimes luck (or fate, or karma) is still playing parts, which makes everyone undergoes ups and downs in life. No one experiences only the good things or only the bad things in life. It is all mixing up like roller-coaster ride.

Life lessons from World Cup (Pic source: Pinterest.com)

Some of the important lessons are how we can accept all the situation bravely and wisely? How we can learn from the things in the past so that we can have a better journey towards our future? How can we accept failure in life? How can we get up from it and move on? How can we live our dreams?

We face praise and disappointment. We face so much pressure from society. If we are good, they expect us to perform good all the time, or even better performance. If we are not good, they may despise and look down on us. While at the end, it is our own life and we are in control of it. What type of life we prefer may differ from what society expects us for having. Can we strive and get hold on it?

You may not think much as I mentioned here when it comes to World Cup, but these thoughts just appear as I write. Hope that we can have enough strength to choose the life we want to live, and not living life from other's expectation. Be you, be yourself. Be me, be myself, no matter what.

Pilgrimage place in Sri Lanka - Sigiriya

Sigiriya or Lion Rock in Sri Lanka

The next place we visited after Dambulla Cave and Golden Buddha Temple was Sigiriya - also well known as the Lion Rock. It was located about 20 km away from the Golden Buddha Temple. We took tuk tuk there that cost us LKR 1,200 per trip.

Sigiriya entrance ticket

We purchased our ticket at the building where the museum was located. The ticket cost very expensive. For foreigner I had to pay LKR 4,650 (USD$30/pax) while for tourist from SAARC countries paid half of it (LKR 2,325). The ticket included the entrance to the museum, which located at second storey.

The start of our journey to Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

The weather was hot before we reached Sigiriya. However, just after buying the ticket, heavy rain poured down from the sky. We took a rest then decided to visit the museum. Just nice, after finished browsing the museum, the rain stopped. Buddha bless us!!! :) We were blessed with such a pleasant weather to climb the rock up!!!

Gateway to the palace in form of Lion's Rock at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

Sample of the frescoes painting in Sigiriya (Source: Post card photographed by Juergen Schreiber)

"According to the ancient Sri Lankan chronicle the Culavamsa, this site was selected by King Kasyapa for his new capital. He built his palace on the top of this rock (nearly 200 meters high) and decorated its sides with colourful frescoes. On a small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock he built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion. The name of this place is derived from this structure —Sīhāgiri, the Lion Rock.

In 477 CE, Kashyapa, the king’s son by a non-royal consort, seized the throne from King Dhatusena, following a coup assisted by Migara, the King’s nephew and army commander. The rightful heir, Moggallana, fearing for his life, fled to South India. Afraid of an attack by Moggallana, Kashyapa moved the capital and his residence from the traditional capital of Anuradhapura to the more secure Sigiriya. During King Kashyapa’s reign (477 to 495 CE), Sigiriya was developed into a complex city and fortress. Most of the elaborate constructions on the rock summit and around it, including defensive structures, palaces, and gardens, date from this period.

Kashyapa was defeated in 495 CE by Moggallana, who moved the capital again to Anuradhapura. Sigiriya was then turned back into a Buddhist monastery, which lasted until the 13th or 14th century.
The capital and the royal palace was abandoned after the king's death." - Source: wikipedia.org

How the metal staircase was secured into the rock - Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

The metal staircases installed there looked scary. Not only this one (the photo above), but also the one in spiral shape (the picture below).

Spiral metal staircase to Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Sometimes I was wondering how in olden days they climbed the rock up safely without such metal staircases installation around. Especially when they built the capital up there with palace and monastery. What remained now was just ruins just like what you see below.

The view from the top of Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Ruins of Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Panoramic view from top of Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Water garden on top of Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Audience Hall on top of Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

The throne seat in Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

View of Garden of Sigiriya from the top - Sri Lanka

After browsing around the area we went down.

View of Pidurangala and the Lion's Paw (gate of Sigiriya) - Sri Lanka

We spent less than 1.5 hours to climb up, browse the area around and go back down. It was said there were around 1,200 steps to reach to the top. Bring water at the Cafetaria near the museum before going up as there was not any shop after that. The rain earlier was really giving us advantage as the air was cooling after that. We felt we were really blessed during our journey.

