Back to peacocks waking us up again. Being in farmland it was bug central overnight. I’ve made it sound like our hotel is basic and it really isn’t. It has all that you could wish for in terms of comfort and tech but no air con and fairly exposed to the elements. Luckily we had mosquito nets around the bed so it could have been worse. Also, the bathroom is open air. Very romantic for sure to have a shower looking up into the trees and the sky beyond, but the idea that a snake or cockroach might fall from a branch above while you wash is somewhat disconcerting. And the bathroom was busy with crawling things. There is a lock on the outside of the bathroom for obvious reasons.
Poor Chandana had an early start so that he could fetch Dhiravamso from his monastery. When he arrived the staff were beside themselves. They got a cushion for his chair so that he could be higher than us and covered it in a white cloth. He had his own teapot. Weird milky tea with UHT milk which is a thing here. Makes sense in a hot country.
When we left they threw flowers and water on the windscreen to wish us a safe journey. It worked. We had a safe journey. Most of it on the expressway which was dull compared to the roads we’ve been on this week but it fulfilled its promise of being express. We got there quickly. “There” being a beautiful monastery on a lake outside Galle. These monks know how to live. It was like a boutique hotel where you’d go for a yoga retreat. With its own temple thrown in.
We got to our hotel in Galle Fort. A charming old colonial building in the centre of town.
We wandered to the ramparts to partake in the traditional sunset ritual of hanging about waiting for the sky to go red.
I’m no fan of anything military but it was beautiful and the fortifications seem to add to it. The ramparts were full of people taking in the view. Everyone from back packers to middle aged tourists and locals. And several couples having wedding photos taken.
Actually more locals than tourists. Many more Muslims than we’ve seen anywhere else. Families taking in the communal atmosphere, kids flying kites, boys playing cricket. It was quite magical.
We walked past later after dark and the tourists were gone (no photo opportunities) but many locals were still there in the dark making the most of the cooler evening air.
Dinner at The Bungalow restaurant which seems to be the place to go. My first night not having Sri Lankan curry and quite frankly I felt like I was missing something.
More ramparts and historical military fun to look forward to tomorrow. Can’t wait!
On the way to our hotel we stopped near Ella to climb part of a mountain. It’s a very different vibe here. Back packers and loud music. Bars and pool parties. A zip wire down the mountain and a big swing that looks like you’ll fall off the mountain if you let go.
The route is about 1km up and not arduous but, as always, incredibly hot and sweaty. The humidity here is a killer. But once you get up there the views are amazing. You’re on top of a mountain without having to do the whole climb. Straight to the good part.
We made our way back past the back packers, into the car and wound our way down to our hotel in the foothills of the mountains. Back to peacocks and palms. It is an eco tourism place. The rooms are basically huts on stilts in farmland.
The windows have no glass. Just mosquito nets so if your neighbour farts loudly you know about it. You can sit on your veranda drinking a beer whilst you watch the sun setting on the mountain and the farm workers harvesting their rice with the sound of prayers being played on a loudspeaker somewhere nearby. It’s somewhat incongruous and you kind of feel like you’re intruding yet it’s beautiful. Then you get over yourself and go for an amazing dinner (curry obviously) at the restaurant overlooking the infinity pool.
We wake to the sound of cockerels, crows and persistent traffic in the city below. No peacocks with their plaintiff cat-like cries here or the chatter of monkeys as our alarm call. There are monkeys here of course but they are city monkeys. Savvy. They’d steal your grandma if they thought she had a Werther’s original in her pocket, so doors and bags have to be tightly shut. The country monkeys sit nonchalantly in trees munching on leaves ignoring your presence. The city monkeys are a gang of artful Dodgers with their eyes on you at all times.
The mountains on the other side of the valley are enveloped in a thick morning mist and whilst it’s still very warm the humidity has dropped making it feel so much cooler than when we were in the jungle.
Dhiravamso’s tuk tuk got to the hotel bright and early. So once we’d given him 15 pots of tea and allowed time for everyone to kneel at his feet we made our way further into the mountains. Tea country. The journey is slow as the roads wind but the view is stunning.
We stopped at a viewpoint with opportunities to buy multiple Buddha and elephant souvenirs (we bought none) and in the mountains we stopped again at a tea factory with multiple opportunities to buy tea (we bought lots). I thought I had no interest in tea, but it was actually fascinating. Who knew that the process of making tea leaves was so complicated? All picked by hand so it’s hard work for the women who do it (they say it’s because they have smaller hands to pick better but I imagine it’s because they are willing to do hard work for low pay) then it’s loaded onto conveyor belts to dry out, then it gets oxidised and fermented and chopped. Then somewhere at the end of it all you get tea leaves. A large percentage of these have to be sold at market in Colombo by order of the government. Tea is currency here.
