Sri Lanka 2010

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Introduction

We arranged our trip through Omni Travel, an agency run by a Sri Lankan in Uppsala, Sweden, and despite approaching them very late and thus missing some of their favorite hotels, they still did an excellent job of tailoring the trip to our personalities. They got us the last seats on Qatar Airways, which meant flying on fancy new planes with friendly staff and very good food, with just a brief change in Doha. Flying time from Stockholm was 6 hrs + 4.5 hrs, leaving at lunchtime and arriving breakfast time, which was way better than the alternative options. Then we had an excellent chauffeur for a week of travelling, before a week based in a beach resort. Everything worked smoothly, resulting in one of our best holidays ever, and I can strongly recommend both Omni Travel and Sri Lanka. The whole trip cost us about twice what we normally pay for a one-week package to Spain, but the experience was way more interesting and luxurious, and way better value for money.

Diary

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We now had two nights in beach resort of Negombo to recover from the sleepless flight and to acclimatise to the Sri Lankan culture, which involves a lot more human contact than we are used to. Everyone wanted to talk to us - often to get our business, but also just because that's how they are. And even the touts were so charming and sounded so genuine that it was hard to get annoyed with them when they got to the hard sell. Telephone salesmen back home could learn a lot from these guys. I really enjoyed this social side of the country, but it still took time to shed the personal bubble that I've developed living in Sweden, and sometimes it was worth a dollar to enlist a 'guide' who would simply walk and chat with us for a few hundred meters, during which time we wouldn't be bothered by other touts.

Tue 14 : Still tired and disoriented, we took a gentle trip on an old fishing catamaran out to the coral reef. Due to light winds this took 4 hours instead of the planned 2, but that was fine as there was no better place for our wobbly old brains than on a simple old boat drifting gently on the Indian Ocean. The sun was veiled by thin clouds, which was also good for our still pale skin, and the crew were friendly, so despite language difficulties they still tried to swap life stories with us, and produced a succulent papya for lunch.

The reef was in poor shape, probably damaged by the tsunami, but there were still plenty of colourful fish to snorkel with. The trip cost $60 (USD), and although there were others offering lower prices, we chose this one because we liked the guy who approached us.

In the evening we ate at Ammehula with Lampton, a pleasant little place with interesting decor, excellent shark, and a warm chatty owner. It was here that I realised that the correct response to the greeting "Are you born ?" is not "England", as I had been replying, assuming I had just missed the "where". In fact they were saying "Ayubowan", which means "I wish you long life".

There are only 3 rooms, and during our stay the others were unoccupied. Our bungalow was by far the best place to be, pointed away from the main building with breathtaking views beyond the private swimming pool. Despite such luxury, the feeling of the place is rustic, and for example the pools are not treated in any way, but refilled from a mountain stream for each new guest.

On arrival we took a quick walk on the paths through the plantations, and were then treated to a huge and delicious lunch, much of which came from the farm. Being British, I obviously don't know anything about food, but I do know what I like, and Sri Lankan food is delicious. Their traditionally super-hot chillis are tamed a little for tourists, but they are still extremely tasty. I also got addicted to buffalo curd with kitul syrup. And then there is all the fresh fruit ! I have never tasted such succulent and sweet pineapples in Europe.

Thur 16 : We never closed the enormous patio doors of the room, and were woken early by the unfamiliar array of birdsong and the bubbling of mountain streams. This really was paradise !

The rest of the day we pottered about enjoying the quiet and beautiful surroundings, occasionally dropping into the pool to cool off. The water temperature was about 25 C and the air around 30 C, and not so humid, so quite comfortable except when hiking uphill with a heavy bag. There were also surprisingly few flying bugs to bother us. In fact on the whole trip we just got a few bites from the mosquitos, which are faster, quieter and less painful when biting than the ones at home, so it's hard to stop them if they have decided that you are dinner.

Lunch surprised us with new and mysterious fruits, including jackfruit, which I hadn't met before, but immediately got a taste for. After this Sunil took us up another track to show us their best view, which extends all the way to Adam's peak, 2.5 hours drive away, but heavy rain rather spoiled the experience. Despite being very warm rain, it still felt good to get back to dry clothes and tea on the veranda.

Fri 17 : A quick morning walk in the plantation before breakfast, and then a tour of the small green-tea factory on the farm, which was stoutly traditional with everything done by manpower and machines from colonial times.

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Sat 18 : Another beautiful drive, 4 hours up to Nuwara Eliya, the highest town in the country. We were recieved at the very british Tea Bush Hotel with tea and sandwiches with the crusts cut off, before walking down to the town. We passed a number of cricket games, from small boys practicing, to a formal competition match. It seems that the Brits left quite an impression when they were here during their extended vacation of the 19th century. At the market we bought very good quality pirated fleeces, and got shirts tailored and delivered to the hotel for approximately nothing.

