Rough seas

Galle (Sri Lanka) to Alifushi (Maldives) 

Overnight there had been a ferocious storm, water had even washed under the external door into our room. Fortunately though it had cleared by daybreak, and we collected by Sam one last time for the two hour drive to Colombo. 

We arrived at Colombo airport with plenty of time (as usual), checked in, then headed to the Lotus Lounge. It wasn't long before we were notified that our flight had been delayed by three hours, we think this may have been related to the storm.  As boring as the delay was, at least we had comfortable lounge access. Our flight finally left for the one hour trip to Male at 4.15pm, we were meant to be checked in and swimming by now!

We finally arrived at Male three hours late at 5.15pm and were met by a rep from our resort who tagged our bags, then gave us the bad news that we had to wait for others to arrive from other flights before we could take the boat to the resort, with an expected wait time of up to 90 minutes. The airport is right on the edge of an island, you just walk out of the airport and cross the road to get onto a boat. While we were waiting we could very dark clouds in the distance, and shortly afterwards day turned to night and there was a massive storm with torrential rain.

Just before 7pm we were told we could take the 15 minute speed boat ride to our resort. The seas were quite  rough and the boat had trouble docking so we had to walk to another spot.  We made it onto the boat with our luggage as the waves constantly slammed the sides. In the dark safety jackets were put over our heads with no explanation on how to fasten them, no safety check, in fact no words at all, just a paper sick bag pushed into our hands while we gripped the rails. 

We took off in the dark with massive waves and the boat crashing continually up and down, one poor lady was almost hysterical, it was a frightening trip that that lasted for 30 minutes, at one point they stopped the boat and told us to move to the back, we can see it would have been quite terrifying for someone who couldn't swim or wasn't used to speed boats. K had some ceramics in her cases so she was also worried about how they'd fared on the trip.

We finally pulled up to a jetty and were greeted by smiling helpful staff who informed us that this wasn't our island, as we couldn't dock there because of the weather. We were bundled into a jeep and we thought we were heading for another boat, but after about 10 minutes crossing a few bridges we reached our resort.

Arriving at night can be quite disorienting, we really had no idea where we were, but after a short orientation from the staff we were taken to our nice water villa. Once our luggage arrived we headed to the resort restaurant for the first (of many) nice buffet meals.

One last visit to the beach

Yala to Galle

An 11am start today for the drive to Galle, with a stop at the beachside town of Mirissa for lunch. Mirissa in December is idyllic with calm blue seas but in July it's rough surf with high tides that leave little available sand. However we had a lovely stop right on the edge of the beach before resuming our trip to Galle for our final night in Sri Lanka. The coastal drive between Mirissa and Galle passed lots of beachside hotels and resorts, and it looked like it would be a nice area to visit, especially in better weather.

We stayed in a hotel just outside, and within easy walking distance, of the old Dutch fort. The fort area was interesting but also quite touristy, with lots of shops selling gems and spices, as well as tea houses and ice cream shops. We walked along the fort walls then found a nice place for dinner before heading back to sort out or luggage for the flight to the Maldives the next day.

Traffic jam

Ella to Yala

We were sorry to leave our tree top home with the flying squirrels but pleased to see the back of the treacherous steps. We stopped off at Ravana Waterfall where some local men were having a great natural shower with strong water pressure even though it was probably very cold.

As we approached Yala we rechecked the reviews of the hotel we'd planned to stay at and started having second thoughts about the place. Fortunately we were able to cancel for free so we changed to a nicer place for the same cost, though it was a little further from Yala National Park. They were also gracious enough to let us check in early. 

Sam returned with a safari jeep and a driver just after 2pm to take us to Yala National Park, the home of the Sri Lankan leopard. We stopped at the office to buy the entrance ticket and before we knew it a man in uniform had climbed into the back of the jeep saying he was our guide. We thought this was just a standard thing for this national park, but we then saw that none of the other jeeps had guides in them. K asked him if we needed to pay extra for him, he replied that we did. By this point we were confused, no-one had told us we'd have a guide or that there were more costs involved, and on top of that he was pretty useless, as both he and the driver were pointing out animals, many of which we'd already spotted ourselves. We took it up with Sam and suddenly we didn't have to pay, all very strange. 

Yala was overcrowded and noisy, wherever you looked there was a bunch of jeeps, it was like a massive traffic jam. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse large machinery came past, loads of portable toilets on trucks, tractors on trucks, caravans, the entire thing was ridiculous. What kind of animal would be stupid enough to choose to be near a freeway running through its home? 

