Ancient City of Polonnaruwa
The remains of the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa are among the popular places to visit in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰.
We had a hard time remembering and pronouncing long Sri Lankan names. E.g., try to articulate Colombo-Bandaranayake International Airport in one go.
Anuradhapura was an active kingdom from 377 BC to XI century AD, whilst Polonnaruwa – from XI to XIII centuries AD. After visiting Polonnaruwa we decided not to go to Anuradhapura, as we were tired of traveling by that time. Also, we listened to a French couple who visited both cities and gave their sympathy to Polonnaruwa.
Polonnaruwa today is a small village. To get there is easy: just take any bus going in its direction. Approaching Polonnaruwa from the western side, get off after passing a piece of ancient ruins on the left. You can settle right there, near the main entrance to the ancient city.
Looking for accommodation, we wandered further, but found nothing particularly new. Sometimes we were even offered much more expensive options. And having to walk an extra kilometer to the ruins under the hot sun is not the greatest pleasure in this world. Anyway, eventually we rented a room with hot water, a terrace, and a nice garden view for 1500 rupees (US$12).
Only one of the accommodations we checked offered Wi-Fi. Most offered a wired internet connection for "checking email" only. Luckily, we had a 3G mobile connection prepared.
The electricity in Polonnaruwa was almost stable: the power disappeared for a couple of seconds several times a day. Unfortunately, my laptop's battery was dead at that time, so those couple of seconds didn't go unnoticed 🙄
Entrance to the larger part of the ancient city costs 3000 rupees (US$25).
But there's also an adjacent small free part to look at. Below are some photos to give an idea what it's like.
And the paid part provides the following and more:
