Village Tour Sigiriya Sri Lanka

Posted on by Sanjeewa Padmal (Seerendipity)

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If you head to Sigiriya or Habarana in the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka and like to explore the typical Sri Lankan village life during your stay in Sigiriya, there is no other program like the Sigiriya village tour giving you the opportunity to see the rural life of Sri Lanka.

Village Tour Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an island that offers something for every traveller. Whether it is an adventure enthusiast, a foodie traveller, a city explorer, a honeymoon couple or a beach holiday lover, everyone can find a suitable destination to enjoy their holiday. Despite a vast number of possibilities to find interesting holiday destinations, the tricky question is where to find a place to get the true essence of Sri Lanka? This is a very common question that every traveller comes across while planning their Sri Lanka holiday. Visiting villages and remote areas is the best way of witnessing the real Sri Lanka. The village tour in Sri Lanka takes you up close to rural village folks and their cultures that are surviving for many centuries.  

The victors of Sri Lanka that wish to see the real Sri Lankan way of life must-visit ancient villages that even nowadays give a glimpse of age-old culture and traditions. The island offers many places providing a wonderful opportunity for village trips and spellbinding panorama. Due to this reason, village tourism has been able to get the attention of foreign travellers as well as local travellers.

If you also searching for a place for a Sri Lanka village tour on your trip to Sri Lanka,  here is a list of village tours that you can think of.

  • Hiriwadunna village tour/Sigiriya village tour
  • Bentota village tour
  • Negombo village tour
  • Galle village tour

Hiriwadunna/Sigiriya village tour

There is no other word that comes into once mined other than Sigiriya rock fortress upon hearing the word “Sigiriya” because Sigiriya is popular on the island due to the iconic tourist attraction, Sigiriya rock fortress. However this article is not about the Sigiriya rock fortress, this article is about the village tour of Sigiriya, which is one of the most interesting activities available for travellers, who make the Cultural triangle tour of Sri Lanka. The village tour Sigiriya, allows the visitors to see the breathtaking scenery in the remote village of Habana and experience the traditional village life as well as take part in a cooking class.

Take a glimpse into the rustic rural village in Habarana and see the rea village of Sigiriya and Habarana on this guided tour escorted by an experienced local guide. This is a perfect opportunity to encounter authentic local village folk and experience their lifestyles, their culture and their hospitality. Habarana is a rural village where agriculture dominates. Most people in the area are farmers and they are backed by an agriculture-based economy. Rice cultivation is the main crop while vegetables, fruits, coconut, cultivation of native yams and other crops, poultry keeping, and beekeeping also play a major role.

For travellers who have an itch for adventure try climbing the makeshift “treehouse” from where the villagers keep watch and drive away from the wild animals during the night. The travellers are welcome to see the feel and even have some hands-on experience of what it’s like to be one with nature’s bounty. The travellers are escorted to one of the humble houses in the village, where the travellers are offered a traditional welcome drink (tea) with a piece of jaggery (a sweet brown sugar made from solidified palm sap).

During the village tour, the travellers can meet the fish vendors selling their catch from the nearby village tank, vegetable sellers with a basket of vegetables on hand-pushed carts or bicycles on their rounds through the villages. The visitors can get a closer look into traditional village industries such as clay brick making, starting from the crushing of the dry clay, kneading, moulding and finally burning in a traditional wood kiln. This one of a kind experience will also take you through patches of the jungle where you can witness Chena or shifting cultivation (a primitive form of agriculture) in addition to plenty of birds and some wildlife. At the end of the tour, you would have experienced true Sri Lankan hospitality immersed with warmth and genuine smiles.

Sigiriya rock

Sigiriya is a leading tourist attraction mainly due to the Sigiriya rock fortress, which is an iconic historical attraction of Sri Lanka. Sigiriya is located at the centre of the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka in the central province of Sri Lanka. This UNESCO world heritage site is included in most Sri Lanka tour packages due to its historical value.

Tourist attractions in Sigiriya

Sigiriya offers a lot more than its historical attractions Sigiriya rock fortress and Pidurangala temple; there are many important natural attractions in Sigiriya. Perhaps you have no idea that Sigiriya offers such a large number of natural attractions like national parks, rivers, lakes, rain forests etc. Sigiriya is popular, off the beaten track tourist attraction and offers many interesting and unique activities for its visitors such as bird watching tours, jungle trekking, boating, cooking class, and wildlife safari. Therefore, I think your visit to Sigiriya should not essentially be restricted to seeing historical places, that’s the main reason that I thought of making this article on Hiriwadunna Village Tour.

You might have read plenty of information on Sigiriya rock fortress and Pidurangala temple because those are tourist hot spots. In this article, we are not going to discuss these places. In this article, we talk about an interesting experience called “Hiriwadunna Village Tour” that gives you insight into traditional Sri Lankan life.