No-one we spoke in the other jeeps had seen a leopard, in fact not much had been seen at all. We thought we were wasting our time in this noisy place with very poor roads, so we said we'd  had enough and wanted to leave. On the way out we came across a few groups of elephants with babies of different sizes, some mongoose, a jackal and some black faced monkeys. 

Overall it was quite a disappointing visit, there need to be restrictions on how many vehicles can enter the national park at one time as it really detracted from the experience and most likely scared away the animals we had hoped to see.

A room with a view

Ella   

M woke early at 6am to hike to Little Adam's Peak, and had the top to himself for a while. 

Breakfast was served on our cute veranda looking over the jungle at 9am. The last few steps to get to our hut are huge and uneven, so without hand rails it makes it a little treacherous to get to but the view from our bed is wonderful.

Sam collected us at 11am to drive us to the start of the 20 minute walk to the famous Ella Nine Arch Bridge. The walk was pretty easy and when we arrived there were lots of tourists hanging around on either side of the railway track as it goes over the bridge, and also in the nearby tunnel. We'd only been there a short while when we could hear the toot of a train horn, everyone scrambled off the tracks and on to the side and we watched people on the train hanging off the side to get their own perfect instagram shot.

We were almost at the van when it started raining, and as it grew heavier we pulled the pin on any further sightseeing and asked Sam to drop us back in town. Ella was originally just a small railway town in the mountains, but in the last 10 years it has exploded with a growth in tourism to the area, and now looks like it was built for the tourist trade, and quite similar in many ways to places like Bali, 

After a nice lunch and a wander up and down along the small main street we walked back to our villa just before some really heavy rain started. Dinner was at the same place we had lunch, seeing as we had enjoyed it so much. 

The "lava" part isn't supposed to be taken literally!

Nuwara Eliya to Ella

We woke up to the good news that the train strike had been called off at midnight so we would be able to catch the train from Nanuoya to Ella at 1.15pm as planned. Sam picked us up at 11 and we stopped by a temple (still under construction) overlooking Nurawa Eliya, and a nearby waterfall, before stopping for tea and cake at the Edinburgh Tea Stop. 

K selected the hot lava cake, we were waiting for it for quite a while before we smelt something burning. It turns out the person who served us didn't know how to work the microwave and inserted a lava cake still in foil then set the timer on high for 10 minutes. K's chances of getting that lave cake were now zero, yet there was still an attempt to charge us for it!

The train arrived at Nanuoya station only a few minutes late, we boarded (along with the hundred of other tourists) and then didn't move from the station for another hour, maybe the driver took his lunch break? There were some nice views during the three hour trip, and we were also entertained by watching all the people lining up, mainly girls with their pretty dresses, hair and makeup done, to hang out the doorway for Instagram photos. This had us then wondering about the rates of accidents and a quick google search revealed a number of deaths, mainly from hitting their heads on approaching tunnels. Ouch!

Sam was there at Ella station to collect us and drive us to our hillside villa in Ella overlooking the jungle, a nice quiet spot surprisingly close to the main road which had lots of bars, shops and restaurants very much targeted at tourists.

Anyone for tea?

Kandy to Nuwara Eliya

Today we headed to Nuwara Eliya in the mountains, home to tea plantations and buildings from the British colonial era. Our plan was to drive the next day from there to Nanuoya to get the train to Ella, however we had heard that the railways were on strike so weren't sure whether the train would even be running.

We stopped at the Damro tea plantation for a quick tour of the tea factory and a free cuppa. It was a very busy place as it was apparently the only factory in the area that offers a free tour. 

It was still very interesting though, we saw how the tea leaves were picked, dried, processed and packed, and also learnt about the different kinds of tea, some of which (like golden tea) we'd never heard of.

As our driver Sam was originally from Nuwara Eliya he gave us a tour of the town before taking us to our very old fashioned hotel, with a nice garden view. This was the only place we'd stayed at the didn't have air conditioning, as the weather in Nuwara Eliya is much milder than the lower parts of the country.   

We walked into town and had a drink and a snack at a "pub", in a great location with a nice beer garden but with possibly the worst drink selection and service we'd ever experienced. When we asked for the bill we waited for quite some time before K went to investigate, only to find the girl behind the register asleep! We also made the mistake of hanging around talking to someone after we paid the bill, which meant we were still there when they came to tell us that they'd forgotten to charge us for our chips.