Close-up view of the Lion's paw at Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

By the time we walked down there was only less people around. It was good for us to take photo (when we climbed up there were many Chinese tourists around). And I saw a local family wearing white top and white bottom (what they usually wore when visiting temple). I asked them if I could take photo with them and they were so friendly, agreed it almost immediately :) So here we were!!!

Selfie :D Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

Visit to Sigiriya on 12th April 2018 - Sri Lanka

My last photo alone there in Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

Our last selfie there together - Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

With that, it closed our 2 days 1 night pilgrimage journey to Anuradhapura (Mihintale and 6 pilgrimage sites), Dambulla, and Sigiriya. From Sigiriya we took tuk tuk to Habarana Junction railway station but when we reached, the railway station location was quite deserted. There was no restaurant nearby. So we asked the driver to bring us to the nearest town where we could have our dinner. Luckily we did not wait there as wild elephants might come in that area and could attack human easily - from what we heard.

Dinner, dessert and beer celebration! Succession of our pilgrimage trip :D - Sri Lanka

We found a nice restaurant (Hot Dish Restaurant) where we had our dinner and took a rest (after such a long day!!!) We both were very tired and hungry too! We cleared our plates without any trace left then went to Cargills Food City Express (supermarket in Sri Lanka that mostly sold food and beverage) to get ice cream - to sweeten my day that had already been so sweet :D, then looked for alcohol shop to taste the local Sri Lanka beer - Lion Beer - strong one with 8.8% alcohol (just to chill out and celebrate the succession of our first trip in Sri Lanka!).

Took train back from Habarana to Ragama Junction - Sri Lanka

We headed back to Habarana railway station an hour before our train's departure time by tuk tuk. We waited there chit chatting until the train finally came at 9.55 pm. We managed getting seat and after continued our chit chat, we finally had a sleep and reached Ragama Junction railway station at 4 am. We took tuk tuk back home, unpacked, took a bath, and finally slept. Thank SB for protecting us all throughout our first journey outside of Colombo. And thank you Sonam for becoming my guide throughout this journey. Thank you, thank you, and thank you! :)

Pilgrimage place in Sri Lanka - Dambulla Cave Temple

Anuradhapura (old bus stand) to Dambulla - Sri Lanka

After browsing enough pilgrimage sites in Anuradhapura (took us 1.5 days to visit 6 places and Mihintale), we continued our journey to two other places - Dambulla and Sigiriya. There was AC van available from Anuradhapura old bus stand to Kandy, but we would drop in Dambulla. It cost LKR 200 per pax but worth taking as the weather was too hot outside and we sure got seat all the way.

The bus left at around 10.30 am and reached Dambulla 1.5 hours later. By the time we reached it was lunch time. We stopped at Ninu Restaurant to have our Sri Lanka food. I had Chicken Kottu (stir fried shredded roti with chicken, egg, chili flakes, and many other sauces) while Sonam ordered a set menu (his favorite veg fried rice with veg, Devil chicken, chili paste, and fried egg on top), and we quenched our thirst with a glass of orange juice each. The weather was really hot there!!!

Dambulla Cave Temple, Sri Lanka

We took tuk tuk to Dambulla Cave Temple from the town. The distance was less than 4 km away and we paid LKR 200. Foreigner had to pay LKR 1,500 per pax (it was expensive as it was the largest and best preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka and also included in the list of World Heritage sites by UNESCO).

Dambulla Cave Temple in Sri Lanka

"The area is thought to be inhabited from as early as the 7th to 3rd century BC. Statues and paintings in these caves date back to the 1st century BC. But the paintings and statues were repaired and repainted in the 11th, 12th, and 18th century AD. The caves in the city provided refuge to King Valagamba (also called Vattagamini Abhaya) in his 14-year-long exile from the Anuradapura kingdom. 

