We were being tough on ourselves, thinking we’d have more energy on our first day in Kandy, so we threw in a really busy day before our usual ‘jet-lag’ tired day. Our driver Sandun, arranged through WithLocals, arrived a few minutes later than planned, unable to find our guesthouse, but 7 o’clock is still way too early to have left my bed. We were soon picking our way through the Kandy traffic heading for our first stop of the day, Sigiriya Rock, the ancient fortress standing some 200 meters above the surrounding lush green forest.
Our driver purchased our tickets and guided us unhelpfully around the very poor museum before we headed towards the main purpose of our visit, scaling Sigiriya rock itself. The gardens lead you towards the base of the rock, and start to ascend through various staircases and rock entrances, before things start to get serious and the real ascent begins. You scale some steeper steps leading you up to the ancient frescos where you have an option to ascend a circular staircase vertically to get a closer look at them. We opted for the easier route, bypassing the fresco line, making our way up past the Mirror Wall to the Lion Gate entrance where things started to get really steep.
This staircase is very narrow, made of metal and winds its way steeply up past the people coming down, finally getting you to the top of the rock! It was a very hot day and in full sun the climb was tough, but quite do-able. Once at the top, walking around the ruins of the fortress, the views are stunning and a just reward for your efforts getting up there. But then of course, what goes up MUST come down and we slowly picked our way down the staircase. Once back to the Lion Gate there is a shorter, separate route down for those descending. This climb was the main reason for visiting Sri Lanka and it didn’t disappoint although the 40degree heat made it a bit of a challenge.
On leaving the car park, our driver asked if we wanted to eat lunch before visiting Dambulla Caves but we opted for taking it afterwards for fear our legs would seize up if we waited. Again there was a steep uphill climb to get to the entrance, but fortunately no steps! The understated entrance did not prepare us for just how beautiful the interior was; each of the network of caves was filled with enormous Buddha statues and fresco’d walls and ceilings. Our driver finally came alive when we asked him to explain the different images; as a Buddhist he gave us a clear understanding of his beliefs. He also knew the history of the site and its relevance to the history of Sri Lanka. Very interesting too.
By now we were well and truly exhausted but our driver wanted to show us two more temples. We contemplated asking him to skip them but one of them was a rather beautiful Hindu temple we had admired on the journey to Sigiriya. Quickly getting back on the road our driver tried making an unscheduled stop at a Batik factory and was not pleased when we declined – we had already been warned about guides making money from such visits. We soon reached our next destination, a ruined temple, Nalanda Gedig, that dated back to the 7th and 11th centuries, but we had definitely reached saturation point and just needed to eat lunch.
Pulling over into what looked like a roadside restaurant, we were surprised when our driver took us through a beautifully manicured Ayurvedic garden, across a river, towards a large open sided restaurant, turns out to be Isiwaya Ayurverdic Village, one of many scattered along this part of the road. Our worst nightmare is being taken to eat by a guide that is receiving backhanders to bring tourists in, and it was obvious this was exactly that. We always avoid buffet food especially if the cavernous restaurant is empty and with food standing in high temperatures but there was no other choice. The price of 1000 rupees each plus drinks was also way over the top, but again we were a captive market. We ate carefully from the buffet and left, but not before our driver tried to convince us that we should participate in a talk with one of the practitioners – we again refused and after a second try he took us back to the car. It was clear he was not impressed with our refusals.
We stopped briefly at the Hindu temple but it was not available for internal viewing for another hour so we walked around the exterior admiring the beautiful carvings.
Our driver managed to procure us tickets for the temple (we had already pre-paid as part of our booking) although we never actually set foot in it. As we returned to our guesthouse it was obvious our driver was clearly expecting a tip even though we had fully agreed a price beforehand. He had managed to get a free lunch at the restaurant, charged us for a temple we couldn’t enter and asked us for additional money because we paid in dollars (we had emailed several times to clarify and paid exactly what was asked). We felt he’d already taken his own tip!
