8 Days in Sri Lanka
When built, they were the largest structures in the world after the pyramids at Giza. And yet, I’d never heard of the Stupas of Anuradhapura. And that was just our first taste of the amazing sights, flavours, and experiences of Sri Lanka.
We started off in Colombo, which is an obvious and inevitable place to start. Meeting up in the Taj Samudra hotel where Ilana had been hosting a conference. It was just for the night of rest and last minute planning before heading out the following morning. Our departure made all the more colourful by a military and police parade in the avenue in front of the hotel. They were celebrating Indian Republic Day. The neighbour to the north has some influence, it would seem.
We took a circuitous route up north and inland to Anuradhapura. 4 hours into the drive, we discovered our driver only had a vague sense of where to go. At least heading the wrong way was scenic, even if it did add an hour to drive.
We still arrived in time to see three sights in the ancient capital city.
First, we went to Isurumuniya; a temple carved into a large rock rating from 300 BCE. A small and atmospheric place, it made a great first stop, showcasing just how impressive the ancient buildings of Sri Lanka are, and how well they have been maintained through centuries of use.
We then headed just around the corner to one of the holiest Buddhist sites in the world: the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi.
This bodhi tree was planted more than 2000 years ago, from a clipping of the bodhi tree which was shading the buddha when he attained enlightenment. Even as the city was abandoned for centuries, monks continued to tend to the tree, carrying on a record of unbroken care. It remains the oldest human planted tree in the world.
Finally, just a few hundred meters away was Ruwanwelisaya Dagoba towering over the jungle. It was built in 140 BCE, which makes it freaking old.
Still an active buddhist temple, the stupa was surrounded by crowds of pilgrims and local worshipers. The smell of incense, ever-present. Most fascinating to our eyes was the long line carrying what must have been kilometers of fabric to wrap the stupa. There were small groups sat around with a single monk leading a prayer. Everyone, except for the monks and the handful of other tourists dressed in pilgrim white.
All the sights of Anuradhapura are fairly close together, perfect for bike touring. So we hired two and set off into the hot jungle day (getting up to 31 degrees in the cool season).
The ancient city used to be home to as many as two million people while it served as the capital of Sri Lanka for 1500 years from 400 BCE to 1100 CE.
But then the capital moved, and the city was all but abandoned. A few monks stayed on taking care of the bodhi tree, but otherwise temple and monastic complexes, the old royal palace, and the rest of the city fell into ruin. For us, there were three main bits of these ruins which were particularly interesting.
1. Water and Sanitation Works
The ancient Sri Lankans new how to keep people healthy: good water an sanitation. From some of the earliest days of the city, toilets and urinals were built to separate urine from solid waste and to keep both of them well away from the fresh water.
All around the city, ancient Sinhalese built “tanks”, massive aquifers to store the rain from the monsoon season through the dry season to keep the rice paddies and the city well hydrated. These massive lakes also helped keep groundwater levels high. Often when touring ruins, wells will be dry or have a few drops at the bottom. But since the tanks are still intact, the wells of Anuradhapura are still wet centuries after they fell into disuse.
The tanks remain a central part of life. The ancient engineers did their jobs well, so they still store water perfectly well and feeding into now modern waterworks. They’re also a great community gathering spot on a hot afternoon.
The ancient city dwellers, especially the royalty, enjoyed playing with the water. Perhaps my favourite part of the ruins was the royal pleasure gardens set just below the Thissa Wewa (the tank pictured above). The water from the tank still seeps into the gardens keeping them green. But once-upon-a-time it was channeled through mini-aqueducts to cascade over carved elephants who look like they’re are playing in the water into bathing pools below. A lovely little spot.
2. Temples & Massive Stupas
Wherever you go in the ancient city, you’re surrounded by ruins and aren’t far from some beautiful buddhist temple.
In all of this, two set of ruins stand out: the Jetavanaramaya & Abhayagiri monastery complexes. They both have giant stupas which were the 3rd and 4th largest structures when they were built in the last century BCE and 3rd century CE. The only bigger buildings at the time were the (even more ancient) Pyramids at Giza.
The complexes are now massive areas of partially excavated ruins. Shrouded in jungle, they’re exceptionally atmospheric. Wandering around, you’ll come across beautiful carvings tucked away and secluded quiet spots where you can contemplate the rise and fall of civilisations.
3. Tourists
This was actually something we didn’t really see, to our surprise. In the course of a day touring around this fantastic world heritage site, we saw maybe 20–30 foreign tourists. While we saw more tourists as we went along on the trip, there are surprisingly few people coming to enjoy this gem of a destination.
We started off the day with a two hour drive to our 2nd UNESCO World Heritage of the trip (total was 6), the Dambulla rock caves. Again, it’s an old one.
The oldest of the cave temples is more than 2000 years old, and almost completely filled with a large reclining buddha carved directly into the rock. The whole space gave a sense of what some of the temples of Anuradhapura might have been like had they not fallen into ruin.
