saving face while hiking up pidurangala rock

If you haven't heard of Pidurangala Rock, that's because it is overshadowed by 'the other rock' that is Sigiriya, which is probably the site that draws the most tourists in Sri Lanka. Think of Sigiriya as Cambodia's Angkor Wat Complex and Pidurangala as Prasat Preah Vihear. If you wonder what Prasat Preah Vihear is, you get the drift.

Pidurangala (left) and Sigiriya (right) viewed from Dambulla.

What led Ail and me to this little-known place is the massive entrance fee Sigiriya Rock charges foreign visitors. While the ticket for Sigiriya is about 30USD, you can climb Pidurangala for just 500LKR or approximately 4USD.

The fee is actually for the cave temple, which is worthy of a few minutes' visit, located close to the entrance. The cave is merely a small hollowed-out space under the rock outcrop which is hidden by a relatively new structure built to preserve the historical treasure within. It houses a huge reclining buddha and a few other smaller statues. The paintings on the ceiling are impressive with their still vivid colors and details despite being thousands of years old.

Colorful and detailed painting in the cave.

An old man let us in the cave and gave us the place's history. Once we were done admiring the cave, he showed us the path to the top of Pidurangala. The trail, which is essentially hundreds of uneven steps, starts just to the right of the cave. The old man removed a dilapidated sign saying 'No Entry' and told us to follow him. I told him that we wanted to go by ourselves. He picked up a stick and said that the trail is dangerous because of snakes. Thanks or no thanks to Tripadvisor, I already had an idea about this old man even before we went to Sri Lanka so I insisted that we will be fine even on our own.

It didn't take much effort to convince the old man to let us be. But that may be because a couple arrived, the only other visitors the whole time we were there.

We climbed at a leisurely pace. There were no other signs so we simply followed the steps. Near the start of the trail, there are other steps and smaller trails which made it a little confusing. We followed the most obvious path but it suddenly disappeared among the tall grasses and bush. Remembering the warning of our host (a solo tourist has gotten lost in the forest), we turned back thinking that we might have missed the right way. Just a few steps later, the old man came. He was guiding the couple. He must be laughing at us! We didn't want to get defeated so when he asked where we were going, we just smiled at him and continued going back.

The other path we took led us to a little shrine. We spent some time there, convincing ourselves that the original path we were following was right. When we were already sure that we won't overtake the old man, we went back and realized that the path didn't get lost in the bush but only took a turn. A couple of steps from where I stood and I would have realized it earlier.

The path was then straight forward and it took us about 45 minutes to reach the landing where another huge reclining buddha could be found. This buddha had been badly damaged before and now is incompletely renovated. There is also an exposed rock on the ground with old inscriptions.

After the buddha, the path meandered among the forest and we had to walk over some huge boulders. Thanks to the dirt on the ground, we could see the footsteps left by the group ahead of us assuring that we weren't lost yet.

You're not lost. This is the right way.

The most difficult and scariest part of the climb was the last section where we had to scramble over several boulders. Okay, it wasn't THAT difficult but with the huge rock (the one that is ever present in pictures) above your head which seems like it would roll over at any moment, that's pretty scary. And what adds to the paranoia is the belief my grandmother held onto that people are more prone to fatal accidents when it's nearing their birthday. It was Ail's birthday the next day.

But we've made it that far and it was stupid to go back so we climbed over the boulders. I went first and when I was right under the huge rock, I had the choice to go right and climb a few other boulders or go left and squeeze myself under the huge rock to get onto a ledge. I opted for the easier one and went right. Ail was close behind.

And then we were trapped. We were facing a wall about 1.5m high and there were no more boulders to climb over. We could see the old man and the couple from where we stood and we knew he was looking at us. To lessen the humiliation, we pretended we were having a good time and laughed louder than we normally do. Thankfully they were already about to leave and they made their way down via the ledge. I only had two choices...

We spent quite some time at the top peacefully, sharing only the place with a dog. The place is wide and unlike Sigiriya, it is bare of any structures. It was mid-afternoon when we went to Pidurangala Rock and thanks to the thick growth of trees, we didn't have to worry about hiking under too much heat of the sun. And when we reached the top, the sun was low enough we didn't mind the lack of shade from vegetation. (There was only a small patch of grass and some cacti.) And the bareness meant that we had a 360 view of the landscape. We could also see people going up and down Sigiriya, almost all of them missing on Pidurangala.