Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Had breakfast at 7:15am to get an early start at Sigiriya. Breakfast included hoppers (crepe-like bread) with coconut and jaggery, very yummy.

Our plan was to go to Sigiriya by tuktuk, return to the hotel to pick up our bags, and then go by car to Anuradhapura.

We booked the same tuktuk driver that we had for Pollanaruwa, as he was excellent. Left the hotel at 8am, arriving at Sigirya just before 8:30am.

Sigiriya is a rocky outcrop rising 200m with vertical walls, with the remains of an ancient civilization at the top. It's one of the things that attracted us to Sri Lanka in the first place.

Sigiriya is also the most-visited tourist site in Sri Lanka, and the guide books all suggest climbing early morning. So of course there were 50 million tourists who all left their hotels around 8am to start the climb.

First was the traffic jam getting into the entrance. Next was the 10 minute line up to buy tickets. Then another 10 minute line up to show the ticket to enter.

So finally we were at the start of the climb! Not so fast. It's a narrow paved path, impossible to pass anyone. Tour guides stop their groups in the middle of the path to give their spiel.

It took us over an hour to get to the top, about 10 minutes of actual walking, and the rest waiting. At the top step, the people in front of us stopped to remark, wow, we're at the top and have a short discussion about the climb. Umm, well maybe you're at the top, and the people behind you are waiting for you to move from the top step.

At the top, there's not much to see in terms of ruins. The best viewpoint is an aerial view that you see if you google Sigiriya, which was likely taken from a plane.

So as you can tell we didn't like the excursion. If you're a historian or archeologist it's pretty cool; unfortunately I'm neither. The climb itself is entirely in the shade, it's just at the top where you're in the sun. So you don't need to do the climb at 8am, although it looked just as busy when we left.

Took the tuktuk back to our hotel, had some tea (cause that's what you do in Sri Lanka), switched over to the car, and drove to Anuradhapura.

Our driver had to call the guesthouse a couple times to find it (we've been keeping the hotel phone numbers handy for a few years now, as all the taxi drivers have cell phones). It was in a quiet residential area, the street circling a park area with a pickup cricket game going on in the middle.

We checked in and then took a tuktuk for lunch. First drove by the train station to get reserved seats for our train to Colombo, but it was sold out.

Ate a late lunch at 2pm at Mango Mango, recommended by the guesthouse. It was okay. We relaxed back at the hotel, got served dinner at 6:30pm, way too close after lunch but we hadn't specified a time and I guess that's when the other guests were eating (they had younger kids). At least they had beer, except limited fridge space and so our 2nd beer was warm.

Made plans for a tuktuk driver to take us around the Anuradhapura ruins tomorrow. I had planned two days to see the ruins based on the Lonely Planet but the guesthouse said it would only take four hours. After dinner read up on the city and surrounding area to figure out what to do with the extra day. There were some temples and short climbs that might have interested us at the start of our trip, but we were out-templed so looked at options to get to Colombo a day early.

...

Woke up at 7am for breakfast. Our Colombo hotel had emailed back and they had a room available for us to arrive a day early, so we booked it.

Breakfast was okay at the guesthouse, except for the tea which tasted like it was from teabags circa 1970. It was disappointing after all the great loose-leaf tea we've been having in Sri Lanka.

We asked our tuktuk driver about going by the train station to check for tickets to Colombo on Dec 24th, but he said it would be sold out. Not only did we hit the Christmas rush, it also coincided with Poya (the full moon celebrations). He recommended we catch the 5am train on Dec 24th, with the general admission 2nd class tickets sold the day-of.

So we were off to see the ruins of Anuradhapura, our last bit of touristing on this trip. (We still have Colombo to see, but that's more about souvenirs).

The ruins were cool, not as varied as Pollanaruwa, but worthwhile to see. The Anuradhapura ruins are active religious sites and so we had to take off our shoes at most of them. (Unlike Pollanaruwa which is an archaeological site, and shoes are okay).

The ruins are scattered about a few km. We stopped at about 15-20 sites, including four large dagobas, which take a few minutes each to walk around. That doesn't sound like much effort, but it is when you're barefoot and walking on stones that have been baking in the sun.

We were lucky at one dagoba to see an enormous fabric being carried into the dagoba, to be wrapped around its circumference.

It was a hot day, and we were glad we took at tuktuk rather than renting bicycles for the day. The roads linking the sites are filled with cars, and it's not as obvious where things are, compared to say Pollanaruwa or Bagan, where it was easier to navigate.

After a week of rice and curry for lunch and dinner, we wanted something different, which in Anuradhapura means Pizza Hut (they also have KFC here but we were also out-chickened). The pizzas were close to a pizza from home. We were embarrassed to ask our tuktuk driver to take us to Pizza Hut but oh well.

Arranged with our driver to by picked up at 4:30am the next day to catch our train. Had dinner (rice and curry, not too bad), did a bit of packing, and went to bed.