By mid-day, we were on our way to our 3rd heritage site, and the site we’d been most excited about before the trip: Sigiriya.
The most modern of our ancient sites yet! There were some ancient bits of monastery here, but the main attraction was built in the 5th century when a patricidal king briefly move his capital here and built a fortress atop a giant rock to hide from his vengeful brother.
It’s an incredible place to visit. The extensive gardens at the bottom of the rock fortress show just again how well the ancient Sinhalese mastered water and sanitation works. Scattered throughout a series of gardens on your way you, you can see rock paintings (the most interesting of which one isn’t allowed to photograph) and remnants of the palace.
One of the most impressive os these, and something that gives a sense of the scale of the palace at its height, are two lion paws, all that remains of a giant lion statue that merged with the rock palace.
The final stairs up are a bit unnerving, but from the top you are rewarded with a palace complex to explore (again, great water storage) and some breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside and the gardens below.
And thanks to the advice of the host at our guest house, we also stuck around to enjoy the sunset from the top.
We’d planned to just have a sunset hike in Sigiriya, but thanks to that good advice, we shuffled around so that we could do a sunrise hike at Pidurangala, a slightly-less imposing rock monolith 1 km north of the lion rock.
Again, great views, including back to where we’d been the day before.
We headed straight from the morning hike to a drive to Kandy, the 2nd largest city in Sri Lanka and yet another former capital city. As Ilana rightly noted: if you want to be a great tourist destination, start by moving your capital city regularly.
It’s a pretty town, set in the hills with a river snaking around it and a lake at its centre. We wandered around a bit then moved with purpose to the Temple of the Tooth, one of the most sacred places for buddhists. The temple contains the tooth relic: the buddha’s tooth taken from where he was cremated.
Compared to the more ancient temples we’d visited so far, this less scenic and more informative. The temple itself isn’t that much to see, but it’s a great chance to learn a bit more about buddhist traditions. Yes it’s a world heritage site (4 down, 2 to go), but for most travellers on a short trip I think missable.
From the temple we headed to our evening activity: a cooking class.
Starting the the main city market to buy fresh fruit, veg, and fish and then heading up to our instructor’s parent’s home to learn how to cook Sinhalese rice and curry.
Most of our dinners in Sri Lanka were “rice and curry” a well made rice accompanied by 4 or more different curry dishes. This evening, we made 8.
We enjoyed a wide range of curries over the course of our trip, and they certainly vary seasonably. But for our time there the aubergines were always a winner. Breadfruit was great. Prawns and cashews, it turns out, and deliciously complimentary flavours and textures. Coconut sambar is one we’ll be making at home in Kenya, we even bought a coconut scraper in Sri Lanka to make it easier.
After a late night, we were out the door for an early morning hike the Knuckles range outside of Kandy (UNESCO #5). Sadly we just had a day to spend in these beautiful mountains, if we’d had a longer trip we certainly would have extended this portion.
Back into Kandy for the evening, we met up with one of Ilana’s colleagues who hosted us for a dinner at his home, giving us a chance to ask lots of question about how Kandy and Sri Lanka have changed since they were kids, learn a bit our current politics (they’re a mess, like most places), and eat a lovely home cooked meal.
Trying to see as much of the island as possible in just a week meant we’d signed up for some time on the road. While most we’re 2–3 hours, we spent a solid 6–7 hours heading from Kandy around the mountains, and down to the beach.
The drive was worth it, as we landed at our one most luxurious accommodation booking: a tree house right on the beach in Tangalle.
After running around the sights for most of a week, we were glad for a chance to spend a day sleeping in and playing on the beach. A prefect nothing day in the sun and surf.
The restaurant at our hotel was superb, certainly going to make my list of best meals of the year. Our 2nd night as we were enjoying the largest prawns we’d ever seen, another guest alerted us that there was a giant sea turtle climbing up the beach. We all ran out of the restaurant and, keeping a respectful distance, witnessed as she started digging out a nest to lay her eggs.
We woke up early for a final Sri Lankan sunrise, viewed from the balcony of our treehouse. Perfect.
Then we were out the door for one last day of touring at Galle (UNESCO 6!). It’s a small fortress town mainly dating from Dutch colonial period. The town has continued to thrive and is a cosmopolitan little tourist hot-spot with trendy boutiques and cafes.
We spent the day walking the ramparts and eating too much ice cream, we simply had to try multiple spots to know which was best. After determining that note of the clothes at half-dozen boutiques were right for us and a final dinner, which was regrettably not rice and curry, we packed up and headed to the airport.
I hope this narrative format can prove useful for you as you think about your own trip to Sri Lanka. Its a fantastic destination perfect for 1–2 weeks of travel (or more!).
I took many more photos than could fit in this post, and you can find all of them here:
