Chapter 5.2: Sri Lanka - Sigiriya + the “Cultural Triangle”
After a couple of days in Colombo to get settled — and, let’s be honest, to plan our Sri Lanka next steps — we headed east to the “Cultural Triangle.” This region holds the capitals of all three of Sri Lanka’s ancient kingdoms: Anuradhapura (4th–11th centuries), Polonnaruwa (11th–13th centuries), and Kandy (15th–19th centuries), along with countless other significant and impressive Buddhist sites.
We based ourselves in the village of Sigiriya, which is in the middle of the “triangle” and home to the country’s most iconic site: a massive rock jutting out of an otherwise flat rainforest, crowned with the ruins of a 5th century palace complex.
We arrived in the afternoon and checked into our homestay-style guesthouse, a rustic treehouse on a homestead in the rainforest, about a 30 minute walk from town. Our host mentioned that wild elephants often migrate through the area (two national parks are within an hour’s drive) and warned us not to walk after dark. Like nearly every Sri Lankan host on our trip, he was extraordinarily kind, proud, and excited to help us plan our days in the area and feed us delicious home cooked breakfasts.
Unfortunately, the next morning brought our first big scare of the trip—so brace yourself. (We’re fine.)
The encounter
Out of irrational fear of this post ever negatively impact his livelihood, I’m calling our host “Sam”. On his recommendation, we woke up early to take Sam’s tuk tuk to Sigiriya and climb the rock before sunrise. Sleepy and uncaffeinated, we piled into the tuk and pulled out of the homestead quickly. Seconds later, out of nowhere, we heard a loud noise and felt something crash down on us. For a moment, I thought a large tree had fallen on us — but then Sam jumped out of the driver’s seat and ran towards the house.
Everything then clicked in a flash: when we pulled out quickly, we had startled an elephant who happened to be crossing the road just ahead. With either a foot or a trunk, he had tried to stop us by crushing our tuk tuk. When Sam realized we weren’t following him, he rushed back, shouting for us to run. I wasn’t sure Travis could move — how hurt he was — and, honestly, I wasn’t convinced running was the best tactical choice.
Thankfully, Travis was okay and the elephant had bolted. The side of the tuk where Travis had been sitting was completely smashed in (see photo below). We waited until the sun rose and eventually piled into Sam’s friend’s tuk, and spent the morning on a series of misadventures to try to get medical care to make sure everything was okay. In the end, Travis walked away with serious soreness that lasted for a good part of the trip but we were okay. Travis was okay and he was amazing throughout.
I was a big Sam fan, and Travis and I both really felt for him. Even if he did forget to check the road for elephants, apparently standard operating tuk tuk practice in the dark, and did abandon us for a hot second.
The incident scared the shit out of him too and he lost his tuk, a big part of his livelihood. But staying at the homestead for three more nights wasn’t an option. Travis was in pain and the treehouse wasn’t super comfortable to begin with. There were more early mornings and late evenings ahead. And it all felt pretty emotionally fraught. We scouted a hotel across town, deemed it elephant-safer, and decided to move.
I went back to Sam’s homestead on my own, where his whole family had gathered to check on the situation. Travis and I had spent time gameplanning our exit to soften the blow: we had written 5-star reviews across platforms to put their minds at ease and decided we’d insist on paying for all four days regardless. I had an excuse I’d come up with: “we need a place near a pool since it’s so hot and we will need to recover”. Even so, facing Sam and his family was gut-wrenching.. one of my hardest moments of the trip. I sat in the treehouse for nearly an hour psyching myself up. The conversation, with tears and some emotional heavy lifting. I’ve reflected a lot on how absurd it is that disappointing or hurting someone felt as hard as as the near death experience itself — but there it is.
WHEW. Someday, that will be a great story.
The rest of the week
We did make it up Sigirya rock eventually, and the views were spectacular. Over the next few days, we relaxed at our new hotel pool, visited the impressive Dambulla caves, went on a drive through one of the national parks, and explored Polonnaruwa, the 2nd ancient temple capital, by bikes.
Polonnaruwa was a highlight – imagine Angkor Wat-style temples in rainforest growth – smaller in scale but still breathtaking. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves, which we later realized might have been due to the sweltering heat and our mid-day arrival (guessing the sensible people finished hours earlier). We did meet two other tourists among the ruins, a couple from Hong Kong taking some time to travel before a big transition to the UK. We were fast friends and ended up choosing the same south coastal town to relax in a couple weeks later.
