We arrived in Tangalle after a 2 hours bus-ride from Midigama that costed us 166 rupees, which is about 1,20AUS or 6NOK. Travelling in Sri Lanka can be very cheap if you have a little patience to wait for the right bus to stop, and of course it also makes it a lot more exciting to travel with the locals!

Last night was full-moon and this is a public holiday in Sri Lanka as full-moon is a highly religious day for Buddhists all over the world. The Sri Lankans call it Poya day and it is a day when the majority of the people seem to be going to temples for prayer, meditation and to give offerings. Ben and I used the opportunity to check out one of the local highlights; the rock temple of Mulkirigala. 

The temple is over 2500 years old and it is built on a massive rock mountain with three levels and each level contains two cave-like rooms with a big Buddha in, which all symbolises the different stages at the end of Buddhas life. From what we were told you can see the difference on wether the Buddhas are sleeping, reclining or dying from how the hands, the feet and the eyes are placed.

Visiting temples on days like Poya days makes it all a lot more special; the place is filled with smoke from the incense, butter lights are lit in front of the Buddhas and all the smaller shrines, and the head monk will be preaching and praying over the speakers, which creates almost a magical atmosphere. I am aware of all the horrible things in the worlds happening because of religion but I decide to look at the beauty of it and I find it truly amazing that people will do the same prayer and rituals month after month, year after year. I personally find religion to be a beautiful thing but it is misused in too many ways.

The Buddhists seem to be very open towards other religions and we are allowed to engage in the different rituals of prayer so we climbed the many steps to reach the three levels to offer our lotus flowers in front of the six Buddhas. Thanks to our tuk-tuk driver we realised there was a small dagoba (a white painted dome-shaped shrine) on the top of the mountain next to what they called "the end/edge of the world" in Sri Lanka. We were told this was 3000 meters above sea level, but I strongly doubt this as numbers and figures often gets mixed up and I'd think it would be more like 1000 meters above sea level, but what a beautiful view and sunset!

Tomorrow we will hire a motorbike to drive 15 kilometres down the coast to a beach were turtles come to lay eggs at nighttime. They say it is a lot bigger chance to see them the days before and after full-moon when the moon is still bright so I'm very excited!