Sigiriya Village Hotel

Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

I earlier thought that the ride would only be 2-3 hours! Oh God! How wrong I was….

We left Colombo after lunch, 2pm is a good time to move out as city traffic is not that dense yet. I really did not prepare myself well physically (like toilet visits??? Lol) for the trip mistakenly thinking we will be there before 5pm.

The trip lasted for 5 hours! Grabe, ang haba ng byahe! Although I’m quite used to long bus travels but this was an unexpectedly tiring trip. Good thing we were stopped on the road (just about 30 minutes away from town) by a policeman so I was able to hop out of the car and knock on the door of someone’s house to ask if I can use their toilet! Hahahha as in kaloka!

Sri Lanka is so typically Third World just like the Philippines. The policeman was trying to make up some stories like the driver has gone past the white mark in the road or something (hello??? It was already 7pm and the road is pitch black except for the headlights of the passing cars!), so the driver gave him LKR 500 (about 5 dollars) to shut him up otherwise his driver’s license would be confiscated and it will be such a hassle to get it back again.

How many LKR 500 had the policeman pocketed in the entire day????? The Dambulla road is a very busy highway so he must have stopped an average 10 cars per day! I think he stops only the cars with Colombo plates knowing that they will not put up a fight.

We got in at about half past 7pm. The hotel was really quiet although I can see that it must be full as there were a lot of tour groups, especially the typical British pensioners in a group of at least 10 pax.

I just rushed through my dinner coz I really wanted to immediately sleep. I was a bit surprised by the climate, at night it was a bit humid and cool. Although the room has AC, I switched it off after a while.

The hotel is marketed as a 3-star property but it’s really more of a 2-star but the friendliness of the staffs more than made up for the lack of facilities. For meals, they have an international buffet at the main restaurant (well, the only one in the hotel) and for drinks, there is a nice cozy bar next to the reception.

The rooms were done up in traditional colors, I noticed that they always use the orange color quite liberally here in Sri Lanka (I better check that up next time I go!).

I wanted to soak my tired self in warm water but alas, they don’t have bath tubs here. I consoled myself with a really looooong hot shower!

The following day, after breakfast, I had two hours to while away before we depart for our site visit (the property we are opening is just 15 minutes away from this hotel). The hotel grounds is quite extensive. They have their own organic farm where they grow vegetables that they use in the hotel. While out walking, I heard a cacophony of loud shrieking noises, OMG! Monkeys were jumping on the roofs of some villas! As quaint and novel as it looks, good thing they were not in my roof! Otherwise I would have had a sleepless night!

I did not bother going to the Ayurvedic Spa coz my boss told me it was not up to par. The place is apparently rundown.

The redeeming factor here is the view of the Sigiriya Rock from the swimming pool. Made me want to go and sign up for a trek towards the Rock Fortress. Oh yeah, next visit…..i promise!