Hotel Suisse Kandy Srilanka

From Sigiriya, we headed to Kandy, Sri Lanka's second-largest city. 

We would have liked to have caught the train, but that would have involved backtracking to Colombo on the train we came up on, and taken at least 10 hours.  We therefore discounted the train, which left us with a choice between a bus and hiring a car.  We were torn between these options.  A bus would have been much cheaper (about LKR 100 each from Sigiriya, via Dambulla), and left us with a truly authentic travel story, but we decided against it in the interests of time (we reckoned it was at least a four hour trip, including connections), comfort (we knew the buses got packed), and Mrs H's enormous backpack (the thought of being jammed into a bus with the backpack on our knees for four hours didn't do a lot for us).

And so, we decided to rent a car and driver.  The son of the old man who ran a souvenir stall in Sigiriya agreed to take us.  We paid LKR 5,000 for a late model (but small) car.  He spoke great English, drove carefully and calmly, and chatted away to us about the sites on the way, which included Matale, famous for its spice gardens. 

Although we encountered a few roadworks, the roads were pretty good - on a par with many State Highways in New Zealand or the less-travelled A roads in the UK.  It's about 70 kilometres from Sigiriya to Kandy, but despite the short distance it still took us a little over two hours.  This was mainly because of the sheer volume of traffic, which made it difficult to overtake, and then, later, we hit end of school traffic.

Our destination was the Hotel Suisse, on the Lakefront.  Dating from the mid-19th century, the Hotel Suisse is a grand, albeit slightly faded hotel (in the photo below, the Hotel Suisse sits in the foreground - the modern building at the back is another, more modern, complex).

The building was constructed by the British, before being sold to a Swiss lady who ran it as a guesthouse (hence the name).  It was apparently used as a military command centre during the second world war, but was turned back into a grand hotel afterwards.

The hotel is classic colonial architecture, which has been well-maintained and is generally in good order. 

It has large gardens, terraces, a grand ballroom, a traditional bar and billiards room where it's all too easy to imagine British officers gathering for their Gs&Ts.  There's also a swimming pool and a playground (but the latter, Mrs H was told sternly, is strictly for children aged 12 and under).

The service in the hotel was great.  We were welcomed in the lobby with smiles, and given a welcome drink.  We chose a deluxe balcony room, with a terrace overlooking the lake.  The room was classically furnished in a style befitting the era of the hotel.  It was clean, tidy and cool, with tiled floors.

The bed was a good size and comfortable.

And the bathroom had a good-sized wet-floor shower, with a bath.

Being hill-country, and close to the lake, we thought there might have been mosquitos, but when we were there in July at any rate, there were no problems to speak of.  We spent a good deal of time on our balcony, overlooking the gardens.  Despite the warning sign, we didn't see any mischievous playful monkeys in the hotel grounds (although there were certainly many in the trees down by the lake).

The weather while we there was variable.  It shuffled from being hot and sunny to grey and threatening - but we were fortunate not to experience hard rain.

The reason we chose Hotel Suisse was its proximity to the lake and the city centre: it was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel to the main shopping area, and to the famous Temple of the Tooth.  It's about the same walking distance whether you go left or right from the hotel.  We did get a tuktuk on one evening - it cost us about LKR 150.

Breakfast was included in our room rate.  It was an all-you-can-eat buffet style menu; with eggs cooked and fruit juiced to order.   We were happy to eat outdoors on the terrace, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. 

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Hotel Suisse.  There were intermittent problems with the wifi, which left us incommunicado for a while, but overall we enjoyed our stay and would recommend it to others travelling to Kandy.  We scored it 8/10.

Minneriya National Park

While we were in Sigiriya, we decided to go and visit the Minneriya National Park, a short drive (maybe 20 minutes) from the village.  

We were approached by a man who offered to take us on a safari tour in his jeep at LKR 5,000 - but time constraints meant we ended up booking through our hotel, at a price of LKR 7,500.

It's good to know that the price is per jeep, not per person, so if there are lots of you it will work out substantially cheaper on a per-head basis.  

Mid to late afternoon is the best time to see the elephants for which Minneriya is famous.  We set off from the hotel about 1.30pm.

We arrived at the national park to encounter a large queue of vehicles to get in...

...and a large queue of people waiting for tickets....

We bought our tickets, noting the discriminatory pricing (LKR 1,995 per foreign adult, and LKR 60 for a local).

... and our jeep set off deep into the wilds of the park.

We were a bit worried that the large queue of vehicles would mean that we had a traffic jam right through the park, but it wasn't to be.  Our driver was happy to lose the crowd, taking less popular side roads.

We met this crocodile (from a distance):

Eventually, we broke out of the jungle into grassland, where we could see the famous Minneriya Tank.  The lake is actually a man-made reservoir, apparently built in the third century. 

Here, in the dry season, elephants gather from all over northern Sri Lanka to feed and water.

We were blown away by the number of elephants we saw. Talk of an elephant gathering was absolutely right.

We saw elephants both big and small.

The baby elephants were especially cute and lovely.

The gathering was simply majestic.  The elephants were peaceful, grazing happily as they went about their business.

