Ratnapura, Panadura, Galle

---

---

Yay!

Got up early in the morning, ready for a Sri Lankan family reunion in Ratnapura.
Before we left Kandy, our couchsurfer-friend Ajith took us around to the Botanical Gardens in Kandy. Again, the prices there were a bit of a rip-off, 650 rupees for foreigners and 100 rupees for locals. Anyways, in we went.
No more than 200 metres from the entrance we were suddenly met by two monkeys, sitting peacefully on the path. They looked a bit like the vicious monkeys in Bako national park on Borneo, so we didn't want to get too close. Cute they were though.
The first thing of note in the garden was the orchid house. So many different kinds of orchids, some looking like ballerinas, some like butterflies, some like stars - and all different beautiful colours. I didn't even know that many kinds of orchids existed, but I learnt.
The park itself was very pretty and well organized with lots of shady areas on the path. It was interesting to see all the old trees, imported by the British from Australia, Africa and all sorts of other colonial areas. It gave food for thought about the scale of the colonization.
Other things of interest were the bat-street (an entire area packed with screeching, circling bats in the trees), the umbrella tree (a tree that spread sideways instead of upwards, featured in a FUJI-ad) the crooked roadside pines, the flowering trees and the "grasses from all over the world"-section.

After leaving the park we went into a saree shop, called something rather "silk" like, it turned out to be a major tourist rip-off with no sarees for less than 4000 rupees (and then they were rather plain and boring), so we quickly left that shop.

On the road again, to Ratnapura, 3½ hours of driving with a quick stop at a run-down tea/convenience shop with no food, had a bit of very sugary tea (which made us a bit car sick) and then drove along to the "secret" pond just before Ajith's mother's home in Ratnapura.
In the pond we were met by all Ajith's brothers and uncles, as well as some friends who were visiting from Australia. The pond was small but nice and shady, and full of nibbling fish, which ate all our dead skin. We sat there for a few hours, drinking Arrak (coconut rum) mixed with soda, getting nibbled, eating maniok (a kind of sweet potato, mixed with herbs and spices, yum!) and swapping stories with Sri Lankans from all over, all originating from Ratnapura.

Before driving to the house we went past a supermarket, Ajith bought lots of food items for his mother and Josh and I went nuts in Sri Lankan spices and food items to take back to China. We filled an entire basket with stuff and were amazed with the cheap prices and amazing variety of spices and other food products.

We made it to Ajith's mother's house just in time for some more Arrak with soda and a lovely family dinner. We were told that the house is completely new built. Ajith's younger brother was running for parliament for the opposition party - hence his mother's house was burnt down to the ground. That story really put the political situation into perspective, but we continued to enjoy the evening and the new built house without ripping up the wounds too much.
Dinner consisted of two kinds of coconut sambal (a spicy coconut shred-mix, your accompaniment for every meal), daal (also a necessary component of every Sri Lankan meal), curries made from both meat and jackfruit and of course rice. Everything was eaten by hand and it was a lovely enjoyable occasion. One family (parents and two children) were visiting all the way from Australia, and I befriended a lovely girl my own age, and swapped stories with her all evening, while Josh hung out with the men, played cricket in the garden and made an end to several bottles of arrak.

We hung out outside all evening, had a second dinner at about 10ish, and enjoyed snacks and arrak until bedtime.

The next day we woke up early (Sri Lankan walls don't seem to go all the way up to the roof, so you can hear everything) - Josh was feeling a bit queasy, but all his drinking buddies didn't seem to feel the slightest bit of a hangover, so we got up and had breakfast with the crew just like planned.

After breakfast, Ajith and his brothers took us to his older brother's operating gem mine. It wasn't far from the house at all, and a very interesting experience. The huts around the mining hole were very primitive, wooden shacks with thatched rooves and primitive resting beds and cooking areas.
The mine itself was equipped with a "telephone" - a pipe reaching all the way down to the others. It was about 20 metres deep, and the sides were reinforced with unevenly spread wooden rafts. As we stared down in the darkness, wondering at the working conditions, Ajith suggested that Josh took a closer look at the conditions and climbed down. At first Josh thought it was a joke, but they insisted, and he was allowed a very special insight in a working gem mine.
Muddy, dark, murky, slippery, 1 meter high chambers with water up to the ankles, no light except candles and very muggy air. Not pleasant (especially not with a hangover) but nonetheless the working conditions for a gem miner.
He got up, very muddy and with big eyes - went straight to a lake to wash off the worst mud.
We saw some beautiful stones they'd found in the area and got a souvenir-stone each (not a gem, but a typical stone that indicates that the area might have gems).

After a very interesting and educational morning, we said goodbye to Ajith and his friends at a very hot bus station in Ratnapura, where hopped on the bus for Panadura. Tickets only cost 70 rupees. We didn't really know what was to see in Panadura, but we wanted to make our way down the coast with the coastal train, and not wanting to backtrack all the way to Colombo we thought Panadura might be a good bet for a stop over.

