Blogs from Sri Lanka, Asia
Paddy Fields
I never thought that I would be able to get up at 2.30 in the morning to start this great tour to the UVA Province in Sri Lanka, but I'm glad I did. We started our journey around 4 am and first we started our vacation by going to the Kalutara Temple which is a very scared place to the Buddhists and all the other Sri Lankans as well as the Tourists. With the blessing of the Lord Buddha we continued our journey and we all had an early breakfast while enjoying the see breeze and watching the Sunrise from the ancient city Galle. After breakfast we had some fun in the beach with catching the waves and all and then continued to go to Katharagama. On the way there we stopped in a very famous ... read more
Hats
and Sri Lanka review (basic info) by Jan Whistle clean and with a delicious, cheap restaurant said the description of the Village Inn hotel in Unawatuna, a beach town on the South Coast of Sri Lanka. Well, the place was everything but that – the sink in our room looked like it is going to fall off any second now, the bathroom was in a mix of white and brown and the menu revealed prices high above the ones in restaurants next to the beach. We arrived late, after another all-dayer of trains, buses and tuk-tuks, we booked in advance so we stayed and started our beach adventure in Sri Lanka. Unawatuna was completely wiped out by the tsunami in 2004. There was nothing left and the whole city was re-built. The sad part is that ... read more
nette bootsleute in den beackwaters
So das ist nun mein vorerst letzter Blogeintrag. sitze gerade auf meiner VEranda, laptop vom eigentuemer genommen, nettes kleines Gaesthaus in der Naehe von Mirissa, kleines Dorf an wunderschoenen Strand im sueden. Haben einen kleinen Garten und direkt 10m davor der Strand, mit tollem Meer, Wellen, viele Fischer mit kleinen Booten und vielen vielen Palmen, einfach paradiesisch, passend zum Ende der reise. Tolle Sonnenuntergaenge. Meine Tage verbringe ich seit ueber 8 Tagen immer auf die gleiche Weise, frueh um 7 aufstehen, kurz beten, singen und dann meditieren am Strand. Lecker Fruehstueck, mit selbstgemachten Gewuerztee und Porridge (Haferbrei und Fruechte). Dann Strand und Sonne, lesen, relaxen, etwas reflektieren, Tagebuch lesen, Erkenntnisse der Reise nachschauen, aber ist alles soviel, wird sich eher im Laufe der Zeit, bes. dann in Deutschland alles zeigen, weiss nur das diese Reis... read more
Sun rise
By Polona After a week it was time to pack up and leave Uppuveli and “my husband” (the cook ). After checking with the boys, we left for the Trinco Railway station, only to find out that there are 2 trains daily heading to our destination (Hatton) – we already missed the first one and the next one was only in the evening. So, the best solution for us was to take a bus to Kandy (oh, no, no, no) and then switch buses to get to Hatton (and from there continue to our destination: Dalhousie, a village under Adam's Peak). We calculated we should arrive to Delhousie in the evening, boy, were we wrong. The bus from Trinco to Kandy took ages, even though it's only about 200km between the two. I think it took ... read more
Fisherman on sea
by Jan Picture a nice, very quiet beach. Nobody bothering you, selling you useless and overpriced souvenirs and clothes. Add friendly locals, a great crowd of chilled out backpackers and amazing food! This, in a nutshell, is Uppuveli, a place where we spent a week, even if our intention was to stay only a few nights. When leaving Polonnaruwa we weren't even sure where we were going. When looking for a tuk-tuk we decided that we want to go to the train station and head to the east coast of Sri Lanka. West and South coast are the two main tourist attractions, while East is slowly recovering from the civil war which ended a few years ago. The area around Uppuveli was part of the fighting between the national army and the Tamil Tigers, so just ... read more
Inside Polonna - ruwa
by Polona After purchasing yet another pair of flip flops for me (I do blame the moving bus and me not being able to keep my balance with my huge backpack, but mostly the fact that the bus began moving while I was in the middle of getting off ) we arrived to one of the many bus stations in Kandy. As we were in no hurry, we went to one of the local eateries, had our “usual” platter of quick eats and I had my first experience with the Sri Lankan public toilets (ayayay, well, it's OK, as long as you close your eyes, hold your breath and think happy thoughts), and by then it was about time to had on back to the chaos that was the bus station and find the bus to ... read more
Disco Buddahs
K - I am writing this at Colombo airport. We are sad to be leaving Sri Lanka which is a beautiful island - full of variety with beaches, hill country, ancient cities etc. but we are excited to be moving on to Bangkok. We will be spending a few days there while we apply for visas to Myanmar (Burma). We have spent the last few days on the beach at Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa. The former was a little too cramped and touristy for us and had the worst restaurants we have encountered so far in our travels - surreally bad service and average food. The food scene is actually the only area of Sri Lanka that has disappointed us. In general the Sri Lanken people are very friendly and hospitable but they don't really have a ... read more
Staring :)
by Jan We entered the new year, the one with 366 days, and it was time to move on. Our holidays in Chiang Mai came to an end and it was time to get back to 'work' (travelling). We took the night bus to Bangkok, spent the day at the airport watching movies and in the evening boarded a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka – our next destination. Upon arriving we were in for an unpleasant surprise. From the beginning of the year Sri Lanka started charging $25 per Visa on Arrival. If we arrived just two days before we could enter the country for free, but not any more. We paid the fees, got the receipt and were sent to the immigration counter. There we got our passports stamped. I love passports stamps, I am ... read more
Tucking in to Christmas Lunch with Our Hosts
M – I really wasn’t expecting that I would be tucking into a Turkey Dinner this Christmas and I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be cooked by my wife! Kate is a great cook but she isn’t a fan of preparing traditional English roast dinners and is always looking for alternatives to turkey to cook for her Christmas lunch. This year she thought she had escaped the task, but little did she know ... The couple who run the guest house we stayed at had recently returned from 14 years in Dubai where they had gotten accustomed to a traditional English Christmas dinner and fancied trying to prepare one themselves in Sri Lanka. They had managed to source a roast turkey from one of the larger local hotels and a Christmas cake from I don’t know ... read more
Big Buddah at Mihintale
K- A couple of days ago we spent 2 hours standing on a packed and rickety bus in Sri Lanka. I havent worked my upper arms and core so much since commuting from Wimbledon to Waterloo every morning back in the 1990s! Surprisingly the 2 hours went quite fast. Much like running, the first 20 minutes was a killer but after we got into the flow it was OK. In fact by the end I was doing the odd boogie to the Sri Lankan hip hop blaring from the bus' speakers - not muscle spasming as Mark alleges. We have not been favored with good weather here and we both have colds so it says something for the country that we are still enjoying ourselves alot. Sri Lanka is a predomnantly Buddhist nation and our first ... read more