Sun 19 : An English breakfast in the hotel dining room with its impressive view over the town, listening to 'Santa Claus is coming to town' translated into Sinhalese on the radio. We were the only guests again. After that we were driven Kandy, the old capital, via a black-tea factory, and the enormous and beautiful botanical gardens, where we wandered happily for a couple of hours before being taken to the Topaz Hotel, a rather fancy and modern place. After that we squeezed in a traditional dance show, and a visit to see Buddha's tooth, or rather a brief and distant glimpse of a vessel that may or may not contain it. But the surrounding temple was spectacular, and well worth visiting.

Then on to the Elephant orphanage in Pinnewala. There is much discussion of the ethics of these places, especially here where they allow the residents to breed, and give them lots of exposure to people in order to raise money. But whether or not this is better than leaving injured or orphaned animals in the bush, or other alternatives, is hard for me to say. It was anyway great to get so close to such impressive animals, which seemed to be completely comfortable with human contact. A bribe to the mahouts gives even more intimate contact by being allowed over the boundary lines and in amongst the herd.

Another long day in the, for us, stressful traffic left us frayed as we arrived at Tropical Villas in Beruwala on the west cost, but a fruit drink and cold towels in reception followed by the introduction to our extremely nice room, way back from the road, refreshed us no end. We took a quick swim in the dark, had a great dinner, and then bribed a waiter to produce a beer, which is not really allowed on the holy Poya day. But after the busy day with almost no exercise the beer sat very well, and the waiter got a big tip.

21-27 Dec : Woke to find that the hotel in which we would be staying our last week was set around a tropical garden, complete with turtles, tree frogs, monitor lizards, chameleons, and various birds. The notice board also mentioned 'giant squirrels', which sounded scary, but we were comforted by the fact that our door was only 1 metre by 2 metres, so they probably couldn't get into our room. The staff here were excellent, the food unbeatable, and even the residents were quiet and well behaved (which we later learned is due to the hotel's 'couples only' policy). Fatal error: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is no longer supported in /customers/f/c/7/frozentime.se/httpd.www/php/display_image_dummy.php on line 344 Fatal error: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is no longer supported in /customers/f/c/7/frozentime.se/httpd.www/php/display_image_dummy.php on line 344 The only downside is that even with our distant room, road noise was quite disturbing at night. I'm always a light sleeper, but even Lotta was bothered here. So we loved the place, as did everyone we talked to, many of whom had stayed there many times before, but it has recently changed hands and there are plans to upgrade it, so I hope it doesn't get spoiled.

During the week it was warm and pleasant weather, but mostly grey, and often with rain later afternoon. Also, the 3 weeks of rain that we had narrowly missed had washed a lot of silt and rubbish down the river, so the sea was not its usual turquoise, but rather a murky brown. Still we are not really bathing people, so we were happy to walk along the kilometer-long beach and visit local interests, like the enormous Buddhas. One of these is 35m high, and the largest sitting Buddha in the world. But even more impressive was the very old temple behind, where we quietly watched the faithful praying and offering gifts. One of the Monks blessed us and gave us string bracelets, which made us feel a little less intrusive in a shrine that didn't seem to be on the normal tourist map.

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Most lunchtimes we visited the local bakery, which seemed to have different creations each day and so we bought one of each intriguing-looking item. One pastry was particularly yummy, and I took one of those every day, thinking I was eating some local delicacy, until on the last day I noticed that the cashier's stream of Sinhalese was broken up the words 'Danish pastry'.

One of the days we took a train to Galle, 80 km south of Beruwala. This was a wonderful experience, with very old trains missing most of their doors, hand-written timetables at the station, and as always, cheerful, friendly locals. The villages and countryside we travelled through were fascinating, and on arrival we were guided around by a friend of a Sri Lankan that we know in Sweden, and then invited to lunch to meet his family, where we felt very welcome and immediately comfortable.

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I had wondered about asking Chinthaka to show us Kathaluwa with its iconic stilt fishermen, but having heard that nowadays they sit on the beach waiting for a tourist to give them enough money to go and fish from their stilts, I thought that however good an image I got it just wouldn't have the right feeling for me.

On the train home we were befriended by some teenage boys, and also a crazy samosa salesman who insisted on accompanying us to get the best deal for a tuk-tuk when we arrived at the station, and refused to take a tip for his help. A lovely guy who will be soon be getting a postcard of himself with his arm around Lotta.

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The following day we used our guide again for a boat trip on the river, cruising through the mangrove trees, finding at least a dozen kingfishers, water monitors, parrots, various herons, flying foxes, eagles, and a baby crocodile that a guy in another boat had picked up. And after that our guide invited us home to meet his family.

Mon 27 : Walked to the local harbour to see sharks being gutted and loaded into the trucks. Birds were on the telephone wires just like at home, but here they were birds of paradise and kingfishers. Children in a poor quarter that we went through greeted us with "Hello money". Running out of time, we took a taxi back, but not just any old taxi, rather something that appeared to be a rotorvator towing a trailer. The driver wanted twice as much as a tuk-tuk would have cost, but then his vehicle took twice as long to get us home, so that seemed fair...
Then it was time for the 2.5 hour drive to the airport through Colombo, and the trouble-free trip home with Qatar.

Conclusion

(Sri Lanka photographs)

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