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Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

August - September 2023
A 29-day adventure by Reagan Read more
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  • TravelerSri Lanka 🇱🇰
    1
    Day 2

    Day 1: The Journey to…

    August 29, 2023 in Sri Lanka ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    On route from Bristol to Heathrow I started to receive messages from friends asking whether our flight had been cancelled/delayed due to the air traffic control technology issues. Thinking I was getting ahead of the game, I entered our flight number into the Heathrow departure search engine which came back with the message “no flight found”. Obviously a mistake, I repeated this process on the Sri Lankan airline website which returned the same message. At this point, I decided to go back to the booking to see if I had entered the wrong flight number, only for my heart to flip a 360 when I saw the departure date…it was yesterday. The flight had already left whilst we were sat eating dinner none the wiser! After many stressed phone calls with the terrible Sri Lankan airline customer service line, we were told that it was not possible to rebook onto the flight this evening, as it had to be at least 6 hours before it’s departure. Thanks to the line cutting out multiple times, it was now 5 and a half hours before it left…classic. We accepted our fate thanks to our idiocity and attempted to book a hotel for the night in the hope of booking onto the flight the next day. After two declined payments for two different hotels we gave up and went to refuel to try and subside the grumpiness. We then received a positive phone call from dad saying he had managed to get us on tomorrows flight but was having trouble with the payment. As a last ditch attempt, we headed down to the flight desk that had finally opened to speak to someone in person. We were told he needed to check with his supervisor as we might not be able to be accepted because of a lack of catering…specifically “not enough beans”. We were more than happy not to have the beans and thankfully persuaded him to let us onto the flight…at the small cost of £600 😰 At this point however it seemed like a small price to pay to get us out of England and thankfully we had a smooth journey there…even if they did serve curry for breakfast.

    Finally on Sri Lankan soil, we grabbed a driver from the airport who took us to our first destination, Kalpitiya. On the way we stopped off at his friends shop where we had snacks of unknown contents handed to us through the window. We met his family and they gifted us some “wood apples” - which we later found out smelt like feet, tasted like cider vinegar and had the texture of lumpy stringy bananas. Finally we arrived after a tricky time finding the hotel where we were able to have a quick shower before dinner was served. 3 course, all delicious and exactly what we needed (potato soup (maybe) calamari/mixed veg and fried rice and caramel pudding) Time for bed and a fresh start!    Read more

  • TravelerSri Lanka 🇱🇰
    22
    Day 3

    Day 2-4: Kalpitiya

    August 30, 2023 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Day 2:
    We woke up from our concrete bed feeling somewhat un-refreshed. This was soon improved however by the breakfast spread laid out for us - a Sri Lankan style “English breakfast” complete with a side of Dahl (obviously). We wondered along the coast to get our bearings before hiring a moped and heading to the beach in the hope of having our first kite surfing lesson. The sight of an almost deserted beach quickly made it obvious that this wasn’t going to happen, with two instructors explaining that the wind was ‘no good’ today. With this, we headed into town in the hope of finding some lunch. Cafes/restaurants did not seem to exist so after driving around for 30 minutes covering all roads on the map, we pulled into a very authentic, local street food “cafe”. It only made sense that we witnessed a rat run out of the door of the kitchen just as we were about to walk in. At this point however, they had spotted us and there was no going back, as we were quickly ushered to sit down at the single table in the cafe supplied with a stack of napkins and ketchup. Still to this day it’s a mystery as to what the samosa style item we were served contained. On the positive side, two samosas and a 7up cost only 75p! After some excitement for the day we headed back to the hotel where we spent the afternoon relaxing by/in the pool pretending to be crocodiles. We finished the day with a three course dinner (pumpkin soup, roast chicken, garlic rice, salad and fruit salad and ice cream with “bees nectar” for desert) and an early night.

