Sigiriya

The village in the dry zone of Sri Lanka that sits under the rock fortress of the same name — the reason Harry and the group leave Kandy for it.

Getting there

• Two to two and a half hours by taxi from Kandy, quoted at around 5,000 rupees — just under $25 — split between four people, with a little extra for accommodation that sits further out than expected.
• The last stretch is unsurfaced. The villas are down dirt tracks off the main road, with dogs alongside them.
• There are wild elephants on the roads here. One is standing in the road on the way in, which is Harry’s first sight of an elephant in the country and something he hadn’t known to expect.

Where they stay

A place spread out through the trees with a pool, a caretaker and four bedrooms, at about $150 a night split between four. What he keeps coming back to is the quiet and the temperature: the tree cover holds it mild, and with nobody talking there is no sound at all.

The rock

The reason anyone comes: a flat plain with a single enormous rock standing out of it, with the ruins of a fortress and palace on top. Harry has it dating to 477 AD, and calls the fact that a civilisation lived up there the best part of the visit.

• 6,090 rupees for one adult — about $30, the foreigner price, and the most expensive admission of his Sri Lanka trip.
• The ticket office is inside the museum, not at the entrance to the site. Going to the gate first costs you the walk back.
• Guides wait at the base at 100 rupees. He declines and regrets it mildly, watching the next group get the history he doesn’t have.
• 1,200 steps, and close to 200 m of elevation.
• It is easier than its reputation. He was told 45 minutes to an hour of hard climbing and found it straightforward — and says the accessibility is a good thing rather than a disappointment.
• The hazard is wet rock, not height. After overnight rain the steps are genuinely slippery, the descent is harder than the ascent, and one stretch of open staircase is the only frightening part of it.
• A tuk-tuk from the villas takes about 20 minutes.
• At the top: the east palace complex, spread over a large area, with a pool cut into the rock. A smaller rock nearby is pointed out to him as “little Sigiriya”.
• Snakes and monkeys are both around — a cobra on the descent, monkeys at the bottom.
• The market at the exit sells family-made carvings from about 25,000 rupees and photographs of the rock in sunshine at 400.

Harry’s tips

• Split the taxi. For a two-and-a-half hour drive it comes to a few dollars each, and is the normal way to move between towns here.
• Check where your accommodation actually is. Theirs was further from the village than they had assumed, which added to the fare and put them at the end of a long dirt road.
• Check the forecast. His own closing lesson: they climbed into cloud and bought a postcard of the view instead.
• Go early. Out at 6:30am, they were showered and back at the villa before eleven, ahead of both the heat and the coaches.
• Go to the museum first, because that is where the tickets are.

Source

• Epic Sri Lanka Road Trip 🇱🇰 (Sigiriya) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtbrTzCz8Ow
• Foreigner Visits 8th Wonder of the World (SRI LANKA)🇱🇰 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g61l7kAyggk