The owners of the Devi guesthouse tried to get us to hire a van that would bring us to Dambulla/Sigiriya and then on to Kandy. The 3 wheeler taking us to Kaduruwela (the bus station is not in Polonnaruwa but at Kaduruwela which was about 4-5 km east) tried to convinced us to take his 3 wheeler to Sigiriya. But we stuck with public buses. (Rs70 per person from Kaduruwela to Dambulla)
We took a Kandy-bound bus to Dambulla, and asked to be dropped off at the Dambulla Cave Temple. We showed the bus conductor the pictures of the cave temple. You can do this if you take a bus heading to Kandy or Colombo. If you take a bus going to Kurunegala, it will not pass by the temple. You'll need to drop at the Dambulla bus station and take a 3-wheeler or change to a local bus.
Dambulla Caves turned out to be a major disappointment. It was definitely not worth the hefty US$10 entry fee. (Tickets need to be bought at the Golden Temple and the receipt produced at the top of the hill before entering the caves).
There is a Golden Temple at the foot of the hill. When were got there, there was a consecration ceremony going on for some kitschy statues. (think Haw Par Villa in Singapore).
Our backpacks were going to be a problem. I was not going to bring it up the hill. I found a small eatery within the temple compound and we left our lugguage there. We had some food (the usual parathas and roti's) and coffee before heading up the hill. We also left our shoes together with our backpacks at the eatery (so we don't have to pay the shoe keeper at the cave temple), but that meant we had to walk up barefooted (which was what most of the locals were doing).
I was under the impression that there were many massive caves. But there were really only 5 caves. Unless you have great interest in trying to decipher the stories or meaning behind the wall paintings, you can quickly finish the caves in less than half an hour.
What I found was that the paintings and the Buddha images weren't that beautiful. They were quite stylized and the colors a little gaudy.
After we were done with the Dambulla Caves, we took a 3-wheeler (Rs150) to the bus station. Again the 3 wheeler tried to get us to hire him to Sigiriya (he quoted Rs800 from Dambulla to Sigiriya. Another 3 wheeler quoted Rs600). Nope, we were sticking to the cheap buses. We took a pretty worn-out SLTB bus for Rs24 each.
Sigiriya was really quite near Dambulla. But the bus was practically crawling at a speed of about 20km/hr all the way to Sigiriya.
Sigiriya was not even a one street town. There was just a few shops and 2 guesthouses by the road and that was it. We stayed at Flower Inn and this was a place I would highly recommend. The owner of Flower Inn was a very friendly lady. The huge clean rooms with big beds and attached bathroom were only Rs1000. The rooms were beautifully decorated, each room had a theme color (I found the pink room a little too glaring, and opted for the blue one instead), though I thought there were just too many flowers everywhere. There was also a common living room with sofas and a dinning table.
What was even better was that the owner was vegetarian. The dinner was wonderful. There were 4 curried dishes (carrot, potatoes, cabbage and seitan), dhal, omelette, papadam served with rice and a soup. There was even fruits after the meal. At Rs800 for 2 person, it was definitely a very good value meal.
Our original plan was to stay the night and go up the Sigiriya Rock early in the morning. However, our host advised that evening was better time. If we start at 4pm, it wouldn't be too hot and there was even time to explore the place and see sunset. It turned out to be good advice. But if you are doing that, what you should do is to explore all the ruins at the foot of the rock first. Otherwise, it would be too dark by the time you get down.
When we got to entrance, the attendent was not willing to let us in. The Cultural Triangle price had just went up from Rs5900 to Rs6000 and we were told our ticket was now not valid. We had to go to the ticket office and argued that what we have are valid tickets. In the end, they let us in.
Sigiriya Rock can be a challenge for those afraid of heights. Sheung was afraid of heights and quite apprehensive about it. But in the end, he did made it to the top.
On the way up, spiral staircase led up to the a small gallery on the sheer rock face. This was were the famous frescos of half naked women were found. The wall paintings were very nicely lit up by the late afternoon light.
At the Lion's Paws, we met the French girls who stayed at the Devi Tourist Home. One of them were too afraid to go all the way up to the top.
At the top of the Rock, there remained a sprawling ruined complex. Only the foundations are left.
Probably because we visited on a late weekday afternoon, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. I read that during weekends, this could be extremely crowded. I would love to stay and watch the sunset at the top but Sheung was not eager (I guess it would be difficult to go down in the dark too.)
Before we got back to our guesthouse, we dropped by a shop by the main road and had coconuts for Rs25 each (about S$0.35). As mentioned earlier, the dinner that was waiting for us back at the Flower Inn was simply sumptuous.
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