sasri2016 – Hotels in Sri Lanka

I stayed in various hotels during my trip, like most travellers in Sri Lanka do. Only rarely travellers just go to one or two sites in Sri Lanka, during their stay. If visit would be only for one week, then it might be ideal to just see two important and very different kind of sites.

List of hotels where I stayed:

• The Ocean Colombo (Colombo, 3)
• Riverside Cabanas (Mirissa, 5)
• River Front (Tissamaharama, 4)
• Vista Rooms Peacock Reach (Tissamaharama, 4)
• Jetwing Kaduruketha (Wellawaya, 4)
• Riverfront Hotel(?) (Badulla, 1)
• Wink Field (Nuwara Eliya, 2)
• Sunny Hills Residence (Kandy, 4)
• Hotel Sigiriya (Sigiriya, 5)
• Sea Zone Hotel (Nilaweli, 3)
• Amaranthe Bay (Uppuweli, 4)
• Supun Arcade Residence (Colombo, 4)

City and my personal rating (1 – 5) for hotel in parentheses, in above listing.

The hotel and location that I liked most, was Mirissa beach's Riverside Cabanas. It had great service and I loved Mirissa as a location. Hotel isn't actually 4 or 5 star hotel, but it has wildlife straight at the backyard, which compensated a lot for what was missing in the room's amnesties.

Second best hotel would be Hotel Sigiriya. It had all that I could have wanted, though dinner was too expensive. Location is fabulous, premises are good, service is great and I have to give extra bonus for Land monitors running in the hotel's grounds.

I could have spent a whole week in both of these hotels. It wouldn't be a problem at all. And basically either one of these could have been a winner. They are different kind, as Hotel Sigiriya is more expensive and splurge kind of a hotel, while Mirissa's Riverside Cabanas was cheaper, but did things very well, specially when comparing with price.

sasri2016 – Travelling back to Finland from Colombo

Had an alarm waking me up today at 00:01. It was a darn hard to get up, after only 4 hours of sleep. Though yesterday's dinner was totally worth it, that wake up did eat some from my sleeping time. Have to tell you about it... I wanted a restaurant from as close to hotel as possible. From reception found out that there is a restaurant at the rooftop of hotel building. Nice! No need to go dancing in the rain, to get to the restaurant... ehh, well I did need to go a little bit in rain, because rooftop restaurant is not covered. Security officer of hotel escorted me to restaurant and a waiter of restaurant then helped with umbrella for me to get to buffet room to see their list. Chef came to introduce foods and to reply to my questions (which I had quite many). I found food that I wanted, even though prices were quite expensive, but I still had rupies left and not many places to use them anymore, so it was fine. I didn't want to take dinner to my room (which would have been the obvious choice, while having a rooftop restaurant and thunderstorms right among us (I don't say above, because clouds were really low and thunder was straight over Colombo). Chef and waiter agreed to my suggestion, to bring a table and chair under one corridor roof, which was only place in restaurant's serving area, where it didn't rain. So I ended up being only customer in rooftop restaurant, having great food and amazing lightning show all around me. It was kinda better show than many movies are! And I had the pleasure of enjoying a great Spicy Vegetable Broth with buns as an appetizer and Indian Biriyani with chicken (raita and Chutney included, of course). Though I didn't get my pineapple fruit juice, until they had already brought the main course to the table, I really enjoyed this fantastic event.

Back to wake up. This hotel was surprisingly good. This was first hotel to actually make the wake up call. I had ordered it in two other hotels during my stay, but never got the wake up call. That is really lousy work from reception. I had ordered a taxi from hotel to take me to the Bandaranaike airport. It's about an hour drive, so I ordered it for 01:00 o'clock. Driver was there ready, when I made my checkout and we got to the airport just fine (it took pretty much that 1 hour, even as there was almost none traffic, so during the day, it would have needed more time for travelling to airport).

Other option for my layover in Colombo, would have been airport hotels (there seems to be some) or staying in Negombo, which is much closer to airport, than Colombo. But because I founded a good sale price for this hotel “Supun Arcade”, I thought it's better to go there. Another reason to go there was that I knew that I could use PickMe to easily get to places I already knew about, if I wouldn't take so much sleep. Sale price of that room would have been 57 €, but I had collected hotel.com's rewards and used them, so I paid only something like 12 € for that stay.

Now I am at the airport, already checked into flight and waiting in lobby to get into plane. It's going to be rough way back home:

1. 4h 40 min flight to Abu Dhabi, then 1h 25 min layover in that airport
2. 5h 30 minutes flight from Abu Dhabi to Berlin Tegel airport, with 2h 25 minutes layover in Berlin airport
3. 1h 55 minutes flight from Berlin to Helsinki airport
4. then taking a bus from Helsinki airport to railway station
5. next to take a Onnibus from Helsinki to Turku
6. and about at the beginning of night, I should be arriving at Turku and then to take a local bus to my home and to finally meet my sweetheart.

sasri2016 - Travelling from Trincomalee to Colombo

Yesterday I got really badly sunburnt.
I was meant to go to Colombo by train. My flight is this night / tomorrow morning at 04:35.
I didn't know that train schedules are quite bad, for this kind of a trip. If my flight would have been during later morning, it would have been a great choice to go by night train. And quite same for AC busses.  I heard that AC busses go only during night, from Trinco to Colombo. Other busses go once in an hour, during the daytime.
But I wasn't in best condition to travel without AC, as my skinburns were quite bad and they also made me dry. 9 hours in long haul bus didn't sound exactly what Is needed. So I called my earlier tuk-tuk driver (Ragi Kones), who took me to the Koneswaram Hindu temple yesterday morning and started negotiations about price of a car and an air conditioned car. First I asked from hotel, what their price would be, to know the maximum and to have somekind of understanding. Well hotel's offer was crazy 21000 rupies. I got this arranged by 11500 rupies. It's an older van and there are no regulations to demand for back seat safety belts (same as in India), so going is kinda relaxed now, having this back seat all by myself and stretching legs.
Driver is okay, but doesn't much know English, so we don't talk much here. We stopped for a lunch and place charged for my driver's lunch also. Though I think that drivers should eat free in those places. It costed me 4 euros extra and I am about to leave this place, so I don't really care to make a scene in this point.
I have written about driving in my earlier travelling stories, so this time I decided not to write about it... but I have a little itch to do it.

