Blogs from Galle, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia

We had just seen some of the best things that the natural world has to offer, now the 2ndpart of this trip was to watch some of the greatest sporting achievements this planet has to offer, or so we hope. Yep, Sri Lanka’s main sporting passion is the same as mine, cricket, and luckily, and obviously totally coincidentally, England happened to be playing a test series here so we headed off to Unawatuna, just south of Galle, where the 1st match was due to be played. So we didn’t have any surprises on day 1 we decided to head into the town and see what it had to offer, luckily for later in the week the bus station is right outside the ground and just the other side of the stadium is the impressive Galle Fort. ... read more

Here is our last entry of a very cool trip to Sri Lanka. And yes, as you guess, it had to involve diving. You come to Sri Lanka to enjoy your time, not for a diving trip. But while you are here, you may still log one or two dives on the way. This is precisely what we did with a single dive at Hikkaduwa Gala. We dived with Poseidon diving. It was the second day of the season, so I wasn't expecting much in term of visibility. We were still lucky with at least 10 meters visibility...in a 30 degres celsius water. The equipement of the dive center was fine, but these guys are simply mad. The "boss" warned me...my divemasters don't speak much english....that's ok, I had a preview of the dive site before....because ... read more

The next day as I was eating breakfast in a restaurant by the beach I met Mily*. A polish girl, 27, who resigned from her job and decided to go travelling solo – we had lots in common, but she is at the start of her trip and I’m at the end of mine. She is heading to Singapore and then to Bail. We spent the day on the beach relaxing, but we noted how there weren’t many solo travellers here - lots of couples, it’s more of a honeymoon destination and it’s not busy or a tourist haven like Miami beach. There’s about 10 people here at most. She went swimming and I contentedly continued reading Eat…Pray…Love, my Shanghai book purchase. One thing that was quite annoying if you just want to relax - the ... read more

On the way to the beaches of the western coast we stopped at a few temples and sacred pilgrim sites, one of them is Kirinda situated near the beach, there is a temple perched atop huge boulders, there are lots of people walking around the beach, mostly families on a pilgrimage during Vesak.Another is the ancient place called Situl Pauwa and like most of the other temples here it's perched atop huge rocks, apparently they did this so everyone can see where the temples are cause way back then there were no roads and people have to navigate through the forests, this serves like a beacon, a guide for them to follow directions. Then we stopped at this town called Kudawella where they have this blow hole among the rocky cliffs near the sea, I have ... read more

I was on my way to Sri Lanka - this marked the halfway point of my trip, and the first non-surface travelling. The plane was only half full, and it was only a short trip, less than four hours. This did nothing to help the fact that the flight was from 11pm to 4.45am (Sri Lankan time) so sleep was a trifle lacking that night. But what did I care, who did not have to work that day (/week/month/year)? On board I gratefully accepted a gin and tonic - my first drink since the homemade 'syrup' in Tehran. The steward obviously thought I needed fortifying, as when he poured me a glass of wine with my meal, he then said, "Have another", and duly filled a plastic tumbler for me. This was quite a difference from ... read more