Sri Lanka

Our trip to Sri Lanka was eventful before it even began! We left Vietnam L on 18^th May and headed back to Bangkok only to discover that Sri Lanka had begun closing their airport at night time because of the fighting (there had recently been a bombing at the military base next door to the airport and some airlines, e.g. Singapore Air and Emirates were now refusing to fly to Sri Lanka at all (John says: “The Fighting” makes it sound like we flew into the middle of a civil war and landed at a “Hot LZ” and had to scurry to the terminal building dodging snipers, it wasn’t quite like that). What did that mean to us? Well, apart from the fact that we could have stayed a day longer in Vietnam, it meant that we had to find a hotel in Bangkok.

No worries – we were becoming seasoned travelers and found somewhere. For any of you just passing through Bangkok – don’t stay at the Queens Garden Resort. While it claims to be five minutes from the hotel and may sound convenient, it is actually 10 minutes minimum (it took us 20 minutes), which by itself is no big deal, but combined with no internet (actually it did have a computer but the rates were exorbitant), no bar, no restaurant, and no shop or restaurants close to the hotel, AND no toiletries or hot water for coffee/tea, its probably better to actually go into Bangkok itself.

6am walks on the beach were great!

We did not realize this, so we checked in. We had left the rest of our luggage with our landlady/neighbor in Pattaya before we left for Vietnam, and arranged to have a taxi deliver it to us on the through flight at Bangkok. Now that we were staying, the driver brought it to our hotel. Having analyzed our options at the hotel, we decided we needed to go back to the airport to do anything, so when our taxi dropped off our luggage, we took him back to the airport.

At this point you are all probably thinking we are crazy – but Suvarnabhumi has a great restaurant called Sky Lounge (there are also others: Sky Café, fast food joints, etc.) which has a fabulous menu. We sat and had a wonderful bottle of wine (the first decent wine in ages) and a great meal, and took a deep breath.

Feeling pretty comfortable we pulled out the computer and set to work with updating some of the website, and answering emails – oh, did I forget to mention that Suvarnabhumi had free internet? It actually was a lovely way to say goodbye to Thailand again. We both had a warm glow when we left and barely noticed the Dickensian environment we were going back to.

I forgot to mention, that when we booked our hotel in Sri Lanka, the owner (a Brit) cautioned us to bring US Dollars rather than get local cash and also that there were no ATMs in Unawatuna where we were staying. So while we were at Bangkok airport we pulled out Baht from the airport ATM and changed the Baht to Dollars (you can’t just buy Dollars). When we got to Sri Lanka we also pulled out some local currency at the airport to cover the taxi ride (which was four hours).

Back to our arrival. Our driver was waiting for us in a somewhat air conditioned vehicle. This van had no shocks left, and the air conditioning only worked when the wind blew. It was hot, and smelled of fumes, and we were going to be in it for four hours. Okay then.

With the troubles in Sri Lanka, (John says: We didn’t see any evidence of trouble at Colombo airport, it’s quite small but actually quite efficient) we wanted to put a fair bit of distance between us and Colombo and then just sit on the beach and/or dive. So we picked Unawatuna which is in the south. Little did we know that this was the off season.

We finally arrive at our hotel, (after a stop for lunch at this weird sandwich shop where the driver suggested we eat – and pay for – our lunch) the Villa Paradise. It was a pretty interesting journey. The closer we got to the coast and the south the more damage we could see from the Tsunami which was 2½ years ago now. Lots of new building, but also lots of abandoned buildings. There was a huge Buddha built facing the sea, hopefully as a good luck charm, but there were also lots of graves along the beach at various places.

Our driver had a really strong accent, and although we tried to ask things, neither John nor I were quite sure of his answers. This exciting little adventure ended up costing us $80 for the taxi, lunch and by the way, en route, our driver asked us for $10 for gas. If any of you go to Sri Lanka, nail down the fare beforehand (we left it to the hotel unfortunately). Also, check on the season – low season is not much fun.

The Villa Paradise was really quite cute, up on the hillside (away from the Tsunamis – but also the beach) and very cozy. Our host was back in the UK, so the internet that was advertised was locked up and therefore inaccessible. It turned out that there were no other guests. Our room was really pretty with a great view down the mountain with glimpses of the beach. We have a separate bathroom and shower, again with the drain in the floor. And we had a mosquito net over the bed – very cool. I hadn’t slept under one of those since I was a child in Malta.

