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Published: November 5th 2013
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Sri Lanka came on my bucket list through my last job in Australia, working with the 'boat people'. Predominately from Burma, Iran and Sri Lanka. Working with warm and friendly Tamil people triggered the interest to visit the country they are fleeing from. This combined with the knowledge that Sri Lanka is considered as a very interesting, diverse and beautiful holiday destination for the rest of the world.
So after a short but very necessary visit home to my Dutch 'babes' I headed of to this land of mixed feelings. With one of my besties following me which was amazing!
First impression we've got, relating to the title, was based on the difficulties we encountered with the local men. Wanting to know more about the culture(s) en religions within the country, their views on the Tamil history but also for example their cuisine we tried to speak with the locals. Also the local men wanted to speak with us, some desperately. But for very different reasons, sadly. The only question with repeatedly (and I stress repeatedly) was asked is "you want Sri Lankan boyfriend", in between the obvious other questions; 'where from', 'you married' and 'you boyfriend'? Regardless our
answers to these questions, and trying to divert the conversation away from this subject, we failed...oh boy we failed big time!
Luckily it did get better away from the Negombo coast area and better after this more heading south.
We wanted to chuck in as much as possible; culture, temples, cuisine, wildlife, coast etc. And I think we did pretty well. Our favourite way to travel was the train, not very quick, but relaxed and with open doors giving us a nice breeze and some picture perfect moments.
We've seen the temples/ruins around Sigiriya an Polonnaruwa. Sigiriya is a 200m high rock fortress surrounded by 'gardens' and forest. This 'Lion Rock' fortress you can climb after being stared at by 2 species of monkeys; Tocque Macaque (which looks a little baboon-ish with a hair piece) and the Gray Langur. Halfway there are some amazing murals. On top of the fortress, there were the remains of the palace and the amazing views of the surrounding area.
KingKasyapa (477 – 495 AD) built his palace on the top of this rock and decorated its sides with colourful frescoes. On a small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock he built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion. The name of this place is derived from this structure —Sīhāgiri, the Lion Rock. The capital and the royal palace were abandoned after the king's death. It was used as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century.
Polonnaruwa is an ancient city is from later date than Sigiryia but still the second oldest kingdom in the 11th century. It covers a massive area with gigantic stupas, temples and
(now) ruins. But also like Sigiriya an impressive irrigation system, which actually still to this day supplies water to the area. Here we visited temples, wherefore you have to cover up shoulders and knees and take of shoes to enter remains of the temples. Which brought some laughter because it was hot, which made it difficult to walk in a normal, peaceful way.
Today the ancient city of Polonnaruwa remains one of the best planned archaeological relic sites in the country, standing testimony to the discipline and greatness of the Kingdom's first rulers. Its beauty was also used as a backdrop to filmed scenes for the Duran Duran music video Save a Prayer in 1982.
After we had a pretty long trek to Adam's Peak or Sri Prada. Which is a 2243m high sacred mountain. Apparently the mountain is sacred for Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus. This because of the footprint which is on the top of this mountain. The men we've met on the top are Buddhists so obviously for them its Buddha's footprint. Sadly, because we're not in high season the footprint was screened of, so we haven't even seen it. And therefor we can't judge who's footprint we think it is. However this 7 km and thousands of steps up gave us besides good exercise and some 'catching our breath moments' also a very good reason for a massage later! Up the hill we were entitled to ring the bell once and had some tea with the
Buddhist men, with the obvious question to follow. Down hill was quicker, easier on the heart but definitely not on the knees.
By train we reached Ella, laid back, touristy and treated ourselves besides a cocktail with an Ayurvedic massage for 1,5 hours. This was again an experience; all body parts were squeezed, pinched and rubbed which brought us pain, quietness and laughter when we realised whole body means
whole body. From here we did a tiny trip(by bus) to and from a waterfall, where local ladies wash themselves under the curious eyes of Macaques.
Uda Walawe, magical experience.. can't say it in a different way. Here we did a safari in the national park known for all kinds of species, the biggest however is the elephant. We had an amazing 73 yr old guide with us, who has been a ranger for over 30 yrs. Lucky us. We got even more lucky by the amount of animals with as highlight; a group of elephants walking towards us and then passing us to the pond next to us for a splash and a sip. When passing by us they huddled around a little one as protection. Breathtaking spectacle!
Besides this we've seen; water buffalos, crocs, birds, cobra, cameleon, parrots, heron family nesting, storks...can keep going but just check the pictures😊
The coast line we visited, Polhena beach(next to Matara), which apparently is good for snorkling with turtles, but we had a storm. Unawatuna, is very touristy, but we did have nice weather here, visited Galle Fort(Dutch history) and ran into this local guy who's been in our city.
After the tsunami Dutch organisations offered a helping hand by offering a 3 month traineeship in a bakery in Breda, to teach and after he could teach others. This brought lots of opportunities for locals; getting jobs overseas but also earning money in tourism!
Hikkaduwa was our last stop, cool town and we stayed in a great place, here we could get excited about our spontaneous change of plans..Maldives, just an hour away..
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Rachel
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heerlijk om zo toch een beetje met je mee te reizen.. Maarre ik dacht ook dat je juist daar heen ging om een leuke boeiende sterke daadkrachtige man te vinden.. lol.. en dan zo´n mooie blonde babe daar in Sri Lanka ze zullen wel gedacht hebben dat ze de jack pot hadden gewonnen!!!