Travel Log - Off to Sigiriya (Day 1 of the 3-day tour)

It’s been a long since I last wrote a blog article. And I’m kind of fed up with the technical stuff as well. So I thought of writing about my last long weekend getaway with my wife. In this article, I will be writing about the first day of the travel only. I will be writing separate articles about the next few days as well.

Due to Covid-19 situations and travel restrictions, we also were kind of stuck at home for a couple of years. Since the situation was kind of easing up we thought to travel a bit. We thought it would be much more enjoyable for us.

So the long weekend that we planned to go on was the one where independence day fell on. So Friday was independence day and it was a bonus for Saturday and Sunday. Additionally, my and wife both applied for leave on the following Monday as well so that we can use that day as well to travel.

Our first thought was about where to go. We brainstormed about it a lot. After getting the new vehicle we didn’t get to travel a long distance other than Katharagama. So our final decision was to go to the Trincomalee side along Dambulla.

We didn’t want to drive a lot for a day. So we thought about staying at Dambulla for the first night. Then to go to Trincomalee the next day. We didn’t plan about the other two days and kept it for later.

The first thing was to look for a place to stay. Since it was a long weekend and it was just about a week to go almost all the good decent places were already fully booked throughout the weekend. We checked in the Booking.Com app and called several other hotels as well and all those were booked. We wanted to make the trip a budget one. But in the meantime, we wanted to stay in a good star hotel as well. So we found Sigiriya Village Hotel. They had a promotion going on for a half-board double. Since the places to stay were limited because it was only a couple of days before the long weekend. So we called the hotel and did the booking. So we had to pay 50% of the payment at the booking time and I sent the payment slip to the hotel and got the booking confirmed.

Another reason to select the Sigiriya Village hotel was it was near the famous Sigiriya Rock and it had super views of it from the hotel.

So the journey started on the 4th of Feb from our home at Pitakotte. We had prepared our breakfast with some sandwiches. We entered the highway from Athurugiriya and exited from Kadawatha. Then in order to get into the central expressway, we had to go to Mirigama via a normal route. We had to face a lot of traffic near Meerigama town before entering the new highway. After entering the central expressway the next exit was Kurunegala.

There was a friend and a colleague of mine in the Galewela area and we thought he invited us over. So we thought about visiting him as well. Also, we were a couple of hours early as well because check-in at the hotel was at 2 PM.

So we planned to buy some groceries and went into a supermarket in Ibbagamuwa town. There I faced my first accident 🥲. A three-wheeler came from behind and hit on my car’s backside buffer. So I had to call the insurance and since it was a holiday I had to wait for an hour for the insurance agent to come. After about an hour and a half, the thing was finished and we started the journey again.

We spent about an hour at BG’s place. We had tea and snacks at his place. There was a lake in front of his home too and we visited there too. After that, we left his place and started our journey to Sigiriya Village hotel.

Due to the delay at the accident place, we were kind of late now. So we hurried and resumed the journey. It was past 3 PM when we arrived at the hotel. From the looks itself, the hotel seemed to be fully booked as well. There were several couples, foreigners, and groups of people who were checking in at that moment.

The experience at Check-in wasn’t smooth. We were asked to sit down for a moment in the lobby until they got us our keys. We had to stay for like 20 minutes until we got the keys. We got the welcome drink and some finger foods during that time.

Once we got the keys we headed directly to our room. To be honest the first impression was not that good. It seemed like there could have been more maintenance on the rooms. Rooms had the antique look that was okay but looks had some more than that which never impressed us.

After getting settled we went out for a walk inside the hotel premises. We took a couple of photos and then went directly to the swimming pool. So there we had the breathtaking view of Sigiriya Rock.

We had a swim for about 45mints and pool guards informed us that it was time that they close the pool. So we got out of the pool and changed ourselves and came back to dinner.

The restaurant was kind of full at that time. The spread of food was okay but could have been better. The food tasted good. There was a good ambiance at the restaurant as well. Overall the dining experience was good.

Being a hectic day with driving it was kind of tiring for both of us. So we decided to go to sleep early so that we could have a good start the next day.

I will write about the next day in the next article. This is not much to be an article. But I think some people will enjoy it and will find it helpful.

Thanks a lot for reading folks ❤️❤️❤️