Beaches, Mountains, Elephants, Tea Plantations, & Slow Trains. #SriLanka

I almost didn’t make it to Sri Lanka. I was feeling a little under the weather ever since Tiruvannamalai. When we arrived at the Chennai airport to fly to here and I felt really tired, light-headed, weak, queasy, and clammy. I actually squatted down at the immigration desk to compose myself. At one point I thought I couldn’t go on. But the alternative, staying in Chennai, motivated me to keep moving. I found the strength to push on and had some biscuits and juice at the gate. I looked forward to relaxing and recharging at Negombo Beach and finally putting this cold behind me. I pictured myself eating fresh fruit, sleeping and taking dips in the ocean.

When we arrived in Sri Lanka and walked out of the airport we were greeted by the owner of the guesthouse where we were staying. Patrick flagged us down, put us in his brand new minivan, and drove us to Anicia Beach House where we would spend the next 3 nights. I immediately noticed how nice the streets of Sri Lanka were. Not crowded, not polluted, no horn honking. Seemingly peaceful. I was so happy I almost began to weep. I composed myself and struck up a conversation with Patrick about his business. I guess I was beginning to feel better.

The guesthouse was right one the beach. I spent time resting, and yes eating fruit, and began to feel a lot better. Next we made a plan to travel South down the West coast of Sri Lanka to Galle Fort. Reading up on taking the train South along the coastline sounded nice. The only problem was it was first come first served on the train. No guaranteed seats. It sounded crowded and packed and kind of a hassle. We decided to have Patrick drive us to Galle Fort instead. The drive was nice. Sri Lanka has excellent highways that are not crowded. There was a large modern rest stop with 10 small restaurants but they charge 20 cents to use the bathroom.

We arrived in Galle Fort, an upscale, touristy, cobble-stoney village inside an old walled fort. It was hot. Most days in the high 80’s. We had talked about slowing down our travel a bit so we spent almost a week here. Galle Fort is a really nice place and I was feeling almost 100%. We got to film a couple of live stream Yoga classes for my online business right in the fort. We ate at some nice restaurants and probably went over budget a little. We had things like pizza, french fries, gelato, and pasta. One morning I had passion fruit at breakfast. Now my favorite fruit. There was a beach close by and we went swimming a bunch of times.

One day we ventured outside the fort to get a tuk-tuk to a Buddhist Peace Pagoda. He talked us into 2 more places – the herbal gardens and turtle beach. The herbal gardens sounded nice. I pictured strolling through shaded areas with various herbs growing all around. Maybe it would even smell nice. The driver pulled, shouted “America”, and quickly an English-speaking guide latched on to us and began our “tour”. We walked through a path past many labeled trees and bushes. He told us of all the wonderful things all these herbs and plants could do. He had a cure for everything, even my varicose veins. He rubbed stuff on my hand, had me smell various plants and ointments, and the extremely brief tour ended in a gift shop, where of course all the mentioned cure-alls were for sale. We bolted. The driver next took us to turtle beach. I’m imaging a beach, with turtles, maybe in some sort of a protected area. There was an entrance fee, which of course he could get us a deal on. We declined. There was a hard sell. I glanced over at the “turtle beach” and it seemed like a tiny building with maybe some turtles in captivity inside. We got back in the tuk-tuk and demanded he take us to the Peace Pagoda, our original desire. He fought us a little more but obliged. Once there we spent time meditating in the peaceful atmosphere. It was great.

From Galle Fort we hired a taxi to Udawalawe National Park. We booked a room at Eagle Safari Family Bungalow. When we arrived at the town I had the driver drop us at the clock tower I had read about on the reviews about the bungalow. He left us off and I headed down a dirt alleyway like it said in the reviews. Within a minute we had arrived. The room was fine, the staff super nice, and we even had a candlelit dinner every night. They arranged a safari and off we went into Udawalawe National Park. The safari was great. We saw 50+ elephants, water buffalo, birds, lizards, and more. Sri Lanka just kept getting better and better. At each place the room, the staff, and the food got better and better. We had experienced beaches, old forts and elephants all in 10 days time. We still had 2 more weeks to go.