The natural beauty of Sigiriya village

Sigiriya is a laid back village and characteristics of urbanization are yet to encroach on this region. Perhaps its settings will be different a few years down the track with more hotels, restaurants, shops and many other buildings, however, Sigiriya still has an overwhelming green treasury within its borders.

Hiriwadunna Village Tour gives you the opportunity to see the natural beauty of the countryside of Habarana, here you do the bullock cart ride, boating, cooking class and visit farmland.  These farmlands have supplied fruits and vegetables to the city dwellers for many thousands of years, and still, they are leading producers of farming products on the island.

Taking part in the Hiriwadunna Village Tour is the best way to experience the rich wildlife of Sigiriya. This activity is the best source of information to learn about the traditional village life of Sri Lanka.

What is included in Hiriwadunna/Srigirya village tour?

Bullock cart ride, boating in the village lake, cooking class, bird watching, eating Sri Lankan food and seeing the traditional way of life are included in the program. The tour also includes a visit to a village house, where the visitors take part in a cooking class and ultimately taste what they cook. This village house showcases a large number of kitchen utensils and instruments that were commonly used in the Sri Lankan household, the demonstrators show how to put those instruments to work too.

Sri Lanka village tour

Learning Si Lankan village life

Large numbers of foreign travellers love this experience and many local tour operators organize it for their customers. This is a fun way of learning the traditional village life that we can’t see in most cities today. We have seen the traditional lifestyle of Sri Lankan changing in a rapid phase during the last several decades. The traditional way of life on the island was diminishing fast in many parts of the island with the development. Today hardly anyone can see the traditional way of doing household activities as our mothers and grandmothers did in the past.

Therefore this activity can be recommended to the local people too, who live in urban and semi-urban areas of the island. Especially for the local kids, this activity is a novelty experience, because they don’t get a chance to see most instruments available in these village houses. They can see many ancient kitchen utensils such as clay pots, grinding stones, string hopper press and mats, coconut crapper, mortar and pestle, clay water pitcher etc.

Hiriwadunna Village Tour Sigiriya, Sri Lanka village tour

A Bullock cart is the main source of transportation in this tour and the tour starts with a bullock cart ride. Usually, these bullock carts are outdated transport methods on the island now, however, it had been a very important way of transporting goods and people in the past. The bullock cart makes its way on a narrow track through the village, and patches of forests, which is a very interesting experience that allows you to hug nature.

After about 30 minutes of bullock cart ride, it is time to get on to the board and take a boat tour in the village tank. This is a fantastic opportunity to experience the aqua fauna and flora in the area, the visitors able to see a large number of birds, flowering plants and perhaps animals like the elephants that are coming to the lake to drink water. The village tour comes to the end with a visit to a traditional village house, where the visitors learn the traditional way of Sri Lankan cooking.

Bentota Village Tour

Nestled 60 km away from Colombo Bentota is the most popular beach resort on the island. Bentota is predominantly a beach holiday destination on the west coast of Sri Lanka. However few kilometres inland is the typical Sri Lankan rural villages with ample opportunity to see the beautiful vegetation, rice paddy, and farmlands and get to know the village folk. Bentota river flows through the Bentota village and which is also a part of the village tour. The Bentota village tour can be booked as a walking tour or as a cycling tour.

A tour to Bentota village gives you an opportunity to experience the Sri Lanka way of living, However old cultures and traditions are somewhat diminished in the area with the development. Don’t forget to take a walk along the Bentota river, which can surely spice up your village tour and allow you to take a glimpse of the riverine Fauna and Flora.

Sri Lanka village tour in Negombo

Negombo is mainly a fishing village which lies along the west coast of Sri Lanka, it is also a popular beach holiday destination on the island. The most interesting places to visit on the Negombo village tour are the Negombo lagoon, Hamilton canal and fish market. Negombo lagoon is one of the most important ecological habitats on the island with a large concentration of mangroves as well as fauna species. The village tour includes a boat trip in the lagoons and allows you to see the rich Faun and Flora of Lagoon.

Sri Lanka village tour Galle

Galle is located in southern Sri Lanka where the people have a more conservative life. You need to travel a few kilometres off Galle city in order to witness the typical Sri Lank village. The life of city dwellers is dramatically changed over the last several decades. Unlike most other villages, the people of Southern Sri Lanka are more inclined to believe in religion and other forms of spiritual powers such as gods and goddesses.

You may also be able to witness a traditional healing ceremony conducted by a witch doctor, however, you need to get permission from the village folk before attending such ceremonies. The rural villages are full of rice paddy, cinnamon plantations and many other crops, these rural villages are also abundant in the beautiful scenery.

About The Author

Sanjeewa Padmal (Seerendipity)

administrator

The focus of this site is Sri Lankan travel. We at Serendipity Tours (Private) Limited, attempting to impart our valuable experience as travellers who have explored most parts of the country over the last decade. We are helping our valuable readers plan their memorable Sri Lanka trip with our travel expertise and experiences. In case you require any additional information, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at admin@seerendipitytours.com. In addition, we can plan your vacation package or any other Sri Lankan travel-related needs.

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