The swimming pool was nice, but was raised and had no area for sitting around and sunbathing – it was just a “swimming” pool. There were two hammocks in the garden which were nice if you were covered in mosquito spray and a great sitting area up by our room. There was no TV, no bar, and no restaurant – there was a kitchen to make things in, but no shops to sell you anything. This was because (a) it was low season and (b) the troubles in the north with the Tamil Tigers. A lot of vendors had either gone out of business, or shut up shop for the season. This included (unfortunately) all the dive shops.

So there we were, in Sri Lanka at the completely wrong time. Oh, and the sea was too rough to swim in because of the winds (John says: There had been a recent storm and the waves were still a little big for Lynne, I went in swimming and had a great time playing in them. They did calm down over the next few days. The dive shops were closed because they said the visibility was bad as well as low season. I think it was mainly low season, not enough people to warrant putting a boat in the water, kitting someone out and getting a Divemaster. After 10 feet or less of visibility in Monterey what’s good and bad becomes all relative. I think they get a little spoilt here). The weather was good though.

On that first night we just walked down to the beach and found a bar/restaurant open. We were one of two couples and the only business he had all night.

The next morning we were up at 6 am. I don’t quite know why, but we were, so up we got and went down to the beach to check out our surroundings. We walked all the way along and up to the Peace Pagoda, it was very cool. We sat and watched the waves crash over the rocks for ages. If only we had had music playing, something like the 1812 overture it would have been perfect, with John conducting each “crash”. It truly was mesmerizing. We also managed to find a section of beach which was protected and swam to cool off. Even at that time of the morning it was pretty hot already.

Back to Villa Paradise for breakfast (which was included in the price of the hotel) which was okay, not wonderful – I’ll let John fill you in about that. (John says: Strangely enough I don’t normally eat breakfast at home, at least during the week. It’s a cup… OK big mug of coffee when I get up and then another for the drive to work. I just don’t take the time. One of the many, many reasons we are on this trip is to “Take the time and smell the roses (or the coffee)” so I have breakfast. I was spoiled in New Zealand and that has set the standard for the rest of the trip. In Asia if they say breakfast is a fried egg, that’s exactly what they mean, just a fried egg, on a small plate. I’m sure they think it’s strange; it’s not what they would eat. They serve it with an amused look which says “What are you going to do with it now?” It’s a graphic example of East meets West and although we try we just don’t quite understand each others culture. We just need to try harder.

Now then, what to do for the day? We hung out at the hotel for a while and then decided we wanted to go into Galle (rhymes with Paul) and see the sunset at the fort which people had said was worth seeing. We also wanted to check out the train schedule as we wanted to take the train back to the airport rather than paying another $80 for an uncomfortable cab ride. Then the manager at the hotel said that the Lighthouse Hotel had a great restaurant, so we figured we would have dinner there.

As is typical in Asia, our manager’s cousin drove a tuk tuk and would love to take us into Galle. He would also wait and drive us to and from all the different places we wanted, wait for us to have dinner and bring us back – for a fee of course. What the heck. We agreed to his fee and this young man, who barely spoke English (they speak Sinhalese there), drove us around, with us communicating once again in hand signals. Train station was hysterical……

It turns out you can’t buy a ticket for the train until the day of travel, so we headed out to the Fort to see the sunset – it was pretty cool – no pictures though, only mental ones. Then off to the Lighthouse for dinner.

The Lighthouse was gorgeous – no beach only rocks – but gorgeous. They had placed torches in between the rocks on the shore and had a verandah running around the restaurant which is where we sat and had dinner. Very romantic. The food was okay, overpriced for Sri Lanka, but the ambiance was fabulous. We checked with the hotel to see if they had rooms and how much. For twice the money, we could move there the next day – hmmmm, it was tempting.

We had actually decided we would leave Sri Lanka early as there was no diving and nothing else to do, so we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do we move for one night, or just stick it out where we were and take tuk tuks everywhere? We decided to sleep on it.

Next morning, we were up with the larks again (or whatever the Sri Lankan equivalent is) and walking along the beach. This time, we took cash with us and decided that if we saw anywhere that sold coffee, we would stop. The previous morning nothing was open, but we were really early. This time is was 6:45 am before we hit the beach and so it was closer to 7 am by the time we started our walk back. (John says: Lynne is turning into a morning person. She didn’t mention that was up first yesterday and now it’s only 7am and we’re on our way back!)

As luck would have it the Unawatuna Beach Resort (UBR to the locals) was serving breakfast and was right on the beach. We popped up there and took one look at their breakfast menu and sat down! This was going to be great. Ooops, did we bring enough cash? By the end of the meal, we had found out they had rooms which included breakfast and dinner (half board) for only a little more than where we were, AND, they had a pool with a sitting area and a bar. They had a restaurant and wireless internet!