Anyways, now we have been riding for a bit more than 6 hours. So it might not take that long anymore, until we reach Colombo. I will be staying in the hotel only for a short time, but I need to try to sleep before I go to the long flights back home. Coming here was so awful and long, so I hope it goes better this way. And I actually paid only 15 euros for my hotel stay, so it wasn't too bad, even for a short stop.

sasri2016 - Nilaweli

Travelled from Sigiriya to Nilaweli (one of the three place near Trincomalee and it's beach) by car and driver.

Car was Tata Nano and quite funny car. It had 0,95 L engine and consumption was really low. It has only 8 litre tank. ;) Air conditioning was working well. Driver said he had bought it second hand that it had costed him about 800 000 rupies (5 479 euros). A new one would cost something like 8 000 - 11 000 euros. Driver Chlminda was from Sigiriya and I met him when he took me with tuk-tuk to Sigiriya rock.
I paid 7000 rupies for the trip from Sigiriya to Nilaweli. I don't say that it's the right price, but bigger car drivers didn't go below 8000 rupies (first offer was 9000 rupies), because (from what I think I understood from driver's talk with other drivers, he was like saying that he would profit only 2000 rupies if he goes below that for that trip, which would mean his expenses would be 5000 rupies, but this might be totally wrong interpretation).

Unbelievable! When I had checked into this Sea Zone Hotel in Nilaweli, I saw family from Colorado, that have had rooms in two other hotels at same time with me. Strange to wonder around this island and see the same family having a room in three different hotels, same time with you. We must have same taste for hotels. ;) Their nice grandmother had already left back to Colorado.


Yesterday when I talked to hotel manager, I asked where I could get those Kottu blades, because I saw that their restaurant (which is not directly in hotel, but can be seen from the hotel) has Kottu in their list. He started to arrange me a pair of blades, but couldn't find them easily. When I was ready to go to have a dinner, he throw me on his scooter to see another restaurant where they had Kottu blades. They were a bit different than I expected. They were also somewhat worn out (no sharp blades anymore). But it was interesting to see and take photos of them. I also get to see on what kind of metal plate they were doing the Kottu dishes. This was really nice and after this we went to hotel's restaurant, where lady was already making my Kottu. I did get a really nice introduction to making of Kottu, but I couldn't get a clear picture of all the things and spices.


This hotel has best wifi and internet connection, that I have had on this island. Strange, because this hotel doesn't remind any kind of "technically advanced" place. Room isn't that special, but it has warm water in shower (it's one temperature only, non-adjustable heat) and fan is working. Night wasn't too great though. It was really hot. My mobile phone said (through accuweather) that night temp was 30C... and I didn't have air conditioning. You can imagine the rest. The family rooms in this hotel do have AC, but I had already reserved the cheapest room option with fan only.
    Hotel manager told that he doesn't remember when it would have been this hot in here. Actually when we talked about heat crisis in India, he told me that he wouldn't remember any other time, that Sri Lankans had been warned about high temperature and that one Sri Lankan had died due to heat in Jaffna. In India temperatures have been like 50C, but in Jaffna "only" like 40C.

Beach in Nilaweli is quite nice. At least now, there isn't big waves (like there was in Mirissa). Some stray dogs were begging there. Took a morning swim, before there came much of the hassle and loved it totally!

Now I am just enjoying my vacation and sitting at the hotel's terrace, without shirt of course, because it's so hot in here. Last time I checked, phone was reporting 29C and it would get to 33C during the day. Highest temperature could still be 35C and night could be something like 28C, but I have transferred to Uppuweli by then and in Amaranthe Bay hotel I will have AC to enjoy.

sasri2016 - Animals and wildlife of Sri Lanka

I have met so many different species on this trip.
Here are some that I remember...

Birds
Peacocks (in Yala, at the roof of Mirissa's hotel Riverside Cabanas, Wellawaya hotel's field opposite my chalet)
Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl
Green bee-eater
Colourful red bird that has migrated from India
Eagle, at least three different specimens, maybe two different species (Yala for two different species, while driving from Sigiriya to Nilaweli which probably was same as other one in Yala)
White-throated kingfisher
Egrets
Pelicans
Smaller birds

Crows (specially in Nilaweli)

Reptiles
Three different toad species (in Yala, Horton Plains, at reception of Hotel Sigiriya all were different species)
Land monitors (in Sigiriya hotel roaming around grounds and at Yala)
Crocodiles (big and babies)
Skink (multiple? at Lion's rock at least)
Smaller lizards ( at least 4 different species, two or three different at Lion's rock)
Snake, small black (Horton Plains )

Elephants

Wild elephants (Yala)

Bugs
Grasshoppers (over Hotel Sigiriya's room 56 sign (my room) and it was there together with a Gekko)
"Kaskas"
Beetles
Bees
Wasps or something like them

Monkeys
At least three different species
purple faced monkey (that doesn't look like purple face) in Horton Plains,
special grey monkey with long tail running on power lines in Sigiriya center)
Common monkeys  (besides roads like at Ella, in Mirissa's Riverside Cabanas hotel's backyard, Dambulla's temple, Hotel Sigiriya's yard)

Butterflys
So many different species, that I have no count of them, but it can't be less than 10 species)
White with black
Yellow ( most common)
Small and quick blue winged
Something that looked like admiral butterfly
Big blue butterfly
And others

Bats

Bats (in Nine Arched Bridge's tunnel and at the pool of Hotel Sigiriya )

Deer (Yala and Horton Plains )
Sambal (Yala and Horton Plains )

Rabbit (In Nilaweli)

sasri2016 - Feelings in Sigiriya by the pool

Made tea with a tea cooker in my room. From my own tea leaves. Had to borrow a tea pot from hotel's restaurant. Weather  is not that hot as it normally is. And it's really nice, to just be here, without any hurry or worry.
Monkeys just walked from hotel reception's roof to the trees opposite of me. They are actually quite funny to watch. People are swimming in the pool and some guys are playing dice on the other table. I think it's time for me to go to the pool also.

sasri2016 – Travelling in Sri Lanka

First of all, Sri Lanka offers a lot.

It might not be same kind of snorkeling and diving center, like Thailand and it might not be as cheap as Thailand is. But IMHO you can find cheap food, cheap accomodation and a lot to see.

There are several national parks, where you can have safaris and see different kinds of wildlife. As you are probably staying in hotels near jungle, you will probably see wildlife even at your hotel. Like this Hotel Sigiriya, where I am at the moment writing this, at the pool area, they have Land Monitors running around the grounds, monkeys in trees, a lot of “kaskas” (what might be true english name of those?), Gekkos (of course), squirrels.