Dhiravamso is the high priest of tea and he was loving it.
Tea sorted and we wound our way down the mountain towards Ella. We dropped our monk off near his next monastery stop off and we headed to our hotel.
The vibe changes as the roads start to wind upwards. The towns we pass are busier and more modern. Roadside shacks give way to glass fronted stores and modern supermarkets. The traffic is slower and more aggressive. Less cows, more dogs.
Eventually we reach Kandy, a sprawling busy city that fills a valley and spills upwards into the surrounding hills. Our hotel is the Elephant Stables. Charming and perched on the hillside.
Before we’ve unpacked Dhiravamso has arrived. He’s an old friend from uni now living in Sri Lanka as a Buddhist monk. As far as we are concerned he’s Kevin. As far as the staff are concerned he is to be honoured and they gather to kneel before him and touch his feet as we leave to do our sightseeing. It is perplexing to say the least. Do they even know he’s from Swindon?
We went to the temple of the tooth. Tim forgot to change out of his shorts so was given a fetching cerise sarong. I’m hoping he’ll keep it.
The temple is the 3rd most sacred site in Sri Lanka according to Chandana. In a gold box, within a box, within a box…you get my drift…there is the tooth belonging to the Buddha that they found in the ashes after he was cremated.
I’m not a fan of relics. So many catholic churches in Europe claim to have a piece of the cross or the shroud, that Jesus would have had to be on a cross 50m tall and wrapped in a cloth the size of a football pitch. But this one is different. Whether or not it’s the real tooth inside the box in a box in a box etc, it is more symbolic. In India the Hindus tried to destroy it so a princess hid it in her hair and took it to Sri Lanka over 2000 years ago to keep it safe. For centuries it was shifted from capital to capital as the powers that be changed. All of the incoming aggressors wanted destroy it or claim it. The tooth was a prize and a negotiating tool. Keeping it safe represented freedom from religious oppression, and against all odds they managed to do it. Is it the original tooth? Who knows. Is it significant to the Buddhists of Sri Lanka? Yes. And that’s what counts.
We headed up to a viewpoint to take in the city and let Dhiravamso get back to his monastery (not actually his as he lives in a hut in the forest in the middle of nowhere but they seem to have a monk Airbnb situation going on here)
Then we went for a food tour in the city. We ate carbs and egg. Lots of both. It was delicious but after one round of egg hoppers followed by string hoppers, then off to another place for egg roti and kotu roti, we were done in. I could explain them all but you’d be bored. Let’s just say it’s great food. We finished in a bar in an old colonial house for arak and even more food. Coconut chicken and chick peas.
On the way back we went via a road known for elephant activity. And there was one munching away on the side of the road oblivious to the traffic.
Back from the rock and we hung by the pool etc then went for a walk around the grounds when it got cooler at about 5pm. Tim was keen to recreate last nights bird walk and I couldn’t contain my excitement as I was devastated I’d missed it because I was having a massage at the time. During the bird walk he’d been given a lot of information about the elephants in the area. We are in the middle of farmland here and the farmers have watchtowers where they keep vigil at night for the elephants that come in. If they see them they set off firecrackers to scare them off. Or they have electric fences. our hotel has an eco policy so no fireworks or fences. So, of course, the elephants are pushed towards our hotel that has its own farm with lots of juicy mangoes and jackfruits and acres of tasty rice in the paddy fields. It’s an open buffet. But they only come after midnight so no problem.
We walked along with Tim pointing out all the elephant entry places and a few birds and passed a security guard at his post. He checked who we were and we asked if he’d seen any elephants. Haha – no, no, only after dark. We saw the usual. Monkeys and peacocks and a view of the rock from the lake.
We carried on strolling looking for birds when we heard him running behind. Stop!! We wondered if we’d done some illegal bird watching. stop!! Elephant!! And as we rounded the corner, there it was. The size of the villa it was nonchalantly munching grass beside about 50m from us. We wanted to take photos but we were too close to risk staying so we doubled back. Every rustle in the trees from a monkey or bird making us jump. We went back to the hotel for dinner and the staff were all jittery. Elephants don’t come into the grounds in daylight usually. We had a drink by the pool and after a bit we noticed all the staff had come out and were looking into the undergrowth. There it was wandering along through the bamboo a few metres behind pool. The next morning it was the talk of breakfast. We got kudos for seeing it first. It had apparently made its way through the grounds for 4 hours. It’s exciting for us but a problem for the hotel. They can’t do much about them without using fences or fireworks but that compromises their ethos. But if they keep coming in daylight it will affect their business.
