Colombo to Kandy
In spite of the conditions in which we spent the night I woke up rested. Both of us showed no ill effects from eating the local food. Our breakfast consisted of power bars and tea from the same glasses that we used the day before.
Our goal was to visit Sigiriya, an ancient fortress that sits on top of a rock with near-vertical walls.
First, we got by public bus to the city of Dambulla where we hired a tuk-tuk. The driver agreed to take us to Sigiriya which 25 km (15.5 mi) from Dambulla, then to return in 3 hours and drive us back to Dambulla.
The tickets were $30, not really cheap, but this site is unique and worth the money.
The tickets were $30, not really cheap, but this site is unique and worth the money.
Sigiryia, a 200-meter (660 ft) high rock, was used as a Buddhist monastery. In the 5th century CE, a local king moved to Sigiriya his capital to make it a secure place. He built on the flat top of the rock a large complex that included a fortress, palaces, ponds, and gardens. After the king’s death, Sigiryia again became a monastery. It was abandoned in the 14th century.
The day was sweltering. Sigiryia is only 885 km (550 mi) above the equator. We started climbing the steep stairs. Closer to the top there is a landing with lion paws artfully carved from the rock. The legend says that the lion had a head too which did not survive. A white tent with a red cross stood on the landing in case someone needed urgent medical help after climbing in such heat and humidity.
We took a lot of interesting pictures there, too many to post.
We made it back to the parking lot within 3 hours and returned to Dambulla on the same tuk-tuk. The driver dropped us off at the caves. The day was far from being over.
The ancient cave temple in Dambulla is a World Heritage site. The ceilings and walls are painted with murals and images of the Buddha. The caves contain 159 Buddha statues. The monastery at the caves has been functioning since the 1st century BCE.
In Kandy, we went straight to the railway station to buy tickets for the following day. To our great surprise, there were no tickets to our next destination, a small town of Ella. We could not believe it. It was so easy to get tickets Colombo to Kandy for the departing train. We stepped aside from the ticket window to discuss what to do. Sergey insisted that we should forget about going to Ella, return to Colombo and make a trip to the beaches. He argued that even if we got to Ella somehow we had a good chance of getting stuck in it. Ella is connected with Colombo by railroad, but not with the South coast. We did not know if there were buses between Ella and Matara on the South coast. We would have needed to travel all the way back from Ella to Colombo by train and this would have been an awful loss of time.
I badly wanted to see Ella which is in the heart of the tea growing area. Surely, buses run to Matara from it. Otherwise, how do the locals get there? Not everyone in Sri Lanka owns a car. It was dreadful to think of going back. In the end, we came up with a compromise. The train to Ella was departing one hour earlier than the train to Colombo. We bought 2 tickets for the train to Colombo, but we were going to come to the station early and try to get tickets for the Ella train. If we could not travel to Ella then we would use our tickets to Colombo. I found it’s hard to believe that all tickets to Ella were sold out. Something was telling me that these tickets would become available the next day and we wasted money on the tickets to Colombo.
We found a fast food place on the top floor of a shopping mall and had dinner. I only ate snacks all day and drank water, but oddly did not feel particularly hungry.
After the second night in that horrible room we packed and went to see the main Kandy’s attraction – the Temple of the Tooth that houses a Buddha’s tooth. Luckily for us, it was located on the other side of Kandy Lake, close to our hotel. The tooth is not on display. It is stored in 7 nested gold caskets and visitors can only see the external casket.
According to the legend, the tooth was stolen by a king when the Buddha was on his funeral pyre and smuggled to Sri Lanka where the great relic was an object of reverence. When Kandy became the capital in the 17th century, a temple was built to keep and honor the tooth. Over the centuries the temple was rebuilt several times and eventually it developed into a large complex.
The hall with the tooth is decorated with paintings that tell its story. Here is one of them.
From the Temple of the Tooth, we returned to the hotel, picked up our backpacks and went on a tuk-tuk to the train station where first class tickets to Ella suddenly became available. What a miracle! Should we attribute it to visiting the Sacred Temple? Perhaps, not. This made me think that a number of tickets are kept until the departure date.
Sergey was still grumbling that we would not get out of Ella and it would be my fault, but I knew he wanted to see Ella as much as me. I bought more meat pies of doubtful quality at the station to eat on the train and we left Kandy.
Kandy – Ella – Unawatuna
The lion’s paws remind of Sphinx (that has also missed a part of body, not as large as the head though:) You look great! And in top form to make such ascent.
Thank you, Oksana! This ascent would not be difficult if it had not been the heat and humidity of that place.
Thanks for including the map of your travels in Sri Lanka. Really helpful!