Sri Lanka: Sigiriya, the crown jewel! Spring Festival 2019

Crowds as I was leaving

I went from Ella to Kandy only to be very disappointed with Sri Lanka's second largest city. It's a huge transport hub roughly parallel with Colombo but a few hours inland. Every train, bus, tour group and flight makes a stop in Kandy. Its an exciting place but at such a cost. I was very glad to only be spending two days in this mini metropolis.

From Kandy I had a hefty 3 hour drive to Sigiriya which is an area of religious and historical significance. It's an incredible strange place in that it is completely flat except for a huge boulder on the top of which is a temple.

Its a site of pilgrimage for many people and from what I can tell, can get very busy. I was lucky in that it wasn't too bad when I was there, especially as I got to the entrance of the rock park for opening time. A lovely 7 am!

I was staying in a small house only a ten minute walk from the park so the horrible hours weren't too taxing on me, especially as I had roughly kept to China time. It meant that I was naturally waking up early and could go places before it got too hot and too busy. It did mean that by 9 o'clock I was making plans for my bed but you can't have everything.

From the entrance of the park you walk towards the base of this weird rock and the scale of it becomes quite intimidating. (Also the though that I am about to climb this thing, what the hell am I thinking.)

It's just a lot of stairs, A LOT of stairs. Again, I don't remember how many but I felt it the next day. The stairs themselves are rickety, rusted and it looks like blue tacked onto the side of a rock. I climbed very quickly just to minimise my time on them. Others were not so lucky, I encountered 3 people having meltdowns at different points of the climb.

As I am just one of the luckiest people on the planet, the second I get to the top of the exposed flat view point, it starts to rain. It didn't come too much but it was enough to make things slippery and damp. Regardless, it was stunning.

The way down was terrifying but smooth, I was very thankful I had arrived early.

Sri Lanka: Ella Spring Festival 2019

Next on the agenda was one of the most highly recommended places in the whole country. Ella. Famed for it stunning mountainous landscape and tea plantation gardens. Everyone makes it a stop on their travel plans.


I only had two days to make the most of it so as soon as I arrived I set out to take in the sights. My hostel was advertised as having "good views" which I would say was an understatement. My room was a little tucked away from the main town/road but is was worth it.

 As it turns out, Ella is a small town created with the tourists in mind. According to other people I was talking to, it didn't even exist ten years ago. There is one short stretch of road, about 200 meters worth that is all cafes, bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. It was OK for two days but the characterless atmosphere must felt out of place in the middle of such incredible scenery. I did however managed to get a beer, which was an unforeseen issue of traveling a very religious country.

On my first morning, I got up to 'hike up' Little Adams peak. It wasn't so much a hike as a staircase up the side of a mountain. I doubt it would have been possible otherwise. I don't recall the exact number of steps but I can tell you my legs felt every single one the next morning. Getting to the top wasn't tricky, although the heat was making it a very sweaty experience, and once at the top the breeze cooled things down considerably.

The view from the top very incredible! sadly it was a little hazy so my pictures don't really give an idea of just how green it was.

The top got quite busy with people wanting to pose in interesting and instagram friendly ways. Lots of mountain top yoga going on, which was hilarious to watch. I hung around long enough to cool down and really soak in the green before beginning the descent. Going down was much slower as it was getting busy now (midmorning) and the track was too narrow for people to cross safely. About 45mins up and well over an hour down.

As I was walking back to the hostel I noticed a sign for a shortcut to the  9 arches bridge. This was a lie, but a nice walk through some pretty thick jungle nonetheless.

The bridge itself was crawling with people as apparently I had just missed the train. Its one of those weird places where it seems to get very busy on the bridge, yet the most impressive view was from much further away. I stood and watched for a while as people tried not to get into each others pictures before walking back into town along the train tracks. A very long walk back into town!

By this point it was about 3pm and I was fit to drop. As if someone upstairs was watching out for me, the afternoon was completely obliterated but a very impressive thunderstorm. I had no choice but to relax on my balcony for a few hours. You can't really tell, but the difference in the pictures hold give an indication of how heavy the rain was.

Sri Lanka: Safari in Udawalawe Spring Festival 2019

Now I am not really an animal person, I much prefer aquariums and beaches to anything cute and/or fluffy. That being said, Sri Lanka is famed for its wildlife and so I felt obligated to do something wildlifey whilst on my trip. The one that was the least out of my way geographically was Udawalawe National Park and its elephant residents.

I managed to get a car to drive me from Weligama to Udawalawe, which was more expensive but saved me many hours on a bus. A not pleasant experience just trust me. The car was great, I crashed out in the back and fell asleep, mostly to combat the travel sickness from the windy roads.

I was staying in a huge house next to the lake just a few miles from the national park. I booked a safari with the hostel owners husband and that was that. very easy. I ended up in with a few other travelers who were very nice, they were very into the elephants though. lots of 'oooh' and 'aaaah' and 'isn't it cutes'. We were driving for about twenty minutes before coming across our first elephant.

In total, we saw over 40 elephants (we tried to keep track as we were going but lost count very quickly), buffalo, jackals, deer, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, waders, kingfishers, eagles, hawks and loads more birds that I don't remember the names of.

I found the crocs far more interesting than anything else. We drove to the far end of the lake and sat on the mudflat for a bit until we noticed two medium sized crocs who decided to entertain us and started fighting. We were only about to watch for a few minutes but it was fascinating.

I wasn't hugely enthusiastic about the jeep safari but had a good day regardless. We only did a half day trip which was a very good idea, 4-5 hours of bouncing about and we were more than ready to head back to the hostel.