Only got a really rubbish video because I was too busy watching to film until it was too late But 2 elephants in one day isn’t bad.
Sigiriya, a sheer rock rising 190 metres above the jungle. Absolutely no choice – you had to climb it. You and every other tourist in Sri Lanka.
So this is the story as I understood it. In the 5th century there was a king who had 2 sons who didn’t get on. One of them, Kasyapa, killed his father and became king himself. Then the brothers fell out big time. But because killing your dad is a not good karma, Kasyapa decided not to kill his brother as well so he built his palace on the rock at Sigiriya so he’d be safe from fraternal revenge. He also had a huge lion carved into the rock, stunning water gardens created that he could look down on from his high perch, and a fresco of many naked women painted onto the surface of part the rock for his own enjoyment. To cut a long story short, the brother came for his revenge and Kasypaya fell on his sword. A millennia and a half later we are obliged to climb the rock and see what it was all about.
We got there at about 9.30. We should have gone earlier to avoid the heat and crowds but that would have involved going earlier. So it was hot and busy. The idea of the climb (about 1200 steps) didn’t worry me, just that I knew the last staircases were metal cage-like structures that hang off the rock. Not good when you don’t like heights. As it was I should have been worried about the 1200 steps. It was a sweat fest with 30 degree heat and high humidity. You could have wrung us out. Of course the guides all just skipped up. Chandana looked like he was going for a morning stroll while passing tourists who appeared to be panting their last breaths. Needless to say we got up in no time and it was well worth the effort. The metal stairs were quite sturdy so it didn’t feel bad. If you were claustrophobic though you’d struggle as there were lots of pauses while people stopped to breathe or get selfies
Half way up you get to see the lions paws – the body has long gone but you can get the scale.
The top level is breathtaking. A 360 view of the world and we were kings for a short while.
We skipped down ( not quite as more selfie jams) and got ourselves a well earned juice at the bottom via the naked ladies who we aren’t allowed to photograph
Dambulla. We visited the 1st century temple cave complex. 360 steps up or whatever in the searing heat and stifling humidity, with a load of tourists puffing along with us and monkeys regarding us with distain as we climbed. Shoes and hats off for the temples. Most tourists hobbling on the hot ground and middle-aged western men in sarongs to hide their knees. But of course it was worth it. The statues and murals were literally divine.
Cooking class next but Chandana stopped on the way and unexpectedly left us with a tuktuk driver. I felt like we were being trafficked. Turns out we had been booked on a bird walk. Tim was very excited. I feel I’m being groomed. We saw birds. Quite a few. A sea eagle was one of the highlights. After quite a few birds we drove around the countryside looking at crops. Peppercorns grow on trees. I had no idea…
We ended up at a farmhouse where we had a cookery lesson. 2 hours of chopping onions and garlic isn’t my idea of an ideal holiday activity, but it was fun and as my kitchen doesn’t overlook paddy fields it was new. We made bean curry, banana flower curry and coconut sambal. Then we ate it all along with about 5 other curries and rice and poppadoms in the garden. It was delicious.
We came home to a novel towel arrangement on our bed, Tim went for another bird walk in the hotel grounds and a we had dinner in the hotel of more curry.
We left this lovely hotel after a breakfast of egg hoppers served with curry and daal. Absolutely delicious. I had two. Then they brought another and then another. I don’t know how many times you are supposed to say no here before they stop force feeding you. Just a well the food is so good.
We waddled to the car and headed for the first city of Sri Lanka. We hired some bikes from a lovely family business near the centre. They’d lost half their house in the cyclone but they greeted us with big smiles and had cold water for us when we got back. The bikes were somewhat rickety and covered in thick plastic for some reason but they did the job. I’ve not been on a bike for 10 years other than the stationary kind so I was just glad to survive. We started at the Abhayagiri dagoba, a stupa built in the1st century BC. It is very impressive – like a pyramid to look at. I have literally no idea what these structures are for other than storing relics of the Buddha and looking at with awe. Because the structures are sacred you have to have knees and shoulders covered and remove your shoes and hat before going to see them. Wearing socks was a good call as the floor is burning hot. The Sri Lankans all walk bare foot with no sign of pain, while the tourists hobble and sweat.