Hotels in Sri Lanka vary a lot. There are greater four star hotels, that cost from 70 € to 250 € per night and probably some 5 star hotels also. But then there are cheaper, 20 € – 45 € hotels, hostels and homestays.

Most of people travel here by hiring a driver, for one day, three days, or even for whole holiday. It is really good way to see the interesting spots and live an easy life in an interesting country – but that's not really my kind of way. I have travelled now two times a longer distance with a driver, once from Wellawaya to Badulla and another time from Kandy to Sigiriya (where I am now, when writing this - updates below this are made later during the trip of after it).
    Most of my travelling kilometers I have still done in trains and busses. They work surprisingly well. First train ride wasn't that pleasant, because it was so full and crowded (it was sunday quite close to new year's holiday - this was explanation given by a police man going on holiday and sitting near me). Another not so pleasant ride was from Nanu Oya to Kandy.  That train trip was first awesome, with beautiful scenery and I had one great hour to enjoy the views and everything. But because it was cheap night train, I was harrased by a begging lady and also by one gay guy.  So I really recommend going by ExpoRail wagon, if possible. It costs more, but it's still not expensive (mine was 1200 rupies from Badulla to Nanu Oya) and so worth it. If you want to stay indoors, it has AC, if you want to go to observation deck, you can see a lot, enjoy the nice wind and views.
    Busses are okay and they are cheap. But they are not that comfortable and I haven't seen any AC busses yet. I know there are such, but they have probably gone mostly on routes where I haven't used busses (to and from Colombo perhaps?).

My route in Sri Lanka for these three weeks:
1. Colombo (stayed 2 nights, to get used to Sri Lankan ways and other stuff)
=> Train from Colombo to Weligama and tuk-tuk from weligama to Mirissa

2. Mirissa (stayed 4 nights, was originally meant to stay there for 2 nights, but liked it too much and took 2 nights more and Mirissa has been my favourite destination in Sri Lanka)
 => By tuk-tuk from Mirissa to Matara and by bus from Matara to Tissamaharama, tuk-tuk from Tissamaharama station to hotel

3.Tissamaharama (stayed 2 nights, this was mostly for Yala National Park)

=> Guy from Tissamaharama's second hotel drove me with hotel's car to Tissamaharama's bus station, took a bus to Wellawaya, but had to change bus at one bus station, to get to Wellawaya), tuk-tuk from Wellawaya bus station to hotel (about 4.3/5 km)

- Now south coast is done, moving towards central Sri Lanka -

4. Wellawaya (stayed 3 nights, but this was kinda one night too much and it would have been different, if I would have stayed three or maybe even four nights in Ella, because there was much more interesting things in Ella, as Wellawaya mostly only had this Jetwing Karuduketha hotel, which was really  nice, but no reason to spend more than 2 nights there)

--- Oh, while writing this in hotel's terrace at Nilaweli, I just got a a cup of tea (with sugar in it) from old man, who is taking care of this hotel). What a nice surprise! This is something I really value in this country! People just are nice and bring you kindly stuff, that you didn't even ask for. Earlier after my morning swim, he brought me a bag full of slices from coconut plant! Everybody who knows me, knows that I am going to tip him well for this. ---

=> Took a driver from Wellawaya (arranged by The Jetwing hotel) to Badulla. Driver didn't really know where the hotel was and tryed to ask someone. When I used my mobile phone and Google maps, I already knew how to drive to the hotel, but stubborn driver didn't listen to me. When he was totally lost and couldn't find it, he understood to listen to my advices, where to turn and how to find the hotel. But for his sake, I have to say that hotel wasn't in easy location. It was near an electricity site, on a side road.

5. Badulla (1 night to catch the exporail wagon early on morning, this was a mistake - should have gone to Ella (which was couple stations after Badulla (which was starting station) and stayed in much more comfortable hotel for that night))

=> Got a tuk-tuk from hotel to railway station and got into the ExpoRail wagon, that was amazing ride. Then left on Nanu Oya station and had arranged with hotel, that they send a tuk-tuk driver to get me to hotel from the station. That was working and good thing to do.

6. Nuwara Eliya (1 night, went to Horton Plains and saw Mini World's End there (loved it) and next day got finally to see a tea factory (Macwoods) and to buy some tea packages from there, also wandered around new year celebrations in Nuwara Eliya, which is one of the main centers for this Sri Lankan big holiday!)

=> Same driver threw me to train station of Nanu Oya to catch a train to the Kandy. This was not so great ride, after the sunset). Arrived to Kandy 22:30 and a driver picked me from train station to take me to the homestay/hotel in Kandy. Driver was actually homestay's keeper's son and his wife together in their car.

7. Kandy (2 nights, Kandy was much better than expected and homestay was quite nice, but many places were closed because of the New Year's holiday. There might have been some places to see and tour manager might have taken me there, but I actually joyed the low pace walking around the city, instead of rushing to surrounding temples and I did get to see the temple of the tooth).

=> Took a car with hired driver to drive me from Kandy to Sigiriya, through  Dambulla (I am always mixing up with Badulla and Dambulla, but I think I got them right into this post). Homestay's tour manager insisted to join me in car (he said he has no better things to do, but it's pretty clear what was the thing with this). They took me to Hindu temple in Matale (which was tour manager's home town). Then to spice garden in Matale and then to Dambulla.Finally after Dambulla we got a lunch break and after that a short drive to Hotel Sigiriya.

- Now central Sri Lanka is experienced and moving on to northern part -

8. Sigiriya (2 nights in Hotel Sigiriya. This has been best hotel in my trip and was totally worth the money. I was originally booking for one night only, just to climb up to the Lion's rock, but ended up taking another night, to just enjoy the pool and great service and all.)

=> Took the driver from Sigiriya (who had been my tuk-tuk driver to Lion's rock in Sigiriya) to drive me to Nilaweli. This was a really good guy, named Chlminda). Enjoyed the drive with him. We stopped besides a great lake for toilet and I tried to get a lunch there, but they missed my order and I had my only burst of anger in there. Never forget or miss big, hungry, white man's order! ;)

- Climate and specially the surrounding environment changes a lot, when you come to (more Muslim area of) savannah/desert kind, northern part of the island Sigiriya still had more Jungle like feel in it -

9. Nilaweli (1 night. I am currently (19.4.2016 10:44 local time (+5,5h from GMT)) in Hotel Sea Zone's terrace, in runs in front of rooms. There is some nice wind here and I have don't have too many clothes on me. Even surrounding flys don't much bother me at the moment.)

