Sri Lanka has many UNESCO heritage sites but their entry fee is crazy expensive so we had to choose which one to go to. After a lot of...

Polonnaruwa

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Sri Lanka has many UNESCO heritage sites but their entry fee is crazy expensive so we had to choose which one to go to. After a lot of research and asking around we decided on Polonnaruwa, an ancient city an hour or so east of Dambulla. In the morning Felix and took the local bus over there, passing through nice villages and looking at beautiful lakes in hopes of spotting some wild elephants... we didn't.
The amazing vegetable and fruit stands of Sri Lanka

Bus vendor

Mangos anyone?

We got off the bus in Polonnaruwa and immediately tuk tuk drivers started to ask us if we wanted their service. I had to really fight for a lower price on this one since the guy started at 3,000 rupees. After a long conversation and us saying no he finally dropped the price to 1,000rupees and said that in return he wanted our tickets back at the end. It all seemed very sketchy and of course I had a lot of questions as to why he wanted our tickets! At the end I didn't care about having the tickets so I said to Felix we should just do it and forget about it.


We got in the tuk tuk and the driver took us to the museum where we needed to buy the $25 entrance fee to the city. Prices here in Sri Lanka for attractions are really really steep but we had no choice so we paid and quickly checked out the museum.


Our first stop in the ancient city was the royal palace. We did not have a guide so I actually did not know what I was looking at so I just assumed they are all ancient buildings from the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa.


 There were so many monkeys!!!! Since it was raining they were all hiding in the holes of the walls of the Royal Palace

The swimming pool.


The Audience Hall


Elephant Carvings


The sacred quadrangle


The Vatadage... by then it was raining so hard we quickly snapped a couple of pictures and went back to the tuk tuk









Then we visited the huge dagaba, Rankot Vihara.
Selfie time!

 Near the Dagaba we also saw a huge Buddha statue, Lankatilaka.
We moved on to the Dagaba Kiri Vihara, a big white stupa.


Monkeys monkeys everywhere!


 As if it wasn't enough already, we kept going and visited one of the main attractions in Polonnaruwa, the Buddha figures at Gal Vihara.
Flower vendor for offerings

The sitting Buddha


The Standing Buddha, 7m long!

The lying buddha, who is actually in Nirvana.


 We finally ended the tour of Polonnaruwa by visiting the Tivanka Pilimage and the lotus bath.





The lotus pond.

Visiting the ancient city was exhausting so I was glad when it was over. After the pond the tuk tuk driver stopped in the middle of nowhere and said "Now you get out and walk 200m" I quickly responded by saying "Ok" and laughed but he was actually being serious. He said there was a walking path that he needed us to walk through because if we left the premises through the front gate the security would stamp our tickets and they would not be valid anymore! At that point we had agrees to give him our tickets so we had no choice.
The sneaky way

Meeting point with our tuk tuk driver

 Before taking the bus back to Dambulla we got some snacks for the road! 
We were told that on the way back we might get lucky and spot elephants... Here's Felix doing some elephant spotting! Once again... No luck! :(



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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com