Roarpedallers

24/6/26 – Polonnaurauwa

We had a very early start to catch the train to Polannaruwa, it was difficult to convince Patrick to wake up but the other two were up and ready pretty quick. Arthur had slept in his clothes to make this morning even quicker. As we waited of our tuk tuk to arrive we enjoyed looking out at the lagoon as the sun rose, a few fishermen were heading out and one was setting some crab pots. 

At the train station we waited in line to get our tickets then went through to pick our seats, we chose seats beside the open windows which gave us great views as we chugged through the countryside. We said goodbye to the coast as we turned West and had stunning views of the far away mountains back dropping the rice paddy’s. We kept an eye out for elephants but never saw one, we did see a large crocodile swimming in a small pond which was cool. 

3hrs later we arrived in Polonnaruwa, due to the very early start it meant it was very early, just after 9am, when we arrived at our hotel. The staff were surprised to see us however Rhys had phoned them yesterday warning them of our early arrival and checked if it was ok to leave our bags. When the manager arrived he remembered the conversation and was very friendly, letting us check in and put our things in the room. The hotel had a beautiful pool which excited everyone however we could not go for a swim yet as we had some ancient ruins to explore. 

After a quick walk to find some food we grabbed a tuk tuk and went to the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. Our tuk tuk driver offered to drive us around the UNESCO site which we accepted as Ancient Polonnaruwa is sprawled across a huge area and it would involve walking approximately 10km . 

Tickets in our hand we set off to our first stop the Royal Palace, where the buildings date back to the 12th century. As we approached the Palace there were so many men selling trinkets, wooden elephants, tourists maps, necklaces, bracelets they were so persistent with the humbug which throughout the day became rather annoying. 

The crumbling remains of the palace impressed the boys, as we walked through the huge walls they couldn’t believe it use to be a building with 7 stories. Arthur noticed some stairs which would have lead to the upper floors which he thought was very cool. We then walked across the garden area to the council building which had elephants carved into the rocks surrounding the whole building. The steps leading up had two large lion statues guarding the entrance, they were fantastic. Nearly all of the concrete pillars still have writing visible which is apparently the names of the councillors who sat beside them, incredible. We then made our way to the bathing pool, by this stage the very hot weather was getting to Patrick, he wished the pools were still working so he could jump in. The remains of the pool looked brilliant and to imagine it back in the day it would have been stunning. Two rock crocodiles still stand and this is where the water flowed in to fill the pool, very cool. 

On the way back to our tuk tuk I tried to get a video of some monkeys, they bared this teeth pretty quickly so I stayed well clear – the ‘old man’ monkeys really are not very friendly! Our next stop was the Sacred Quadrangle, everywhere you looked there were temples to Buddha it was incredible. We had to take our hats and shoes off before entering each temple and luckily Rhys had read how hot the stones can be so we all kept our socks on which defiantly saved our feet. We watched one poor tourist quickly run to some shaded grass to save his feet from burning. Over the centuries the Atadage, Vatadage and Hatadage buildings have all housed Sri Lanka’s most sacred relic, the sacred Buddha’s tooth. Each temple was built by different kings to show his own personal devotion to Buddha. 

For me the Vatadage was the most stunning ruin, the circular building had so much detail and each staircase entering the circular centre was beautiful. The Thuparama Gedige was a large building and still had the original roof intact, the enormous buddha statue which sat in the middle of the room is missing however we overheard a guide say the statue had blue sapphire eye’s and there was a window opposite the statue. When the light shone on the statue the glistening of the sapphires was recorded being stunning. The day was heating up something shocking, Rhys as usual was reading everything and needing to look at everything which began to annoy the boys. However the huge Gal Pota, a stone book, stopped the whinging for a while as they couldn’t believe people wrote in stone. We all had a laugh when we told the boys how lucky they were that they didn’t have to write their diaries in stone…..

After our very hot walk around the Quadrangle we got some cold drinks and cooled off as we drove to our next stop which was the 54m tall Rankot Vihara Dagoba, as we walked up the path the huge ancient brick stupa towered out of the trees, It was quite stunning. Once again we removed our shoes and hats to walk around this ancient piece of architecture. Apparently inside the stupa is a relic of Bhudda. 