- This point of time I am writing this, below writings are plan for the last days in this trip -

=> I have arranged with my upcoming booking with Amaranthe Bay -hotel, that they will send a tuk-tuk to this Sea Zone hotel today about 12:00 clock, to get me to the Uppuweli hotel. I will be paying 800 rupies for that, which isn't so bad price, though I think the distance isn't actually that long (800 rupies would mean 16 km ride). But when it's ordered from hotel, I think the price is understandable.

10. Uppuweli (2 nights, in Amaranthe Bay hotel)

Then to Colombo and possibly staying and sleeping there in hotel for some time of the day as my flight back home starts next morning 04:40 at the Colombo airport).

sasri2016 – Going up to Lion's rock in Sigiriya

You need to go there very early. I had breakfast at the hotel (Hotel Sigiriya) 06:30 and was ready to go there about 07:00. Executed as scheduled. But even this was a bit late for me. I did sweat so unbelievably when going up all those stairs. If I had been there during the sunrise, it would have been much easier. Though some of my extraordinary sweating might have been caused by yesterday's Ayurvedic treatments. Because I did sweat already yesterday evening an oddly lot. Okay, it was 30C heat during the night, when I had dinner. If I would have had strength, I should have waited to later night time to go eating and it might have been easier. Food is really great in this hotel, so it was sad to not be able to enjoy it as much as I should have.

Lion's rock palace's legend is, that there were two kings fighting (or something like this) and the prince of another king was sent (or left) hiding to that rock. This would have been somewhere 500 - 650 AD. Temple/palace is said to have been built during that time.

Climb to the top is quite hard. There are a lot of stairs and if the heat is already there, then you need to be in good shape and have a body that doesn't sweat easily. There were a lot of Chinese people coming up, when I was already going down. Most of them were already in senior age. So even as they are smaller and lighter than I am, also them were sweating and very tired, like I was. I could see the agony in their eyes, when I passed them (I probably looked quite same, when I was going up). I was glad that I had already been there before them, because the hordes of Chinese always keep a lot of noise.

This rock also has big wasps/bees and there are (at least two) warnings saying, that you should be silent and still, if hornets attack. When I saw how big they are – and I was breathing heavily like an ass – I got bit worried about them. When I was like half way up, there was a big bee trying to get hold of that chrome handrail – gladly I didn't have my hand there and interrupt its business. ;)

Sadly couldn't take a picture of it.

There are awesome views at the top and I also found one cooler place, where wind was little bit helping from the heat and there was a shadow of a tree, under which you could lay down in safe from sun's worst rays.

Price for tuk-tuk from Hotel Sigiriya's road to Lion's rock is 200 rupies. Paid same price to come back. There are couple touts in the Lion's rock area. One guy told me he is help-boy, which I didn't laugh, because I was little bit irritated by sweating already. Though I did saw two helpers aiding an older french lady to get up stairs. And stairs are not easy, as some are really small for my feet and then coming down is a bit dangerous. But as I am not a light man, going up is much harder for me.

sasri2016 – Ayurvedic treatments

Now that I have been three times in massage here, I have to say that I like good “normal” massage or Thai massage much more. Ayurvedic massage and treatments are much more touching and less massage. After Thai massage, I am always feeling much better. But after these Ayurveda, I can't really say the same.

Yesterday I had a full 100 minutes ayurvedic treatment and it was kinda nice, but not really a massage as such, which I would have needed. Then there was this steam bath and some strange red -water bath. And all was so damn hot! Steam bath was expected to be hot, but when it's already so hot in here and I sweat so much, I don't know how much I really needed more sweating. Then even the strange red water -bath was also in hot water. I was expecting a colder, cool bath, where to relax after that steam bath, but no! Gladly had a shower after that and there at least I could get cooler water. Even the drinks they offered during the treatment, were hot! (Another one I thought to be just cool water, but it was (once again!) a mix of cold and hot – that's what massagist said - and it was just hot to me. Then tea was offered in the end. Well tea was quite good, but still!

sasri2016 – Travelling from Kandy to Sigiriya and visiting hot Dambulla

I hired a driver from my hotel (Sunny Hill Residence) in Kandy, to take me to Sigiriya. I could easily have taken the bus (not enough easy way to get here by train) here, but was kinda hoping to see things in between those cities and specially Dambulla. And it was a good choice. I paid 8000 rupies to the tour manager for the car, driver and tour manager (“Nihal”) for the trip. I wasn't actually first so happy about the tour manager to come with me on the trip, but he insisted on it and it was a good choice in the end. Driver wasn't so good in english and tour manager was. He also helped me to do some things, which was good.

First we got to the post office, I wanted to send souvenirs to Finland by parcel service. This wasn't easy and cheap task (cost was like 7000 rupies, so prices of souvenirs got much higher than they originally were). Even finding the door to the actual post office was hard, and arranging the sending even harder. ;) Well I didn't even have to try it, because tour manager did arrangements for me.

Then we tried to find an open Photo Studio, but none were open (even as it was saturday, but probably because (once more) for the New Year holiday).

Next thing was to travel to Matale. There we went to a Hindu temple, which was actually quite interesting to see.

Then we went to a spice garden in Matale. I got a presentation of their plants and what they use them for. A lot of natural cures by these oils or syrups or similar things. I was much more looking for spices, than oils or those things. But I did end up buying a bunch of spice bags to make curry back home. Also I got an advise, that I should use Cardemom (I am not sure it was this spice) by just braking it. And using the shell of the seed also inside curry. Just crunching it and leaving the shell behind, doesn't give same flavor. That place was quite pricey, if you ask me. Oil bottles were mostly from 3000 rupies to 8000 rupies. And most would have been too big for me to take home. It was nice that they had a lot of explanations in paper for the oils and their uses, because I had already forgot so much from the presentation. ;)

After that, we went all the way to the Dambulla. Tour manager's plan failed here, because it was planned that we eat after and near the temple, but actually we ate after the Buddhist temple in Dambulla. Which was too late for me. Though all that heat and everything didn't me much hungry.

