We left Cambodia and arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka. We had about two weeks to see as much as we could, so we had a packed itinerary. There is the usual "tourist circuit" that most people do when they land in Colombo, they either head to the mountains or go south along the coast hitting the beach towns. We opted to start in the mountains as we just left Koh Rong and were craving something different. We went from Colombo to Kandy to Ella to Ulawalawe (we did Ulawalawe instaed of Yala as we had heard it was less busy) to Mirissa to Unawatuna to Galle then back to Colombo.
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| We went from Colombo to Kandy, skipping the north, there are 3 UNESCO heritage sites that we opted to not go to. |
I know, I know, tired from what? I'm not working, I am flitting from one beautiful destination to another, people could only dream of the life we are leading...When I say it out loud I cringe, I sound so ungrateful, and trust me, I'm not..I wake up every morning and truly appreciate the opportunity that we have, loving this time we are spending together, knowing it will never be like this again....but I'm still tired...
I am starting to get really homesick...I miss Jesse, and my dog..I miss not having to pack every few days, I miss running the taps and drinking the water that comes out. I miss recycling, I miss rules, I miss crossing at the lights (and when its green that means we can walk and cars will STOP), I miss exercising, I miss not feeling guilty for sitting doing nothing (when your travelling you always feel like you have to go, go go). I miss logic...I just miss home. One year is a long time and not for the faint hearted. truth be told, 9 months would have been perfect, but here we are...we have landed in Sri Lanka and I WILL enjoy myself, even if it kills me..
(Have I mentioned that my illness from Cambodia has still been lingering and the girls and I got it bad! We were in bed for about 5 days off and on and then Johnny got sick...needless to say this added to our thoughts on Sri Lanka).
We land in Colombo, and pretty much left right away, taking a taxi to Kandy. We stayed at a lovely home stay by the lake and visited all the sites the city had to offer. We hired a driver for the day and visited the Ceylon tea plantation, a spice garden, an elephant sanctuary (was not nearly as good as the ones in Chiang Mei), and our favourite, the botanical gardens.
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| Th lake in Kandy, right by our homestay |
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| the tea plantation |
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| having tea at the tea plantation |
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| the beautiful grounds at the Botanical Gardens |
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| The people in Sri Lanka are so lovely, these kids all played a big game of tag with Johnny and the girls, I was lying on the grass ready for bed |
All the guide books talk about the train from Kandy to Ella, it is rated the top 10 train rides in the world as far as scenery goes. We had done our research and heard where we should sit and what time to go etc etc, so we thought we were ready....Johnny went down the day before and was told that he had to come back in the morning to buy the tickets. He then woke up early was second in line and bought our tickets, but was told we just had to wait on the platform and it was general seating (what a waste of his time)... we then knew this may get ugly...what we did not realize, is it was a holiday for Sri Lanka and there were so many locals also on the train, (remember we had all our luggage with us as well). To make matters worse the train boards both sides, so by the time the train was ready to board both platforms were rammed. When the doors opened it was a mad scramble. Picture Bloor station at 8am during the week...total nightmare. Everyone was pushing and shoving and we were all squished like sardines (I was dropping elbows left and right). Have I mentioned this ride was 7 hours! No thanks Tom Hanks, we were out of there...
We made an executive decision to get off and paid the $80 for a taxi to drive us the 4 hour ride instead...best decision ever (did I mention at this point Anneka also had a fever? Total shit show!)
The drive to Ella was SPECTACULAR, seriously so beautiful, even though I was not feeling well, I could not help but be in awe of the incredible scenery.
We got to our homestay and literally went to bed. This was the start of our 5 days off and on- fever, chills and all around miserableness. Fortunately, our home stay was lovely, and the views...magnificent...there could be worse places to feel like crap.
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| the view from our deck- Ella Rock- we had planned to hike to it, but only Johnny was up for it |
We took turns hiking that first day, Liv and I felt OK so we went to little Adam's Peak, (when we got back Johnny went). What an incredible spot...all I can say is WOW...
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| Johnny at Little Adam's Peak |
The girls and I ended up feeling worse...bed for us for the next few days. we extended our stay in Ella hoping we would feel better to enjoy all the hiking, but unfortunately no such luck...Johnny was able to climb Ella rock and visit the nine arch bridge. We had to move home stays half way though our visit, and the new one, while a little out of town, had the most beautiful waterfall in the back garden..I am happy to say we were able to get out of bed for a few hours to enjoy this amazing property. We were all so bad at one point we went to the local doctor, who in turn sent us to a hospital about an hour away. There they took our blood to make sure we did not have anything serious...thank goodness, test came back normal, just a virus for us all.
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| the waterfall in our back garden |
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| Anneka was feeling better one day and went to the bridge with Johnny |
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| our private waterfall |
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| Johnny at Ella Rock |
After 5 days we left Ella, sadly we did not do everything we wanted, but we have been pretty lucky with illness so I guess it was inevitable we get sick at some point. We headed to Udawalawe National Park for the safari....it was a toss between there and Yala, but we had heard Yala was crazy busy. We were only staying 1 day as we had been told there was not a heck of a lot to do besides the safari. We stayed at another home stay, and cursing we did not splurge a bit and get a place with a pool. The next morning we were up early and our driver came at 7am to take us to the park. Even though we were still not feeling the greatest, the safari was awesome, sady we did not see the elusive jaguar (apparently they are seen often in the park) we did see a ton of elephants, water buffalo and monkeys.
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| these guys were surrounding the baby, it was so amazing to watch as they did not stray from his side |
We left Udawalawe and headed to the beach town of Mirissa...a pretty bay, that unfortunately had a strong current. We did not spend a ton of time in the water as the waves were quite strong. We ended up paying $5 to spend the day at the fancy hotel right on the beach that had a nice pool. It was right about now when Johnny caught our virus, so for the next few days he was down and out...
The girls and I went to Weligama the next day as we heard the waves were a little calmer and they had great surfing... Liv still has a love hate relationship with surfing, and lost her battle after only an hour.
We left Mirissa and headed to Unawatuna...another beach town that was apparently "more happening". We ended up splurging and staying at a pretty nice hotel, two pools, fancy dining room, the whole nine yards...good thing we did, as we were all STILL not feeling the greatest and spent a ton of time doing not a heck of a lot.
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| one of our pools at the Flower Garden Hotel |
If you know us at all you know we don't do well with sitting around...by day 3 we were ready to leave...We went to visit the neighboring town of Galle, which has an old fort dating from 1600's ...
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| the main entrance to the Fort at Galle |
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| The Galle light house |
It was quite pretty but so hot...(I went back to the hospital at this point as I was still feeling bad, and was given penicillin - oh wait I'm allergic to penicillin...the Dr responded, "well its very mild so should be fine." What??? No thanks, I'm good.
After 5 excruciating long days we were finally off to Greece...I am so sad to say that Sri Lanka just didn't do it for me. I was so prepared to love this country and for many reasons it just didn't click. It makes you realize how subjective travel is, so many layers can affect your reaction to a place, which is why I HATE recommending destinations to people, as our experience may be entirely different based on, health, weather, social encounters, food, accommodations etc etc
My advice, go where YOU want to go, based on the experiences you hope to have, cross your fingers and hope its everything you dream...as I told the girls, they cant all be winners.
