Blogs from Sri Lanka, Asia - page 12

After researching the many ways to see the sights of Colombo, from the budget version of the negotiated tuktuk to the super expensive jeep, we all decided to do the City Sightseeing tour, in the red open top bus. It seemed quite pricey for where we are, 30USD, but it picked us up from right in front of the hotel and dropped us back here 4 hours later. We had to go to breakfast at 7am and it wasn’t even a school day. It arrived at 7.45 and drove up to the Galle Face Hotel where we had to wait 20 minutes for some Aussies who’d been given the wrong pick up time. 2 more got on at the next hotel and that was it, 7 of us. We first went round the Fort area and ... read more

Hurrah for a free day to explore, and not having to be at breakfast at 7am, I had a plan today to walk around the lake at the back of the hotel, visit the Gangaramaya Temple and go to the Independence Square Mall. It was surprising on a number of fronts, but was a lovely day. The road at the side of the Crescat Mall leads down to a big lake with a temple on a tiny island. There’s a path around the edge, a few men hanging around or working cleaning and sweeping. Perfectly OK for walking around in the daytime. There was a scratchy noise which turned out to be a 3 foot monitor lizard, and a few birds. At the entrance to the temple on the island a man was sitting on the ... read more

R: We headed off the next morning for our next stop - Yala National Park. The day started with a 4 hour drive through the hill country. It was still pouring down in the hill country so we had a quick drive around Nuwara Eliya, including the red brick post office, the somewhat dilapidated looking race course (built by a previous British governor of Sri Lanka), and a large old British style hotel which seemed to be hosting at the time a "largest strawberry tart" contest - the one outside reception probably measured about 6 metres in diameter. There were also ponies walking all over the street - apparently they give pony rides in good weather, but are allowed to roam the streets the rest of the time. The roads are occasionally peppered with red GR ... read more

So every day has been off to work by taxi and back by tuktuk, or today, as I finished early, it was time to give the local bus a go. My colleagues were finishing ,after and prefer the far more relaxing option of a taxi home too. I am determined to try every transport option going. The taxi this morning took a detour over to the beach road, as it was rammed on the one way system. The train line runs between the road and the sea, and a commuter train came by, literally with people hanging out of the doorways. It was amazing to see. The sea has been very rough the whole time I’ve been here so far and now is the start of the rainy season. I’ve been practising the head wobbling (ear ... read more

R: Next day was train day. We took one last opportunity to go up on the roof of our hotel to marvel at the impressive view that Hotel Topaz had to offer and then we were off. We headed to Peradeniya Junction, a pretty station in amongst a chaotic car park close to Kandy. We left so much time for the traffic chaos that is Kandy but sailed through, meaning we had extra time to experience the very small, but pretty station that was Peradeniya. Train travel is still very much a popular method of travel here, as we could see from the trains passing that were packed to the rafters with Sri Lankans heading in different directions, though this could have been increased by the impending religious festival about to start in Kandy. The station ... read more