MONDAY
Today kicked off with a lazy breakfast on the veranda of our base, the Notting Hill Guest House, whilst enjoying the sights, smells and sounds of our lofty perch above the city of Kandy.
Our host, Fonseka, arranged a tuk-tuk that soon had us whizzing through the Kandy traffic up to the white Bahirawakanda Buddha that sits high above Kandy, tickets were just RS250, but you are ‘encouraged’ to make a donation as you come down from the stairs. They are happy to take any amount and there was no pressure to make it a big donation.
Our waiting tuk-tuk then whizzed us back down the hill, delivering us to St Paul’s Anglican Church, that seems like it was taken straight out of a quaint English village and transplanted lock, stock and barrel into Kandy; but it was quiet and we were made very welcome.
Adjacent to St Paul’s is a Buddhist temple, which was quite unremarkable, but once again forced us to remove our walking boots!
Then on to one of our Hit-List items, the Temple of the Tooth. Finding the foreigners ticket machine and paying massively more than the locals, we once again removed our boots, stashed them (along with our hats) in the shoe storage hut and quickly found ourselves inside this amazing building. It is built around a relic, one of Buddha’s left teeth, salvaged from his funeral pyre; it is a gloriously ornate building and the attached museum outlines the tooth’s chequered past along with the history of the re-build following the 1998 bomb attack.
Boots retrieved, it was time to find something to eat and as recommended by our host we soon found the Kandyan Muslim Restaurant, a somewhat busy and chaotic place that swiftly dishes up a great curry at a ridiculous price. Our two large main dishes, rice and tea came to a crazy RS520 or shade over £2.
Refuelled, we headed in to the Kandyan dusk to find the Kandy Lake Club and enjoy an evening of traditional dancing and music! Hands up here to being more than a little sceptical but it was a truly entertaining event. Lots of amazing dances backed by some incredible drumming made for an incredibly entertaining evening.
TUESDAY
After an earlier than usual breakfast our tuktuk arrived on time to whisk us through the chaotic Kandyan rush hour to Peridenya station to pick up our train tickets and the train that would then take us up to Nuwara Eliya, the old English town in the mountains. Peridenya station is really small, just two platforms, originally built way back in 1867.
Our train trundled into the station causing bedlam as people without reserved seating clamoured for the best window seats.
And off we trundled back towards Kandy, which is a dead end, where we all turned our seats around to face the opposite direction; luckily for us, this was the best side of the train for the journey ahead. Rattly and bumpy, the train slowly climbed higher and higher, pausing briefly at various tiny stations en route to Nuwara Eliya. Scenery is ever changing, towns, paddy fields and undulating hills that eventually turn in to jaw-dropping mountainous tea plantation covered hills. Spotting tiny tea pickers scattered amongst the greenery, what must be several miles away, gave some sense of the immense scale of the mountains we were slowly climbing.
After a slow 4 hour train ride we finally arrived at our destination, where the majority of the train seemed to spill out onto the platform. The small dirt road leading out of the station resembled a chaotic car park as tuk-tuks, mini-buses, cars and drivers all queued to collect passengers and transport them on the next part of their journey. Our driver was waiting just outside the station exit and quickly transported us into the town. For us, the train ride was the main reason we found ourselves in Nuwara Eliya, so we had very little on our agenda to stretch the skills of our driver. Visiting a bank to exchange some £’s in to Rupees, an odd experience where £20 notes with any writing on, any kind of tear, nick or blemish were deemed to be ‘damaged’ and handed back to me, was first on our agenda, followed by a walk around the quaintly English Victoria Park, and finally a visit to the old English Post Office, which despite being built way back in 1894, is still a fully functioning Post Office!