Dambulla was SO HOT! It was only 36C according to my cell phone's internet weathercast, but it felt like 39C or 40C. You need to climb also in Dambulla's temple. But the worst part was, when they asked you to take your shoes off at the top of the temple and I didn't have socks with me. I have a very thin skin in feet and damn those tiles were burning hot in the temple. They had been in sun for whole day (it was like 15:35, when we were at Dambulla) and gathered all heat to be just one burning stepping stone. Not everybody liked my cursing, when running in the shadows (where I could find one), trying to avoid the burning tiles.

After this we drove a little bit and ended up eating a buffet in a very popular place. There were a lot of bigger groups (seemed mostly Indians) and couple westerners too. Paid 650 rupies for buffet (now I really got at least four pieces of chicken, because there's always too little chicken pieces in rice & curry with chicken dishes.

I have heard that Anuradhapura is at least as hot as Dambulla, or maybe even more hot, so I doubt if I really can and want to go there. Currently I'm avoiding that option and still thinking about going to Trincomalee as my final destination in this trip.

sasri2016 – In Kandy

I stayed in homestay -style of hotel, named “Sunny Hill Residence”. It wasn't that far from the Kandy city center. Actually Kandy is much smaller city, than I expected. And it was also much nicer than I had understood from Internet texts.

I was there for two nights. First night I arrived by train from Nanu Oya (see my last post before this) to Kandy. Hotel arranged a pick-up from train station to hotel, which was really great and totally appreciated! It was actually the hotel keeper's son and his wife, that picked me up at the station, because they were also spending time in Kandy for New Year's holiday.

sasri2016 – Train trip from Nanu Oya (Nuwara Eliya) to Kandy

I am writing this blog post in the train. Train left from Nanu Oya about 17:45 (was meant to leave 17:30) and for the first hour I was taking pictures out from window like crazy. It's unbelievable how beautiful sunset can be, from mountain views that are above clouds. It did get dark a little while ago and I couldn't take pictures anymore, so I switched to writing this blog. It feels strange, to sit here in 3^rd class Sri Lankan train and type a blog. Not that I could now publish it directly from here, because my Hutch mobile connection can't get to network here and I wouldn't want to waste my megabytes. I expect that there is a wifi connection at the Sunny Hill Residence, where I am going to stay in Kandy, so I can publish this there (and make the most important call of today – Skype to wife).

But back to the train travelling... this trip from Nanu Oya to Kandy takes about 5 hours (17:45 - 22:30 were my actual dep/arr times). It costed 90 rupies (something like 60 cents in euros?). These third class wagons (this night train only has 3^rd class) doesn't have separate seats, but benches instead. Before I got here, I did read that armchairs are the only difference between 3^rd class and 2^nd class wagons.

Now there is coming some girls singing through the window. Sad that I can't see much of anything to that town that we are passing, because it's so dark outside already. Some flashing lights do reveal that there is a town. That singing was beautiful change to, quite hard, sound of this train. As windows are always open here (looking around I noticed that old man opposite side of alley has closed the window, so there must be some finger movements needed to get windows closed), there are really quite much noise from the train. There is also another old man, laying on seat opposite the other one. Maybe he can sleep in this noice, but I couldn't even imagine doing that.

Kids are still screaming in the tunnels, though there has been only few tunnels for this train trip so far. Maybe they get tired to it when clock ticks forward. Oh, now we stopped to some station, better to try to close that window... yep, it was manageable.

Now there was amazing show of lightning. No, it's not different here, but when everything from train's window is dark, and you can see the lightning so clearly – it's just so beautiful. Specially when then striking lighting lights up all the clouds around it. This is nature's entertainment show and I just could keep on watching this. And I think, that thunderstorms are different in countries closer to equator. I think they have thunderstorms every night, in southern Sri Lanka, actually Colombo must have been only city, which haven't had thunderstorms almost every night.

sasri2016 – Macwoods Tea Factory

This was the day, that I actully did get to tea factory. There are three phases to making the tea.

1. Collecting the tea leaves,
2. Drying the leaves, shredding them to smaller particles
3. Fermenting the leaves (black tea is fermented, green tea is not)

Got a short tour to tea factory, from a lady who was quite good and clear in english.

At the tea tasting, you could also buy a piece of cake for 45 rupies.

A 10 tea package pack costed about 4000 rupies, depending on the flavour.

Ellakaboole (?) did mean like "fresh fruit" in Sri Lankan.

sasri2016 – Horton Plains

Today (Thursday 14.4.2016) I had a rough, but really nice walk in the rain forest. Horton Plains is one of few surviving rain forests in Sri Lanka.

sasri2016 – Nuwara Eliya

Nuwara Eliya is an expensive city. It's colder than other and located quite high in the mountains. The Sri Lanka's New Year festival was going in full throttle, when I arrived here (13.4.2016). I stayed in Wink Field hotel. It's a bit away from other hotels and city center, but not far (a walking distance).

City isn't that small. The walk from Wink Field to Grand hotel would take like 20 minutes perhaps, if you know the directions. I spent a long time trying to find Grand hotel to get a dinner there, but never made it. Found some guy barbecuing chicken legs and whole chickens in front of one bakery and went to ask if they have a menu. They guy showed me to get to their downstairs, which was actual restaurant and was supposed to have a menu (well they didn't as you probably can guess). But I wanted something salty and “normal” food for a change and have to admit, that smell on the street from those barbecued chickens was so great, that those chickens would have been all needed to make me happy. So I ordered french fries and barbecued chicken legs (two). While I was sitting in my table, I saw those fancy (sambol?) buns, that have curry inside. They have been totally awesome here, so I ordered one fish and one sesame version. They were not as good as those have been before, as their inside was not filled with actual curry, but instead something like it. Still loved it all. I first got wrong chicken legs, these ones were just heated in oven and not those in barbecue. But it was fixed and everything was “okay” again.

About the hotel. There really were not everything in the room you would have expected, with this price. Price was under 90 € per night, but with that price (specially in Sri Lanka), you would have expected to see mosquito vaporizer/spray/incense, candle (for power breaks), soap at the sink, possibly a flashlight and a wardrobe. There were not that many insects here, like there have been in other places in Sri Lanka during my trip, but still you would expect at least a closet where you can put your clothes hanging. Hotel was basically clean, but the worst part for me was the lack of hot water in my shower. When I came back from my walk in the city, I mentioned this to hotel's “lady” and bellboy, who doesn't really speak english, but did understand this. They first argued to me that it's not true, then they came to room to check this and after they verified it was like this, showed that I can go to have the shower in room next to me. Then I asked bellboy, that I would change room into this one. But that wasn't okay. I still don't know why, because no-one came to that room and facilities in my own room were not working (or sufficient). Didn't start a fight for this, because I was staying for one night only and I knew I would be totally messed at morning anyway, when waking 04:00 to get to Horton Plains.

sasri2016 – Train trip from Badulla to Nanu Oya (for Nuwara Eliya)

Train trip is amazing! I had reserved the seat to exporail through internet and paid the trip by Visa. That exporail seat costed 1200 rupies and that means it was only about 2,3 times the normal 2 class train ticket (from Colombo to Weligama on coastal line). Exporail wagon offers you a light lunch during this trip, but wagon doesn't have those tables at the back of the seats. There seemed to be electricity connections in the walls. Toilet was small, but that's no news here.

