Anna Wildman

I was really scared to go for my run because of the dogs, but it was ok. There were just a few that barked a bit, but the majority of the dogs I passed didn’t even get up or bark. They just sat there and watched me. It’s always like that— the scary-looking dogs are never actually scary, and then when I’m more relaxed I get attacked by the less threatening ones.

I meant to do 5 miles, but ended up doing 6.

I got breakfast at the guesthouse, which was bread, banana, and eggs (that I gave to Adrian).

We got ready, then headed out to get the public bus to Sigiriya. Right before leaving, our guesthouse owner told us that the Lion Rock, the main attraction in Sigiriya, would cost us $30. There was another rock nearby called Peduringala that was only $3 that we could climb instead.

We got to the bus stop and some guy (presumably a tuk tuk driver) asked us where we were going. We told him Sigiriya, and he told us the bus would come to where we were standing. He added that the bus comes every 40 minutes to an hour, and after it arrives we’d have to wait about 30 minutes to wait until it got full. Then we’d have to drive about 30-40 minutes to Sigirya. All in all, the bus ride would take about 2 hours total. And, the bus would drop us off a kilometer from Lion Rock so it’d better to take a tuk-tuk that would drop you off right in front of it.

We were contemplating the tuk tuk option, but I insisted on waiting at least 10 minutes for the bus before hopping into one.

The guy kept talking to Adrian. I noticed buses coming and going a bit ahead, so I decided to walk toward them to see if any of them were the bus to Sigiriya.

One guy asked me where I was going, and I told him Sigiriya. He told me to get on the bus right by me.

I waved Adrian over and we got on. I knew that guy was being dishonest— he was only chatting with us to distract us. He knew we’d keep missing the buses to Sigiriya, not realizing there were many passing by already, and we’d eventually give up and get in his tuk tuk.

In 30 minutes we were dropped off by the entrance of Lion Rock. Way off from his 2-hour estimate.

We walked past the entrance and went a bit further to get to Peduringala.

 

I thought it wasn’t a religious place, but it turned out it was.
I was wearing shorts, so I had to put on a sarong.

We walked up to the first part. There was a cave area with lots of boulders you could climb through and around, which was fun.

We kept going up, and soon we found ourselves climbing up a bunch of stairs.

We walked by a big lying buddha before we got to the fun part— with no more stairs, we had to climb rocks and use both our arms and legs to get up the rest of the way.

About 10 minutes later, we reached the summit.

Most people were just hanging out right at the beginning of the viewpoint, but I saw a higher point so I climbed toward it.

That opened up into a massive open space with lots of places to explore.

Adrian and I walked around the top for a while, taking photos and soaking it all in.

By the time we got back down to the bottom, we were starving.

We went to a little cafeteria by Lion Rock, but they only had snacks.

We bought a few things— a couple triangle rotis stuffed with mashed potatoes and spices and daal patties (called laddu). Both were absolutely delicious.

On the way back to the bus stop, we saw some monkeys and bulls.

Once we were home, we relaxed for a bit and then decided to take a walk around the lake by our guesthouse.

It took a while to get there, and when we got there we realized it was just an industrial lake.
So we just walked to town instead.

We got dinner at a random Sri Lankan restaurant and I got veggie curry, of course.

One of them tasted really fishy again. I guess if the curry has veggies but is made with fish sauce/paste, they still consider it vegetarian?

We wanted a fruit smoothie after, so we walked around to look for one.

We walked into a store and asked the guy working if they made fruit smoothies. He said no.
As we were leaving, he chased after us to let us know of a place down the street that made smoothies. It was so sweet of him to go out of his way to show us another option since he couldn’t personally help us.

We saw that Mango Mango a few doors down had smoothies.
I ordered a papaya smoothie, and Adrian wanted a mixed fruit smoothie.

“Can you make a pineapple and mango mixed fruit smoothie?” He asked the cashier.

“No.” An employee nearby replied.

“Why?” I asked.

She then brought over the manager to deal with us and walked away.

The manager talked with the cashier and told her that he wanted a mixed fruit smoothie. Eventually she understood and we got the right order. It was so strange that the first employee just flat out rejected Adrian’s order when it was clearly possible to get a mixed fruit smoothie.

We sat down and researched places to stay at our next destination of Kandy.

After we drank our smoothies, we walked back to the guesthouse.

We saw more fireflies on the way home. It was electrifying watching them fly all around the trees and bushes. It truly was like having our own fireworks show. But all natural and much more peaceful.

We took so many steps today so I was exhausted by the time we finally got home. My total count was 43,446 steps 19 miles. Crazy!

We went to bed around 10 pm— I’m slowly turning Adrian into a grandpa to match my grandma-ness. Hehe.