Nuwara Eliya and the surrounding hills are home to a lot of tea plantations and the Blue Fields factory was our last stop before heading home. As we left the Post Office it started to rain, thunder followed and by the time we’d pulled in to the factory car park, it was beginning to rain hard. Met by a tour guide with an umbrella we were quickly escorted in to the hot sticky factory where we were met by a dozen or so pickers, wearing plastic sacks, abandoning their working day due to the rain. Here we were shown where the fresh leaves are put to partially dry, 40% dry to be precise, and where they are then dropped by a chute to the floor grading below. Leaves exit the chute in to a giant machine that rolls the leaves before they get chopped, then some are left to become green tea and some are fermented to become black tea, the usual U.K. kind of tea. Grading then sorts out the leaves in to four sizes, whilst static charged drums pull out all the rubbish which is further graded to become the dust that we put in our tea bags!
Then it’s out of the factory where you’re shown the final product and get to choose which one you’d like to try, for a price of Rs90 each, before dashing through the rain to get your cuppa! The tea was nice, but the leaves were huge, filling a quarter of the cup, so they stewed quickly and prevented you from getting a decent mouthful. Their shop was astronomically expensive too, so we skipped out to meet our driver for the arduous drive back through the downpour that had appeared while we were supping our tea. Traffic was pretty dire, our poor driver getting very frustrated with being sat in crawling traffic through Peridenya. As we finally approached Kandy again we opted to be dropped at the Kandyan Muslim Restaurant were we wrapped up our final day with a hearty curry.
WEDNESDAY
Another lazy breakfast enjoying the tranquility of the Notting Hill veranda whilst tucking in to another hearty breakfast on our final morning here.
Our onward transport was coming from Colombo but phoned to say he was late. Our host Fonseca chased them up and got very cross with them, but still had to go off on his moped to find him. So, thirty minutes adrift we were finally on our way to the Millennium Elephant Foundation to spend a few hours with some elephants.
The traffic was bad and we got stuck on the winding roads behind all manner of slow and ponderous vehicles, with time ebbing away fast we only JUST made it for our 12:00 slot. We checked in, grabbed our tickets and were tagged on to a group that had just started the talk, phew, we just made it. Our guide talked us through all manner of elephant facts, fairly lightly, but it was very entertaining and we learned some new facts about these beasts. Picking up a basket of fruit from our guide, it was time to meet our elephant, Pooja, who was waiting in the river with her Mahout. She knew just what was coming as soon as we started down the steps towards her, her trunk quickly reaching out for the fruit that was heading her way. Holding out chunks of sugar cane, melon and papaya, she gently sucked them on to the end of her trunk like a vacuum cleaner, before swiftly stuffing them in to her mouth, crunching and chewing each piece.
Snack over with it was time for a walk and as Pooja climbed out of the river we headed to the trail, she soon ambled along with us, leading us in to the wooded area behind the main house. From here we were introduced to Pooja and some of the other elephants out in the woods. Pooja, despite her size was so gentle, patiently letting us pose for pictures, her Mahout constantly talking to her. Our guide and the mahout bombarded us with elephant facts as well as information about native flora throughout the walk; our surprise at the variety of different fruits and plants was matched by their surprise to find that in England we don’t have any of their tropical fruits or elephants. One of the highlights was the mahout sharing the knife he carried – he had carved the handle himself from cow horn as well as using palm husk to make the scabbard that held it tucked in to his sarong. The knife can only be used by the mahout that has made it and he proudly pointed out the four combined animals, cobra, tiger, parrot and of course and elephant, carved into the handle as he handed it to us to look at.
Finally the walk took us back to where we started, stood by the river. Pooja headed straight back in to cool off, her Mahout getting her to lay down, which she looked to thoroughly be enjoying. We were then invited to join her and were handed some coconut shells to scrub her with. So, knee deep in the river we washed and scrubbed this massive creature, feeling her slowly relaxing beneath our hands, all the while our guide was taking pictures as we worked. Then, one at a time, as we laid across Pooja’s back, she doused us with three trunk loads of water !!! And that ended our time with Pooja, a magical experience. Our visit ended with a meal back up in the house, Dahl, rice and vegetables with a choice of tea/coffee. Other drinks we available but cost a little extra.