Train trip from Badulla to Nanu Oya takes about 4 hours and it's so beautiful. There are many bridges, a lot of beautiful scenery and other things you can take photos of. If it doesn't salvage your soul, even a tiny bit, then make a call to your doctor.

There were some power lines, that were so close to train, that I dodged them a little. It's hard to see the distance these power lines from photos, but I would say they are about 10 cm from train wagon when I was taking this picture.

There also were some not-so-functioning power line stands.

When we got to second last station before Nanu Oya, it started to rain a little. Well we had been travelling in rain forest for over an hour already, so no wonder it started to rain (this is dry season, but still). It was 9 km ride with tuk-tuk from Nanu Oya to my hotel “Wink Field”. Ride wasn't that bad.

There was still small boy, that tuk-tuk driver took onboard from one of hotels, just when we had started the journey to Nuwara Eliya. Driver explained to me, that this kid loves the tuk-tuk drives and he is often picked up from somewhere and taken on a drive to hotels. He was so small, cute and enthusiastic about driving. When we got to the hotel, he instantly went to driver's seat and tried to start the tuk-tuk.

sasri2016 – Walking to the Wellawaya town

I started to feel, that my back needs some walking. My back needs to get relaxed, after the hard tuk-tuk drive to Ruwana Falls, Ella and Nine Arched Bridge.

So I decided to take a walk from hotel to Wellawaya town. Of course it's hot here... so walking 4 – 5 kilometers isn't actually a walk in the park, when temperature is something between 33 – 35C. Local kids always started to yell “Hello”, “Hi”, “Where are you from?” (the typical sentences, when you have nothing else to say, or you don't know anything else in English). Kids were alright, but dogs and some people weren't as good. Two guys, in about thirties, started to follow me on the other side of street. Then other one asked, if I want to take a photo. I asked about what? His reply was: “take a photo of me!”. I started laughing. Couldn't help it. Soon after this they stopped and went somewhere.

When I did finally get to the Wellawaya town, I immediatelly stopped for a lunch in a local restaurant, full of local people. It just made me smile, when everybody stared me, like I would have landed from outer space (or into the Star Wars Cafe, where a human is the stranger). Food was actually quite good. Sadly one of the curries was spiciest dish I have had here and I simply couldn't eat it. It just was too much and I knew, my stomach would be happy about choosing not to eat it.

Sweat started to flow so badly, when I finally started to cool down in restaurant. And eating a spicy food doesn't actually help, when you are sweating like a pig to be slaughtered. After I had finished and I started to feel better, I moved on to walk inside Wellawaya town. Towns are very different to what you experience in tourist areas. Most people notice you, some smile at you, some give you bad glazes, but it's hard to see anyone, who wouldn't notice you somehow. All children stare at you. Well, maybe I look so strange by looks in general, as some kids back home stare at me too, so maybe it's not totally because of my westerner/white looks.

I walked around the city. Asked for those blades in couple stalls in town, that I saw being used for slicing food for Kottu (see my earlier post about Ella for link to video) - and I found out they were named “Kottu blades” - logical! But none of the stalls had them.

One of my objectives for this town visit was to get into photo studio, to print couple of my photos. When I asked advice from couple of shops, I did get some information and finally one help did able me to find one photo studio. They didn't much talk English, while two ladies were very much trying to help me. But the owner guy, didn't talk to me at all and didn't look too positive about my presence. Some Sri Lankan people are very helpful and kind. This is the most part, but there always seems to be the other side, that either just gives you bad looks - but they still might end up smiling to you - but then there are those whose hate you can easily sense. These last ones you meet only in towns. My experience is limited, as my experience is limited to Colombo, Wellawaya and Badulla.

Back to the story... owner of that photo studio didn't talk to me, but left off. Then I looked to ladies and asked what is going on and they told me to just wait. Owner went to get me a tuk-tuk and told me to go to another shop. So then we went... like 200 meters with tuk-tuk. ;)

There I was now in another photo studio. This one could print my photos, if I donwloaded them to their machine. I did this and then they started to print. Well their big printer machine failed and started giving - just too familiar beebing sound. I waited and there came an annoying guy, who tried to ask me where I am from and what language I speak and sort of stuff. I was already a bit down from waiting those photos and from starting to understand that this wouldn't work and that I had walked into the town for nothing. (Well nothing is not right way to say it, because it did good to my tired back). I gave up and argued with tuk-tuk driver about taking me to my hotel. He was probably the most annoying being that I have met in this island so far. Trying to agree the price for tuk-tuk to my hotel and he just said, “okay” and kept waving his head.

I have came to think, that head waving does mean like “okay”, but to tourist it mostly means trouble. They do that when they don't want to say something or when something is wrong, or they just want to accept thing as it is. Price for way back to hotel wasn't that bad 300 rupies for 4 -5 kilometers is not that bad (I think official tuk-tuk price is like 50 rupies per kilometer). I do tip people a lot, specially concerning that I am travelling with a budget, but this guy just was too annoying for me give any tip. It felt like wasted day.

sasri2016 - Badulla (in Finnish)

Saavuin Wellawayan hotellista sovitulla autokyydillä Badullaan.
Hotellina on Riverside Hotel. Ainoa hotelli joka tälle kaupungille oli vapaana hotels.com:sta. Voisin sanoa ettei tosiaan ole hyvä hotelli. Huone on huono ja likainen. Mutta sen kanssa pystyn vielä elämään. Senkin voin vielä sietää, ettei liinavaatteet ole puhtaat, mutta tuo kärpästen määrä suihkussa, viemäriaukon viereisellä seinän nurkalla on jo vähän liikaa. En yleensä ota tämäntasoisia hotelleja,  vaikka aika halpojahan nämä ovat. Mutta kun tämä oli ainoa tässä kylässä. Päästyäni huoneeseen, lähdin samantien tutustumaan kaupunkiin. Yhtenä syynä oli hervoton bassorummutus ja huonoista kaiuttimista, aivan liian lujaa rätisevä intia/länkkäripoppi.

