Why do you want to go there?
The most common response when we told people we were going to Sri Lanka.
We had been considering Sri Lanka for a while as a different type of destination for us as well as the fact that we would need to do it on an organised tour, which we had never done for any of our trips overseas.
Fortuitously at that time a Trip-a-Deal advertisement for Sri Lanka came out which was too good to resist.
And so it was that we were off again.
We arrived into Colombo late at night & eventually got to our rooms sometime after midnight.
The accommodation we stayed in here & indeed in all of Sri Lanka was very nice although it was immediately apparent that the occupancy was quite low.
The following day, being a free day, we had organised to be picked up at 9am for a tour in and around the sights of Negombo.
Neel, our guide, gave us a really good insiders view of Negombo including what it was like during the bombings and what has occurred since.
In short, the bombings decimated the Sri Lankan economy. The tourism industry is one of Sri Lanka’s top 4 industries and since the bombings many people had been out of work or full time employment for 2-3 months.
Neel took us to the fish market which is the biggest industry in Negombo with most families having some link with the industry. We had a good look around the market seeing how they dry their fish for export & inland consumption due to the lack of refrigeration.
We took in the different sights & suburbs of Negombo with Neel giving us a bit of background history with particular reference to the Portuguese & British colonisation prior to independence in 1948.
We went to a Buddhist temple which was brightly decorated with hundreds of colourful statues detailing Buddha’s life, trial & tribulations.
We also went to Saint Sebastian catholic church which saw the greatest loss of life in the recent bombings with 122 fatalities. The church has been completely restored with the exception of a section of floor & wall which shows the force of the detonation. There is also a statue of Jesus inside a perspex case which shows him wearing a white robe that is splattered with blood from the bombing. There is also a memorial out side the church for the victims. It was a very poignant symbol of both remembrance & resistance.
After this we had a look around a couple of the retail areas and due to the heat but more so the humidity we were gladly greeted by a nice cold Lion beer looking out at the Indian Ocean before lunch.
The following day was a 140 km trip up to Sigiriya Rock Fortress which we would climb a little bit later in the day. The 140 km in Sri Lanka takes quite a while longer than in Australia.
Before this we went to a village to have lunch whilst getting a demonstration of how they traditionally prepare food in the villages. To get to the village we went by bullock drawn carts to a lake into which we transferred to some small boats. True to theme we ate our lunch with our hands which was more easily mastered by some than others. Interestingly here as at a couple of other places they had what are basically tree houses to escape into should wild elephants decide to enter their territory. They would climb up out of harms way and make a lot of noise to try & scare the elephants away.
We were picked up by a fleet of Tuk Tuk’s and taken back to rendezvous with our bus.
It did feel like planes, trains & automobiles!
After lunch it was off to Sigiyira Rock Fortress.
The back story of the rock fortress is that it was built by a king in virtual exile, Kashyapa I, after he had killed his father to get the crown even though he was the younger of two sons. The older son, being a Buddhist, did not want to fight his brother & fled to India.
The king then moved the kingdom to Sigiriya & built the rock fortress so he would not be attacked.
Eventually the brother raised an army & deposed his brother some 18 years later, at which time Kashyapa I killed himself during the battle by his own sword.
The rock fortress is imposing & amazing at the same time. There are moats, pools and even the equivalent of the modern day spa.
The palace was on top of the citadel, so to get to it would be a herculean effort on behalf of an invader. The palace is 300 mtrs high.
After the king was overthrown the site was handed over to Buddhist monks who, to “cleanse” the place removed the majority of topless murals which decorated much of the fortress’ walls.
Our accommodation for the next couple of nights was spectacular.
The Heritance at Kandalama is a hotel in the middle of nowhere designed & built into the environment. With monkeys looking in watching you shower or get dressed it is a fascinating place at which you do not leave anything lying around outside.
The following afternoon was the highlight of our trip. In the morning we visited Polonnaruwa which was the capital of the kingdom for 300 years from the 10th century, which is host to a number of ancient Buddhist temples & royal palace remains which date back up around 1,000 years ago.
The elephant safari was fantastic. Just being in their environment with them in the wild was just a great experience & one which has made us look forward to Africa next year.
When we first got to where the first lot of elephants were we noticed a Jackal near a tree stump had caught what was probably a small rodent. Whilst h was aware of the elephants they didn’t seem to notice him till he tried to cut across their turf. At this point the leader sounded a call and all the elephants charged at the jackal which made its escape into a mound of fallen trees & bushes.
Whilst we were out there we saw quite a lot of other wildlife as well. Some, like quite a number of different eagles were too difficult to photograph in flight.
The second herd of elephants was quite a large herd that was happy for us to stay there & watch them. One of them was a bit more curious than the others & came withing about 5 metres of some of the jeeps.
The following day was spent travelling to Kandy which was much more temperate than the rest of the country that we had visited.
Kandy is the last capital of the kingdom of Sri Lanka before the colonisation by the British.
It is also the final resting place of the sacred relic of the tooth of Buddha in the Temple of the Tooth. It is said that whoever possesses the holy relic of the Buddha has the divine right to rule, which is why wherever the tooth relic was, that was the capital of the kingdom of Sri Lanka. The temple lies on a large man made lake.
On the way to Galle the following day we visited a tea plantation & of course their obligatory retail outlet. It was interesting however to learn about something we drink every day & take for granted. The different stages of production has their influence on the flavour & strength of tea. Definitely the most money we have ever spent on tea. I’ll leave it at that!
Galle is at the south western tip of Sri Lanka on the Indian Ocean. Being well and truly in the tropics & 500 miles from the equator, the climate is warm and humid.
The Portuguese originally conquered (if that’s the correct term) Galle and were followed by the Dutch & finally the British.
Galle has an impressive Dutch fort which still has quite a lot of buildings as well as the fort outer wall still in tact which is quite amazing considering its age & the fact that it was swamped by the Tsunami in 2004.
We had a full day in Galle to just look around & explore which we did till around midday when we both agreed that a nice cold ale was required to reduce the core temperatures and that the pool back at the hotel was just the thing to cool us off.
Our final leg of the journey was back to Colombo for one night before the flight home.
On the way we stopped at a couple of spots. Firstly at a river cruise which took us to a cinnamon plantation & showed us how the bark is stripped from the branches and then showed us the sights around the river system.
We got in late afternoon to Colombo & had a bit of a drive around to the different districts and passed many of the important Sri Lankan political & historical monuments.
The accommodation in Colombo was just OK. I f they spent as much on the rooms as they did on the marble & grand piano in the lobby it would have been fine. It was OK.
After checking in we took a walk up along the water side near our hotel. There were about 75 different games of cricket being played between family & friends in whatever space they could find.
That night we sought a change of pace & found a Scottish pub & had a meat infusion!
We had arranged a walking food tour the following day which was great. Our guide, Chanel, took us to the different markets and arranged for us to have some street food which we would not otherwise have been game to try as we wouldn’t have known what it was.
Stopped in at the oldest hotel in Sri Lana, the Grand Orient Hotel, for a refreshing ale & to take in the history of the port which is situated right in front of the hotel.
She also took us into a mosque which due to its location had to continually build upwards and which when viewed from a slight distance revealed the true scale of its size.
We had a great time in Sri Lanka which was made even better due to the really good group of people on the tour & our tour guide, Bandula, who sometimes cottoned on to the Aussie sense of humour.
Maguire Travel 