Day 2/3 - Road Trip Sri Lanka - Mili's Blog

Dambulla > Sigiriya > Polonnaruwa > Pasikuda

Next day morning we had a nice breakfast from Jayanthi we really enjoyed. My little one loved the pan cake she made. After having tea, we set off to Sigiriya. We tried to reach Sigiriya early as much as possible because in the mid-day usually get really hot there. So about 10 am we started the journey from Sigiriya car park. Weather was pretty good in December, very green because of rain few weeks ago with bit of cloudy. Perfect!!. There is a little walk from the parking place to the ticket entrance. The walking path/road is really pretty with the surrounding area with lots of trees. There are some decent toilets around there which was not too bad as it cleaned up regularly. As soon as you at the ticket gate its where the this massive royal garden starts. The garden is massive & each side has well balanced various things, structures and a lots of ancient man made ponds. There is a very man made engineering work for water flows even they had water fountains without pumping motors. Some are still in working condition. You can basically get in to an imaginary world & think how were it would be in the ancient time looked like a very royal palace type garden. There are many places can take lots of pictures. 

You you look at straight & there you will see this massive rectangle shape rock - Sigiriya. Its basically popped out from nowhere. Unbelievably massive! If you see it first time you will be amazed. This is probably my 5th time visit within last 30 years but I still get amazed by seen this. Get your goose bumps ready! For me this is the no.1 must visit place in whole Sri Lanka. Others may have different opinions.

This is what says in wiki about Sigiriya - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigiriya
According to the ancient Sri Lankan chronicle the Culavamsa, this site was selected by King Kasyapa (477 – 495 CE) for his new capital. He built his palace on the top of this rock and decorated its sides with colourful frescoes. On a small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock he built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion. The name of this place is derived from this structure — Sīnhāgiri, the Lion Rock. The capital and the royal palace was abandoned after the king's death.

On the way to the top there are several important places to stop & watch. First is the mirror wall which has written many "sayings" and poems. This was originally made by King so could see himself while walking around. This wall was very a polished. Made of brick masonry and covered in highly polished white plaster. But later the wall used by visitors to scribe their own love, experience, irony or anything in verses or poems, some of them are dating from as early as the 8th century. This is now not allowed on the mirror wall & has been banned for the protection of the old writings.

Another stop place is for ancient paintings done by the king. These are very world famous paintings believed to be done by the King. No photos allowed there. After that in the half way of the rick you come to a spacious area which believed to be the main entrance to the castle top. There have had a massive man made lion head entrance. Even today you can see the lion paws (massive!). Plenty of monkeys there for a snap!. We saw few monkey families with babies.. very beautiful.
Beware with food they are so sneaky & can steal anything from you. From there onwards it has steep steps to go up. These are well built by metal steps. Just next to the modern built steps there are steps carving in the rocks which believe to be the actual steps to the top those days. My mum told me that when they were little (1970s) they use those as they haven’t had this fancy steps. It looks very dangerous without a step, having said that we never heard of people who slipped or fell from this place.

On the top of the rock is a flat area which had the castle. There are plenty of things to watch because you still can see the castle structure, Lot of ponds & even Kings royal chair. Breath talking views from the top. You can see the royal garden from there & how evenly architecture & structured. Afterwards we came down & the whole thing probably you can cover in about 2 hours.

After that we head off to Polonnaruwa for the next attraction. On the way we stopped at a small restaurant/shop type place for lunch. They had a very simple Sri Lankan type buffet which had Rice & plenty of curry types with some fish or meat. Plenty of green stuff. Exactly what we wanted. i think we paid about Rs.250 per person. Very tasty meal.

Polonnaruwa
Its a bit of drive to Polonnaruwa but roads are good compared to 10 years ago so I was pleased. On that way around "Minneriya" there were plenty of elephants you can see. Some times even along the roads. We arrived Polonnaruwa about 0400pm.

In there lot of sites to visit and you need time. We were bit rushing because of timing. but the must visit place is "Gal Viharaya" which is the finest Buddha statue carving you would ever see. Very peaceful place.
More details - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal_Vihara.
After that we walked to the bank of "Parakrama Samudraya (Parakrama sea)" built connecting five separate reservoirs(thopa, dumbutulu, erabadu,boo, katu tanks) connected by narrow channels in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka. This was built by King Parakrama. Its really looks like a sea even though no tides but cannot see an end. After finished we start the journey to the coast east Pasikuda. Its about 2 hour drive.

It was a long day, basically we travelled from north middle to the east coast. We wanted to travel to Pasikuda on the same day so we can relax next 02 days there. We reach there about 0730 pm & done a quick shopping to buy some local beer & some street foods. Badly needed a beer. We arrived at Ashram accommodations in Pasikuda is our next stay. Rahul the owner welcomed us. We ordered Dinner from there in advance. After couple of beer we had our dinner & that was very nice.

Pasikuda
Next day was a relax day but we went to the beach. The weather there is not too hot at that time. We enjoyed the beach but I would say its not the best beach we have seen, I think because of rain. But important thing is you can jump in because the water in not cold in any of beaches in Sri Lanka!! (in UK eeeeeeeeeeeh! never jump on to a sea..). It was a relaxing day on all in afternoon at Ashram. There were plenty of Mango trees in the garden & we enjoyed some lovely mangoes given by those girls who is working there for Rahul.
They are so kind & helpful. Later evening after couple of local spirit shots it was dinner time. This time we select another famous Sri Lankan simple dinner food combination, Chicken Curry & fresh bread from a bakery. Basically you just dip bread in chicken curry & east as much as you want. That is so tasty.