Introduction

We went to Sri Lanka in December 1996. Back then (I don't know the prices right now) it was very easy and cheap to rent a car with a driver for a month. We paid about US$550 for all hotels and guesthouses (4 weeks) and a 2 weeks' tour with car.Since we did not have any information about the public transport, we decided to travel around with this luxurious option, especially since it was a good bargain. We even got a guide, so with the 4 of us we drove off trough the country. Ratna (l.) our driver and Suma (r.) our guide, together in an old Peugeot.

Colombo

Talking about a busy and crowded city, Colombo is a disaster. So many cars, people, buses, shops, markets and everything you can imagine lives or moves on the streets. Colombo has also some beautiful things worth visiting. For instance, there is a replica of the White House. A bit smaller I guess, but it is strange to see this building in this city. The first night we staid the night  in a small town close to Colombo, Mt. Lavina. Close to the hotel was the beach with some bars and restaurants. We had a drink in one of the bars in the afternoon. When we had to pay the boy said that we had to pay 30 Rs. Ok, no problem.
We walked back over the beach and about a kilometer further on a boy came running after us. 'Mmm..let's see what he wants.'. We had never seen this guy, but he said that the drinks in the bar were more than 15 Rs each and he wanted 10Rs more and he was willing to bring the money to the bar so we did not have to go back all the way. 'What a nice guy'. But of course this was big nonsense, and walked on.

Anuradhapura
This Northern citie is one of the ancient cities of Sri Lanka. Here you will find  a lot of dagoba's. These are (massive) Buddhist monuments, containing a number of relics of the Buddha. They all have the same design, bu tonly differ in size and colour. There is one in the center of town which is surrounded by elephant sculptures, which offers a great picture. Unfortunately there is a military gate at almost every site, in order to secure the dagoba's against the Tamil Tigers.

In Anuradhapura we stayed 2 days at Kondamalle Inn, which is close the the big lake at the East of the town.  The town itself is not very pleasant, but there is a lot of ancient buildings here (mainly dagoba's, which are not very interesting anymore after you have seen 4 or so).
The city is full with dusty roads and many small, open shops were people sell loads of agricultural stuff.
We had only one thing we definitely wanted so see; the sacred Bo-tree. A very old and very large tree, also called  Sri Maha Bodhi. Unfortunately we did miss this tree some how. Still don't know how we could have missed it.

Polonnaruwa

This small village used to be the capitol of Ceylon around the 10th century . This place is very relaxing. We rented a bike to go around. Close to Polonnaruwa are the ruins of the Royal Palace and many others. The ruins are in a park, for which you have to pay a small entrance fee.
The park is located in the middle of a small forest, so you will meet some vicious monkeys. You can also buy coconuts in the park, which are a good appetite for the monkeys.

We rented some bikes, on which we could easily drive trough all of the park. Some buildings are even kept very well, so definitely worth a visit.

One of the ruins around the Royal Palace

  Ricefields close to the lake of Polonnaruwa

On the other side of the village there is a big lake. Next to this lake were some beautiful rice fields, as you can see above. 
Getting stamps is very hard here. There was a big line of people waiting at the post office, but nobody seemed to have heard of getting in line. We got used to using your elbows here, if you don't you don't get what you want.

Sigirya

This is a very unique place. It is amazing... in the middle of nowhere there is a giant rock coming out of the earth. And on this rock, which is not easy to climb on, there is a fortress and ruins of a temple. How did they manage to do that? You have to see it for your selves.

We spent the night here close to Sigirya in a kind of villapark. When we were here there were only 4 little cabana's. It is called 'The Ancient villa's' The people here are very friendly and if you ask they will take you to the lake nearby, where elephants are spotted regularly early in the morning. Unfortunately we did not see any.