Tour of Sri Lanka 2025 | Day 18 | Sigiriya | 126.5 kms

I woke up around 5 am to persistent rain. Knowing an early morning visit to Sigiriya would be disappointing, I used the time to write in my diary until 8 am. The rain has lessened to a drizzle, and I’m now debating whether to visit Sigiriya Rock.

It’s gonna be a waste of climb if we don’t get to see the views from above. This decision making continues till 9am after which I finally decide that we are going to Polonnaruwa town, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. This is close to 60kms from Sigiriya and that I will be doing the Sigiriya Rock and the Pidrungala Rock in evening when the weather would be much clear. After getting ready, we finally leave around 9:45am. Initially, I leave without my rain gear as I take a little risk as it wasn’t raining but riding for a km ahead and it’s starts to pour heavily which forces me to go back and wear the rain gear.

Myself and my Japanese friend Masa, we continue riding upto Polonnaruwa in the rain which is switching ON and OFF. We immediately are passing through jungle territory of Minneriya National Park where a lot of elephants are there. We are on a bit cautious mode since we are on a bike and don’t want any bad encounter with them. But, not one, we get to see 3 elephants happily grazing on the road side as we zoom past them. Later on, we see one more elephant in the lake who is knee deep and playing in the water. We stop to take photos before moving forward.

At a petrol station ahead, I stop to fill petrol and subsequently have breakfast in a shop opposite to it. The rain has gone now so I decide to let go off my rain gear. We still have 30 more kms left to Polonnaruwa town. Just when we are about to reach the city, it starts to pour heavily which forces us to make a stop and take shelter. There are no signs of rain stopping so I decide to wear the rain gear again and continue.

We reach the town in 5 mins and go to the museum where the tickets to see the ancient city are being sold. My ticket is discounted to $15 as I belong to India but my Japanese friend has to pay $30. The ticket price is huge. We first see the museum as the people there instruct us to do so. It’s basically all the photographs and statues and artefacts of the things present inside the kingdom. It’s like a theory class before beginning our practical session.

The museum is divided into 5-6 sections and each section displaying the relics and monuments of a particular region of Polonnaruwa territory. It takes about an hour and half to go through each of the sections in detail and we finally emerge out having a rough idea of what to expect in real. We also download a legend map of all the important places to visit in the area. There are about 26 of them. We start to cover each of them on bike. The first 2 places are 2km far as we make our way there. We pass through the reservoir dam road, the reservoir which was man made by the king ruling around that time.

There’s a statue of him which we are visiting. Like this, we cover all the places of interest, visiting pagodas, temples, citadels, fortress, living quarters, ponds, etc. Most of them are in ruins. The big pagodas are intact but with it’s plaster washed off and green moss growing all over it.

There is only 1 big pagoda which still retains it’s white plaster. The highlight of the ruins in the ‘Gal Vihara’ which has as seating, standing and sleeping carved out statue of Buddha. It’s a masterpiece.

The last place we visit is the lotus shaped pond and exactly around 6pm, we return back to Sigiriya in the dark. We encounter 1 elephant, but like us, he is also on the way back home unbothered of us. We reach Sigiriya around 7:30pm with no signs of imminent rain. I get fresh and head out for dinner as I am hungry.

We have walked a lot today. I return from my dinner around 10:15pm having gone on foot and thereafter crash on the bed for a good sleep.