The next stupa was the big one. The Ruanvelisaya Dagoba. I think it has some of the Buddhas ashes in there. Not actually bigger than the last one as it has shrunk for some reason over the centuries. Indian invasion was the cause according to my guide book. I don’t get what they could have done to make a huge dome sink several metres into the ground. There are 344 carved elephants in the walls outside – maybe they used them to stamp it down. This one was busy with pilgrims, not many tourists. Everyone dressed in white for purity, with the only colour being the purple lotus flowers carried as an offering to Buddha and gold cellophane wrapped eggs containing food and drink for the monks. In sweltering heat I walked around the stupa. Family groups sat in the tiny bit of shade offered by the outside walls, meditating and chanting. It didn’t feel right to take photos.
We got our shoes back and saw the ancient Bodhi tree. The Buddha had his enlightenment under a bodhi tree and this was grown from a cutting of that very tree more than 2000 years ago. It is looked after so carefully that basically it is still the same original tree, albeit grafted and supported. It has huge spiritual significance to the Buddhists.
We cycled for a while more seeing more ancient sites then returned the bikes and headed to our next hotel with a quick stop for king coconuts.
The hotel is stunning. Built on reclaimed paddy fields so basically a swamp and we are being bitten to shreds. But they’ve done it so beautifully and all with conservation and ecological priorities in mind. More snake and elephant warnings but we’re getting used to that. The constant sound of wild peacocks and monkeys. We sat by our little pool watching the monkeys in the bamboo. Monkeys are everywhere here and they are oblivious to us.
More curry for dinner and another day ahead tomorrow.
We got up at the fart of a sparrow’s crack to drive to the Wilpattu National Park. As the sun rose over the paddy fields we began to wake up a bit but a quick stop for fuel turned into 30 mins with no fuel. There is a shortage here. Most of the filling stations are either out of petrol or have queues a couple of hours long and there is a ration of 15 litres per person a week. Tourist vehicles have an exemption but the tech wasn’t working at our filling station for the QR code so there was a lot of head scratching and eventually we moved on. This meant that our driver couldn’t come with us as he had to go back to find another place to queue. He dropped us at the safari Jeep centre where we were greeted by our safari driver who looked about 11, spoke barely a word of English and the jeep was basically a metal cage with wheels. He was lovely by the way, and as we speak no Sinhalese we can’t complain.
The first hour or so was promising. We saw some deer and some interesting birds and a water buffalo. Then some more deer and some more not-so-interesting birds and several buffalo. Then a few more deer and lots of water buffalo and the odd bird and a lot of peacocks. And a mongoose. And more mongooses. Or is it mongeese? We knew it wouldn’t be like the Masai but here is a completely different terrain. We were driving through forest. Terracotta clay paths that powder the tree trunks red, with huge termite mounds emerging from the ground like red monsters. With the undergrowth and leaves the world is terrecotta and green – almost monochromatic in effect, other than the constant smattering of pastel coloured butterflies doing their dance. At first it was striking, like a Hockney iPad painting, but it began to lose its appeal. There was nothing to see but trees and path and with the constant tumble-dryer effect of the jeep on rough terrain, and the red dust in our lungs and eyes, 4 hours in I’d just about had enough. We were both bored and I felt car-sick and we still had 5 hours to go.
We stopped at the toilets, which was the most interesting part of the day so far because of the very cute monkeys who hang about for food. One jumped into our jeep, got straight under the drivers seat and found his lunch. He’d just about unwrapped the bag before he was shooed away.
