Tour of Sri Lanka 2025 | Day 17 | Kandy – Sigiriya | 102.8 kms

My alarm goes off at 5am, but I actually wake around 7am. I get ready immediately and curse myself for not getting up early. I need to visit 2 locations in Kandy before moving on to Sigiriya as I have many places to see along the way.

It’s going to be a long day. With the help of the owner, I make myself a cup of coffee and in the meantime, try to complete my pending diary. After the coffee, I move out to see the places. Both of them are within 2km of the hostel as I reach in no time.

The first one is a ‘Shri Maha Bodhi Viharaya’ temple which house the largest sitting Buddha in Kandy. It’s so huge that it could be seen from the hostel also. I park and climb the set of stairs to reach the base. The white colored Buddha is massive. At the back, there are stairs to go to the top of the statue. The view from the top are great as you can see all around. I spend some time at the top before coming down.

I offer my blessings, take some photographs before moving onto ‘Asigiriya Bodhiya’. The road directly takes me to the top where the big stupa is situated. Again, this can be seen from the hostel. I park my bike. Some monks nearby take fancy to my bike.

They pose with the bike as I click pictures of them before moving inside the stupa. It has 3 levels inside. Top one is the shrine room, which is decorated from inside in a artistic manner. The paintings are out of the world and I spend a lot of time going through the details in each one of them.

I even take some pictures. I then go and see the meditation room and finally, the museum at the lower level. After that, I make my way back to the hostel and on the way have my full breakfast. I load the luggage on the bike and it starts to drizzle. The weather since the morning is cloudy and I fear that I might encounter rain along the way. Finally, at around 10:20am, I leave for Sigiriya which is around 90kms away.

It continues to drizzle as I make my way out of the morning city traffic. I pass through many shop dealing with Auto Car parts. The roads are narrow and this time the traffic has increased to multifold. This makes me brake often reducing the pace. The road also starts to go down as we drop altitude. I can feel that. There are no longer mountains but only the hills covered with plants like coconut and other varieties. Tea plantations have gone. The clouds above look menacing and threating but, it drizzles every now and then which fore me is fine as long as it doesn’t pour. After about 1hr of riding, I stop at my first place called ‘Aluviharaya’ which has rock cut temples and statues of lord Buddha inside. I park the bike, pay the entrance fees and move inside.

The area is full of big boulders, the size of a 2-3 storey buildings. 2 caves are intact with beautiful paintings done on the wall and the statues. After that, I climb a small rock from where we can see a sitting Buddha statue far away on the adjacent mountain.

The path to that place involves trekking for about 1 hr. I skip going there. Next, I visit a cave where the teachings of the Buddha were first wrote down on palm leaves. At the nearby administrative building of monks, I get to see how they write on the palm leaves. One of the monks shows me the demo as I write my name in English, Sinhala and date on it. I thank him and take that souvenir along with me.

Before heading back down, I visit a small museum containing various items found during excavations nearby. I then proceed further along the route and stop at the Spice Garden where it finally started to rain cats and dogs. The attendant there takes me to the garden behind and explains me about the trees which are grown in this part of Sri Lanka, all while holding our umbrellas.

I see plants of Vanilla, Cocoa, Nutmeg, Cardamon, Clove, Medicinal pineapple, Coffee, Cinnamon, Turmeric etc. I also see a plant only found in Sri Lanka from which Hair removal cream is made which is 100% herbal. Next, he takes me to the spice shop but I avoid buying anything. I thank him for giving me his time to explain all the things. I give him some money as a tip before moving ahead. I make a forceful stop up ahead to protect from a sudden downpour of rain but within 15mins, I am back on the road.

My next visit is to the ‘Nalanda Gedige’ which is an important place as it’s considered to be the central point of Sri Lanka. There is nothing fancy there, just a plaque and a marker indicating the central part. Next to that is an ancient hallway of which on the entry pillars are surviving. This hallway leads to a rectangular brick pavilion which houses a temple which has a status of Buddha inside, a Bodhi tree and a Stupa.

All of them look quite old and the exact date is uncertain. I take a good look at it and after clicking photos, I return back to the parking lot and then move towards my last place of visit which is the ‘Dambulla Rock Cave Temples’. The rain is really getting over me. I reach the place in around 20mins, park the bike in a open parking lot and move inside. On the way, I have some light snacks. I get to see the Golden Temple first which has a giant statue of sitting Buddha in golden color. I take a picture and from there heads towards the rock cut temple.

There is an entry ticket to the cave temple but since I have entered from another complex, I have to walk for 500mtr to the office to get a ticket. Meanwhile, it starts to rain and I get worries about my luggage getting wet. I arrive at the office in almost drenched condition, buy the entry ticket of 3000LKR, then take a tuk tuk to reach to my bike to check on the luggage.

Luckily, no major damage has been done. Then, I move the bike from there and enter via cave temple entrance and park properly in a covered parking lot. The hike to the cave temple is easy and takes 10mins. It’s a bit struggle climbing up with the protective riding gear. I reach the top, the views are good, the weather is still cloudy but no rain. I deposit my shoes and move inside. So, these are basically rock cut temples similar to what we saw in the morning but the caves are huge with many statues of Buddha inside and the paintings are just out of the world.

Each of them is done unto the last details and each of them is unique. I just can’t keep myself from looking at them. The exact date of this cave is not known but it’s truly a masterpiece. The cave is similar to what we have back home in my state but these have retained the colors and paintings. The same follows or the other caves which are in sequence to one other with subtle changes to the paintings and the statues housed inside.

The last of the cave is a bit small and has reclining Buddha in it. One is left to guessing as how these masterpieces must have been executed. There is a lotus pond in front of the caves and also a Hindu temple where I offer my blessings.

The priest there ties a white band on my wrist. I take his blessings before moving down. Sigiriya is just 19kms away and I evade the rains as I cruise through a much wider roads towards the iconic town. I touchdown the city at around 5:45pm following which I book a hostel and proceed towards it.

Confusion erupts when I reach the place and find the place is locked with a similar person like me waiting to check in and seem totally confused. We try to ring in the owner but he is not picking the phone. I drop a msg via the Booking.com and also through WhatsApp but no response. Finally, I am about to give up and cancel the booking to look someplace elsewhere when exactly at that time someone from the owner’s family comes and open the hostel.

I find out that one couple is already staying here and they too arrive when we are checking in. Owner offers tea to us which is refreshing after riding in the cold and damp weather whole day. I get freshened up and go towards the dining restaurant as suggested by the owner to spend the rest of the evening and to have my dinner. It’s a walking distance from the hostel. I don’t see anyone when I reach the place. Behind me, 2 girls from Spain, Andrea and Laura also join me who were also coming to this dinner place. The owner of the cafe emerges from behind to greet us all. He even had left a note on table to contact via WhatsApp if he is not to be seen anywhere. I fail to see this note kept on the table. We sit together and have beer. Soon, after some time, we are joined by my room mate from Japan.

In not time, we have 2 new people from Italy sharing the table and finally 2 more girls from Spain. The table has expanded to 8 chairs now. We collectively order dinner and till the time it’s cooked. We spend the time talking each other about countries, travel stories and life. Spanish is a majority as except me and the Japanese guy, all are speaking in Spanish. I love listening to them and urge them to continue speaking in Spanish. Later on, we have fun having dinner together. It’s a great evening spend with unknown people who now, have become friends from Spain, Italy and Japan.

After photos, we all say good bye to each other as everyone go in their respective directions. Beautiful end to the day.