Meal finished we found our driver and then headed on towards Colombo. Our drive was very slow and the traffic was bad and finally our driver had enough and decided on taking a ‘short cut’. This route was down narrow country roads passing paddy fields and through tiny villages, frequently narrowly missing oncoming traffic and getting slowed by farm vehicles. Our driver was getting tired too, stopping once to throw a bottle of water over his head! Three hours later we finally got to our hotel, shattered!
After checking in to the ME Colombo, we dropped our cases in our room and quickly headed to the rooftop pool to cool off and enjoy the wonderful view across the adjacent cricket ground and the cityscape of Colombo.
Showering and cleaning up we then dined in the restaurant enjoying a couple of somewhat spicy traditional Sri Lankan dishes! Sadly the hotel is dry and doesn’t serve any alcohol so instead we enjoyed some fruit juice and iced tea.
THURSDAY
Breakfast was a tasty, if rather confusing event, having to choose between a Continental or Sri Lankan style breakfast. Somehow we ended up with something from both menus, but despite the confusion we ate well and felt prepared for our busy day in Colombo.
We had pre-arranged a Tuk-Tuk Safari that would take us around the main sites of Colombo in half a day; we had only given ourselves one full day in the city so for us it was also time efficient. Pick-up time was 9:30 and at 9:25 reception called to inform us that our driver had arrived. Caviar, or Kavi for short, was to be our host and he arrived with a cool box full of chilled beers and water as well as a variety of snacks, sun protection and a sound system fully loaded with dance music. Our bright yellow tuk-tuk was parked across the street, our host guiding us like a school crossing lady across the busy street. As Kavi rolled back the roof so that we could enjoy a panoramic view of Colombo, staff of the hotel had gathered in their carpark to watch the spectacle, all waving as we departed making us feel rather regal.
First up was a Buddhist Temple, entrance was included so it was shoes off and Kavi guided us around, pointing out interesting artefacts like the Buddhas hair, the 8 ton white marble Buddha, Rolls Royce’s and explaining the ins and outs of temple life.
Back in to the Tuk-Tuk, crack open a cold beer and back out on the road. Next stop was the Independence Monument and the Victorian Mental hospital.
Back onboard and a few roads later we were crossing the railway, pausing briefly Kavi informed us that to our right, it was heading South, to our left it was heading North, a midway point on the rail network, then over the bridge and around a few corners to the Hindu temples. There were two, side by side temples, one on the right is the original, stacked with brightly coloured figures, but slightly dulled by its newer neighbour that was shiny and bright stood alongside it.
Kavi quickly let us take a few pictures while he purchased some temple food placing it in the tuk-Tuk for us try as we sped off towards our next stop, a coffee break. Kavi pulled up outside a coffee bean retailer, The Beans, informing us that the coffee was free and that we were under no pressure whatsoever to buy anything if we didn’t want to.
Drinks were selected, beans were quickly ground and two freshly brewed coffees produced. Offering us a discount we picked up a couple of packs of coffee, freshly ground for my preference of French press, and an unusual ginger coffee was quickly ground up too. During this process out driver was booked for parking! Fees were paid and tickets were issued, a hazard of the job he informed us. Coffee safely stowed, tuk-tuk roof unrolled to block out the scorching sun, we headed back out on to the streets, soon pulling up in the small courtyard of a Dutch Colonial Church, dating back to 1736 and still in daily use.
Kavi announced that our next stop would be for lunch, again included as part of our booking. On route to our lunch stop he took us down a really busy street bustling with traders and shoppers as they shopped for the upcoming New Year celebrations. Sadly our tuk-tuk malfunctioned, loosing all electrical power, but Kavi was swift to push us to the kerbside and within minutes had it all sorted out and were were heading off towards our lunch stop, Curry Pot. Again, Kavi swiftly assisted us in picking something to eat from the array of local curies on offer, obviously knowing all the staff really well, then joining us to enjoy lunch together.