We returned to our hotel where we ate in their very formal dining room of our hotel, in the slippers they insisted we wear at all times while inside. 

K day

Kandy

We started off with a visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, where the left canine tooth of Buddha is enshrined, this is the same tooth that used to be kept in the ancient temples in Polonnaruwa. Our guide rattled off a bunch of facts and figures as we walked through the grounds and into the temple, just in time for the tooth ceremony where they remove the tooth for people to see. 

As they started opening the chamber where the tooth was stored the huge crowd surged, the devout buddhists in the crowd pushed to get a glimpse of the tooth. We managed to get a view of the gold chamber where the tooth was stored before being swept onwards. It was an interesting experience but not really enjoyable due to the crowd, and it was a bit weird having a bunch of tourists who didn't really understand the significance of the relic taking up prime viewing positions from the faithful locals.

K had missed out on quite a few attractions in Sri Lanka as a result of being sick, but for the rest of the day we were finally going to focus on her interests. 

We visited a gem and jewellery specialist in Kandy, as Sri Lanka is the home of the Ceylon Sapphire. We watched a very interesting video about how the sapphire mines are constructed, then given a tour of the workshop where they they even cleaned K's rings for her. In the shop we were shown samples of all sorts of precious and semi-precious stones, then left to browse all of the jewellery that was for sale. We managed to leave without spending a cent (fortunately).

From there we drove another hour to the small town of Molagoda, and stopped at the government run Molagoda Pottery Crafts Training Center. We were given a demo of throwing then a tour through the rest of the studio and the kiln. We finished off in their small shop with quite a range of very cheap ceramics and examples of other crafts. We were not able to leave this place without spending a cent (unfortunately).

Back in Kandy M was dropped off at the  Royal Botanic Gardens Peradeniya while K returned to our room. The gardens were quite extensive and interesting, with many varieties of tropical plants as well as a nice orchid collection. 

Are you ready to rock?

Sigiriya to Kandy

M woke early and was picked up by Sam at 6am to go and climb Lion Rock. It's recommended that the climb is done early in the day to avoid the heat, since there are about 1200 steps to climb.

There were plenty of people around but it wasn't like Pidurangala the evening before, the only choke point this morning was the spiral steps leading up to the famous rock paintings.

After getting to the top, exploring the ruins and admiring the view it was back to the guest house for a traditional Sri Lankan breakfast of curry, samosas, pancakes, hoppers and fruit.

We left for Kandy after breakfast, with a few stops along the way. First was the Dambulla Cave Temple. This had quite a few steps, but even though K hadn't quite recovered from her illness she managed to make it all the way. There must have been hundreds of Buddha statues here, in different rooms cut into the rock.

Next was Nalanda Gedige, known as Sri Lanka's central point, where there was a small  Hindu temple from around the 8th century.

Sri Lanka is famous for spices so we were looking forward to the next stop at a spice farm to learn about how they were grown and harvested. However this was really just one of many "spice farms" tourist traps along this road. There was a small demo garden with examples of many spice plants, such as cardamon, cinnamon, and pepper, but the focus of the guide and the tour was on the medicinal properties of the plants and trying to sell natural ayurvedic remedies and a "miracle" hair removal cream. This was quite disappointing, and in checking the online reviews once we'd left we found that we weren't alone in thinking that way.

We finally made it to our hotel in Kandy, in a nice room with views of the surrounding area, but still not too far from town. We did have to exchange pleasantries with the host for about 15 minutes, who wanted to tell us all about his network engineer son that used to work for Telstra. M cracked a couple of jokes about this but they fell quite flat for some reason.

We used the Pick Me app to book a tuk tuk to take us to a nice restaurant overlooking Kandy Lake for dinner. 

I don't think you're going to fit

Trincomalee to Sigiriya

K was feeling bit better after a few days of rest as we left Trinco and headed to the remains of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, an old capital like Anuradhapura (which we had to miss) but apparently in better condition and more compact. As we drove we often had to move to the other side of the road to avoid rice that had been laid out to dry, this is supposedly illegal but it was quite common regardless.

At Polonnaruwa we had a guide take us through the remains of the old king's palace, explaining the history of the site and also the significance of the tooth relic, supposedly one of Buddha's teeth that remained after he was cremated. Whoever holds the tooth is the king of Sri Lanka, and it was held by multiple kings in different temples at the site during its heyday in the 11th century. As well as the ruins of the ancient palace, the site also has the famous Gal Vihara rock temple, with four very impressive Buddha statues carved into a single rock.  