We tried to explain to the driver that I felt car sick and we’d like to leave early. “Toilet trouble?” He asked. No – car-sick. He found another guide who spoke English. He looked confused. He approached me and asked “Are you pregnant?” Apparently the driver thought that’s why I felt sick. After a great amount of laughter all around the guide said “Well I took one look at you and thought no way!”. Rub it in why don’t you. Now with my fertility status established it was agreed we’d have an early lunch and work our way back. Another hour of body shaking forest monotony, we parked by a lake, ate our chicken wraps and moved on. About 10 mins later the driver let out a yell. Leopard!! He was so excited he looked like he was going to cry. And there she was, crouched calmly a few metres in front of us on the path, drinking from a puddle. Absolutely stunning. We sat, she sat. She didn’t acknowledge us in any way. Occasionally she perked up to the sound of deer in the forest, but mostly she sat, washed herself and then slept. So we watched her sleep. She’d rise, yawn, stretch, and go back to sleep. At one point I started to doze off too. The driver was beside himself. Kept telling us how lucky we were. He was constantly messaging, filming and taking selfies. After about 40 minutes we wondered if we’d ever move if she didn’t. We were almost out of water and I’d given the fruit from my lunch to some Sri Lankan guys parked up at the lake beside us at lunch time. Can you eat peacock? Is it safe to drink from a muddy puddle? Can you make wine from bamboo leaves? Then 2 jeeps came in behind us. The driver shared his victory, we drove forward and the leopard reluctantly slunk back into the trees as we advanced. He drove straight back to the toilet area, jumped out of the jeep and let all the other drivers know about the find. All of a sudden, engines were revving and confused tourists were being shouted out of the toilet blocks to jump into jeeps and race to where we’d been. The poor monkeys were denied their scraps. Jubilant after finding the money shot we were spent, but we had to get home somehow and that was a couple of hours away, so we found some elephants. 3 to be precise. Surprisingly amazing to behold. Absolutely massive compared to the African ones we saw last year and majestic is not a word descriptive enough but it will do. We watched a couple, the male in the lake, the female watching from the shore. She seemed to be calling him in. He did as he was told, but once he was out he managed to persuade her to get back in and soon they were both mucking about in the water. In reality they were probably eating reeds for survival but it looked like they were having fun so I’ll go with that image.
Screenshot
Then we went back to base – not early as we’d asked but we were glad we hadn’t left because of the leopard and elephants. The heavens opened on the way back and we were soaked through but happy bumping about in our jeep. Chandanna had found fuel, he took us back to the hotel, we ate delicious curry. Another day done.
Chandanna picked us up bright and early to drive to the hotel near the Wilpattu National park. About 4 hours that gave us a sense of this part of the country. The first thing that hits you is the colour. It is so green! We thought that it was just our hotel that was in the middle of a tropical garden, but it seems that the whole country is a garden with some buildings filling the gaps in the borders. Coconut palms grow like giant weeds in every space and underneath banana palms and bamboo vie for attention. The suburban towns out of Colombo sprawl for miles with roadside shacks and shops selling everything from motorbikes to bananas. The road is good – few pot holes here – but seems chaotic at first with multiple bikes, tuktuks, cows, dogs, buses and trucks all using the space as well as the cars. But once you get used to it it feels safe. There is a system of overtaking is understood and it works. Except for the dogs. They are everywhere and mostly sit on the side of the road but also like to lie in the middle of it, or to randomly cross without warning, or, even better, they run out and try to attack the car from behind. Not the brightest…
Many street corners have a shrine to either Buddha or a catholic figure of worship – usually Mary. They are in glass cases with coloured fairy lights behind the statue. Hinduism is big here too but they don’t have so many of the shrines, just the odd brightly coloured temple. Our timing was that school kids were on the road. At the bustops, on bikes, on the back of mopeds, in pristine white uniforms. The girls in white starched dresses and the boys in white shirts and blue shorts. Immaculate. I struggled to get mine out of the door in a clean sweatshirt and matching socks – if I’d had to iron and starch a uniform every morning i may have expired.
As we left the suburbs, the school children still trotted along pristinely, but the land became softer and the green even greener. Less houses, more trees and paddy fields giving a bit of space to the view.
After about 4 hours we got to the hotel, a complex with only 7 villas in the park. Only 3 were occupied so it was very quiet, and with about 20 staff we were completely outnumbered. We were shown to our room with strict instructions to keep the doors closed in case of snakes and not to go out at night in case there was an elephant in the grounds. We saw neither elephants or snakes but lots of monkeys in the trees and we had a visit from the resident dogs – there to keep with for elephants apparently. We got one bikes and had an explore. The local village consists of a through road and a few shops. As we cycled past kids came running out to wave and say hello and the older residents stopped to stare at the strange white people who couldn’t handle a bike. There was a drunk lying at the side of the road talking to himself and a pack of dogs chasing monkeys. And a shrine to the Virgin Mary in front of a disintegrating army base not far from the sign warning of elephants crossing. Standard village life I’d say.
We came back to our tightly locked hotel room, checked under the beanbags for snakes, and went for dinner in the restaurant. One other couple was there so with 6 staff the service was attentive to say the least. We had the Sri Lankan feast and it was amazing. Curry all the way for this trip I think.
Georgia and Tim on tour 