Sri Lanka - Day 1 Negombo to Anuradhapura

Sri Lanka, Saturday December 9 – Day 1
Negombo to Anuradhapura via Yapahuwa

We had a smooth arrival late last night in Sri Lanka at Bandaranaike International Airport, north of the capital Colombo.  Within half an hour we were off in a taxi to our budget stop for the night, Sunrise Palace Hotel.  Feeling weary in the taxi (having flown from KL and still on Malaysian time 1.30am) I felt uneasy as we turned into narrow unlit streets in the town of Negombo, near to the airport. I started to envisage a night in a run down guest house.  Happily, Sunrise Palace was a smart gated house (albeit down a narrow unlit street) and our ground floor room cavernous and spotlessly clean with gleaming floor tiles.  We slept soundly and this morning, once we’d turned off the humming air conditioner, we could hear birds tweeting and bright sunlight was peeping around the blinds.  A simple but delicious breakfast was served to us on the patio of the small house next door (Sunrise Palace’s owner’s residence) and we decided this budget guest house is a gem for $35 a night.

Sunrise Palace Hotel, Negombo, Sri Lanka

At 9.30am our driver, Rohan, arrived.  Having made all the arrangements by e-mail and not parted with any money, there’s an element of trust involved when you make your own bookings over the internet. After a quick chat about the route, we settled back to enjoy the drive and get our first glimpse of Sri Lanka as we headed out of Negombo to Anuradhapura, via Yapahuwa.

Yapahuwa rock fortress in central Sri Lanka

We realised very quickly that having a private car and driver to tour Sri Lanka makes good sense.  The roads are good but shared by many: motorbikes, tuktuks, cars, lorries, large buses, minibuses and there’s a great deal of weaving and overtaking as all these vehicles travel at different speeds.  Add to this a fair number of stray dogs crossing the road and the whole experience requires skill and patience.  I’d say our average speed was not more than 40km/hr.  Once out of the city of Negombo Rohan pointed out teak trees, coconut plantations and rice fields and even though the car was nicely cool (thank goodness for aircon) I could feel the morning heat coming through the car window. Everywhere we saw emblems of our African childhood…signs for Milo, Bata shoes, Caltex petrol stations, and all to a pleasing backdrop of easy listening pop songs from the 1970s (Rohan's car radio) taking us back to our teenage years.  A most pleasurable journey in spite of the time it took.

At Yapahuwa are the ancient ruins of a citadel built around a huge 100m high granite rock.  In the 13th century Yapahuwa was the capital of the country and what remains of the rock fortress, built in 1273, is spectacular. The car park was almost deserted when we arrived at the site, and from there it’s a short, walk past some ruins of a moat, to the base of the rock where there’s an amazingly well preserved steep stone staircase that leads half way up the rock.  In the midday heat it was a hot climb, but well worth the effort for the view over the surrounding countryside.

Steep steps at Yapahuwa rock fortress

I didn't climb to the top of the rock summit (Gordon did) but this is
the view from the terrace at the top of the steps (13th century)

Having worked up an appetite we asked Rohan if he knew a place for lunch en route to Anuradhapura.  He pulled into a simple open air restaurant for our first taste of Sri Lankan food.  We helped ourselves to a large selection of vegetable curries from earthenware dishes and sat down to eat at plastic tables and chairs. Being Westerners we were given forks, but the other customers were eating with their right hand, as is customary.  It seemed a messy affair to me, mashing up the curry with the rice and scooping it up into your mouth, so we were glad to have forks. Lunch here was a mere 160 LKR per person (80p).

We continued to Anuradhapura and got to our first hotel, the Randiya Hotel, mid afternoon.  I’d read that it had a new wing and we pulled up in front of a concrete and glass building. Unfortunately the entire new wing of the hotel lacks ambience or character and we couldn’t help thinking how much prettier the older part looked as we walked past it (it didn’t appear to be in use).  Some hotels in Sri Lanka provide driver accommodation and our driver Rohan told us later that his room and meals were free!  He quite liked the place.  Dinner was a buffet of bland mediocre Western food, edible but boring.  Anuradhapura sights tomorrow.