We were taken for lunch to what was supposed to be an authentic Sri Lankan meal, but it was very obviously a tourist trap. It was a buffet with lots of different (cold) vegetables and a few meats, interesting in its own way and tasty enough, but also very expensive at around $34 for the two of us, disappointing after the tasty and inexpensive meal we had back on our first driving day.

It was then on to our final destination of Sigirya. We checked into a nice villa in what was effectively our host's back yard, and while K rested, M went off with Sam to Pidurangala Rock. 

M climbed up along with a lot of other tourists who were planning to view the sunset, past some large Buddha statues about halfway up. Near the top as the path narrowed and scrambling over rocks was required there was a traffic jam, with many factors contributing to the blockage. Some people were trying to climb that didn't seem to be cut out for it, so there were people pushing and pulling them up over the rocks. Others were trying to crawl through small gaps with their pack still on their back, while the narrowness meant that people going in opposite directions had to wait their turn.

Once M finally reached the top, he explored for a while and admired the view of Lion Rock before heading back down, trying to get ahead of the mass of people that would all be exiting as soon as the sun had set.

Back at the villa our gracious host served us a home cooked Sri Lankan meal of chicken and vegetable curries and rice in the beautiful back garden. 

Two days of recovery and a lobster

Trincomalee

(Friday) The night was a bad one for K as she was up and down to the toilet constantly, and the following morning she wasn't well enough to head out. The staff at the villa were really helpful, bringing breakfast to our veranda. K slept most of the day while M went and explored the beach to the north, which had quite a few hotels, restaurants and also the upmarket Trinco Blu resort.

That afternoon Sam collected M late in the afternoon for a visit to Thirukoneswaram temple, which was located at the end of a small peninsula near the Fort Frederic. 

(Saturday) We had originally chosen three nights at Trinco to hopefully see a blue whale and swim with the whale sharks but when we inquired we were told that we were too late as the sharks had passed through a couple of months earlier. This was just as well since K was still unwell the next day, and needed a little more time to recuperate. 

While K stayed back, M spent the morning exploring the southern part of the beach, which had a lot less in the way of restaurants and resorts but had more fishing boats and a small Hindu temple on the beach.

 

Later on Sam took M to visit the Kanniya Hot Water Springs, which although quite small were well frequented by locals bathing and washing themselves.

By the evening K felt well enough to go down to the beach for dinner, where she was brave enough to eat more seafood, this time though having a freshly grilled lobster.

I can't bear it

Colombo to Trincomalee 

K was just well enough to drag herself to the van and sleep most of the way until we arrived at Wilpattu National Park for a safari. Sam our driver had arranged for a jeep to be waiting for us at the turn off, so we headed off hoping to see a leopard. We had already decided not to join any elephant safaris as we had seen our fair share in Africa.

As we travelled through the park the jeep drivers would stop and converse with each other but of course we had no idea what they were saying. K started asking the tourists whether they had seen any animals and the answers were disappointing, a crocodile, deer and one elephant. Even though we didn't see a leopard the safari ended up being a success as a male sloth bear decided to use the road we were on for a while instead of battling through the undergrowth. We also managed to see a crocodile, and a mongoose, as well lots of peacocks and deer.

Unfortunately starting our tour a day late meant we had to miss the ancient city of Anuradhapura and we headed straight to the beach town of Trincomalee. It was dark and nearly 9pm as we arrived into Trinco and we were pulled over by the police for the second time today. They're constantly stopping cars, checking paperwork and issuing fines, this time they wanted to know why Sam hadn't taken his lights off high beam.

After checking into our basic beach villa we walked the few minutes to the beach to grab some dinner.

Poisoned!

Colombo

Today we were due to be collected at 8.30am by our driver Sampath (Sam) to start our 13 day trip around the island of Sri Lanka, which is the same size as Tasmania but has a population of 21 million people.

K had woken up in the early hours with severe stomach cramps and by daybreak was going to the bathroom every 10 minutes. As she thought all she needed was a little more time we changed the pick up time to 10.30am, but that time came and went while K's condition has worsened, with vomiting thrown into the mix as well. At around 11:30 we decided a doctor was needed, M arranged this with the hotel staff (who were very helpful and sympathetic through all this), postponed the start of the trip with Sam until the next day, and arranged an additional night at the hotel.

