When I think about it, I can't imagine how those 10 days just passed by in the island nation of Sri Lanka. My first cycle touring trip outside India was as great as it could be. The excitement kept building as the date of departure approached closer. On the Christmas Day, we packed our bikes and bags to start the journey. I remember how hectic was it for me that day. I was buying stuff, converting money, arranging stuff thanks to my home shifting the previous day. As we reached airport, the big cycle boxes caught everyone's attention. After doing all the formalities, we boarded the flight and took off from Chennai.
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| Caution: Men at work. Assembling cycles |
Day 0: Chennai - Colombo - Dambulla : The flight landed at around 3:40 pm in Colombo. We had seen the weather predictions of the region and, of course, we were not surprised. It was raining in most parts of the island. To connect with people in emergencies, we got a mobile sim from the airport. In order to save time and avoid riding in plains, we quickly got a taxi from Airport to Dambulla (200 km). The friendly driver agreed to keep the bike boxes with him and return us back when we come back to Colombo. On the way, we kept seeing the place and analyzing the differences and similarities between India and Sri Lanka. The food, the language, the roads, the traffic everything seemed different in some way or the other, yet they seemed very familiar too. The 4 hours drive to Dambulla just passed by in these thoughts and observations. Reaching there, we got a room, dumped our luggage and quickly assembled our cycles. The continuous rain gave throughout the night gave a rough idea of what we were about to encounter the next day.
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| View from Dambulla Cave Temple |
Day 1: Dambulla - Sigiriya - Minneriya (54 km): The excitement was at its peak. We freshened ourselves up and after some packing, we set out for the journey. The continuous rain since the previous night could not diminish our enthusiasm. We started for
Dambulla Cave temple and went till around 8 km only to find out that we had proceeded in the opposite direction. We turned back and reached the famous cave temple.
As the story goes, the cave temples were ones the shelter for a king who had taken refuge here. After regaining his kingdom, he converted this place into Buddhist monastery. The caves are situated atop a big rock and the view of the planes and nearby mountains from here is simply mesmerizing. The major attraction were 5 caves and the special lighting effects inside them made the place a delight for the eyes. Various statues of Buddha depicted his life story. The painting over the ceiling of the caves decorated the place in a gentle manner.
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| Statues of Buddha inside the cave temple and painting on the ceiling |
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| Sigirya: The city over a rock |
After this we headed out towards
Sigiriya, the most visited historical site in Sri Lanka. The entry fees was $30 which kept us in two minds to go or not, this trip being planned as a budget one. One of the tourists gave a very positive review of the site and we didn't think twice after that. Grabbing our tickets as we passed, we witnessed beautiful scenes of the water garden and boulder garden on the base of the rock.
As we climbed up, we saw old paintings of women in a small cave near the middle portion of the rock. Further up we witnessed the iconic lion paw entrance and from there the steps took us up to the top. The top of the rock hosts the ruins of the old palace of the king. The view of the surrounding planes and the gardens of the palace from the top was simply fascinating. The palace built over the rock and the beautiful gardens in the base gave some food for thought to us. 'How did they build such a beautiful city over a rock?' - was simply the question which kept lingering in our minds for long.
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| Paintings of women in Sigiriya Caves |
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| Some serious rain at work. The car is turning back |
From Sigiriya, we moved towards Polonnaruwa, the former capital of the island nation. The way to Polonnaruwa from Sigiriya was a very nicely laden narrow road with jungle on either side. It was a wonderful ride. We rode through some flooded roads and it was fun seeing cars turning back due to the water level. Soon we hit the highway which passed through the Minneriya National Park. One person coming from opposite direction warned us of an angry wild elephant on the road further ahead. We went only to find out that it was peacefully eating leaves from the roadside trees. It had started getting dark by that time. At the end of the National Park, we reached Minneriya village. We asked a family if we could camp in their open space and we were sent back. Further ahead we asked another family and they did not mind. Not only that, they served us tea and made us sit in their chairs. The people of the family were poor but really really humble, uncorrupted by the money race happening in the outside world. After having some food, we set our tents and went to sleep.
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| Day 1 Camping site |
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