Final stop was a tea dealer, again, no pressure to buy. Ceylon tea was once again explained to us and we could choose two brews each to try. Four cups of tea were swiftly produced and we sampled all four between us. Our tour was over! Our safari was at an end. Kavi drove us back along the ocean front road, taking us swiftly back to our hotel starting point.
Our final evening at the ME was spent in the rooftop pool watching flocks of fruit bats flying towards the city in search of their evening meal.
FRIDAY
Another confusing breakfast, unable to have the options we’d enjoyed the previous morning, we opted for the continental breakfast.
Time to move on and with suitcases in tow we UBER’d it to the coach station to catch the express coach down to Galle. Happening to mention to our driver about the express coach, he informed us that it now departed from a new coach station near the express way, and took us the extra 5K to get there.
The EX01 was already in the rank, so we queued up, stuffed our cases in the hold and found a seat. Fairly quickly, the coach filled and a few minutes adrift we pulled out and started our journey. Our conductor made his way down the coach, seat by seat, collecting the fare, just RS420 each, about £2, for the 116km drive.
Once off the express way, passengers started getting off randomly, closer to their destination than the coach stop in Galle. If only we’d known just how close our hotel was to the last junction we could have saved ourselves 15 minutes crawling through traffic and the cost of a tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel.
Our tuk-tuk driver saw us coming with MUG written all over us, not knowing how far the ride was, we took his price of RS700 and hopped in. We later made the same trip several times paying as low as RS300, but never more than RS500.
Our final destination, the CoCo Bay Hotel, Unawatuna, was stunning. Perched on a tiny private cove, it’s views across the bay to the Dutch Fort were spectacular and we spent many an hour just gazing out to sea enjoying the vista.
Our room, large, and well appointed, also shared the same view. The entire hotel – rooms and restaurant – faced the ocean.
Quickly making ourselves at home we grabbed a cup of tea and sat marvelling at how lucky we were. Having not eaten since breakfast we chose to make our way to nearby Unawatuna in search of food. The searing heat made this more of a mission than we expected and many of the restaurants we passed were not yet open, however, we finally stopped at a ramshackle house serving a set menu (3 curries, rice, pakora and poppadom) for only RS380.
Once we had eaten we didn’t want to walk back so found a passing tuk-tuk to return us to the hotel. We couldn’t resist hopping onto the beach to paddle in the Indian Ocean before finishing off our day on our balcony with a cold beer.
SATURDAY
Due to the content of the day, we sped through breakfast, much to the confusion of our waiter. Ordering just a small dish of granola each and swigging down a cup of tea before grabbing a tuk-tuk in to Galle Fort and the Lucky Fort Restaurant for our final booking, Sri Lankan Cooking Lessons. Lucky Fort is a tiny restaurant that offers cooking classes too. Chandu arrived in his truck whisking us back in to the town to his house where he and his mother were waiting to teach us. Chandu started by showing us around his garden, pointing out herbs, spices and all manner of future ingredients waiting to be harvested, Pineapples, heavy laden chilli plants, bananas ripening and pandan leaves.
Chandu talked us through all the ingredients we would be using, all neatly laid out on the counter, then his mother appeared and once introduced, she began to get us involved in cooking these seven curries, starting with the vegetable preparation. Chopping, slicing and even learned how to crack open a coconut using the back of the chopper and then grind its flesh out with a hand-cranked multi-toothed whisk-like contraption. Lots of cookery tips were passed on, from using two knuckles of water in your rice cooker, to just how big a spoon of curry powder really was!
Following a short tea break and a chat about engineering, Buddhism and karma, it was on to the actual cooking. Once the gas rings started going, phew, the kitchen got really warm, but very soon the dishes started to appear, lining up on the kitchen side, bamboo ladles sticking out at all angles. Once all the dishes were done, they were transferred to a serving dish and Chandu started to set the table. Once the coconut roti were finished we took are seats at their dining table and sat and enjoyed the fruits of our labour! Moments later, Chandu appeared with gifts of a bamboo ladle each, wonderful mementos of a memorable morning cooking. Funny how at home and comfortable you can be with people you’ve only met a few hours before. A truly wonderful thing to do.
