Next day, we actually went back to Dambulla without luggage to see the cave temples. They’re located a little outside the city, so it was a bit of a walk from the bus station. You enter the site at the Golden Temple, which contains a big golden stupa and a kitschy Buddhism Museum (which we didn’t visit). It was kind of special to see from the outside though!

The walk up to the caves was hot and leading over many (you might guess it) steps! The annoying part is that you actually need to walk down a bit again to the ticket office at a certain point, and then up again. They really could have placed the ticket counter at a more convenient spot!

The caves themselves were actually prettier than I imagined. I guess more worth the price than the Temple of the Tooth would have been! I really liked the paintings on the rock ceilings of the caves and some of the buddhas were looking quite cool. It’s just funny how they piled them all into these caves! It’s also cool how the temple itself is built into the rock. And the views from up here were really nice!! My final verdict: If you’ve got time and are not on absolute shoestring budget – check out these caves!