Blogs from Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 12

Well folks it's the penultimate day of my trip to Sri Lanka. What better way to celebrate than to get up at 4.40am to go hiking lol Yes that's right i got up at 4.30am so we could leave at 5.30 to visit the Hortons Plain national park to see the world end, little worlds end and Bakers water falls. We neede to get there before 10am as the mist engulfs the worlds end and you don't get to see the view. So armed with our pack up breakfast we headed for the park. I nipped to the loo. Opened the door to see a nice view of the hillside but no one could see me going to spend a penny, a novelty loo stop if there ever was one lol. Answering the call of nature ... read more

10thApril Colombo, Sri Lanka Another early morning arrival into Sri Lanka, we berthed at their container port and when we got onto the coach for our trip it took about ten minutes just to get to the port gates. Colombo is Sri Lankas capital city and is at the crossroads of the great spice routes where cultures and races have combined for centuries. Sri Lanka (Ceylon) became a British colony in 1802 after being ruled by the Portuguese and latterly the Dutch. Plantations were established (coffee) and was a leading export until destroyed by disease. Tea was introduced and Sri Lanka is now the fourth highest producer in the world. The majority of the country’s earliest inhabitants were Sinhalese from northern India, the Dravidian (Tamil) invasions from southern India caused the Sinhalese to abandon the northern ... read more

02.03.2014 - Day 1 Heathrow to Colombo to Mount Lavinia Flight was delayed by 2.5 hours :-( . Dani slept pretty much thee whole way while Deano was wide awake on his own. Arrived at Colombo airport and changed money and got a taxi to the hotel. Thought the taxi was going to be 3000rps but quickly worked out that you get charged tax on top of everything so ended up paying 3828rps, rule number 1 - always check receipt before getting in pre arranged taxi!! Dropped our bags off in the sauna / room freshened up a little and headed down to what can only be described as the busiest beach this side of the Indian Ocean!! Walked through a lovely dark alley, across an actual train track and down some rocks to get on ... read more

Cold shower again tonight, good job this cold is not like Lancashire cold water. Other than that the Silva's Beach Hotel is very nice and the staff extremely friendly. I was struggling to get a Wifi signal and they let me sit in their office alone to send the blog at 10pm. Always smiling with a little shake of the head. We followed the coast around the southern tip and up to Colombo on the 3 month old motorway then on to Negombo, near the airport for our return tomorrow night. We stopped at Galle, which along with many other coastal towns was badly affected by the tsunami of 2006 and has had a lot of rebuilding done. It reminded me if a French Colonial town with its yellow buildings and shuttered windows but find it ... read more

Dambulla D5 A bit cooler today at 24 degrees instead of the 30 and 28 of previous days, but still warm since there was less breeze. We headed back South down the route we took on Monday until we turned off onto a minor road just after the car accident where the car looked definitely twisted and leaking water badly. This is the first accident we have seen in a country with busy roads, but not fast traffic, and everyone blowing horns but giving space and no aggression. Most people treat us with respect and many wave and shout ‘hello’. School children run to the gates and shout and wave. We must look like aliens from another planet in our lycra and futuristic bicycles (compared to their roadster workhorses). Again we saw many birds today, kingfishers, ... read more