You guessed it, we went right back up to the Villa Paradise and checked out. The plan was for John to pack while I was explaining to the manager why we were moving out (he was expecting us for 8 days). We settled the bill and without too much trouble packed our stuff into a tuk tuk and walked down the hill. We reevaluated and decided to stick with our original flight plan and not to leave early.

Let me just say that the Villa Paradise was really sweet. If it had been high season with things going on, if there had been more guests, if we were hikers or had our own transport, it would have been perfect. It’s very cottage-like, but it just wasn’t for us.

UBR is right on the beach, I mean, RIGHT on the beach. Our room was on the third floor (more stairs) and when we walked in they had sprinkled the bed with bougainvillea flowers. There were actually enough hangers for us to unpack and the view from the balcony was of the sea! We had a completely stocked mini bar, a TV, a real shower, it was great, and everyone was so pleasant.

Again, the problems in Sri Lanka have hit the tourist industry pretty badly, so UBR wasn’t full (or anywhere near it) either.

Over the next few days we visited a turtle hatchery which was privately owned and released four turtles (for a donation) back to the ocean. We took a cooking class (check out the Karuna entry). We sat around the pool, we sat on the beach, we met a group of folk who were on a volunteer/vacation tour. We had a great time. We even went into Galle (remember the pronunciation? Rhymes with Paul) again and bought more saris, a cooking tool (for making cookies) and a children’s book showing how to write in Sinhalese. We also took some things to ship home. That was an adventure. We have included a picture of the package. I’ll let John explain that one.

All too soon our time was at an end. We caught the train from Galle back to Colombo. I made friends with a group of schoolgirls who were headed for a basketball game by train and took photos. John began talking to some guys who promised (for a fee) to save seats for us on the train. Hmmmm. Again, I’ll let John explain that one.

(John says: They guy was just chatting to me as Lynne got the tickets. He in turn introduced us to a “Porter” who would secure us seats. He said that when he did this I should give him a small tip. The “Porter” then sat down and helped Lynne with her Sri Lankan reading books. There were two earlier trains we could have taken but decided not to rush and take the mid morning train. So did everyone else. It was a zoo getting on the train and of course we had all the cases. Everybody else had it down, get a family member on the train; they get the seats and then pass everything in through the windows. We did get Lynne a seat and everything on. They don’t close any of the windows or doors to let the air in so I stood in the doorway.

At long last we were on the train – I think the trip was about 2 hours – and headed to Colombo. I took 200 pictures along the way, most were rubbish, but some were pretty cool. Let’s just say the train was overcrowded and the air conditioning consisted of two fans bolted to the ceiling, which were pretty useless as all the windows in the carriage were open anyway. As John had no seat, he was hanging between the carriages, pretty much out of the train most of the journey. Actually it was very Western-looking in as much as you expected cowboys on horseback to coming galloping alongside and grabbing the rails and just jumping on board (although there would have been no room for them). Vendors would periodically pass through. Some selling food some drink, some actually selling children’s comics. At one station a vendor got on with fresh (I think) prawns for sale which she wrapped in newspaper for those that wanted them.

We’ve since learned that the trains in the north have first class compartments and are much more luxurious – we only had 2^nd and 3^rd class compartments – the schoolgirls were in 3^rd class so we never saw them again.

Once we arrived in Colombo, UBR had arranged for a car to meet us, take us to lunch and drive around Colombo until our flight time. This turned out to be not such a great idea, but oh well. We did have a good lunch, not quite where we would have picked, but it was good. Then we drove around the city with the taxi driver telling us where we couldn’t go because there had been a bomb on a bus the previous day, and some of the roads had been blown up. Oh, and this place was closed to tourists, and that place now had guards, and so on. (John says: There had been a bomb on a military bus the day before. It had gone of in the road where the jewelers and gold merchants were. This was the area that was closed and of course where Lynne wanted to go! The rest of the town was open. We did see soldiers, but they were on guard around the military bases we saw John is forgetting that they were also around the monuments and historic buildings as well. Sri Lanka is not that big and we drove down one of the main roads on the island. We saw a lot of military bases and of course they all had guards. Plus, there is something menacing about the Russian AK47 assault weapon that all the soldiers carried. To be honest I saw just as many policeman carrying machine guns in London after the tube bombings as I did in Sri Lanka) Truth be told, I was glad to be leaving Colombo. We did make one quick stop though, to purchase some bangles to go with my newly purchased saris.

Then off to the airport and on to Seychelles.