Kun tulin takaisin kaupungilta (jossa söin reissun huonoimman aterian ja hikoilin kuin pistetty porsas), jämähdin sängyn päätyyn vilvoittelemaan ilmastoinnin ihanaan syleilyyn. Enpä osannut juuri muuta tehdä, niin rupesin lukemaan Kaverin matkakertomussähköposteja. Se oli ihan viihdyttävää ja kaveri on mainio tarinankertoja, joten välillä jopa unohdin jumputuksen ja viilentymisen myötä olotila muutenkin helpotti.

Päivässä oli kyllä muitakin kovia pettymyksiä. Olin aiemmin keskustellut Wellawayan hotellin kanssa, että lähden tänään check-outin yhteydessä Dambullaan ja siinä matkalla käyn tee-plantaasilla. Näitä on kehuttu netissä paljon ja se sopi hyvin reissusuunnitelmaani. Kaikista varmistuksista huolimatta, tee-plantaasilla oli portit kiinni ja vartija ilmestyi ovelle, kun kuskini tööttäili hetken. Vastaus kuului, kaikki on kiinni ja avaavat vasta keskiviikkona... käyrä otsassa sai aika kohtalaisen nousun ja kuskikin ymmärsi yskän, avauduttuani asiasta riittoisasti. Ennen lähtöä olin varmistanut asiaa hotellin respanaiselta , yhdeltä työntekijältä (joka oli hyvin kartalla asioista) ja tältä kuskilta. Paluumatkalta sieltä vastaan tuli parikin tuk-tukkiaja, jotka varmaan mielellään käärivät rahat tyhmiltä turisteilta,  jotka ovat menossa tyhjään tehtaaseen. Omiin kustannuksiini tämä ei vaikuttanut (koska pysähdys oli matkan varrella ja kyyti oli maksettu Badullan mukaan, mutta olisin suunnitellut reissun toisin, jos olisin tiennyt että se on tänään kiinni. Tee-plantaasilla vierailun oli kuitenkin tarkoitus olla yksi reissun kohokohtia ja nyt se jäi väliin. Oletettavasti saan ostettua Colombosta teetä kotiin vietäväksi, mutta ei se kauheasti lohduta.

 Sinäänsä tämä ei ole paha, vaikka varsinainen likaisuys ei tästä kuvasta näy.

 

Suihkuverho ei ollut  ihan kuosissa

 ja siis noi mustat pisteet on kärpäsiä tai jotain vastaavaa... tuli mieleen että onko täällä pistetty joku nauta lihoiksi ja rämppeet viemärissä houkuttelee kärpäsiä.

 En koskaan ole ajatellut olevani kovin rajoittunut, mutta näyttää olevan vaan niin, että piti taas matkustaa oppiaineen itsestään.

sasri2016 - How to cheat an UK style wall connector to accept Finnish style power plug

You press a pen to the "extra" / "third" connection point and then wall connector will let you put your two-connector plug into those horizontal holes.

When maintenance came to clean my room, they saw that mosquite vaporizer wasn't too well connected to the "universal plug" in wall connector (it worked, but was really loose). Then I saw them to do this trick to insert the vaporizer into the UK style connector, even as vaporizer only had two plugs in it.

Though I don't know how safe this is to be done, so I will not - and can not be kept responsible for any harm this might cause to you - only do this with your own responsibility.

sasri2016 - Day trip to Ella from Wellawaya by tuk-tuk

Today was time to take a tuk-tuk and drive to Ella, from Wellawaya.
I wanted to see Ruwana Falls, Nine Arched Bridge and Ella as a city.

To my surprise, Ella wasn't actually a city. It was totally a tourist location, on a hilly spot. So first we went up a long way, with the tuk-tuk and then we came a lot down, when getting back to Wellawaya. ;)

In between we stopped to Ruwana Falls. This is a nice place, if you want to get a refreshing moment, or just your feet wet. I didn't go to water, because hadn't really prepared for anything like that.

When we got to Ella, did some shopping and driver asked for directions to Nine Arched Bridge. I think the visit to Nine Arched Bridge was worth the effort, but it did actually require some effort. I don't know if my driver was just given bad directions from locals, but our route wasn't too comfortable and he didn't dare to drive the tuk-tuk all the way (well you even can't drive it to the very end, but one tuk-tuk came past me, when I was getting back higher to the point where he was left).
Ella is at the altitude of 1041 meters. The old tuk-tuk was having quite a time with the ascending road. Sometimes going was so slow, that I could have slept there at the back seat (could you imagine sleeping in a normal tuk-tuk drive at these chaotic roads?).

About shopping - old truth came up again - try to find a local shop/market place, where locals do their shopping and buy things from other shops only after that. I forget this almost on every trip and when I found a good local, common market (like Tesco's Big-C in Phuket) I start to remember this. But anyway, some things were like half the price, that they would have been elsewhere. Though it's a bit annoying, that everyone starts to stare at you in the market place, because they are not used to tourists in those places. Cashier girls, in the market place, were school age. That seems as odd to me, as seeing someone older than my grandparents, serving food at Wendy's in Florida. (Well, my grandparents are dead, but I don't mean that Wendy's has undead serving food.)

We stopped for a lunch at Ella. There are not too many places and couple restaurants seemed better than others. I ate Kottu (was spelled Kohthtu here) with Chicken and cheese again. I couldn't even eat it all. My body has probably got used to these smaller dishes, which are also much lighter, than food back home. And Kottu is actually quite heavy. Gladly this didn't have potatos in it.
I got a video of making my Kottu dinner. Asked from waiter, if it's okay to take a video of chef making the food and he said it's totally fine.


Next I am going to have a dinner at hotel's restaurant. They have a'la carte -list also, so I think I am going with that, as chef's menu didn't seem that much appealing to me (and price is over 2400 rupies for that menu, well this is a splurge hotel, so it comes with the territory). A'la carte dinners were more like 1000 rupies, which is pretty much what upper scale dinners here should cost. Like in Tissamaharama and Mirissa's beach restaurants, in better restaurants dinners and lunch costed about 700 - 1000 rupies, depending on the type of food that you order.

sasri2016 - At Wellawaya (Ella)

I arrived to Wellawaya yesterday.

