We decided to take a taxi from Negombo to Sigiriya. It was about £40—much more expensive than the bus, but it would take only two and a half hours instead of five and be air-conditioned instead of unbearably hot.
As we were packing up to leave, an English guy from our hostel room, Alex, mentioned that he and his German friend, Rafael, were about to take the bus to the same destination. We arranged for them to join us in the taxi and split the cost, bringing it down to just £10 per person. The journey flew by as we chatted about our travels, shared recommendations, and—once again—added even more destinations to our ever-growing list of places to visit!
Alex and Rafael were staying at a different hostel, so we dropped them off along the way. Our hostel in Sigiriya is nestled in the jungle, which means it’s always slightly damp, and we seem to get a lot of tiny frogs in the bathroom. Luckily, they’re cute, so we don’t mind too much! However, we didn’t feel like spending the afternoon in a damp room, so we headed into Sigiriya to explore.
First, we grabbed lunch at a restaurant with a precarious-looking balcony overlooking the road. We decided to try kottu—a dish made of chopped roti mixed with scrambled egg, onions, and chilies. It was tasty, though not really to my liking, so I ended up sharing my leftovers with a very friendly (and very pregnant) cat.
Grace, on the other hand, loved it, and it’s quickly becoming one of her go-to meals here!
After lunch, we explored the town, though it didn’t take long since it’s mostly just a handful of shops and restaurants. We then decided to take a walk around the local lake.
The main attraction here is climbing Lion’s Rock, a massive, vertical rock formation that supposedly resembles a lion’s head. You could see it clearly from the lake, and the walk was lovely—until it started raining about halfway around. It’s currently the rainy season in northern Sri Lanka, and it’s definitely living up to its name!
We ordered a tuk-tuk and took shelter under a small coconut stall while we waited. We bought a coconut to share, and the stall owner, though he didn’t speak any English, kept bringing us different foods to try. When it came time to pay, our coconut cost Rs 300, but we only had a Rs 1000 note (about £2.60). He looked slightly panicked about not having change, so we told him to keep the whole amount. His face lit up—he beamed, shook both our hands, and kept offering us even more free food.
Eventually, we managed to say our goodbyes and hopped into our tuk-tuk, heading back to the hostel.
In the late afternoon, we joined the sunset hike organized by our hostel. It took us up to a small nearby viewpoint overlooking the town, with a great view of Lion’s Rock. The hike was relatively easy and didn’t take long, so we had plenty of time before sunset to chat with the others from our hostel and make some new friends.
Unfortunately, thick clouds blocked the sun, so we didn’t get much of a sunset, but it was still a great experience. Once we got back to the hostel, we carried on socializing over a few drinks.
We were supposed to be having an early night ready to get up at 4am for the sunrise hike up lions rock, however we didn’t quite manage that, due to the heavy rain the group of people at the hostel ended up not going out clubbing and ended up doing karaoke at the hostel instead, which was actually super fun as everyone had to do songs that were big in all of Europe so everyone knew them, so lots of fun throwbacks, I’ll spare you any videos here though!
We eventually left the group around midnight, popped in some earplugs, and tried to get a few hours of sleep before our early wake-up.
We eventually left the group around midnight, popped in some earplugs, and tried to get a few hours of sleep before our early wake-up.
We woke up at 4 a.m., absolutely knackered, and got ready—only to be told the hike had been canceled due to heavy rain overnight. With no reason to stay up, we happily went back to bed.
A few hours later, at 9 a.m., we got up again and headed out for an elephant safari. This region of Sri Lanka has the largest population of wild elephants, and our hostel offered a safari to a nearby national park. A Dutch couple we met the night before, V and Brian, had booked a four-person jeep and asked if we wanted to join them, which would bring the cost down to £20 each.
We weren’t too confident we’d actually see any elephants for that price, but since we didn’t have much else planned, we decided to give it a go. Turns out, we completely underestimated just how many elephants were in the area—finding them was no challenge at all! Every five to ten minutes, we’d come across another herd. They were completely unfazed by the jeeps, so much so that we often had to keep reversing as they got a little too close for comfort!
It was incredible to be so close to elephants in their natural habitat, especially watching the baby elephants play. However, at one point, we turned a corner and suddenly came face-to-face with a juvenile male, startling him. His ears flared wide, and he took a step back. We immediately told our driver to move us away, but he waved it off, saying it was fine. That was until the elephant started stomping his front foot and making warning noises—at which point, our driver quickly changed his mind and backed us up in a hurry!
It was raining heavily on and off throughout the 4 hour safari and we ended up soaked, especially when the guide kept getting us out of the jeep to climb look out points as if the elephants weren’t right next of us most of the time anyway.
One silver lining of the rain was that we got to see the elephants splashing around in the water and spraying mud over themselves, which was amazing to watch. We could have stayed for hours, but eventually, it was time to head back.
We attempted to climb Lion’s Rock again in the afternoon, as the weather forecast showed a clear window for two hours. After a tuk-tuk ride to the entrance, we approached the ticket seller, who warned us that heavy rain would start in five minutes. He said he’d sell us a ticket if we still wanted one, but climbing in the rain would be dangerous.
Skeptical, we checked multiple weather apps, all of which showed the rain would hold off. We asked him again if he was sure, and how he knew—and he simply replied, “I know.” Sure enough, as if on cue, the heavens opened moments later, drenching us completely as we hurried back to the tuk-tuk. We tried again the next morning but again it was raining so we decided to cut our losses and move on to the next place early.
It was a bit frustrating not to be able to do the main hike we came here for, but that’s the risk of visiting during the rainy season. That said, getting up close to wild elephants feels like a pretty great consolation prize!
Tomorrow we are heading to Anuradhapura, it’s further north so we’ll probably get much more rain, but it is supposed to be a less touristy safari lace than the parks down south and a good place to see leopards, I’ll tell you all about it soon!
love, Alice x