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Sri Lanka take 2
Our last day in Polhena was pretty chilled. We went on the scooter to Mirissa, west of Polhena. The beach is on a long sweeping shelved bay but the quality of some of the beachside cafes etc was pretty grim. We did find a nice place and enjoyed cold drinks and fruit salad and curd. We got back to Polhena and just chilled by the sea and I had a little dip watched over by a turtle, we saw him half a dozen times in the space of a few hours.
Monday we said our goodbyes and got our car to Tissa. We were staying in the Tissa hotel mainly as they did good safari trips. My low expectations were achieved when they showed us the first room with AC which was very damp. Luckily next door was slightly better, well marginally!! We had A·C which was a must as it was horrendously hot. Our two safaris were already booked so we went out for food and then had an early night. Roots restaurant in Tissa was terrible, 50 minutes to make vegetable noodles and pretty mediocre too.
Our first trip was to Bundalla
and there were just us and our guide in the jeep as we set off at 5.30 am. The sun was just rising and the birdsong was fabulous. We are not really birdwatchers but the birds were fascinating and our guide was good, although lucky we had our own binoculars. The tour included breakfast which was a pretty ropey egg sandwich, banana and juice. We got back to the hotel at 10.30 ready for a shower and snooze to find that there was a day long power cut...........and it was about 35C we tried to sleep but it was hopeless so checked in our guide book and found a hotel with a pool. The pool was “free” to use with lunch. The hotel had a generator so we lunched in the air conditioned restaurant and then lazed by the pool. On our budget we are rarely in this type of accommodation but it is a good way to maximise your money, find cheap but good accommodation and dip into the more expensive stuff as you need it. The lunch was a buffet but very good quality food and there were changing rooms and towels provided for the pool. By we
got back to Tissa the power was back on.
Wednesday we were off to Yala and we had to get up at 4am to leave at 4.30. Chris misread his watch and got washed etc at 12.20 am-same hand position as 4am!! The park doesn’t open till 6am so there was a bit of waiting around but we were rewarded by the sight of a leopard basking on the rocks, we had two other sightings too. It was a long hot morning and the road was pretty bumpy so when we got back at 11.30 I felt exhausted rather than excited. We did see elephants, spotted deer, mongoose, wild boar, wild buffalo and two jackals. Went again to the safari Inn for lunch-made the mistake of having a classic martini -but just had lunch as much hotter day and not much shade at the pool. So that was Tissa.
Thursday started badly but ended up well. We had booked a car from Tissa to Ella in the hill country and decided to eat breakfast in our hotel. It took 50 minutes to produce fruit, toast and egg and Chris didn’t eat his egg as it tasted odd. In Ella we stayed in Chamodya home-stay with a lovely lady called Nuli. I booked it as a present to Chris for his birthday. The setting was stunning the room clean and tidy and a lovely modern bathroom. We only had a fan but the evenings are cool in the hills. As breakfast was so bad we walked into town and had roti, like a hot wrap with lentil stuffing. Back in the home stay we had booked curry and rice. It was fabulous a mixture of 7-8 different dishes all beautifully flavoured. Halfway through I started to feel a bit unwell and it was to prove to be the revenge of the egg.
Next day was Chris’ birthday and we had planned a trip to the tea factory and a few beers and meal in town!! I managed a small breakfast and spent the rest of the day in bed.............
So Saturday dawned with the chanting of the Tibetan monks for an hour at sunrise. Breakfast was delicious all lovingly prepared by Nuli. We had egg hoppers, coconut and honey pancakes, coconut roti and fruit, toast, fruit juice and gorgeous Ceylon tea. I helped Nuli a couple of times with her English to reply to prospective guests and she regularly made us pots of tea. She arranged a tuk tuk which took us to the Halpe tea factory and he waited while we did the tour. A lovely man showed us how tea is made; he was so knowledgeable and enthusiastic. There was no pressure to buy and the views from the factory were stunning. He dropped us in town and we had a pot of tea but I was flagging by this time.
Chatting to other travellers we realised the cultural triangle was step too far in the crazy heat. Global warming has raised temperatures here and reduced rainfall. So we re-jigged the plan cut one night from the Kandy stop, then next Polonawarru and opted for a week on the east coast in a hotel right near the beach with a pool.
Saturday night we ate in town, I stuck to simple vegetable noodles and Chris had half a dozen beers. This does not make for an easy walk back along the railway line with only one torch as he has lost his!! We had already had to saw the lock of our travel safe as he lost the key on Saturday morning!!
We both loved Ella the people, the scenery everything just was magical.
Till next time
Norma xx
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