Sri Lanka, 2026

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Sri Lanka, 2026
Temple of the Tooth
January 18 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
We were sorry to leave the Water Gardens hotel in Sigiriya, it was such a beautiful, tranquil location with brilliant staff and all the amenities we could ask for. However, we want to experience more of Sri Lanka than just that hotel, so today we travelled South to the island's second-largest city, Kandy.

Kandy is generally considered the cultural capital of Sri Lanka, having withstood the Portuguese and Dutch empires, though eventually it was conquered by the British. Central to Kandy's cultural prominence is the Temple of the Tooth, the most important Buddhist temple in the country.

Sri Lanka is approximately 70% Buddhist, with the religion being especially widespread among the Singhalese population. The Temple of the Tooth contains one of the most important relics in Buddhism - a left molar taken from the funeral pyre of the Buddha himself!

The tooth is not on display very often, and when it is it's usually encased in an intricate golden casing. Once a year, the tooth is paraded throughout Kandy on the back of a resplendent bull elephant in a great parade through the streets. Until recently, this beloved elephant was called Raja, and he also has one of his teeth (as well as his preserved body) on display in the temple!

There was a dress code to enter the temple, so we removed our shoes and donned a colourful garment over our legs, so we all felt suitably pious. Harry and Dad weren't overly impressed by the symbolism on display, though Mum departed feeling reaffirmed in her conviction that she could be a Buddhist!Read more
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Sri Lanka, 2026
Dambulla Vegetable Market
January 18 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
En route to Kandy, Charles took us around the local wholesale vegetable market. There was a wide variety of vegetables available, including classic European staples - carrots, onions, potatoes, etc. - as well as numerous local varieties.Read more
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Sri Lanka, 2026
Hurulu Eco Park
January 17 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
After our descent from the Rock Fortress which caused a few weak dodgy knees, we made our way to the Hurulu eco park for our big game drive in search of elephants 🐘😃
For centuries hundreds of elephants have migrated to this area in search of water.
Our jeep was very comfortable..until we got going! The tracks we went along were incredibly bumpy so whilst I had to sit down most of the time the boys were stood up having to duck under loads of trees and branches along the way!
Unfortunately all the elephants were shy at first, bar one who did a very good job of hiding! We were beginning to get concerned but then we eventually came very close to a small herd including a few calves.
They all seemed very chilled and didn’t charge off so our hopes had finally been fulfilled 🎉
The last elephant of our trip totally shocked us. It was standing on the roadside eating grass and looking very chilled despite lots of traffic. IT HAD 5 LEGS. Not sure if it was a male or female but I was very impressed and we couldn’t have asked for a happier ending to our amazing trip! 😍Read more
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Sri Lanka, 2026
Lion’s Rock Sigiriya
January 17 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
After a four-course breakfast(!) we set off to Sigiriya, arguably the most iconic natural monument in Sri Lanka. The Lion's Rock, as it is known, is a 180-metre pillar of granite topped with the ruins of an ancient fortress built by KIng Kashyapa in the 5th Century AD. The fortress was surrounded by a series of water gardens, the Southern half of which have now been excavated while the Northern half have been deliberately left in the state in which they were discovered in the 1890s.

The fortress was built following King Kashyapa's usurpation of the throne of Anuradhapura in 477 AD. He was the eldest son of the previous king but born of a concubine, thus rendering him an illegitimate heir to the throne. He killed his father, King Dhatusena, by walling him up alive and then tried to take revenge upon his younger brother, the true heir Moggallana, who escaped to India. With his coup complete, Kashyapa moved his capital from Anuradhapura to this imposing, highly defensible pillar of rock while his brother raised an army to take back his rightful throne. The King capped the rock with an elaborate complex of temples, throne rooms, buildings and swimming pools and carved a statue of a lion through which the temple was entered. Eventually, in 495 AD, Moggallana returned to the island of Sri Lanka and fought a fierce battle against his half-brother. Kashyapa's armies, misinterpreting the movement of their leader's war elephant, abandoned him during the battle and so, in order to prevent the humiliation of surrendering to his kin, he fell on his own sword. Following this battle, King Moggallana moved the capital back to Anuradhapura and converted Sigiriya into a Buddhist monastery.

The ascent to the summit of the Lion's Rock was long and slow, though this was primarily due to the mass of other people also climbing to the top of the pillar, rather than any great difficulty in climbing the 1,200 steps snaking their way up Sigiriya. Along the stairway were remnants of frescoes that used to adorn the ascent, almost exclusively of women with enormous breasts. The view from the top of the pillar was incredible, with fantastic vistas in all directions.Read more
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Trip start
January 15, 2026

Temple of the Tooth

Dambulla Vegetable Market

Hurulu Eco Park

Lion’s Rock Sigiriya