The Best of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has it all – interesting culture, beautiful, abundant nature and scenery, good food, and the most kind, friendly people. As our time together and the latest Rock-Awn adventure comes to an end, I’m so grateful we got to experience all of these things in this wonderful country.

From our stay in Kandy, we took the bus to a place called Sigiriya.

Sigiriya

This is the place where we stayed the longest and it is probably the place I liked the most. It was like a small town possibly very spread out (we never really did find a “town centre”) and we stayed with a nice family with three young boys (the middle one took very good care of us and liked practicing his English). Their place was a bit of a walk away from the main road and was quiet and a bit isolated.

When we arrived we were given the choice between two rooms. The first room had squirrels that we saw squeezing into holes between the roof and the ceiling of the room. The second room did not. We chose the second room 😝

Our time in Sigiriya was spent between seeing the sights directly in the area and taking a bus to go to some towns close by.

Some highlights from Sigiriya included:

• Sigiriya Rock Fortress also known as Lion Rock. There are two bigger rocks in the area that you can climb up to see a great view of the surrounding area. We weren’t actually sure if we were going to do both. But seeing Lion Rock in person for the first time, we were both taken aback. It’s one of those sights that you see in pictures and you know it will be cool. But, you don’t really know how truly AMAZING it is until you are standing there seeing it live. At that moment DawnO stated “We HAVE TO go up Sigiriya” I agreed! Everyone kept telling us how expensive it was to enter this park (it was about $50CAN and in context the other rock, Pindurangala, was $5CAN), but considering I may not be in the area again . . . . no regrets!!

By the end of our several set of stairs walk, we were sweaty messes, but the views and time spent at the top . . . . . worth it!

• Pindurangala Rock is one we decided to hike up the same day at golden hour. As it gives an amazing view of Lion Rock, we weren’t the only one with that idea! It was busy, but steady climbing at first. Eventually we came to a narrow spot where people going up had to make way for people going down and vice versa. Except . . . . no one seemed to be making way for anyone, so we were at a standstill. At one point, we thought we’d actually miss the sunset. Yelling ensued somewhere up front, DawnO and I held the line for people trying to jump the cue and move past us, and eventually we got to the top, took a DEEP breath, enjoyed the views and then headed down a bit earlier to try to miss the same drama on the way down.

• In our quest to get to Pindurangala, we decided to take a tuk tuk. We had a weird experience with the first person that offered to take us, so kept walking. The next guy . . . . . . well, . . . . . he ended up being one of my fave people that we’ve met in Sri Lanka (and I have a few fave people we’ve connected with here). We expected simply a ride to the rock and a possible pick up on the way back. Anu drove us around to view spots of Lion Rock, gave us some tips for navigating around and was just generally kind. Over the course of the next few days, we kept running into him around town and he always stopped us to say hi. We learned that him and his wife also own a guesthouse, his wife did my laundry when we ran into him and I was looking for a place to go, and one day when we asked about a good sunset spot, he took us up as friends instead of clients. Though it wasn’t a great sunset day, it was a great time for just chatting and making a wonderful connection.

• POOL DAY!!!! Did I mention how hot and sweaty we have both gotten several times in Sri Lanka?! 😝 We found out we could hang out at one of the resort pools for a small fee. So . . . . one day we decided to take it easy and spent the WHOLE day at the pool. Best $5 spent eva!!

Some highlights from day trips around Sigiriya included:

• The Dumbulla Cave Temple is a Unesco World Heritage site which houses 5 sanctuaries within the rock. It was very cool and our timing was such that it started to get busier just as we were finishing going through the five caves. So we sat around watching monkeys steal fruit from various kids and offering trays, and bonded over our general distrust of monkeys!

• Pink Quartz Mountain, aka Jathika Namal Uyana, is not one I had heard about before, but I found it when we were thinking of possibly combining another site/thing to do with Dambulla Caves. We actually ended up making it a separate adventure, and an adventure it was! To get to the mountain range, we had to walk through a forest which on the way there was quite peaceful and calm. On the way back, however, there was a group of teenage boys being teenage boys and the once calm, serene environment was no longer that. We also had a bit of an issue getting a ride back to the bus station we needed to be at to return to Sigriya, but once again a Sri Lankan (in this case the guard at the entrance ticket counter) swooped in to help us out and ensure we got to where we needed to be (with nice chats and connections in between!)

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Polonnaruwa

From Sigiriya, we took another packed and hot bus ride to a place called Polonnaruwa.

This city is home to the ruins of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa which was the second capital of Sri Lanka and is also a World Unesco site. We kind of suspect that most people do day trips to the ruins as we didn’t really see any other tourists around when we were out getting eats or wandering around. We only stayed a couple days, but they were eventful!

Some highlights from Polonnaruwa included:

• Visiting the ancient city. We rented bikes to go around the area and were so glad we did! It was another hot, sweaty day, but biking around seemed to make it better 🙂

• We had a day with no plans and were thinking of what to do. Our host suggested an elephant safari. It wasn’t something I had considered as I knew DawnO had gone on safari in Africa and I thought I would save my safari experience for Africa someday. But . . . . . . elephants! 🐘 I have been up close to them in a rescue centre in Thailand, but never seen them roaming free. We had the option of morning or evening and went with the morning choice. So glad we did! Our guide was AMAZING. He was able to get us away from the other jeeps and at one point we spent time with three elephants on our own. He was also very interested in birds and had us birding at one point too which was also great as there are some beautiful birds with the most incredible colours out there! He further confirmed our choice of the morning slot as he said he doesn’t drive for the afternoon safaris because there could be up to 200 jeeps!! 😳 And if that wasn’t already ✨magical✨ enough . . . . on our drive to the park, we randomly came across a wild elephant munching on grass at the side of the road!! I LOVE these animals sooooooo much!!!!

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From Polonnaruwa, it was time to make our way back. so we decided to head to Negombo for our last night(s). But first . . . . an 8 hour train ride to get there. I ❤️ the train, however, this ride was a bumpy, jerky, felt like it was taking forever journey.

We had one full day before DawnO left to catch her night flight. It felt like one of those times in a journey where you no longer feel here, but you’re not yet at the next place. DawnO was determined to have coconut sambol as part of her last meal. However in our wanders that day and in our google searches we were having problems finding a place that seemed to have it. As she resigned herself to not fulfilling that last day wish, I messaged our airbnb host to see if he had any recommends. He did . . . . a woman that makes it out of her home and delivers to the house. Not only was he going to hook us up, he also recommended we have curry and paratha with it (of course . . . our standard for the last three weeks) and he was going to have that delivered to us too, AND . . . . he informed us that our supper was on him. OMG Sri Lankan people are the sweetest!

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Some of the other food we’re going to miss after our three weeks here:

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And with that . . . . another Rock-Awn comes to a close 😢 DawnO set off on a late flight eventually headed to Japan, and I’m hoping to set off on a night flight tonight to . . . . . . well . . . . . we’ll have to wait and see if I get there!

THANK YOU Sri Lanka!! 🇱🇰 You are AMAZING!!!!!! ✨💖✨

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**** see also DawnO’s takes here & here