Each time we walked about then back to our tuk tuk, the heat of the day would get to the kids and they would want to go home, however we continued exploring. The whinging would stop immediately at the stops as the buildings were all so impressive and the boys were truly amazed at how old everything was. The Lankatilaka temple was simply stunning and the huge statue of Buddha at the end of the hallway was so impressive, even if he had lost his head years ago.  

Our second last stop were the 4, 850 year old, huge Buddha statues carved out of one solid piece of Granite, each statue is a different version of Buddha and are all amazing. The patterns from the rock give the statues even more beauty. 

What I love about exploring places like this is how everyone notices something different, Oliver notices the smaller details of the carvings and monkeys he seems to have a radar for them if there are any monkeys around, Arthur always noticed a stairway which leads to nowhere so then our imagination has to create what must have been upstairs and Patrick likes the large Buddha statues and seeing if they are sleeping or if they are a resprensentation of Buddha reaching enlightenment. We ended our day in the pool which was perfect.

25/6/26 – Dambulla

The boys enjoyed a late checkout by making the most of the hotel pool this morning. When we finally got away we grabbed a tuk tuk into the centre of town and soon after, boarded the bus to Dambulla. We all got a seat, which is always a bonus! and the trip went quickly, through rolling bushland, we kept our eyes out hoping to see an elephant on the side of the road but to no avail. 

Arriving in Dambulla, we found our accomodation, a strange little guesthouse run by a motorcycle mechanic come wrecker…there were motorcycle and scooter parts everywhere! The man was lovely however and drove a hard bargain for us to purchase a ‘tour’ package from him. We politely declined sighting that we would just use public transport instead. 

With a bit of light left in the day, and the majority of the heat dissipated, we went to check out the Dambulla Cave Temple. The temples are situated amongst the imposing rock that dominates the southern skyline as viewed from the city, and date back to the 1st century BC. 

We climbed the stairs up the base of rock and the start of the cave temples. In total there are 5 temples housed within seperate caves. During British occupation, an exterior facade complete with white gabled entrances were constructed, adding to the overall beauty and protection of the now UNESCO world heritage site. The view of the surrounding forest is incredible, we could even see sigiriya, our destination tomorrow, outlined on the skyline.

Not having seen photos of what was inside the caves prior to visiting, we were not sure what’s going on to expect. As we entered through the first of the gabled entrances, we were astounded to find a reclining Buddha, carved out of the solid stone cave in which it lies. The plastered, smooth, surrounding walls and ceilings were adorned with paintings that we were told were as old as the cave itself! These caves were built during the Anuradhapura era in the 1st century BC. For the paints to have lasted over some 2000 years is quite mind boggling. It is possible however due to the intricate drip line that had been noticeably hand carved 10m above the caves entrance. This would have kept the water from running down the face of the caves and destroying the plastered, painted surface. 

The next caves were even more impressive. Not a single area of the huge 2nd and 3rd caves were y touched by colour. Apparently these paintings may have been touched up by the Kandy kingdom in the 18th century, even still the colours are incredible and the 60-70 odd statues of Buddha are beautiful to behold. Some of these had been made with bricks and plaster, however some – including another huge reclining Buddha – was once again carved directly out of the rock cave that it is found in. 

Throughout tje caves there are also statues of Hindu deities, slab and Vishnu, along with various Sri Lankan kings that built and maintained the cave systems over the centuries. Interestingly, in the second cave, there is also a spring that constantly drips, regardless of wet season or dry, floods or drought. The water is collected and said to be sacred, used for ceremony and its healing powers. Amazing the second cave also has over 1500 paintings of Buddha on the ceiling alone….incredible stuff. 

After reflecting on the immensity of the caves and what they contained. We made our way down the back side of the rock itself, arriving at the golden temple. This kitschy monstrosity is the largest statue of Buddha in the Dhyana Mudra meditation posture. Standing at a height of 30 meters, the kids were a bit taken aback by its sheer size and scale, plus the fact that there were a number of monkeys cruising around which made Oliver rather unsettled. 

Finally we made our way on foot back towards Dambulla city, stopping off at an egg hopper stall on the way. As we neared the city we came across the huge economic centre….due to Dambulla’s central location this centre was built to become the central trading and distribution point for a vast array of fruit and vegetables. We went for a wander through it and the sheer scale of the operation was astounding. The huge sheds were also home to a large population of birds, all squawking and shrieking, making the sound nearly unbearable. It was so loud we had to shout to each other to be heard! We continued looking around, finding vegetables that we had never even seen before! It was quite fun. 