We couldn't count the all the elephants we saw.   We got as far as 150, but there were lots more than that.  Maybe closer to 200. It was an unmissable, unforgettable sight.

After seeing the elephants, our driver stopped by the shore of the lake.

From here, we could see buffalo...

...and water birds.

We were interested to see too that, despite the lake being both man-made and freshwater, there appeared to be shellfish washed up along the edge.  We weren't sure what these were, and our guide didn't know.

We had a fantastic time at Minneriya, and we'd thoroughly recommend it for anyone visiting north-central Sri Lanka at the right time of year to see the elephants gather (we were there in July, perhaps a tad early to experience it fully).

It was an expensive day out, but thoroughly enjoyable and simply amazing to see.  We give it a 10/10.

Long journey to Pidurangala Rock Sigiriya

Everyone who goes to Sigiriya climbs the Sigiriya Rock.  We decided to be more adventurous and climb the Pidurangala Rock as well.  

We had read that Pidurangala is far less-visited than Sigiriya.  And so it was.  Finding Sigiriya was easy - one can simply follow the stream of tourists.  Getting to Pidurangala was more of a challenge.  

From the top of Sigiriya, you can look across to Pidurangala.  We knew it wasn't far, and from checking at the hotel, we knew that we could get there by following the main road to Habarana.  So we set off walking.  At the beginning, we could see the rock, rising above the jungle, but we soon lost sight of it as we got closer and the trees around it got taller.

We walked a long way, looking for a sign to Pidurangala.  We came to a small, overgrown side road.  There was no obvious sign that it led to a tourist destination.  So we kept walking.

We walked further and, after about 20 minutes, caught up with some tourists who were plainly lost.  They were looking for Sigiriya.  They asked us for directions, and full of self-importance, we explained that they had taken completely the wrong road, and sent them back in the direction of Sigiriya Village.  Knowing that we were on the right road to Pidurangala, we ploughed on.

We kept walking.  We walked quite a long way, past another small country road - more of a ghostly track - that led vaguely in the right direction.  But we couldn't see Pidurangala amongst the jungle, so we decided to walk on and find a local to ask directions.

We were pointed in the direction of the second small road (although, later, we would learn that the first road would have been more direct - we went exploring without a map, but you can find one here).

Anyway, off we went...

On the way, we came to an old, and apparently deserted monastry, unique for showing Buddha under the shadow of a cobra.  There were no signs, and we weren't sure of its name.  It was beautiful, serene and quiet - like nobody had visited this place for years.

It came with a stupa, but the grounds were overgrown and appeared neglected.

Mrs Herbivore was a little scared of ghosts at this place, so we kept walking down the road, in search of Pidurangala.

It had taken us a good hour and a half to walk from our hotel in Sigiriya, but finally, we found the entrance to Pidurangala.  It was a very different experience from Sigiriya Rock.  At Sigiriya, we had to queue for tickets, and then queue for a ticket check.  In contrast, we were the only people at Pidurangala - and we actually had to look for someone to find us a ticket.  Each ticket cost LKR 500 for admission to the cave temple, which also permitted us to climb the rock itself.

At the bottom of the hill, a short walk from the ticket office, is the cave temple.  A helpful attendant kindly showed us through to see the ancient sculptures, and a reclining Buddha.  This temple was clearly well-kept and in regular use.

After visiting the rock temple, we set off to the top of the Rock.  The attendant asked us if we wanted a guide.  We politely declined, and he warned us to be careful of snakes.

The climb to the top was not like Sigiriya.  Whereas Sigiriya had well-worn tourist paths, clearly maintained at some expense by the auhorities, Pidurangala was rather more wild.  It really was like being in the jungle, and in places, there were no paths at all.

We were relieved that we didn't see any snakes, but after a short, steep climb, we reached a much older, and less maintained Buddha.  On the way, we passed clefts in the rocks where the monks had lived ancient times.  The climb to the Buddha probably took us 20 minutes or so, and was relatively easy for anyone from a hilly city.

The Buddha marks the end of the maintained path - but from here you can keep climbing, through and over rocks to the top.  A top tip is to follow the arrows painted on the rocks to get to the top, even if they appear to go the wrong way.

The climb from the Buddha is more challenging.  You really do have to scramble, stretch and climb a bit to get to the top.  We managed in a pair of sandals and flip-flops respectively, but proper shoes would probably have helped.

From the top of Pidurangala, we could look out towards Sigiriua Rock, where we had been the day before. 

The view of Sigiriya was beautiful and amazing.  We could make out the hordes of tourists on the other rock.

But we enjoyed the relative solitude of Pidurangala.  In the hour or so we spent there, we saw only a handful of people.  It was almost like being alone in the world.

From the top, we ventured down.  Getting down seemed to be much easier and quicker than the climb up.  We were tired and hungry, and fortunate to find a tuktuk at the bottom.

The tuktuk took us back to the village in Sigiriya for lunch.  The tuktuk route was rather more direct than our walking route to get there; and as we neared Sigiriya Rock, we finally found a sign pointing to Pidurangala!

If we had taken the right road, past Sigiriya Rock, our journey would have been much more direct, and much quicker.  But perhaps not as much fun.