We were leaving the hotel early this morning (actually, we thought, it was early – as we had to learn later on, this morning indeed was a fairly average one) to beat the crowds at Mihintale.

Mihintale is a Buddhist pilgrimage site and links back to the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka. Stairs lead up a hill to a number of religious monuments; en route one passes many abandoned structures and ruins – including the ruins of a monastery.

We were given a guided tour of the ruin site before making it up the last flight of stairs to the actual religious site – the more adventurous of us made it up Aradhana Gala (Meditation Rock), while the others covered the easier climb to the Buddha status. We met up again later on for a walk around the Mahaseya Dagoba.

Editorial note: don’t get confused by the word dagoba – it is not more than the Sinhalese word for a stupa; I will use the two words interchangeably.