Today, we wanted to go hiking on one of the most famous “mountains” in Sri Lanka.
Actually it is a big stone called Sigiriya, which has been used as a hiding place for a former king. Only the hike costs 25$ and we read and heard that it was really touristic and crowded. In our travel guide the author recommended an alternative Rock, which is next to Sigiriya, and costs only 500Rs (4,50€).
We decided to take a public bus to Dambulla, where we took a tuktuk that brought us to the Rock, Pidurangala, and back to Dambulla. The hike took us about 20min up and 15min down which surprised our driver and all other locals!
On the top we had a panorama view over the landscape of Sri Lanka and a perfect view on Sigiriya. On our way back we saw some elephants but they were not really wild, they had to carry all tourists coming from/to this famous Rock.
But our driver told us, that there are many fences with power because of wild elephants that are really dangerous for the locals. This showed us how difficult the situation in countries with a rest of wildlife is.

In the evening we had dinner in an old, colonial hotel next to our homestay.