The doctor arrived around 1pm, after a quick diagnosis he arranged for two nurses from an agency to attend and administer an IV, and also bring some medication to relieve the symptoms of what we had concluded must be food poisoning from last night's fish dinner.

After the IV, medication and some sleep K seemed to be slowly improving. By evening she was holding everything in and has also recovered some energy but still wasn't up to eating. M went to a nearby restaurant for some tasty Sri Lankan food, and the horrible day closed with us both hoping tomorrow would be better.  

Lakes and temples

Colombo 

While K relaxed in the room, M went exploring, first visiting the large park on the waterfront called Galle Face Green, and then the Colombo Fort area where he managed to find a reasonable flat white. From there it was back via the southwest Beira Lake to the hotel, just in time to turn around and explore with K this time. 

After a delicious shared lunch at the food court in the Galle Face Mall we caught a tuk-tuk to very interesting Gangaramaya Buddhist temple with its large collection of artefacts, including what we suspect could be real stuffed elephant's head though we couldn't tell for sure. From there it was just a short walk to the Seema Malaka meditation temple on Beira Lake.

That evening we decided to try a different rooftop bar so we walked a block from our hotel to visit the NH Collection Colombo hotel. As it had been raining a fair bit there was hardly anyone there while we watched the sun set over the Indian Ocean. 

We decided to have dinner there as well, the waiters tried to convince us to have the buffet (which was huge and beautifully presented) but as we weren't that hungry and there was no-one else in the entire restaurant we decided freshly cooked food would be better so we ordered from the a la carte menu. M had chicken biryani while K ordered a fish dish which while delicious was only lukewarm when it arrived. One other group arrived a little later but the restaurant was eerily quiet.

Och aye!

Colombo

We booked three nights in Colombo to allow our jet lag to adjust to the new time zone, so in the afternoon we headed out to explore the city. After some negotiation we picked up a tuk-tuk outside our hotel, asking the driver to take us to a famous Hindu temple based on a photo we showed him on our phones. 

We thought something was awry when we seemed to be taking a very indirect route to the temple, and when we were dropped off we knew immediately it wasn't the temple we'd shown the driver. We had planned to walk from that temple to a couple of other tourist sites, but now we were nowhere near them. It was also very quiet, no other tourists or tuk-tuks around. When M went to pay the driver he tried to pull the old "the price is per person" trick, but we weren't going to fall for that one. What we think happened is that the driver deliberately took us to the wrong temple, and thought we'd have no option but to pay him more to take us to where we really wanted to go - however we had other ideas!

We had a look around the temple, then walked around the corner out of the view of the driver who was just sitting there waiting for us to hire him again. In Colombo you can order tuk-tuks via Uber and also the Pick Me app - so that's what we did. A few minutes later we were on our way to the Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque, and we like to think that the original driver sat there for quite some time waiting for us!

  

We used Uber for the rest of the day, we didn't need cash and there was no haggling over price, it was a very easy way to get around. Also, as the prices were so cheap (typically around $1 or so per trip) we were more than happy to give the drivers a very good tip equal to the entire fare. 

After walking from the mosque and through the Pettah Market we tuk'ed it to the Trader's Bar at the grand Galle Face Hotel on Marine Parade. It was like entering another world, we had gone from crowded, poor Colombo to a remnant of the colonial era, in beautiful grounds with a view of the Indian Ocean. As we sipped on our drinks we watched the flag lowering ceremony, with musical accompaniment from a Sri Lankan playing the bagpipes! High tea and cocktails were being served by immaculately dressed staff, we were scruffily dressed but perhaps due to the colour of our skin we were welcomed in with deference. Weird.

You must pay the toll

Abu Dhabi (UAE) to Colombo (Sri Lanka)

Getting up, having a shower and walking 10 minutes to the gate is a good way to fly somewhere!

The four and a half hour flight to Colombo was very easy and once we landed we were quickly through immigration and outside ready to face a new country. While it was not nearly as daunting and over whelming as India there were certainly a few similarities. Before finding a taxi to our hotel we withdrew some cash from an ATM and bought a couple of sim cards. We booked a taxi through the official desk and headed to our hotel. Along the way we passed through a toll booth where our driver tried to get us to pay but changed his mind when we insisted that we were told that the airport price covered us to our door.

We had booked a hotel on Marine Parade and our room had a fabulous view directly over the Indian Ocean. The roof top infinity pool and bar were world class and we enjoyed cocktails and french fries sprinkled with chilli and fried curry leaves and cocktails ... off to a good start!.