We got a bus from Kandy up to Dambulla. I think that it took a couple of hours. I can't remember much about the trip.

It took us a while to find somewhere cheap to stay in Dambulla. In the end we found a couple of cheap guesthouses on the south side of town. One was trying to charge quite a lot for a really grotty room with lots of damp and mould on the wall, so we went to the other one. We managed to get some money off because we were staying for three nights. The only downside was that we weren't near the bus station, which meant that we needed to negotiate with tuktuk drivers to get there and back.

Dambulla itself contains a site with elaborately painted Buddhist cave temples, in front of the entrance to which is an enormous gold Buddha. Dambulla is also a great base for visiting the historic sites of Sigiriya and Pollonaruwa, both of which we were able to visit as day trips from Dambulla using public buses.

The cave temples are well worth a visit, and I've inlcuded some photos here to show how magnificent they are. They're towards the south side of town, so we were able to walk there from our guesthouse.

We had a funny experience in Dambulla where we accidentally hitch-hiked back to our guesthouse. We were trying to catch one of the many buses heading down the road out of town, which would go past our guesthouse, but for some reason they all refused to take us. They were prepared to take us longer distances but not just a mile down the road. So, we started walking back to the guesthouse, and every time a bus came past we'd try to flag it down. Eventually one stopped, but what had looked like a bus from the front turned out to be a truck! The drivers were very friendly, though, and gave us a lift to where we wanted to go, even stopping to ask the way!

We found a great place to eat, next to our guesthouse. It was a new hotel which was opening, and they had just opened the restaurant the night we arrived in town. It was the only place near our guesthouse, and the food was excellent, so we ate there all three nights! See the attached review of the Anon Rest.

A sacred pilgrimage site for 22 centuries, this cave monastery, with its five sanctuaries, is the largest, best-preserved cave-temple complex in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist mural paintings (covering an area of 2,100 sq. m) are of particular importance, as are the 157 statues.

This place is a hotel, with an excellent restaurant. I can't comment on the rooms, because we didn't stay there, so this review is about the food. We were staying at a little guesthouse just up the road from the Anon Rest, which is not in the centre of town, so it was our only local choice for food in the evenings. Fortunately the food which they laid on was fantastic. We went there all three evenings we were in Dambulla. The place had only just opened on the day we turned up (so perhaps they were making an extra special effort) but we got a fantastic spread with bowls of all sorts of tasty curried things: one meat or fish dish plus lots of vegetables. It was all really tasty and also interesting. Nothing seemed tailored for foreigners; it all seemed very authentic. I would highly recommed eating here if you're in Dambulla.