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We left the Cinnamon Grand Habarana hotel early in the morning; we had a long drive ahead of us and a few places to visit before we reached our destination.

Our first stop... Sigiriya- the Lion Rock citadel.

Fortified in the 5th century, Sigiriya is one of several World Heritage sites in Sri Lanka.

It was cloudy as we drove towards the site... and we were worried that it might be closed due to the mist and rain.

But as we came closer, the clouds parted and the sun came out.

My inner Indiana Jones got kinda excited about this sign.

Not everybody was feeling up to managing the climb - so my uncles, mom and I went on ahead.

Elephant Head rock.

If you look to the bottom left, you can see the stairs going up to the first landing. We would climb those in a bit... and up, and up, and up to the top!

There were lots of monkeys all around.

You get a better view of the stairs in this picture. The first sets of stairs take you up to a landing - and past the beautiful frescoes. Of the estimated 500 original ladies in the frescoes, a few still remain - remarkably preserved.

A view from on the way up.

Past the frescoes there is a landing. Those wanting to climb the additional stairs to the top can walk past the lion's paws and climb carefully upwards.

So my uncle and I - we did!

At the top of The Rock is a pool in what used to be a garden complex for the King.

Me: at the very, very top.

Another few from the top.

The guide asked me to jump and snapped a photo using my camera. "This one will be good for facebook!" he said.

At some point along the journey, another guide decided to "help" my mom up and down the stairs. Apparently weary travelers will sometimes need assistance and guides are there to help... for a small tip, of course. My mom didn't really need help, but he was pretty insistent. And it was kind of adorably embarrassing...