Things to do in Kataragama

Scenery: Don't have too high expectations; the infrastructure isn't great, as shown in the pictures. Fun: Quite fun. Value for money: Very good; the price is reasonable, a must-do for tour groups. Suitable for group tours.

The surface of the lake is very large. Walking slowly around the lake, few people can be seen. The water of the lake is very clear. What a quiet place!

Fantastic visit and the highlight of our 1 day tour from Colombo. There is a water station halfway if you need to refill your bottle and on less busy days there is some limited shade at the top. Breathtaking views from the top.

We visited Minneriya hoping to see the famous elephant gatherings, but there were surprisingly few. The park’s terrain is mostly forested, with limited open plains for wildlife viewing. In contrast, Yala National Park offered a much richer experience with more wildlife sightings, including elephants.

If you want to learn about the history of Sri Lanka this is a great place to start. The museum shows pre-historic finds and the earliest civilization of Sri Lanka as well as the Colonial era and the history or resistance to those colonial powers. As a history teacher I really enjoyed the museum.

The Dambulla Caves, a world cultural heritage, is the largest, most famous and best-preserved cave temple in Sri Lanka. A half-day tour of the caves was arranged, and 4 impressions are still fresh in my memory. 1. The antiquity of the caves. The Dambulla Caves were built in 89 BC (some say 1st-2nd century AD), earlier than the Mogao Caves built in 366 AD in my country. After more than a thousand years of unremitting efforts, a spectacular pattern of 5 caves connected to each other was formed between the rock walls on the hillside of the giant stone (186 meters high). 2. The beauty of the statues. The 2,100 square meters of murals and 157 Buddha statues in the caves are all treasures of Buddhist art. The most beautiful murals. The Buddha murals in Cave No. 2-Great King Cave, from the cave ceiling to the cave wall, are completed in one go, and are magnificent. The most beautiful statues. The 14-meter-long reclining Buddha in Cave No. 1-Heavenly King Cave is huge in size, peaceful in expression, and graceful in lines. 3. Fun of monkeys. It takes more than 20 minutes to walk up the mountain road with more than 400 steps from the foot of the mountain to the cave. All the way up, the view is wide, the air is fresh, and monkeys can be seen everywhere in groups, playing, being coy, or exercising, which are very cute. The locals told us: the reason for depositing shoes is not to prevent people from stealing, but to prevent monkeys from snatching them. 4. Pain in feet. You can only enter the cave after taking off your shoes to show your piety. The hot sand and the stones hurt your feet. My feet hurt so much... No one ever reminded me to wear thick socks.

It takes about 10 minutes to walk from the museum. This is a large square. It is said that it was the place where independence celebrations were held. It has good greening and is very suitable. Take a walk here at dusk.

St. Mary's Church is a very beautiful Catholic church with a very nice surrounding. If people here hold weddings, most of them will choose to hold them in St. Mary's Church, which is also a local landmark historical building.