Once out of the sheds we continued down the road, stopping off at a fruit shop on the way so the kids could get some more rambutans. We then got roped into a full 30 minute ‘free’ tasting session of all different kinds of fruits including something called a custard apple. It was a strange textured, incredibly sweet, large seeded white fleshed fruit that was initially delicious but got a bit much towards the end. The lady was ‘kind enough’ to ‘give’ us the tasting for ‘free’ and only charge us 2500LKR for 2 mangoes a small pineapple and 5 bananas…..fruit prices must have gone up….

26/6/26 – Sigiriya

We have heard so much about Sigiriya and today was the day we would finally visit so we were all quite excited. After a quick filling breakfast we went to the bus stop and waited for our bus to arrive, it was a nice short wait which was good. The Sri Lankan bus system is so good, they are very regular and so easy to catch, we really are enjoying our time learning the public bus system. 

It was lovely drive through the farmlands and forest, we are also thankful for google maps in letting us know when to get off. As soon as we got off the bus tuk tuk drivers honed in on us offering us trips into Sigiriya, thinking we could just walk from the main road we were convinced to get a tuk tuk due to all the walking we had planned for the rest of the day. 

Seeing the massive rock fortress is impressive as it towers over the flat landscape and it built our excitement as we couldn’t wait to start climbing it. The tuk tuk drive was a little longer than we thought which made us feel better for getting one hehe. 

Before we could climb up to the ancient palace we paid our very expensive entry fees, once again we made Patrick 4 and Arthur 5 1/2 years to help keep the costs down, the fact all National Park fees are in USD makes them really add up. Today entry into Sigiriya was $30USD each…..half price for children 6 years and over. 

We walked through the museum which gave us a great overview of the history however it’s hard to remember all the names and years things were built or conquered. 

As we walked towards the entrance we filled our water bottles up at the free drinking water station, it is great to see such facilities available as a way to reduce plastic bottles. 

We crossed the moat into the beautiful gardens, the boys were very interested in the function of the moat to help protect the city. The moat has been preserved so well and thinking of it being full of crocodiles to prevent intruders from swimming across was quite easy as apparently there are still crocodiles in there and the boys thought they saw one. 

The remains just show how amazing the, architecture, town planning, construction and art were in the 5th century. The lay out of the gardens were beautiful and it is great to see Sri Lanka putting money into conserving it, loads of staff were rebuilding/preserving the rock wall remains. We slowly made our way up to the stairs to finally make our way to the top. The stairs were incredible, they literally hang off the side of the huge rock. There are apparently 1000 steps, Oliver and Arthur attempted to count them but as we got higher the fear of heights took over and they lost count. 

Half way up we passed through the famous Lion’s Gate, the remains of the feet are huge they would have looked incredible back in the day and how they made them is mind-blowing. There were a few monkey’s in the trees so Oliver did not want to wait for long so we made our way up the stairs and from here they got sketchier and sketchier according to Oliver. Not far from the top poor Oliver realised he might be scared of heights as he was finding it hard to climb the steps and you could see he was frightened. He pushed through and made it to the top and to his horror there were even more monkey’s! It was a day of conquering his fears today the poor thing. The view from the top was incredible, looking down onto the gardens was beautiful. I can certainly see why this place is a UNESCO site as the ruins are incredible and the face a King decided to build a temple on top of a rock is crazy! How did they get all the supplies up the rock on those crazy small steps! Impressive. We walked around quickly, mostly due to the monkeys, then made our way back down.

On the way down the stairs took us across the face of the rock (again so impressive) the wind was also quite strong and at one point Patrick lost his hat over the side, luckily it was at the start of the steps and Rhys was able to run down the other side to pick it up. We passed the impressive mirror wall, it was a huge structure literally on the side of the rock which was coated in polished lime, egg white and honey which made it so shiny the king could see his own reflection. Finally we made our way to the cave full of the stunning rock art, it has been preserved so well and is truly stunning, unfortunately no photos were allowed so we have only our memories of how impressive they were.