We got there at around 17 in the afternoon, after more than 2 hours on a bumpy bus on a winding road (not very fun for Josh with a hangover and a mining experience), but nonetheless quite beautiful.
We followed a guy to the train station and beyond for a look at the ocean, and possible accommodation opportunities. From where we were dropped off, we just continued down the road, turned right before a big white temple and then turned left, crossed the railroad tracks and found the road to the beach. We asked for tickets to Galle at the train station, were told there were trains in the morning at 7.30 and 9, but tickets were only sold on the day of departure.
The first place we stopped by for accommodation, Dream Rest, advertised comfortable rooms, but the prices were only in Sinhalese (700 and 900) and the oral translation we got was "It's 700 for the evening until 6, if you want to stay after 6 you have to pay the day price of 900" - hmm, we thought, that sounds like they're trying to make some easy money off tourists, so we walked on.
After a walk along the not-so-clean beach, we came across another guesthouse, called "Beach Villa", which offered rooms for 700 rupees per night. It wasn't the best rooms ever, they were clean enough but had an insane amount of mosquitoes. No matter how many we killed it seemed that double the number was hiding behind the curtains. They didn't have any blankets there, but luckily I still had my AirAsia blanket, which covered up the main mosquito-prone areas, and after covering the rest of my body in mosquito spray I did get a decent night's sleep.

Before sleep though, we went out shopping in the streets of Panadura. It was great. Not touristy, real local stuff for local prices and no rip-offs. Okay, admittedly, it wasn't really a nice city as such. Not very clean, a bit noisy and busy and no attractions. But I did get 2 skirts for 500 rupees each, a t-shirt for 185 rupees, a beautiful saree (see photos further down) at ASB for 1350 rupees (TAKE THAT KANDY RIP-OFF SHOP!), a cricket ball for 650 rupees and we should have bought snorkel equipment there too. It was only about 700, but we didn't have enough money left, and none of the banks took Visa/MasterCard. I also bought a Sri Lankan cricket-team sun-hat, which came in VERY handy for the rest of the trip. I discovered that I was rather less grumpy wearing a hat, my scalp not so exposed to the elements. And I also got many compliments from Sri Lankan passers by :-)
All our shopping was done at the street going left before the temple after getting off the bus.
We had dinner right opposite the bus stop at a Chinese TakeAway, very yummy chop suey and devilled chicken, 195 rupees and enough for both of us.

We got up the next day at 7.30, ready to find an ATM and buy snorkeling gear. We didn't find an ATM and the snorkeling shop didn't open until 9.30 so no luck. We took the train at 9.10, it cost us 300 rupees for two people on second class. The Galle tickets are sold at counter one.
The guy at the counter said the ride would take about 3 hours. It was very bumpy and there weren't any call-outs for the train stations, so we had to keep an eye out for the different stations whenever the train stopped. After about two hours the train stopped for a while, and I asked Josh to go out with some orange peels. Coincidentally we discovered that we were actually already at Galle station, and we hurried out of the train just in time. So much for train station info ;-)

Out of the train station we caught a tuk tuk inside the fort to Khalid's guesthouse. The train station wasn't that far from the fort and it would have been possible to walk, but seeing that they only charged 100 rupees, that it was a hot, sunny day and that we didn't know where to go and didn't have a map, we thought a tuk tuk would be a fine idea.
The tuk tuk driver did try to tell us that Khalid's was sold out and that we should go to his friend's place instead, but we insisted and made our way to Khalid's, which didn't actually have any customers at all.
The owner was very nice, and showed us all the rooms. All rooms were very clean. We chose a room for 1200 rupees pr. night, but he also had 2500 and 3000 rupee rooms with ocean view and own balcony. Our room only had a cold shower, but considering what kind of weather conditions we were in we didn't mind the slightest. Khalid's is definitely recommended for anyone, the 3000 rupee rooms had a view of the ocean from the bed, so if we had wanted to splash out we would have probably gone for something like that. Breakfast was 300 ppr, including juice, coffee or tea, fruit, eggs, jam and toast. Very nice.
There was also free WiFi in the hotel, which we enjoyed tremendously - both for figuring out what to see and where to eat in town, and also for hints on where to buy beer. Generally, hotels and restaurants don't sell beer or any alcoholic drinks - and it's also not OK to drink outside or in public, so it was a bit of a puzzle to figure out, but thanks to the Internet we became wiser.

After a web-surf and a shower we went out and had lunch at a Lonely Planet recommended place called Aruna. It was on the way from the train station to Khalid's. Josh had a prawn curry and I had a fried sandwich with tomato and garlic. Both were absolutely boring and not worth the price. I guess it suits the regular western tourist's taste, but after a few days of real authentic Sri Lankan food we found it to be terribly tasteless and overpriced.

