During our year in Australia, we’ve been using the school holiday periods to explore more of the country. However, after completing our 36-day road trip, with little left to explore that didn’t require an expensive flight or long drive, we decided to go international for my Easter term break from work!

One of the reasons we chose Sri Lanka for this adventure was that we had always wanted to visit, and it was a lot easier (and cheaper) to access from Australia than from Canada. We were still surprised at how far the journey was, though. From Perth, our adventure required a six-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, and then a three-and-a-half-hour flight to Colombo.

Day 1: Colombo

Colombo was our starting point, and our main reason for staying there was to pick up some train tickets for our journey out of town. We decided to take the public bus from the airport to the city, which proved to be more challenging than originally anticipated. George had read about an airport express bus, but no one at the airport was willing to give us any information since they wanted us to pay for their taxis and tuk-tuks.

Eventually, we found a helpful man driving a tour bus who directed us to the public bus depot, which was a bit of a walk away, but got us to our destination. The public bus was a bit slower but surprisingly efficient, and we enjoyed our first impression of Colombo while riding with the locals into the city.

We spent the rest of the day getting oriented to the area around our accommodation, including going to the mall to get our SIM cards set up, walking along the city waterfront, and visiting the market area in the centre of town. One of the most beautiful sights we saw during our walk around was the Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque, a beautiful red and white temple that seemed to be in the middle of town.

Our first meal in Sri Lanka was at a fantastic Indian restaurant, where we tried a new-to-us curry called a kadai, as well as our first taste of Sri Lankan food called Kottu. Kottu (here is a link to a stock photo of what it looks like) is a stir fry of different spices, herbs, vegetables and other ingredients like meat or cheese, with chopped-up roti bread as the carbohydrate. You could order it at basically any restaurant in Sri Lanka and it was a great go-to when we weren’t sure what to order.

Day 2: Colombo to Kandy

We woke up early on our second day to catch the train to the city of Kandy, which is in the hill region of Central Sri Lanka. The train journey is about 4 hours in total and marks the start of one of the most scenic train journeys in the world. It was fun to people-watch as we waited for our train, as many locals were heading to work and school.

The train ride was wonderful. It was such a peaceful and intriguing way to leave the city and head for the countryside. Near the end of the ride, we started to get some of the beautiful views and vistas that Sri Lanka is famous for.

After arriving in Kandy, we checked into our guest house and headed into town to visit the botanical gardens. While this wasn’t in our original plan, it was recommended to us and had amazing reviews, and we were not disappointed. Some highlights included smelling fresh cinnamon in the spice tree garden, walking down the avenues of the palms, and seeing monkeys playing in the trees.

After the gardens, we went to a spa to experience an Ayurvedic massage. We both got head, neck, and shoulder massages, which were great. Ayurvedic medicine originated in India but is widely used in Sri Lanka as well. We enjoyed learning about the practices when deciding which treatment to get from the spa.

For dinner in Kandy, we went into town to have vegetarian thali, which is a plated meal of a variety of curries, rice, and roti bread. This was a fantastic meal, especially because of the variety of different flavours included in the dish.

Day 3: Kandy to Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak)

The next morning, we got on the train again and continued our journey to the town of Hatton, located two and a half hours away. We were lucky to get seats in the special observation car at the back of the train, and took in some amazing scenery as the train carried us through the many tea fields in the region.

We got off the train at a town called Hatton and made a quick decision about whether to get to the base of Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak) by public bus or private tuk-tuk. The decision was made quickly for us as the bus was waiting outside.

Though it was busy on the bus, they were able to make space for us to stand and began the 70-minute journey to the town of Dalhousie. The road was small and winding through various tea plantations, and felt very slow at times. We were happy to have been on a bigger vehicle, though, given the rough conditions of the roads.

We checked into our accommodation and then got ourselves ready for our very early wake-up to hike Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak). Sri Pada is a mountain in Sri Lanka that is considered sacred by Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, and Muslims for the footprint located at the top of the mountain, around which a shrine and temple have been built. The footprint is considered sacred to each faith for their own reasons. From the town of Dalhousie, it is approximately 5,500 concrete steps up to the summit of the mountain.

We wanted to summit the mountain before sunrise so that we could have a really nice views and complete the stair climb without the hotter daytime temperatures. Our plan was to have an early dinner, go to sleep as early as we could, and then wake up at 2:00 am to start our climb up the mountain. Our homestay host prepared a fantastic curry for our dinner, and then we headed to sleep, excited for the very early morning ahead.

Day 4: Sri Pada

After our 2:00 am wake-up, we left our homestay around 2:30 am and began our climb up to the top of the mountain. We were immediately greeted with concrete steps that slowly wound their way up the mountain, increasing in steepness the higher we climbed.

As we ascended, we saw many families of all ages climbing up to and down from the mountain, as well as other travellers like us. Since we were climbing at the end of the pilgrimage season, we were lucky that it didn’t feel too busy on our journey until we were almost at the very top.

There were many shops and businesses located all the way up the mountain, selling everything from tea and warm meals to souvenirs and warm clothes. The presence of this many vendors set up at various parts of this steep climb was a marvel in itself.

In total, it took us about two hours to climb up the steps to the summit, and an hour and a half to get back down. We felt more and more excited the higher we climbed, and in the last kilometre or so of the trail, we joined a huge line of people, all waiting to pay their respects at the temple. Though it was definitely the most crowds that we have experienced on a hike, it felt special and exciting to share in the joyous energy of the many pilgrims approaching the summit.

The winding lineup on the steps finally led us to the summit and the temple. To enter the temple, we had to remove our shoes and were not allowed to take any photos. We followed the line around the base of the shrine in the middle of the temple and had our chance to take a look inside, which housed the footprint and was covered in beautiful gold and other decorations. After coming out of the shrine, we each had a chance to ring a big bell, traditionally rung each time a person completes the pilgrimage to the summit.

We stayed at the top of the summit for about an hour, and it was quite cold! We had packed warm clothes ahead of time and watched as the sun began to rise over the horizon. At this point, the temple area was very crowded, so we decided to make our way down to warm up and also provide some space for others arriving.

Our plan worked in our favour as we were greeted with amazing glimpses of the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen as we made our way down the mountain steps. With the peaceful, quiet atmosphere and the faint sound of prayer chants coming from the temple, coupled with our happiness for completing the most difficult part of the day’s journey, it felt spectacular.

After returning to our homestay, we relaxed for a few hours and then enjoyed a lovely breakfast prepared by our host. We had debated whether to take a tuk-tuk or car back to Hatton to catch the train and decided that, given the uneven roads and many twists and turns leading us back to town, we would feel safer on the bus.

Little did we know how fast our bus driver would navigate down through the hills, and how windy the roads would feel at this much faster speed! It was a chaotic and worrying bus ride, probably one of the wildest I have been on in my travels. People were throwing up around us and George too scared to look out of any of the windows, so after a very nerve-wracking hour we were relieved to arrive at the train station in one piece. We were sweaty, sore from the hike, and sleepy, but also very excited for the next stage of our adventure.

In summary, our first few days in Sri Lanka were full of culture and stunning scenery. From the lively streets of Colombo to the Sri Pada climb, our days were filled with excitement and fun. Keep an eye out for more stories from our exploration of Sri Lanka’s hill country in my next post.

Thanks for being a part of our adventure!