    Day 3:
    Up early, we had another amazing breakfast spread - today it was waffles which was of course came complete with Dahl and coconut samba. Having managed to sort out a kite surfing lesson we were collected by the boat from the hotel next door and zoomed across to the beach. Today was a very different picture with around 40 kite surfers already out on the water. We met our instructor and learnt the basics of kite control and then progressed onto body dragging in the water. My bum is still recovering from the heavy exfoliation it was given from the sand and sam certainly brought the style to the team - one look at us and there was no doubt we were beginners! I’d like to say it was only how we looked that gave away the fact that we were beginners, but it was also likely very obvious when I catapulted us across that lagoon before crashing the kite! We called it a day after 4 hours out on the water and some very red faces and headed back to grab some lunch. A quick trip into town left us struggling again to find some basic lunch items as the only shops around were so small and full of flys. So today lunch consisted of cheese triangles, biscuits and peanuts! We finished the day with a lovely dinner (Vegetable soup, Grilled fish, veg and cauliflower cheese and passion fruit sponge cake and ice cream for dessert) and an evening of socializing with our neighbors from Germany/France.

    Day 4:
    We were up early today to grab the boat back to the beach for the final day of kite surfing following another bowl of Dahl for breakfast. Annoyingly whilst preparing the kite my back decided to “pop” and spasm (a classic Reagan’s back situation) which left me walking like I had pooped my pants. I tried to continue with the lesson but it was a definite no go so Sam soldiered on alone. Today he managed to do a water start and was up for a solid few seconds before the crash landing came. I took on the role of photographer which also featured many dogs on the beach, so I was happy. Sam returned after 2 hours on the water and we headed back to the hotel to shower and pack. We were collected by our driver and commenced the 2.5 hour journey to Wilpattu national park. On route, our driver wanted to treat us to some of our ‘favorite fruits’ and so he selected the best watermelon, mango and something that was a cross between a grapefruit and an orange with a lemony taste, for us! We arrived at the camp in time for ‘tea and coffee’ which i was very happy with as it was my first English breakfast tea since we arrived! Another 3 course dinner in front of the bonfire (although sadly not quite to the same standards) and an early night to prepare for our safari in the morning.    Read more

  • TravelerSri Lanka 🇱🇰
    1
    111
    Day 6

    Day 5: Wilpattu National Park

    September 2, 2023 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Day 5: After an extremely hot and sweaty nights sleep thanks to the lack of AC, we were up early to meet for tea and coffee at 5:30am, before we departed for our safari 🐆 We shared a Jeep with 4 others from Israel. Sitting was still not ideal for my back so the next few hours were extremely wriggly and not the most comfortable, but we saw lots of animals including:

     -Green Bee Eater
    - White Turtle King Fisher
    - Spotted Deer
    - Crocodile
    - Grey Headed Fish Eagle
    - The Sri Lankan National Bird - The Chicken
    - Mongoose
    - Bucking Deer
    - Warthog (Pumba)
    - Water Buffalo
    - Land Monitor Lizard
    - And the highlight…a leopard!!

    We stopped off at a picnic area where we were given breakfast - fruit, roti, boiled eggs and some hella spicy onion thing 🥵 The guts were officially awake after that! Sadly we didn’t see any elephants, but to see the leopard was extremely rare so we got lucky there 🐘🐆.

    Back at the tent, we recovered from the early start with a quick nap and spent the rest of the day chilling in the camp playing snakes and ladders (with no dice). Feeling slightly bored after not being allowed out for a walk due to the risk of wild elephants (we wish!!), we got chatting to a couple traveling a similar route to us from Amsterdam, who gave us lots of helpful tips for our next location. We finished the day with another average dinner served at the camp, albeit in a pleasant atmosphere around the bonfire. As it was our last evening, we joined the ‘nature walk’ where a guide took us around the camp looking at wildlife (mainly spiders, frogs and a single scorpion) in the pitch black. This certainly made for an entertaining experience when I was attacked by many creatures which later turned out to be a tree 😅    Read more

  • TravelerSri Lanka 🇱🇰
    111
    Day 12

    Day 6: Anuradhapura

    September 8, 2023 in Sri Lanka ⋅ 🌬 31 °C

    Day 6: After our final breakfast at the camp (in which a spider dropped from a tree and landed on me!), we were collected by Siri our tuk tuk driver and guide for the day. A quick 1 hour transfer to our farm stay where we dropped off the bags, we headed straight off to start our tour of the city (the ancient capital of Sri Lanka and a UNESCO world heritage site).

