Blogs from Southern Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 9

We drove south from the cooler hill country into the very hot and humid conditions on the south coast of the island. This area and the adjacent east coast were the worst affected regions in the 2004 tsunami. In fact the hotel we were staying in had been totally washed away, sadly with all staff and guests being killed. The island seems to have recovered well and tourism has increased over the last few years. This area is famous for the Yala National Park. We enjoyed an afternoon safari, travelling deep into the park on bumpy rough roads. We were lucky to see an elephant family "playing" in a small lake and even luckier to see a leopard, albeit in the distance. Colourful birds were very abundant and our "trip bird list" reached it's half century!! ... read more

Day 11 - Raj’s sense of humor – We’ve never laughed so much on a vacation. Raj has a subtle sense of humor: the trouble with sleeping in a sarong and, of course, ending up naked; A man was trying to sell us lottery tickets and claimed that his tickets were very lucky... Raj asked him why he didn’t buy his own tickets; eating with your hands… “You don’t need weapons to eat;” tuk tuk decorations… “Pimp My Ride;” “That sharp rock is saying ‘Come and get me’;” “The power of the drink;” Sri Lankan buses are killing machines in a death race. Drive to Yala. Stops at Rawana waterfall, buy some lychees, and roadside tastings of woodapple – very sour and yucky! and a pot of curd. Yala is home to one of the famed ... read more

Geo: 6.0334, 80.2184Galle! Galle Fort in particular is pretty nice Surrounded by high walls and filled with Portuguese and Dutch influenced architecture. It has plenty of accommodation and restaurants inside and has a nice relaxed and quiet vibe to it. We arrived via local bus from Mrrissa. Here we spent the day visiting the fort and enjoying the food at some of the nice restaurants. From Galle we caught a bus 20 km north to Hikkadua which is also another popular beach area. Hikkadua is more popular and busier than Mirissa and other beach places. There is a surplus of accommodation which line the main road in to town for a few kms.Here we did some diving, although Sri Lanka is not renowned for its diving. It felt more like a practice dive as the site ... read more

Geo: 5.94354, 80.4589I never knew that the beaches in Sri Lanka were so good. One of those idyllic beaches that we based ourselves in for 6 nights was Mirissa Beach. We arrived by bus from Ella and immediately enjoyed the change from grey and rainy to hot and sunny.Mirrissa isn't a huge beach but it is a great place to stay for a while. It has amazing scenery with the token coconut trees. From Mirrissa there are heaps of things to do such as lounging about, whale watching, day excursions, surfing etc. We stayed in a nice small homestay for 5 nights and worked on our tans. Mirrissa is a good place to go whale watching and there are a few companies about but we chose to go with Raja and the whales as they promote ... read more

On our last day in Sri Lanka we arrived in the port city of Galle. We headed straight for the city's main attraction, the Dutch fort. Just like Fort Kochi in India, Sri Lanka's south westerly port of Galle was occupied by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. Each successfully evicting their predecessor. Although the fort was originally built by the Portuguese, the form we found it in today was largely down to the Dutch settlers. They used the fortifications laid earlier by the Portuguese and vastly improved them. This is evident in several places where there is effectively a doubling of the fort walls. When the Dutch secured the area, they made significant developments including the old Dutch hospital, which has been redeveloped into a swanky hub for restaurants and jewellery shops. As we ... read more