Transport
We left Negombo town en route to Habarana. We had to take 2 buses, one to kurunugela and then the next to habarana. It took around 5 hours, mainly due to major roadworks on the dambulla road which had us and standstill for nearly an hour. The bus journey was fun..but be warned the bus drivers here have a need for speed and love driving on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic in order to get to where they want to be!
Seats can be difficult to get at times and aircon is a rarity. We learned the red buses here are government run whereas all the others are from private companies. And often the private companies will detour to drop off a friend or go massively off route in the aim of getting more passengers.
We left Negombo town en route to Habarana. We had to take 2 buses, one to kurunugela and then the next to habarana. It took around 5 hours, mainly due to major roadworks on the dambulla road which had us and standstill for nearly an hour. The bus journey was fun..but be warned the bus drivers here have a need for speed and love driving on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic in order to get to where they want to be!
Seats can be difficult to get at times and aircon is a rarity. We learned the red buses here are government run whereas all the others are from private companies. And often the private companies will detour to drop off a friend or go massively off route in the aim of getting more passengers.
We arrived in Habarana centre and got a tuk tuk to the outskirts (Hiriwadunna) where 'Homly Guest'....our home for the next 3 nights. When we arrived the guy seemed anxious and spoke very little English. But kept mentioning his Jeep. He helped us with our bags to our room, which looked clean, tidy and exactly as in the pictures. We changed and went to sit on the veranda with our calendar and guidebook to make a rough plan for the next few days.....where to start!
We looked at the sights of the cultural triangle and figured it would be best to do the one furthest away first. This was Anuradhapura the ancient city. The bus picked up from Habarana centre and would take around 90mins.
So we awoke early to catch the bus before it became too hot and it dropped us off in the New town at the expected time. We then had to navigate ourselves to the old sacred city to begin the sightseeing. Thankfully most people are super friendly and it only took a few awkward questions before we knew where we were going.
Turns out it is quite a walk! Especially in the heat! So we succumbed to the idea of hiring a tuk tuk to take us round all the sights, which definitely the right move (cost 1200 lkr for the day)...you can also hire bikes but like I said it was very hot! And actually the sights are actually very spaced out.
The sights are amazing - so crazy to think that in ancient times people had the capabilities to build such things!
A point to note is that as it is a Buddhist sacred city and there are lots of temples and Buddha statues - you must always have your shoulders covered and shoes and headwear off. This suddenly becomes a challenge to a poor westener like you or I, whose feet are not used to this and find walking on hot paving stones similar to walking on hot molten lava!
We had a great day and were also offered by our tuk tuk driver an additional trip to Minhitale where there is a large Buddha on the top of a big hill (additional 1,500). But by this point we were very tired and needed to just get back an relax!
So we awoke early to catch the bus before it became too hot and it dropped us off in the New town at the expected time. We then had to navigate ourselves to the old sacred city to begin the sightseeing. Thankfully most people are super friendly and it only took a few awkward questions before we knew where we were going.
Turns out it is quite a walk! Especially in the heat! So we succumbed to the idea of hiring a tuk tuk to take us round all the sights, which definitely the right move (cost 1200 lkr for the day)...you can also hire bikes but like I said it was very hot! And actually the sights are actually very spaced out.
The sights are amazing - so crazy to think that in ancient times people had the capabilities to build such things!
A point to note is that as it is a Buddhist sacred city and there are lots of temples and Buddha statues - you must always have your shoulders covered and shoes and headwear off. This suddenly becomes a challenge to a poor westener like you or I, whose feet are not used to this and find walking on hot paving stones similar to walking on hot molten lava!
We had a great day and were also offered by our tuk tuk driver an additional trip to Minhitale where there is a large Buddha on the top of a big hill (additional 1,500). But by this point we were very tired and needed to just get back an relax!
The following day we went with another couple we'd met, to Sigirya rock in the morning and Dambulla temple caves in the afternoon. Again we took the bus from Habarana - we got off at the Sigirya junction and went by tuk tuk to the rock. Sigirya rock is famous for the beautiful water gardens at the top and is another UNESCO site. We actually decided to not climb Sigirya rock itself but instead pidurangala Rock which is a third of the price (1000LKR), without the cues and you actually get to look at Sigirya properly and take photos of it. It's also much more fun to climb as there are no steps up to the top.
We then went onto Dambulla where despite the cheap gold exterior once you get inside the site is very beautiful and amazing that the caves could have been carved into temples so long ago, with such detail. But watch out for the mischievous monkeys... If they see you opening your bag they suddenly become very interested in what your doing!!
We missed out Pollunuwara (the other sacred city) mainly because of time and that having looked at some other people's pictures it looked vaguely similar to Anuradhapura.
Anuradhapura:
Our Tuk Tuk for Anuradhapura!
Sigiriya -Climbing Pidurangala
Sigiriya Rock
Top of Sigiriya:
Dambulla - Temple Caves
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