Next we travelled to Ella by taxi, actually a minivan. Our driver bargained with us and offered to reduce our price by 20% if he could pick up and drop off 2 other tourists along the way. We agreed. After a long drive we arrived in Ella and I guided the driver using Google maps to our guesthouse, Isuru Homestay. It was a little outside of the town center but had great reviews and the price was right and included breakfast. The van drove slowly off the paved road and down a skinny dirt path. I told him numerous times to stop and we would walk the rest of the way. He insisted on driving. The path got steeper and narrower and descended down into a small valley finally ending at Isuru Guesthouse. We were greeted by the owner whose only english was “5 nights?” and “tea?”. We said yes to both and she led us to our room.

The surroundings were great. Tea was growing everywhere around us. There were thick forests and views of mountains nearby. Sri Lanka just kept getting better and better. Within minutes a gentleman named Vino introduced himself. He said he was our tuk-tuk driver for the guesthouse and he was at our service. He had a flat rate to and from town center. He also did all the cooking and cleaning at the guesthouse. We quickly became friends and ended up at his family’s home for Sri Lankan cooking lessons, a meal, and holiday celebration. We bought everybody ice cream that day.

We hiked to Little Adams Peak, 9 arch bridge, and Ravana’s cave right from our guesthouse. We ventured into town a few times and had some good meals, coffee and got some laundry done. As usual we struck up many conversations with the locals. I should mention here that not only is Sri Lanka a beautiful place but the people are beautiful too, in the sense that they are really friendly and accommodating. We located the train station and made plans to take the train to our next destination, Newara Eliya. The trains in this area of Sri Lanka are renowned as being the best rain ride on the planet for scenery. The it was time to move on we bought reserved seat tickets in 3rd class for $2.60 each. It was a great ride.

We arrived in Newara Eliya around 9:30 AM and hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the top rated restaurant in town, Indian Summer. It that opened at 10 AM. We arrived and sat on the deck overlooking Lake Gregory. We ended up having a great meal (the TripAdvisor reviews were spot on) and some of the best chai masala ever. We moved on to our guesthouse which was again away from the city center about a 6KM drive. We were greeted by Constan when we arrived and entered his home, the nicest place we’ve stayed in so far. Our room was fantastic, and he and his wife were super friendly and helpful. We were within walking distance to Pedro tea factory and a nice steep hike to Lover’s Leap waterfalls. Constan gave us the lowdown on buses into town, less than 10 cents each way. We got really comfortable and took the bus back and forth to town several times a day. We did a live stream yoga class from Constan’s garden. He had roses, passion fruit, oranges and pears growing. Almost the entire area around Newara Eliya is all tea plantations with the exception of tiny gardens, packed in everywhere, populated with leeks, beets, potatoes , lettuce and carrots. As usual we struck up many conversations with the locals. When we ran into a live band playing outside one evening and we danced in the street for a minute. Sri Lanka just kept getting better and better.

Our stay in Newara Eliya seemed short. Too short. Before we knew it we were on the train again, this time to Kandy. We learned from a German man on the Ella train that you can buy an unreserved seat (a spot really) on the train for about 54 cents. We went for it. We hopped on the train and found 2 seats. It was fine for the first hour os so. But at every stop more and more people boarded. An hour outside of Kandy the train was packed, hot and getting uncomfortable. I made friends with a young man in the Sri Lankan army sitting next to me on the train. It seemed to help pass the time. We arrived in Kandy and headed to our guesthouse.

We only had  2 nights (1 day) in Kandy so we didn’t plan much. We had some ice cream made right in front of eyes, explored the city center, did a little shopping, and made plans to travel back to Negombo Beach for our last 2 nights in Sri Lanka.

When we were planning our year long trip, Sri Lanka was not on our list. A friend who has been here twice highly recommended it. I’m so glad we came here. We only explored a tiny bit of this island nation. I’ll say I would definitely come back some day because Sri Lanka just kept getting better and better.