Galle: Cafe Town

This will be the last of my posts on Sri Lanka. As you can tell, I've stretched it out so that I can pretend that I am still vacation-ing.

We arrived at pretty Galle after a gruelling 7 hour bus ride, which saw us standing for a vast majority of the journey. This was due to the arsehole of a fellow tourist and his family who decided that their bags and asses were more important than fellow human beings. When the lady refused to remove her bag from the chair to allow a little Sri Lankan child or her weary mother to sit down, I almost morphed into an angry bear and mauled her. Key word - almost. Thankfully, this sweet local guy offered to sit the child on his lap for a part of the journey so that she could rest her legs.  

Anyway, we were famished after that ride and headed straight to the forts for food and a place to lay our heads. We settled on Crepeology, which served what resembled wraps instead of crepes. But to-mah-to/to-may-to right, and so I proceeded to wolf mine down in record time. 

The Galle fort area was littered with cool cafes, hippie joints and expensive restaurants, and reminded me of a fellow UNESCO town, Luang Prabang in Laos. I guess that is the look and feel that UNESCO likes? *shrugs*

Nevertheless, I enjoyed strolling along the walls, taking in the salty sea breeze and the sounds of waves crashing upon the shore, with my companions at night. The next morning, we woke up to catch the sunrise, which we unfortunately discovered was in the other direction!

Our time in Sri Lanka was not enough and we didn't make it to the beautiful beaches for crab. So we made sure we got our asses down to the Ministry of Crab once we got back to Colombo for our flight home. 

Ahh, Sri Lanka. I will be back! 

Finishing off our Sri Lankan adventure at the Ministry of Crab.

Up high in Nuwara Eliya

Having been born and raised in a consistently warm and humid country, a change to a cooler climate has always been a welcome relief. The tea plantation area of Nuwara Eliya provided that break from the tropical weather that left us sun burnt in areas that we neglected to block from the sun.

We dropped off at drizzly Nuwara Eliya without a room booking and promptly settled down for tea and started frantically searching for a place to lay our heads. Thankfully, we found a reasonably priced and available guest house, by the name of Chez Allen, with an eccentric and welcoming owner. Allen, who looked like Bob Marley, came by to pick us up in his pick up and recommended a great driver for touring the tea plantations and the waterfalls. 

The pretty Post Office where Allen swung by to pick us up.

Cold and hungry! Food at Chez Allen.

We stopped by two factories, Labokelie and Mackwoods for a tour of the factory. It was an eye opener seeing how the humble drink had its origins, and the processes involved in getting it from plantation to the cup. We ended our tour with a pot of the finest fragrant Orange Pekoe tea. Life is good.

Single estate tea leaves ready to be shipped out.

Nuwara Eliya is known as Little England as it was a sanctuary for the British during Sri Lanka's colonial days. I'm starting to detect a trend here with the Brits and their love for hill country retreats.

The next day, we abandoned our initial plan to hike at Horton's Plains due to the crazy expensive entrance fees and went trekking around Nuwara Eliya because Allen told us that the hike to the highest village, Shantipura, would be a two hour easy hike. (An aside: entrance fees to attractions in Sri Lanka are really high as compared to that in other countries, and I could not help but feel a little underwhelmed by the places).

While the views up high were gorgeous and worth the physical exertion, the hike was definitely not easy, nor did it take us two hours! 

Hiking up above the town.

Cultural Triangle

Due to its central location and proximity to Minneriya National Park, Polonnaruwa was chosen as our base to explore Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle, which consists of the ancient cities of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya.

The journey from Colombo to Polonnaruwa saw us on board the local bus, which was a crammed and unpleasant six to seven hour ride in the familiar tropical heat. Nevertheless, it took us to our destination for cheap.

After befriending a tuk tuk driver who won our hearts by recommending a cheap place for a big lunch, we decided to tour the ancient city with him; a rather good idea on hindsight since the oppressive heat called for minimal walking. The ruins at Polonnaruwa resembled other World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia such as the Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar, but for a much dearer entry fee. It is crazy that we had to pay US$25 to $30 to enter each of the ancient cities! So unfortunately or fortunately, we had to give Anuradhapura a miss due to the lack of time.

Still, Polonnaruwa was enchanting and the Buddhist images brought me back to my undergraduate days sitting in a lecture on religious art. Our tuk tuk driver was as tired as we were baking under the cloudless day but pushed us on to cover a majority of the sites.

After a tiring day under the sun, we decided to look to Trip Adviser for dinner recommendations and stumbled upon Priyamali Gedara. While I usually take Trip Adviser recommendations with a pinch of scepticism, the top place to dine in Polonnaruwa was a deserving one! The farmer host and his family really showed us true Sri Lankan hospitality. That was, without a doubt, our best meal in Sri Lanka.

The spread at Priyamali Gedara

The next day, we set off to Sigiriya to climb the lion's rock, blessed with great weather that made climbing the 1200 steps to the top a little more bearable. (I am starting to realise that the weather affects my appreciation of a place). If I were to choose only one ancient site to visit in Sri Lanka, it would be Sigiriya. The view at the top was truly breathtaking and I was content to find a spot to sit and enjoy the strong winds.

Well preserved painting of nymphs.

The view at the top.

Elephants in Minneriya

I was first drawn to vacationing in Sri Lanka when I flipped open an airplane magazine on board a flight and saw pictures of leopards in the wild . Instead of heading to Africa for the famed safaris, I decided on Sri Lanka.

Instead of seeing leopards, I set my sights on the elephants of Minneriya National Park. This decision was easily reached after reading about the elephant "gathering" every August. And well, the experience really lived up to my own expectations of seeing the majestic creatures in the wild. Minneriya is such a beautiful and peaceful place. 

Our jeep driver was amazing and frequently pointed out any wildlife that he spotted to us, although we seemed only interested to witness the gathering.

And boy can these elephants eat! 

We were so engrossed in them that we decided to head to Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage to spend more time with those beasts. Well, all I can say is that nothing beats seeing them in the wild and that was a disappointing detour in our trip.

Sri Lanka

I have dreamed about visiting Sri Lanka for the past two years and was lucky enough to finally do so during the National Day weekend this year. 

The country has left an indelible mark on me especially after having encountered the colourful and warm personalities - from the humble farmer and his wife from Polonnaruwa who were superb dinner hosts, our amazing safari jeep driver who brought us to the best spots to see the elephants in Minneriya, sweet dear mama Kumari from Kandy with whom we bargained to relax the guest house's curfew if only for half an hour, the friendly Chinese owner of the popular Slightly Chilled Bamboo Bar who, we like to believe, was happy to see fellow Chinese people and to speak in Mandarin with, the hilarious Bob Marley wannabe who picked us up in a pick up to his rest house, and then sent us on an easy two hour trek to Shantipura (but which saw us panting up the mountains for half a day, no nearer to the highest village in Nuwara Eliya), to our fantastic and funny tuk tuk driver who gave us a death defying ride to the airport. 

Our trip was nothing short of exhausting, with constant travel from one town to another. But my awesome travel companions made me realise that I can and will forge new travel experiences and memories with like-minded souls.