When you’re far away in a beautiful country, you gaze into the eyes of your better half, above it’s a sky full of stars, you hear only the sounds of nature around, you drink an amazingly good wine and you think that it doesn’t get any better than this, you see a firefly! That was the thing about Sri Lanka: it was a constant surprise, a wonderful adventure! Elephants chasing you car or walking careless on the road, short showers to cool you down and an amazing view at every corner!

Click for Part I - Nuwara Eliya & Ella ^_^

To visit The Cultural Triangle from Sri Lanka it is better to stay in one place, if you don't plan to spend at least 3 weeks there. ;) We left from Ella to Kandy by train (of course), we stayed only a couple of hours in Kandy and we spent the night in the most beautiful acommodation with the most amazing food from Sri Lanka, in a small city next to Kandy. It was our day to be spoiled! After that we went to Habarana and we stayed there for 3 nights, long enough to cover almost every important place from Cultural Triangle.

Kandy & Digana

Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic

Sri Dalada Maligawa: It is one of the holiest shrines in the entire Buddhist world. Located in the royal palace complex, it is said to contain a tooth belonging to Buddha himself.

Royal Botanical Gardens

It was on our list, unfortunately did not have enough time to visit it. You definitely should check it out, it looks like a beautiful place to relax.

Sri Rajawalukarama temple (in Digana)

It's a Buddhist monastery where we met a wonderful family that told us some wonderful stories about the place.

Bike around Digana

It has some wonderful paths and views. If you plan visiting Kandy, you should definitely stay at Kurundu House, in Digana. I usually don't recommend acommodations in here, but this was absolutely lovely, the hosts were amazing and the food was sensational! We were also lucky to be the only ones there!

Sigiriya - Lion Rock

If you have to chose only one thing to do in Sri Lanka, this is the one!

It is a fascinating place because the rock itself is a lava plug left over from an ancient long extinct volcano. Sigiriya and its surrounding territories were inhabited for more than 4000 years. Since the 3th century BC it was used as a monastery and after eight centuries it was turned into a royal palace. That's right, there was a king (king Kasyapa to be more exact) that decided to build his palace on it! He even made himself a MIRROR WALL. Which is exactly what the name suggests: a wall polished so thoroughly that became a mirror for the king! It is a bit expensive (30$/pers, you can also pay with USD), but definitely worth it. There are a loooot of stairs to get on top, but no stairs no view! A saying that applied all around Sri Lanka. ;) Oh! And you should go there at sunset! No matter what your driver will tell you, go there in the afternoon and wait for the sunset! The view is breathtaking!

You can also climb Pidurangala Rock in order to have a wonderful view over Lion Rock.

Dambulla Cave Temple

Also known as The Golden Temple of Dambulla, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. It is also my personal favorite temple as I found it to be so enchanting!

Coming back from Dambulla we were lucky enough to see some cultural dances in the streets. The dancers, the costumes, the moves, were absolutely wonderful. The only sad part was seeing an elephant in chains, used for the parade. It's sad seeing such a majestic creature forced to march the streets.

Polonnaruwa

It'a a half a day tour, as you are going to visit the whole city. Also a UNESCO World Heritage site, this city used to be the capital of Sri Lanka 1,000 years ago. It's amazing to see how well preserved is and how over time it almost became one with the nature!