Sigiriya: We Conquered It!

View from Lakmini Lodge (balcony)

View from Lakmini Lodge (garden)

I have a confession.

I have never seen a lion in the Sigiriya rock face.

Don’t hate me.

What I have seen is an amazing fortress, built by an equally amazing king who had art flowing in his veins.

Who else could have had the vision to build a rock fortress with huge pools at the TOP of the rock, or paintings of beautiful (half-naked :P) women on the walls, or shaped an entire rock to look like his spirit animal?

Ok. Enough fangirling over King Kashyapa. Moving on to budgeting to his wonderful, beautiful, artistic, majestic...

Stop.

You can take a bus from Kandy to Sigiriya for about LKR 300 but it will take you 3-4 hours so I recommend you hire a vehicle like I discuss in my previous blog post. Similar charges will apply.

My pen pal and I decided that Sigiriya would be too hot to climb during the day so we booked a hotel room and climbed it early the next morning. On the way we stopped at අළුවිහාරේ (Aluvihare), which is a beautiful and historic rock temple in Matale. Foreign tourists have to buy a LKR 250 ticket at the entrance. My pen pal was fascinated by the depictions of hell in the corner of the temple. Lots of blood in such a peaceful temple.

Kandy-Sigiriya via Google Maps

We got to Sigiriya around 3PM in the afternoon and had a late lunch at Sigiriya Village. Now, Sigiriya Village is a top hotel in the area and is not ‘budget.’ But we treated ourselves, especially because we… well… hmm. We needed to use the facilities. Cost us LKR 1600+ but it was worth it.

Iconic lion's paw ruins at Sigiriya

We stayed overnight at Lakmini Lodge. It’s a modest place, comfortable for 1-2 nights. Great view of Sigiriya. The overnight stay and breakfast cost us LKR 6000 (about $40). We ended up going out for dinner to a place called Wijesiri Family Restaurant. They do a mean apple roti. Cost us LKR 500 for an apple roti and a cheese roti.

The climb next day was hard, but very, very rewarding. We started out at 8.30AM and stood in line for a long time to get our tickets. It’s LKR 50 for locals and LKR 4620 for foreigners. Let me say right now that I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that foreigners have to pay that much more than we do. 100, even 200 I understand. But 4000? Nope.

So… we did it. We conquered it! Took us about 2 ½ hours to climb up leisurely and come down again but we did it!

Long view from the top of Sigiriya

Road leading to Sigiriya (view from top)

The view? Breathtaking.

Worth it? Abso-f***ing-lutely.


(Approx.) Total Time Taken:  2 days
(Approx.) Total Cost          :  LKR 13,650
Satisfaction                         : 3.5/5
*All pictures are subject to copyright © Asuka Randeniye 2016