    First stop was Sarananda Piriwene (the biggest buddha in Anuradhapura) at which the heavens opened and we were well and truly rained upon! We learned about the different types of stupa and were taught about the eight Hindu gods. We were also told the story of the birth of the last Buddha and had the different Buddha hand symbols explained to us. Sheltering from the rain, Siri gave us a rendition of a prayer song to keep us entertained. After a quick cup of tea of which you drank whilst biting on a brown sugar cube (may or may not have been what it was) we prayed for our guts to not reject this delicacy after seeing how it was prepared at the side of the road 😅

    Next we visited the Sadahiru Seya Stupa, built as a war memorial following the civil war that finished in 2009. We were told about the history behind this and witnessed some monks in action! Then onto the rock temple which was the first monastery in Sri Lanka and was where the king at the time first learnt of Buddhism. This was also where Siri embarked on a photo shoot of Sam and I amongst the giant boulders and treated us to a second prayer song where the monks would sit and meditate.

    With some rumbling tummy’s it was time for lunch, so Siri took us to his friends buffet where we ate the spiciest lunch of our life!! 🥵 We then popped into the Sunday market which was a whole experience of chaos in itself watching the locals barter. The mound of dried fish everywhere did not leave me best pleased with the smell 🥴

    Next up we visited the Royal Gardens and Isurumuniya Temple where we learnt a lot about the royal family who ruled at the time and got to see a tree which was grown from a branch of the branch of the Bodhi tree (the tree under which the last Buddha gained enlightenment). Finally we went to the final monastery in which there was an event on celebrating the police service who were being blessed by monks. Here we saw another tree which was grown from a branch of the Bodhi tree and we were given a blessing by a monk. Finally we visited the most impressive stupa of them all - Ruwanweli Maha Seya. We were there in time for prayer which was hustling with locals and not a single tourist in sight! A very cool experience to be immersed within.

    To wish us farewell Siri stopped at a very poorly designed Ganesh on the side of the road in a concrete hut 😂 Here he sang us our last prayer which we had to join in with…’ommmmmm Ganesh something something something, ommmmmm Ganesh…’ - we had no idea of the words but were very entertained by the environment being lit up by a disco ball, multiple burning incense sticks and ringing bells to add to our out of tune rendition 😂

    After a big day out, we were dropped back at the farm where we were served a Sri Lankan dinner (String hoppers and curry with coconut samba). After Sam chucking the questionable chicken to the cats, another family found a frog in their soup of which we found hilarious and summed up the whole place!    Read more

  • TravelerSri Lanka 🇱🇰
    121
    Day 13

    Day 7: Anuradhapura

    September 9, 2023 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    After a wrest-less nights sleep thanks to the wildlife rustling all around us, we headed for yet another Sri Lankan breakfast (Dahl, coconut samba and egg hoppers) 😅. Following this, there was a rush to the toilet for myself in which I proceeded to 💩 on a frog - this was only noticed when I flushed the toilet and saw him swirling around the basin! He wasn’t put off by this event however as he crawled up the drain and joined us again for our showers later that day! 🐸

    We headed back into the city and had our first experience of the Sri Lankan bus service to get there! This came complete with chickens in boxes, mounds of vegetables and jumping off the bus whilst it was still moving! We wondered around the shops and attempted to find Sam a ‘decent’ coffee which sadly wasn’t successful. I however was successful in buying a new notepad and pen 🖊️ stationary shopping is the best kind of shopping! After a pretty relaxed morning we headed back on the bus to the farm - we followed which bus the monks got on as there was a monastery near us…it worked and we made it back!

    Later that day we were taken by our host to Mihintale, another temple on top of a hill with beautiful views. We were racing the sunlight with this one as it gets dark at 6:30pm here all year round. Thankfully though we did get to see the views before it went dark and it all looked pretty spectacular lit up at night. We also saw our first snake of the trip! A dangerous one apparently 🐍

    Back at the farm we waded though the mass of frogs that were covering the paths. We had bought some food from the supermarket earlier in the day for dinner as we were all Sri Lankaned out - cheese triangles, an avocado, crisps and some mango! A chilled evening in ready for another night with the wildlife!    Read more

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