Sigiriya - Sri Lanka

One of our favorite stays was in the little town of Sigiriya, in Central Sri Lanka.  We spent 3 days in Sigiriya at a lovely guest house that had just been opened by a local family.  It was a joint venture between a brother and sister and their parents, all of whom lived on site.  The brother, Buddhika, has worked in hospitality for many years and is a senior hospitality trainer at a big hotel chain. As such he has a good sense of what foreigners are looking for.  His wife is a school teacher and comes and goes from the house, while his sister who co-runs the hotel, works as a civil servant in the local government office.  Their parents live with them (and their young children) and are retired.  The father was the inspector for onions in the local agricultural bureau.  The mom cooks all the meals for the family and guests. One of the factors that made our stay so pleasant was we felt like we were in a warm family environment, while still in a comfortable guest room.  We were pleasantly surprised to find this spot and settled in for a few days.  We enjoyed learning to play cricket with Buddhika's young son and in return teaching him UNO and the matching game.  We enjoyed the grandmother's cooking and appreciated retreating to our AC room when the heat got unbearable.  From here we went on the afternoon safari to Minneriya and we also did a couple of other local outings.

V watching TV with the host's son

Buddhika accompanied us to Sigiriya Rock and Sol got to ride on the bike.

Sigiriya is known for the famous "Sigiriya Rock"  which is an ancient rock fortress.  Archaeological evidence shows that the rock site had religious communities in the area dating back 3 centuries BC.  In about the 5th century a King who had seized the throne after killing his own father, fled to the rock in fear of retaliation from his half brother.  On the rock he created a heavily fortified capital city.  Not long after the brother did indeed recapture control and eventually the rock fortress was abandoned, only to be returned to the monastics.  Today the historical ruins is one of the most visited sites in Sri Lanka and the climb to the top of the rock is accompanied by a hefty fee.  One of the things that was annoying about Sri Lanka was the hugely disparate two tier pricing.*  Sri Lanka, I suspect in response to the huge influx of tourists, has grossly increased their fees for foreigners to enter parks and attractions.  It is understandable that we would pay more as visitors than locals, but to pay over $100 as a family to walk up to the top of a rock was too expensive for our budget, so we chose the increasingly popular option of climbing the neighboring rock, Pidurangala, for a fraction of the cost.

From the top of Pidurangala we had awesome views and we could look back over to Sigiriya. We didn't get to see all the ruins and the carved lions' feet from which Sigiriya gets its name, but fresh from Cambodia we were okay with skipping ruins in heat.
*I should clarify that we understand and are okay with paying more as visitors, but it was tiresome to always end up paying more for the same good/service as locals such as when eating at a roadside stand and the price for a plate of rice and curry is grossly inflated for us or the price for a ride in the back of a three wheeler, that locals use all the time, is outlandishly high.

This is Sigiriya Rock.  Look at the stream of people climbing up the steps.  In the heat! Glad we skipped this. 

Sigiriya in the distance - you can see how it juts up from the surrounding plains.

The climb up Pidurangala was surprisingly pleasant as much of it was through trees and partially shaded.   Pidurangala has a Buddhist temple at the bottom and statues of Buddha toward the top.  When the King decided to make a fortified capital on Sigiriya there were monks living there that needed to be moved. (The history of resettling people from one area to another is apparently ancient and likely always ill fated).  The king moved the monks to Pidurangala and it became an important monastery.  The hike up was about 45 minutes of climbing, starting with a series of steep steps and ending in a bit of a scramble which is always a fun challenge.  On top the views in the setting sun were very beautiful.  Perhaps ignorance is bliss, but we did not feel like we missed out not climbing Sigiriya rock, and in fact, looking at the stream of little ant people climbing up the big rock in the heat of the day, we felt quite content with our decision.

Our view looking back at Sigiriya

I love that we are on the top of this huge rock with incredible views and V is excited to sit and play with rocks.
I have pictures of him sitting in dirt playing with rocks from around the world.

Buddha statue encountered on our walk up.

Another outing while in Sigiriya was to go on a "village tour".  This is a totally hokey touristy venture that we normally shy away from, but it actually ended up being a delightful afternoon.  We wandered a few meters down the road from our guesthouse to a hut where the five of us got in the back of a cart that was pulled by a Sri Lankan cow.  I say Sri Lankan cow because I am not sure what breed it was, but it is definitely not the jersey cows we think of back home.  The man leading the cow assured us that it was comfortable pulling much heavier loads.  One look at its broad shoulders and camel-like hump left no question that it truly is a "beast of burden" used to plow and heavy loads, westerners included.

After our cart ride we disembarked at the edge of a lake where we loaded onto a small pontoon type boat.  We were paddled around a lovely lake during which we, as the intrepid birdwatchers we have become, spotted birds and admired the floating lilies.

Have I mentioned how HOT Sri Lanka was!?

On the other side of the lake we walked to a small hut where two women showed us how they prepare traditional Sri Lankan food cooked over wood fire.  The highlight was seeing a coconut go from a tree to sambal, with the steps that include cracking it, cutting it, shredding it and mixing it.  We then got to eat all the food which was some of the more delicious Sri Lankan food we'd eaten.

 

Grinding chili paste and mixing it with shredded coconut.

Delicious fried dough.

After that the trip home was via the ever entertaining 3 wheelers, which are, when there is no oncoming traffic, a lot of fun. Leo and I even got to drive the last few meters.  Touristy, yes.  But heck, we are tourists and the afternoon was a fun one.

Back of Three Wheeler fun.