We made it to Sigiriya! At which point, we left Kavi in the van with the driver. I felt a little ridiculous doing so, but she had absolutely no interest in trying to climb 1000+ steps. Kavi really just wanted to read her book, and would’ve been happiest just staying in bed.
But I knew we’d be away from the hotel for 2-3 hours, and I just didn’t feel comfortable leaving her there on her own, even with a door that locked. I’m not sure where the age cut-off is for that; I think at 14, I’d have been okay with letting her stay on her own, probably? But not at 11.
Kavi was pretty tolerant of her mother’s fretting, and just settled in with her book; our driver (who’d been with us for a week at that point; we hired Chamara for the entire trip) took good care of her, and even picked up some snacks for her at one point.
Jed, Karina, and I set out to climb. We were happy to see that there was lots of water in Sigiriya’s various water gardens — apparently if you come in summer, after May, it all is likely to have dried up. The water is v. pretty.
Sigiriya, Sri Lanka.