As we made our way back to the bottom and wandered through more of the ancient village. The exit took us through a small market of sellers and surprisingly we had very little humbug. It had been a super hot day and the kids found an ice-cream tuk tuk but with the prices being 3 times more than other places we asked them to wait till we got into town, this didn’t go down well especially with Patrick who was a little upset as we walked away. The ice-cream man ran up to us with 3 ice-creams and gave them to the boys, we said they were ok and tried to give them back but he was very insistent in giving them to the boys saying he didn’t like seeing kids upset. We then offered to pay but he refused to take any money. Oliver was too scared to open his ice-cream due to the possibility of a monkey running out of the bush and grabbing it, it took quite a while to convince him this was not going to happen as we couldn’t see any monkeys. In the end he finally ate his ice cream between Rhys and I constantly checking we were on patrol for any rouge monkeys. 

After the refreshing ice-creams we walked to the road to get a bus, once gain we didn’t have to wait long before one arrived. The bus we jumped on was going extremely slow, we doubted it would even make it. As I was looking out the window we passed a river and two elephants were having a wash with their mahouts. As the bus was going so slow I said to Rhys we should jump off and go watch the elephants. Rhys hesitated a little but realised I was going anyway with the kids so we all got off the bus. At the river it was awesome seeing the elephants having bath, the men then told the boys to come down and wash the elephants with them – awesome! Of course we paid for this but it was only 1000rupee ($4 each). For the next 20mins Oliver, Arthur and Patrick had a ball in the water washing the elephants, it was so good to watch. They used coconut shells to scrub the skin and the elephants were so well behaved, they just lay there enjoying the scrub. 

Eventually it was time to leave and as we walked along the road to find another bus the elephants also walked out of the river and up the road back to their home. 

The bus trip back into town was one of talking about how awesome the elephants were which made the 30min trip go very fast, it was great to see how happy the boys were. 

What a huge wonderful day!

27/6/26 – Anuradhapura

Our final ancient city today, the first kingdom and the birth of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura. We got yet another bus, travelling from dambulla direct to Anuradhapura. On the walk to the bus Oliver had left the zip of his bag open and has he skipped along his multi-tool has bounced out. When he noticed, with a very worried look on his face he yelled out “I have lost my multi-tool”. With a heavy sigh he turned around to look for it and to our relief found it lying in the grass just up the road, thank goodness he noticed it so quickly.

Unfortunately the bus was pretty packed! At one point I was forced to stand on such an angle that I was supporting myself purely with my arms! Thankfully this only lasted a relatively short while until I was able to miraculously snag a seat next to Raelene and the kids!

Arriving in Anuradhapura we dropped gear off at our hotel then found a bite to eat at a very reasonably priced restaurant. The rice and curry was outstanding! Due to our lack of planning, not having organised transport and it already being close to 1 o’clock, we were feeling a little overwhelmed by the size of the ancient city and various other sights to see around Anuradhapura. On her way back to the accomodation, Raelene managed to get chatting to a tuk tuk driver who said that he would take us around the city for the rest of the afternoon. What’s more though, is he also organised his cousin brother (an English speaking guide and school teacher) to accompany us and tell us all about Buddhism and the ancient kingdom of Anuradhapura! 

First up was the Isurumuniya Temple which lays claim to being the first Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka and was built following the origins of the Buddhist philosophy in the 3rd century BC – some 2300 years ago. The temple had intricate rock carvings, hewn from the rock itself, along with a stupa built of the roof overlooking the oldest man made dam in Sri Lanka, dating back to the 1st century BC. The pool beside, and flowing canal that is in front of the temple are still fed from this dam through intricate underground irrigation networks. 

From here we jumped in the tuk tuk and visited the Sri Maha Bodhi, a fig tree with an amazing story. It’s been scientifically verified that this tree is the oldest living human planted tree in the world! The story goes that the cutting of this tree comes from the original and sacred bodhi tree in India, under which Buddha attained enlightenment. The tree here in Sri Lanka has been cared for and protected by the descendants of one particular village group ever since its planting. Today they are still the guardians of the tree and are able to tend to and protect it. This is significant as even after the kingdom of Anuradhapura fell and the civilization moved to Polonnaruwa, this particular group of people continued to live around the tree, protecting it from elephants and other threats. Today the tree sits almost within a larger tree, it appears to be just a single branch that is supported by golden scaffolding. It is a major Buddhist pilgrimage site, there were hundreds of people there providing offerings and prayers to the tree itself. 

