Days 3, 4 & 5 - Sigiriya, Kandy, Ella - Sri Lanka

This is a long one as it covers a couple of days… Updates to the blog have been hampered by some pretty horrific jet, but we are over the worst of it now!! There has been a lot of travel as we have spent around 12 hours driving between our destinations and the winding roads just knock us out, it’s like being rocked to sleep! 

Sigiriya

Our next stop after Colombo was Sigiriya, which is a really small town which is made up mostly of small one story buildings which are fairly basic. Our hostel was about a 20 mins walk from the main town area. The hostel was fairly simple but it was also only a tenner a night, so we cannot complain too much. The staff were really friendly and couldn’t do enough for you. 

The main draw into Sigiriya is Lion Rock named for the old gate which used to be a whole lion but is now just the paws. In all honesty there isn’t much else in Sigiriya aside from Lion Rock (that we could tell), but there is some nice food spots which look a bit intimidating from the outside but are worth being brave for.

We were told there was a free hike offered by our hostel which we assumed (wrongly) was up lion rock, but it was actually up a smaller rock off to the side, which gave an excellent view and we watched the sun come down along with other people at the Hostel (all a bit weird so we didn’t chat too much). The staff were lovely and we spoke with them for a while. 

Having failed to get up Lion rock that evening we decided to try again early the next day before setting off to Polonnarawu which is the nicest capital of Sri Lanka and has some old ruins to visit. After another night of almost barely any sleep, we woke up just after sunrise and headed up to Lion Rock. Admission was fairly expensive, but it was well worth it well worth it. The climb up was a bit sketchy: 

But the views at the top more than justified climbing the stairway that seemed to cling to the side of the 200m drop with nothing but a few well placed pins and a prayer to Buddha. It was incredible seeing the ancient palace/monastery. It would have been spectacular in its heyday and even as a ruin, it’s still incredibly impressive. 

Kandy

We decided to give Polonnarawu a miss given we had already crammed a lot in on top of our driving and we know we have some incredible temples coming up further on in the trip, so we headed straight to Kandy. We managed to get a hotel room which was really nice for only £20 each for the night. 

On the way to Kandy we stopped at a Spice Garden and learned all about how the various spices of Sri Lankan cooking were used medicinally and were able to see what all of the fresh spices look like before they are processed… We found this far more interesting than is reasonable! 

We went out to grab a late lunch and and go a wander through Kandy, it’s a really lovely place not as busy as Colombo and it has some pretty cool things to see. We wandered around the lake and met a man named Viki (who would soon reveal himself to be a jeweller and try to get us into his shop), who advised us we must see the local dance show and guided us round the lake to where it was being performed. 

The show was really interesting, but also a bit confusing. The dancers were really impressive, performing acrobatics and eating fire. The music was also super interesting and one person played an instrument which I can only describe as sounding like the one they charm snakes with (it may be the same instrument?). 

Following the show we went to see the temple of the of the Sacred Tooth Relic, which allegedly houses one of Buddahs teeth. It is the most significant religious site and it is impressive. We were greeted at the beginning buy a tour guide who insisted on following us around and giving us information, it was through him we learned that Sri Lanka love rugby, so that’s a (fun?) fact. We said our prayers at the shrine as instructed and left. The tour guide who insisted on joining us was not happy at the end of the tour when we tipped him and refused to give him more when he said he was disappointed with the amount… 

We went back to the hotel where we FINALLY beat the Jet lag!

Ella

Unfortunately, a massive cyclone hit Sri Lanka back in November and it had caused a lot of damage, some of which is still visible. As a result, the famous trainline between Kandy and Ella is not running at the moment. Because of this we had planned on pivoting to another location, but our driver suggested that it would be a mistake to miss Ella. So off we went. 

On the way we stopped at a tea factory and learned how tea was made. We had some cake and then tried some of the tea, which in fairness to this lot, was bloody good! 

As we hadn’t been sleeping well, and as an early birthday present to Kirstin, Cam suggested that in Ella we stay in a hotel. In typical fashion and inspired by conversations during Kings Day, Cam messaged a lovely hotel and asked for a ridiculous discount given that they still hadn’t filled a room…. In even more typical fashion Cam got what he wanted and was able to get the room for a smidge under 30% of what the room was advertised (at time of writing and despite us pointing out the error, twice, we have only been charged the deposit for the room which equates to about 15% of the advertised price). 

The hotel was stunning and the staff were incredible. It was situated below little Adams peak in-between tea fields. It was so so nice and made even better knowing that we had paid so much less than everyone else staying there! We hung out in the room and enjoyed the privacy of the heated plunge pool. 

We went up for dinner in a lovely area at the top of the hill and for the first time, we were chilly. Which ultimately is not surprising as we were 1100m above sea level or just 200m shorter than Ben Nevis! The food was okay, but there is much better to be had in Sri Lanka for a lot less money. We then had the experience of being brought a "happy honeymoon" cake, and as you can see Kirstin was delighted and totally did not have a complete riddy the whole time! Following the sugar rush, we went to bed and immediately zonked out.

At the recommendations of both Sam and Laura separately, we decided to climb little Adam's Peak first thing the next morning and were lucky to have it fairly free having missed the sunrise crew and then the post breakfast crew (set off at 7am). On the way back down we had to compete for space on the path against some angry/rude Russian which seemed to come in droves. 

When we got back to the hotel we had some breakfast which was tasty but fairly western and then were treated to a Hindu ceremony which is said to bring luck and good fortune to newly married couples, which was really fun! And so ended our stay in the fancy hotel. Despite the lack of sleep (which is now much better), we are having such an amazing time and we are so grateful for the fact we get to spend this time together.