Chandu dropped us back at our hotel and after a quick change we took our first dip in the warm, bath-like Indian Ocean!
SUNDAY
When we booked this trip we later discovered that the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year coincided with it. During the week you you could feel the locals getting excited and the shops were crowded with people buying things in readiness for the big day. Our hotel was celebrating too, kicking things off with a Sri Lankan curry breakfast, then getting us to join in with some traditional New Year games like egg throwing, bun eating, pot smashing and putting the eye on the elephant. We learned that there was a quiet period between the old year and the beginning of the new one, a period where nothing is eaten until the final ceremony of the day, boiling a pot of milk. This begins at exactly at the auspicious time of 2:42 with the lighting of the fire. Milk boiling over signifies prosperity being poured out. I’m sure lighting a fire on the floor in the middle of the dining room and spilling boiled milk all over it might cross several H&S rules in the U.K. but in CoCo Bay, it was something to be celebrated.
Post-tsunami the Japanese donated a Peace Pagoda to the Unawatuna community as the area was widely and severely damaged, built up on a hill overlooking the bay towards the Dutch Fort it has some amazing views. We wrapped up our day with a hot a very sweaty walk up the hill to visit it, just a mile away Google Maps says! It was steep and hard work in places but our efforts were rewarded by seeing a couple of families of monkeys in the trees and spotting a salamander too!
Our day wrapped up with dinner on the beach, enjoying the setting sun and catching glimpses of tiny bats flitting about over the beach and then spotting flocks of fruit bats flying towards Galle.
MONDAY
Really slow lazy breakfast, followed by a tuk-tuk ride in to the Dutch Fort. Again, the tuk-tuk fair was different, just RS400 to the fruit market, our intention to shop for blouses and goodies to take home. Unfortunately due to the new year holidays, not everything was open, luckily I found a couple of linen shirts for RS590 each, about £3. But Karen was not so lucky and found nothing. Walking around the Fort was a challenge as it was incredibly hot. Cooling refreshments were taken in a restaurant overlooking the bay, A Minute by Tuk-Tuk, enjoying the great views and the cooling sea breeze.
We mooched around some of the shops, but again some of the shops were closed due to the New Year. We tuk-tuk’d it back to the hotel and enjoyed the afternoon on the beach before a rainstorm came in. Due to the rain, we took our last CoCoBay evening in the restaurant, enjoying a veggie curry watching the thunder storm rolling around the bay.
TUESDAY
Officially the last day in Sri Lanka, but with our flight not until the wee small hours we had a whole day to fill. Not that that was a tricky thing to do! So, another lazy breakfast before we needed to check out, the hotel offering us a different room if we wanted. Sticking out cases in their storage room, we decided to spend as much time enjoying the beach and sunshine as possible. Taking the beach route we walked to the local market, picking up some flip flops for RS200 a pair, then returned to the hotel, picking a shady sun bed and spent a few hours in and out of the sea and enjoying the tranquility of being on the beach.
We took lunch in the restaurant before organising an UBER that would take us back to Colombo and an airport hotel where we planned to get some rest before our 4:15 flight back home. Booking the LaghoonPark Residence last minute, it turned out to be basic to say the least. Really new and hard to find, we arrived during a thunder storm, which had taken out the power, so we had no lights, no A/C, no WiFi and no hot water. The bed had only a bottom sheet, so couldn’t get in to it to sleep. Showering was only in cold water and no shower gel or soap. Receptionist was happy to take our cash and book us a taxi, but was otherwise not interested in us, failing to even point out there was a kitchen we could have used.
And that was the end of our trip. From the moment we arrived we loved Sri Lanka and once we’d been there for a couple of days, we fell in love with the country and it’s people. Having been home for a while now, we’re already planning a trip back and have added a couple of Sri Lankan curries to our weekly menu!
mrandmrsyoung 