SRI LANKA: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Three of my friends for the past few years have waxed poetic about how they loved their visits to Sri Lanka. They couldn't stop raving about it. This tiny nation, formerly called Ceylon, sits on the Indian Ocean and is less than a 4-hour flight from Singapore. Whenever friends told me to make it my most immediate destination, I was always like, meh, I'm sure it's just another Thailand or Laos.

I finally visited it in May 2015 (thank you Emirates and SIA miles!) and boy, was I so wrong about Sri Lanka. So, so wrong. Spoiler alert: I LOVED IT. Every minute of it. My favorites were Nuwara Eliya, Pinawalla, and Galle.

Man vs. Wild

I had originally intended to visit Nepal this year, but unfortunately the earthquake in April struck. With a few days of vacation leaves that I needed to consume that month and only a few days to plan, I literally took out a map to see which Asian country I haven't been to yet that didn't need too much preparation. All signs pointed to Sri Lanka.

BANDARANAIKE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Most flights originating from Singapore to Colombo are the red-eye ones; I arrived at one in the morning and had a few hours in the airport to kill before my driver picked me up. Thankfully, the airport offered the Silk Route experience - basically you book for the convenience of breezing through immigration and customs and for the privilege of staying in the arrival lounge with inclusive food and drinks. I did have lounge access, but wanted to know what the experience was like - I say it was totally worth it for the hassle-free and escorted arrival and the convenience of not having to trek to an outside hotel for sleep before the morning. I slept like a baby in that lounge till six in the morning. They have packages ranging from USD$15 to US$100, depending on your preference.

PINAWALLA

My journey started by getting to know the wild elephants of Sri Lanka at an elephant sanctuary, as how the Pinawalla insitution is called. The ground was a dusty-orange, the river was painted brown, and the sun was almost unbearable, but the elephants made it all a beautiful day. I loved watching them eat with the herd, receive some greens from spectators, walk around the park, and of couse - what everyone came here for: the river-bathing scene. One naughty elephant curiously tried to walk towards me because it got attracted by the shine that my ring gave off!

Look as these bathing beauties!​

Feeding time before bath time. Just like babies :)

Cooling off in the river from the dry, summer heat wave, with a little help from his human friend.

Chancing upon a family of elephants on one side of the river, lovely beasts taking shelter from the scorching sun.

I stayed during the entire bathing session, not once becoming bored with watching these magnificent creatures. Because they're quite used to humans, they totally ignored us and went about their routines: playing with each other, splashing water over their crinkly bodies, frolicking in the river, younger ones running after each other.... Quite different to see them in an open space, and not in steel cages.

SIGIRIYA

With Kandy as my base for the next two days, I did the Sigiriya-Dambulla route and was not disappointed with the climb to the top of Sri Lanka's most iconic rock. Every traveler knows that there are potentially aggressive wasps nesting above the Lion's Paws so I was worried to the point of paranoid. I was traveling alone and being the highly-allergic (and paranoid) being that I am, I thought of many different scenarios of how a wasp sting could affect me. My thought bubble was: well, at least I'd die in an awesome location.

Well, the climb was uneventful. No deadly wasp attack, only spectacular views from the top!​

Before getting to the top though, I was awed by the rock from a distance. Sigiriya is the ancient ruins of the capital built by King Kassapa I in 477 CE and a UNESCO Heritage site. It was a royal's residence, a fortress from invading enemies, and later on, a Buddhist monastery. The palace on top was the actual palace itself, flanked at the bottom stairs by imposing lion statues, hence the monicker, Lion Rock.

On the way in, I passed by what would have been lush gardens in ancient times.

Then the series of stairs that would take me 600 feet up the rock mountain started ....

They look rickety, but they're pretty safe. It's amazing to think how people could have put these stairs on the side of the mountain!

It's even more awe-inspiring to think how an ancient civilization without our modern machinery could have carved these steps into the solid, massive mountain! Well as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.

The climb was punctuated with up close and personal views of cave wall paintings. Amazing how the colors haven't totally faded into oblivion yet!

E-L-E-V-A-T-I-O-N! Don't look down! Some parts of the climb have vertiginous vantage points; this was one of them after I passed the lion statue base.

Apart from huffing and puffing up a gazillion of stairs, I made it in one, non-bitten piece! And the views were so worth the cardio. I'm sure it was an amazing palace in its heydays, what with views like this one! Unblocked 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains and greenery.

And with this pool at the peak, where several people were frolicking and taking selfies. :)​

DAMBULLA Didn't expect I would take a long time in Sigiriya, so with only a limited time to visit the cave temples of Dambulla and a dying GoPro and iPhone, I made a beeline for the key sights before the place closed down for the day. I managed to snap a few of the breathtaking statues inside the temple before my gadgets conked out (even my 50,000 MaH battery pack had run out of juice!).

Intricate and colorful designs carved inside a mountain - how awesome were the ancient civilizations of Ceylon?!

Dambulla provided a refuge for King Valagamba in the 1st Century BC. What a place to be exiled in! Beautiful statues, carvings and ceilings! A little lower in elevation than Sigiriya at 520 feet, but nothing less than spectacular and different in terms of sights to behold.

Image: Flashpacking At Forty

Sri Lanka definitely had me amazed at its wonderful ancient sites. I didn't expect it to blow me away like it did. Never mind that during my first three days there, I had already climbed rock mountains and stairs that at times, literally took my breath away. I'm not the fittest of travelers out there haha, but I seem to be doing a lot of climbing in my recent travels! Trust me though, the experience was totally worth it!

HAPPY TRAVELS! x

HOW TO GET THERE: Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly to Colombo daily from Singapore.

WHERE I STAYED: Cafe Aroma Inn (Kandy).

HOW I GOT AROUND: Hired a driver via Walkers Tours to make the most of my time there, especially when temple-hopping.

#SriLanka