Blogs from Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia

We actually left! I write this now (This is now out of date. We are in Arugam bay but wifi has been shocking at all places we have stayed so far!) sitting in our first airbnb here in Negombo, Sri Lanka. It still doesn’t feel quite real being here knowing we have such a long time overseas ahead of us. Going for 6 months (and having a child) really changes the dynamic of going on holiday. There wouldn’t be so many good-byes and preparation if you were only travelling for a couple of weeks. Cairo interestingly seems more settled despite the very different environment. I think now we have arrived he is better able to understand what we are doing even if we haven’t quite figured it out! We flew out of Auckland at midnight and ... read more

My plan had been to travel from Kandy to Jaffna but I was so tired after Sigiriya that I couldn’t face the eight-hour bus ride and so instead I settled for the comparatively easy five-hour ride to Trincomalee in the east for a spot of beach chilling and diving. Jaffna sounds very interesting so I hope to head there next. The bus ride was easy enough, leaving the chaotic Kandy bus station at 7am (luckily my tuk driver drove me through the station asking every bus where it was going and dropped me a foot from the one that I needed). I was joined by a middle-aged man who was on his usual morning commute to his job in Dambulla. He was very chatty and gave me lots of tips for Kandy, should I ever decide ... read more

HE SAID... Today we were travelling south from Tricomalee to Batticaloa. We woke early at 6am, organised our packs and headed down to breakfast. I ordered poached eggs on toast, which I enjoyed with mixed fruit juice and tea. I ‘stole’ a few bakery items for the bus trip to Batticaloa, and then headed back to our room to finalise our packs. We were sad (in a way) to be leaving Trincomalee, because we’d really enjoyed the relaxed and laid back atmosphere of the place, especially our hotel (Anantamaa), and we were also sad to be leaving our friendly peacock – who we had affectionately named ‘Captain Peacock’. We checked out of the hotel, jumped into our minibus and headed south towards Batticaloa. After about 30 minutes we crossed the Mahaweli Ganga, Sri Lanka’s longest river, ... read more

Greetings folks! We ( maybe more me) left Ella reluctantly enjoying our last breakfast on the terrace. Our next stop was to be Kandy one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka. This time our journey was by train and our 100k journey took 7 hours but for the first half the scenery was absolutely stunning. The train trundled through the hillsides covered with tea bushes and then across the vegetable plains before hitting Kandy. We booked first class, which is fans with open windows for aircon and the hard seats do recline. Most of the other tourists were in the Rajah carriage which does have aircon but for at least half the journey it was us and the locals. The last 2 hours or so there was a downpour, which was sorely needed to clear ... read more

Der letzte Tag in Arugam Bay. Zum Frühstück gibt es heute zur Abwechslung hausgemachtes Müsli mit Früchten. „Hausgemacht“ sind die untergemischten Früchte, vom hauseigenen Koch höchst selbst kleingeschnitten und untergerührt. Eine Eigenheit gibt es dann doch, nämlich den sehr guten Büffeljoghurt der zum Müsli serviert wird. Nach der Stärkung besorgen wir uns drei Fahrräder und machen einen Ausflug in Richtung Süden. Die Fahrräder sind wie immer in einem erbärmlichen Zustand. Mein Tretlager knirscht als würde es jeden Moment auseinanderbrechen, Annetts Pedalen sind nicht rechtwinklig und erzeugen ein seltsames Trettgefühl. Aaron’s Rad ist auch nicht besser. Wie bei allen Radltouren wird irgendeine Notreparatur fällig sein, ich bereite mich schon mal auf den Gedanken vor. Die Straße führt durch Reisfelder, etwas eintönig, in der Regenzeit ist die Landschaft wahrscheinlich supergrün, aber i... read more