Lunch over, Josh had espied a cricket game going on right outside the fort gates, so out we went and into the sun. Our afternoon was spent watching the local cricket teams, trying to figure out what was going on on the point board. They mustn't have had enough numbers or something, cause the scores only went up every five or ten points (irregularly). Or maybe the numbers guy hadn't gotten his own cricket hat, and was consequently suffering from sun-stroke. I surely wasn't, nestled under my lovely blue-with-a-yellow-lion-hat.

We were suddenly interrupted from our cricket-watching when we heard and saw a marching brass band walking by outside, carrying a big flag and a poster of some man. They were all dressed in white and climbed up a lighting pole to tie the poster and flag up. We thought it might be something political, but everyone we asked said it was just a sports meeting of the local school. Who the guy was, we still don't know. And why you need a flag for a sports meeting, we also don't know.

We then decided it had gotten too hot to stay outside, so we went into nice air conditioned shops to cool down. Went to an Internet bar for 50 Rupees pr hour, and bought some more clothes in another ASB. Cheap and cool place to buy clothes! Josh got 2 t-shirts, a long sleeved shirt and a short sleeved shirt for just 3000 RP.

After shopping we went home and got changed, and walked the approximately 10 meters to the Rampart Hotel, one of the few beer-serving places in town. We sat upstairs, on a huge open balcony, and agreed that the place (19th century ballroom-style) and the views (city ramparts and ocean) were worth the price alone. The price was steeper than what we were used to, but definitely worth it for the setting. We had two big lion beers, I had a fried fish and Josh had a prawn curry with daal and everything. The curry was absolutely delicious, the fish OK (Mayonnaise with my fries!!!), and the whole thing actually only cost about 2000 RP including service charge.

Dinner over and done with, we walked up the road to the Pilgrim's Lounge and had a nice cup of "Bea" or "Teer" - they served beer but were not allowed to serve it publicly, so we had beer in a nice white tea pot. Very nice place to end the evening.
Also slept quite well, except for a mosquito getting inside the net and eating me alive.

The next day we enjoyed the delicious breakfast and we then set out to explore Galle further. We saw some really nice old buildings and went to "Orchid House" down near the lighthouse where we bought a really great cooking book with Sri Lankan recipes. We also visited a museum that had free entrance, and showed off some antiques collected by a local man. One of the guys showed us around and told us some interesting stories about the different things - and he didn't ask for any money for it!
The museum also had some cool bank notes from all over the world (the old Sun Yatsen-period Chinese ones were quite interesting) and some nice gems, and out the back was a big area showing off the gem production-process. And of course a couple of gem and jewellery-selling rooms. Nothing is ever free for real! ;-) We resisted buying anything though, and went on to have a swim near our guesthouse. Nice!

Lunch was eaten at a restaurant in an alley near the lighthouse called "a la carte", we had a prawn curry with daal and veg. curry and rice - it was only 350 and tasted delicious! Definitely recommended. Their pineapple juice was also good. They had a very big room upstairs for 2500, which I could imagine would be really good for a family. The people there were really nice and friendly.

In the afternoon we relaxed at Khalid's with some lime juice - a big jug of it was 200 RP, and it was nice just to sit down inside, chat and wait out the sun.
Around dinner time we decided to check out the Indian place we'd seen up near the ramparts, we decided not to eat there but as we were standing there looking at the menu we heard two other foreigners trying to figure out where to buy a beer, since this place wasn't selling any. We told them how to get to the two places where we had gone to the previous night and sent them on their way. As we were walking down the road back to the guesthouse, talking about where to eat, we saw the two beer-people walking in the wrong direction. They really sounded like they needed that beer, so we made a quick decision to run after them and take them to the right place (cause we kinda felt like a beer too)
They turned out to be two really nice Swedes, Pia and Zach, mother and son. Since we're moving to Sweden in July, we found that we had quite a bit to talk about. We even tried some "snus", which gave me quite the nicotine-rush.

Pia lives in Sri Lanka half the year and Sweden the rest of the year, so she had some good insights, and we decided to go out for dinner together at this secret Indian "hole in the wall" they knew of, outside the Galle fort. Man was that a good idea! It was spicy, yummy, delicious, and very very cheap. I think the 6 of us (Pia's two Sri Lankan friends included) ate for 700 RP in total - and we stuffed ourselves. Very recommended - if you can find it.
From the fort: Go right around the cricket ground and continue straight down. Don't go along the ocean, take the road down at the post office. Then keep left at the two next forks, walk past a big white buddha-lady on the left side and then a statue of a man on the right side of the second fork, and you'll find the place on your right side down the alley. I've uploaded a photo :-)

After we made it back to the fort, we sat up on the ramparts and listened to the waves crashing. Very romantic and very nice.
The next day's excursions to Unawatuna as well as the trip home will follow in the next post

---

Comments

[Emily]

Wow, how cool!! We didn't know you were leaving in July.... that means we'd better to get to Xiamen soon!! (But now you are another excuse to go back to Sweden!)