Visiting Sri Lanka

My Sri Lanka Visit – A Quick Go Through

Srilanka mountainscape as seen from the top of Little Adam's Peak

I visited Sri Lanka in January as my first foreign jaunt of 2020. It was a 13 day trip that covered 7 destinations in that country. The itinerary I initially drew up had a couple of more places included in it. However, the best travel plans can go haywire when it came to actual execution.

For Sri Lanka I had the days and themes clearly earmarked; The heritage/ culture circuit (6 nights), the tea trail / Nature (2 nights), Sea/Beach (2 nights), City (2 nights). However, things started slipping out of hand with the choice of the Colombo bound flight itself. I booked a day time flight which landed in Colombo late evening and I had to spend the night in Colombo. That was a forced curtailment of my plan. The city theme got an additional night.

The Ravana Fall

The heritage / culture theme which included places like; Dambulla, Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, and Kandy took an additional night owing to the transportation system. This circuit was done using road transport (bus, taxi, auto) which couldn’t be planned well in advance. For example, they don’t run direct buses from Sigiriya to Polonnaruwa. You have to come back to Dambulla to catch a bus that plies between Kandy and Polonnaruwa. No service originating at Dambulla for Polonnaruwa either. You have to go to the Inamaluwa crossing on the highway to catch a bus. This costs time. The transportation conundrum cost me one additional night to be spent in the heritage circuit. Thus two additional nights elsewhere put paid to my sea / beach theme. Honestly, beaches as a tourist attraction were never on the top of my trip planning exercise.

The roadmap I took was simple. It started with Dambulla first (as the Pick Me car coming from Colombo touched Dambulla first) and then Sigiriya. After Sigiriya, reaching Polonnaruwa was a task in itself. However, I managed it as I had to.

The Royal Botanical Garden, Kandy

Dambulla

A UNESCO heritage site and fantastic cave temple with paintings and sculptures all over and around. Visiting the Cave temple takes about three hours. The ticket counter is on the other side of the rock which you climb from the highway (town) side. You have to go down almost the same distance to buy the tickets. A very good up, down, and up again exercise.

(All the photos were taken inside the Cave Temple)

Sigiriya

Another World Heritage site in Sri Lanka and highly acclaimed, Sigiriya is a beautiful village full of greenery, water, fields, and forests. A wonderful place where one can have a vacation for up to three or four days. The main attraction remains the Rock Fortress (a 200 m high rock outcrop) and the remains of an ancient city on the top of it. Also called Sinhagiri, it is shaped like a crouching lion. Pidurangala is another rock outcrop about 2 Km from the Lion rock. Hiking up that rock is a pleasant experience too.

King's throne, Sigiriya

Going up the Lion Rock

Pidurangala and Lion Rock

Polonnaruwa

This thousand year old city with lots of Buddhist structures and ruins this sprawling erstwhile capital presents a spellbinding scene. You need a minimum of 6 hours to cover all the attractions in Polonnaruwa.

The Guard Stone. This along with the Moon Stone is the peculiarity of Srilankan heritage

Anuradhapura
Much larger than Polonnaruwa, this ancient capital is spectacular. I took two days to do the destination.

The Abhayagiri Dagaba

One of the two magnificent Moonstones in Anuradhapura

The Jetavanaramaya Stupa

The Star Gate (Sakwala Chakraya). They say these are the star charts of sorts. I am skeptical, however.

The Runaweli Stupa

The Mihintale Rock temple where the first conversion to Buddhism in SL was solemnised

Kandy

The cultural capital of SL famous for the Tooth Relic Temple and Kandyan dance. Then there’s the widespread botanical garden and the swinging suspension bridge too.

The temple of Tooth Relic

Photos of Kandyan dance

The Mahaveli river, Kandy

Ella - the picturesque

Ella is not the end of the railway line that originates from Colombo and passes through the picturesque and scenic tea plantations and mesmerizing forests. However, Ella represents the best of scenic Sri Lanka after the beauty of the track unto the point. The little Adam’s peak and the Ravana falls are the other attractions besides the iconic nine arch bridge.

Train to Ella

Railway tunnel, Ella

The iconic Nine Arch Bridge, Ella

Colombo

The capital city like any other crowded city in the world but with a beautiful sea face. They have now started an ambitious project to extend the city by adding the reclaimed land. This chunk of land, an area of about 270 acres, will be used as a business district and economic zone for free trade.

The Red Mosque

Gilded Buddha, Gangaramaya temple

World's smallest Buddha statue, Gangaramaya temple

Gangaramaya temple, Colombo

Colombo Lotus Tower tallest in Asia at 356 m

However, the biggest worry for the people of Sri Lanka would be the Chinese taking over their capital city. They have already taken over the Hambantota seaport from the poor Lankans who couldn’t service the loan taken from the Chinese banks. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-sri-lanka-port.html)

Sigiriya - As seen from the top of the Lion Rock

Important:

- Pick Me taxi service is not available in Dambulla, Sigiriya, and Polonnaruwa.

- Intentionally, I left out of my itinerary a visit to the elephant orphanage in Kandy. Be it the elephants in Srilanka or the tigers in Thailand, they all are exploited in captivity by the unscrupulous. The same is true of the orphan children in Cambodia.

- After visiting both Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura (both erstwhile kingdom capitals and UNESCO heritage destinations with important Buddhist monuments / ruins, one may be forced to think as to which one to leave out when facing time constraints. For me both were important and I did both spending three nights in those two locations. However, for those following a really tight schedule, Anuradhapura could be conveniently given a miss.

Some Photos