Buddhist monks meditating in the caves of Dambulla at that time provided the exiled king protection from his enemies. When King Valagamba returned to the throne at Anuradapura kingdom in the 1st century BC, he had a magnificent rock temple built in gratitude to the monks in Dambulla. 

The rock towers 160 m (520 ft) over the surrounding plains.There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding. Major attractions are spread over 5 caves, which contain statues and paintings. This paintings and statues are related to Lord Buddha and his life.

There are a total of 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of Sri Lankan kings and 4 statues of God and Goddess. The latter 4 include two statues of Hindu Gods, Vishnu and Ganesh. The murals cover an area of 2,100 m². Depictions in the walls of the caves include Buddha's temptation by demon Mara and Buddha's first sermon." - Source: wikipedia.org

The first cave - Cave of the Divine King at Dambulla Cave Temple, Sri Lanka

The first cave was called Devaraja lena (lena in Sinhalese meaning cave), or also called "Cave of the Divine King." This cave was dominated by the 14-meter statue of the Buddha. It had been repainted countless times in the course of its history. At his feet was Buddha's favorite pupil, Ananda, while at his head, Vishnu, said to have used his divine powers to create the caves. Source: wikipedia.org

The second and largest cave - Cave of the Great Kings at Dambulla Cave Temple, Sri Lanka

In the second and largest cave, in addition to 16 standing and 40 seated statues of Buddha, were the Gods Saman and Vishnu, which pilgrims often decorated with garlands, and finally statues of King Vattagamani Abhaya, who honored the monastery in the 1st century BC., and King Nissanka Malla, responsible in the 12th century for the gilding of 50 statues, as indicated by a stone inscription near the monastery entrance.

Statues of the King inside the Cave of the Great Kings at Dambulla Cave Temple, Sri Lanka

This cave was accordingly called Maharaja lena, "Cave of the Great Kings." The Buddha statue hewn out of the rock on the left side of the room was escorted by wooden figures of the Bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara or Natha.

Dagoba or stupa inside the second cave at Dambulla Cave Temple, Sri Lanka

The spring which dripped water from the crack ceiling (inside the cage) - Dambula Cave Temple in Sri Lanka

There was also a dagoba and a spring (inside the cage), which dripped its water, said to have healing powers, out of a crack in the ceiling.

Beautiful tempera paintings above the cave ceiling - Dambulla Cave Temple in Sri Lanka

More ceiling painting inside second cave at Dambulla Cave Temple, Sri Lanka

Distinctive tempera paintings on the cave ceiling dating from the 18th century depicted scenes from Buddha's life, from the dream of Mahamaya to temptation by the demon Mara. Further pictures relate important events from the country's history.

The third cave, the Maha Alut Vihara, the Great New Monastery at Dambulla Cave Temple, Sri Lanka

The third cave, the Maha Alut Vihara, the "Great New Monastery" acquired ceiling and wall paintings in the typical Kandy style during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (1747–1782), the famous Buddhist revivalist. In addition to the 50 Buddha statues, there is also a statue of the king.

The fourth cave at Dambulla Cave Temple in Sri Lanka

The fifth cave at Dambulla Cave Temple in Sri Lanka

The above were the fourth and fifth cave.

Dambulla Cave Temple - Sri Lanka

And the above showed you the outer part of the cave, how it looked like. The expensive ticket, climb under hot sun was worth it! :) From there we walked down through the road path that led us to the Golden Buddha Temple. It took us around 10 minutes there.

The Golden Buddha Temple - Dambulla, Sri Lanka

We went up to see the Golden Buddha statue and circumambulated one round. There was small book shop inside the building but most books were in Sinhalese language.

The Golden Buddha Temple - Dambulla, Sri Lanka

People offered the alms to monks statues - Golden Buddha Temple at Dambulla, Sri Lanka

At the front part of the temple, there was a golden stupa. Fyi, the toilet there was charging so expensively!! They charged LKR 100 per pax while usually public toilet charged us LKR 20 ^^"

Sonam and I with the Golden Stupa at Dambulla, Sri Lanka

With the above picture, our visit to the Cave and Golden temples in Dambulla was over. We moved on to another site. Stay tune! :)