Next up we headed for one of the world’s tallest ancient monuments, the Ruwanweli stupa. This was built by the king in 140BC and stands at an impressive height of 103m. It houses relics of Buddha on a golden throne/shrine deep within the stupa. Today it remains one of the largest and most holiest stupas for Buddhist worship. Interestingly it gets repainted every year and around the base stand 333 elephant heads, signifying the height in feet of the stupa itself. As we explored the shrines at the base of the stupa, a monk came up and asked if he could have a photo with us and children. It was a lovely moment. 

We then entered the ancient city and were amazed by the size of the Abhayagiri Dagoba. This incredible stupa once stood a monolithic 100m. During British rule it was discovered to be in a state of disrepair and slowly refurbished, using an estimated 2.8 million bricks to a new height of 75m. It is said that there is a golden bull inside the stupa containing relics of Buddha within in. 

Within this ancient complex we also visited the largest artificial pond in the ancient world. The elephant pool was green out of the rock to a total dimension of 150m long, 53m wide and 10m deep. It was colossal. The ancient city also housed the famous tooth relic of Buddha whose story we have been following with the kids from Polonnaruwa. It will be great to get to Kandy to see where it is today. Funnily, while we were checking out the most beautifully carved moonstone, depicting the cycle of reincarnation, our guide showed us the small figures who were carved into the rock and ‘holding’ up the stairs. Buddhist teaching says that if you live a poor life as a human you may be reincarnated as a short fat person….

The sheer number of monks that were housed here was evident with the 19m long ‘rice bowl’. This huge rock trough could hold 5000 bowls of rice for which to feed the monks of the temple. It was lined with copper sheeting so that it may be able to be cleaned out and reused. We also saw the twin pools where monks would bathe. All of this hewn out of rock and fed by the aforementioned intricate hydraulic system. Amazingly the stone was placed together with such precision so as to not have the water leak out between its blocks. 

Wrapping up we visited our final two ancient stupas. The first was the mighty Jetavanarama stupa. Finished in the year 301 AD, This stupa once stood at a height of 120m and was second only to the great pyramids of Giza in the ancient world. It contains the relic of the belt of Buddha within it.

Finally as night fell, we were taken to the Thuparamaya stupa. This stupa is recognised by the government as being the first stupa in Sri Lanka, built at the time Buddhism was brought to the island in the 3rd century BC. The stone pillars surrounding the stupa are on interesting angles and suggest that a wooden roof was built over the original. Our visit coincided with the holiday marking the arrival of Buddhism to Sri Lanka. As a result there was a huge number of devotees within the temple area which added to the ambience  and atmosphere. 

After a huge day and some real information overload, we bid goodbye to our guide and thanked him for his wealth of information. The children were really engaged all afternoon and we were thankful we waited until now to hire a guide. We were also grateful our lack of planning meant that we were exploring the majority of the sites during the cooler afternoon temperatures! 

28/6/26 – Trincomalee

We had a long journey today so much to our displeasure we woke up very early to get to the bus stand. The streets were very empty and it was hard to find something to eat in preparation for the 4 hour bus ride. When our bus arrived, it was in better shape than some of the others we had seen pass and we found a seat. Oliver enjoyed some audio book, Patrick had a sleep and Arthur played guess the animal before also falling sleep.

Once in Tincomalee we got a tuk tuk for the last 30min trip north along the coast to Nilaveli, it was lovely to be on the coast again and we all couldn’t wait to jump in the water. Before hitting the beach we dumped our bags in our room and went next door to a great restaurant for some much needed food. While waiting for our meals the boys loved the fish pond and bird Avery.

Stomachs full it was now time to walk along the road to the beach and we were greeted with the most amazing beach and to our surprise it was FULL of people! hundreds of locals were enjoying the beach also which was great to see. Families were playing with balls in the water, women fully clothed were rolling around in the sand then running into the water, some people had huge boom boxes and were listening to music, the atmosphere was great. However we did decide to walk a little further up the beach away from them all to enjoy catching waves without running into people. Cows even joined us on the beach which was a pretty funny sight. After a great swim and watching the sun set we wandered back to our accomodation to enjoy a lovely home cooked meal, caught up on a few soccer matches then hit the sack.