Everybody has been saying that Ella is beautiful and oh, yes it is!

This is stranger place by climate, because you have hot days but cooler nights. So it's not that hard to sleep during the night (by temperature).

I stay in Jetwing Kaduruketha hotel. This is most expensive hotel in my trip, but it currently has 61% seasonal sale, so I took it.

This is a chalets kind of hotel. These are like better versions of bungalows.

Last night was a bit too much of a jungle for me. I needed to change chalet, because roof was leaking to the floor (gladly not to bed). So staff moved my stuff to another room and now this hasn't been used for a little time, because spiders were living by the toilet seat, bugs running around and so many beings at ceiling of the building. I have an araknophobia, so it's really not that great, to see too many spiders.
    When I started to get to bed, I saw a praying mantis in the space, between ceiling and wall (where they have no protecting net, to stop insects, bugs or critters to crawl into the room). It was exciting to see such a creature, going to hunting position in your own room, but at the same time, it's too big crawling thing, to have in your room. I don't remember what they eat, but I hope they eat spiders.
   There were some nice gekkos in both of these rooms (more in the original, leaking room), which I really love. Also some really small ants invaded a small place of the floor and they cleaned one bug's carcass so effectively, that it's hard to imagine anything like that.
There were so many noises here, that it was hard to get to sleep. Crickets, toads and all kind of creatures making the sounds of jungle together.
It's very clear that you can't sleep without mosquito net in here. And net needs to be on all the time.

This morning was really nice, when I got up. Went to balcony and a cow is feeding there and it's buddy egrets was there with it (once was standing on the cow's back). A lot of green parrots flying around. Saw some beautiful and big butterflys passing by. Peackocks also showed them finally; I heard them all night yesterday, but couldn't see them.
I also saw a some kind of long tailed "weasel" to go in the trees. It wasn't like a monkey, but it moved like one. It had a long and furry tail. Got some - not so good - pictures of this thing.

Now I go to shower and then I go to breakfast.

sasri2016 - Rice and curry lunch (in better hotel's restaurant)

This is quite typical, but better made Sri Lankan curry. 

Items on plate: 

Dhal-curry on the left on the rice pile, 

capsicum separately on the right side of the plate, 

Okra separately on the left (that was yummy!), 

barramundi fish -curry on right (see the chuncks), 

with fried strings on top

and a piece of papadam on left corner of the plate.

This was really good rice and curry. Well it was pricey too.

sasri2016 - Travelling from Tissamaharama to Ella by bus

This might be interesting drive too. As my last bus was driving even better roads that this will be. ;)

And sadly I need to change bus in Wirawila. This is something that I am not looking for... ;) Other option would be to hire personal driver with car to go this way. But being on a budget and only one week done for the trip, that's not best option (from that point of view).

I am currently on breakfast in The Peacock Reach hotel in Tissamaharama.
This is in another side of the Tissamaharama town, as my last hotel (The River Front) was. Did I already write about the usual "we don't have room for your another night" -problem in last hotel? (I think I didn't yet.) So they transferred me into this ("Uncle's hotel") for free (Vista Rooms Peacock Reach). This hotel is made with same style and has same quality level as the original one, so actually this wasn't that much of a bad thing, but it's annoying to need to transfer your stuff way too often. Because of hotel change, I had all my luggage with me on safari Jeep (did you already read my post about the safari in The Yala National Park?).

I am really excited about my next stay in Ella! Everybody I have talked to, who have been in Ella, have said it's very beautiful and nice place. Hotel's name is Jetwing Kaduruketha. The hotel has 61% season sale for the accomodation and it's still somewhat above my budget, but I am justifying it to myself, by saying that I need to taste a bit of Splurge on Sri Lankan trip too.
The hotel was tipped by Wendy, from English family that I met in Earlier hotel in Tissamaharama (so BIG thanks to Wendy for the tip, if you are reading this! And greetings to all of your nice family! It would be nice to hear how your trip did go, how is Ellouisa (sorry for my possible misspelling) and how you liked Mirissa...) :)

-- Update at the evening of same day --

So how did my trip go? It went fine. Actually much better than earlier bus drive from Mirissa to Tissamaharama. Buses were not that crowded and everything was running more smoothly than in earlier ride (maybe it was just me, or maybe there is less hassle in those local buses, than long haul buses).

Price was 50 rupies for trip from Tissamaharama to Tanamawila (so it was much better option to go to Tanamawila, than into Wirawila, because that would have been in wrong direction. Okey, I might have reached better buses from that town, than I did this way, but this was okay. Bus did stop really frequently and it felt like, whenever bus got to little speed to tires, it needed to stop again.
But I didn't have huge need to go to leak and actually I had small breaks to sitting in bus, when I needed to change bus at the stations (where I could have gone to toilet, possibly if one was to be found anywhere).
Price from Tanamawila to Wellawaya was 67 rupies and I bought a seat for my backpack also, and it still costed less than euro to me. Total trip costed then 184 rupies, which is something like 1,40 euros. For travelling over 110 kilometers (and over three hours).

I really can suggest for people to take the bus, if you are travelling by budget. People are very helpful here, bus cashier normally is helpful. And specially if your bus changes are at bus stations of towns (as they probably are), it's quite easy to make those bus changes. At least these buses did go so frequently, that almost when you get into the bus station, you just go inside next bus and wait for it to leave.
If a driver with car would cost 16 000 rupies for the same trip, that I can make with 500 rupies (tuk-tuk to bus station and tuk-tuk to hotel added to bus costs), there is quite a big difference (about 109 euros vs 3,4 euros). Of course comfort level is very different and going with a driver is normally quite risk free. I also appreciate, that some people do bring money to this country, which has a lot of poor people. Giving it to taxi driver might not be a worst thing to do.

By the way, buses have this "luggage area" besides the driver. You can leave your luggage there. I have heard, that some buses do not have that back compartment, that my bus from Matara to Tissamaharama did have.

sasri2016 - Travelling from Mirissa to Tissamaharama (from Matara by bus)

This was interesting travel. This wasn't that awful, as the train drive from Colombo to Weligama, but I wouldn't call it easy either.

First I reserved a tuk-tuk from The Riverside Cabanas (my hotel) to take me to Matara, where the bigger bus station exists. Then he helped me to get to the correct bus (that wouldn't have been any easy, specially with this heavy luggage).

Bus was much better from the inside, than from outside.
They don't have airconditioning, but they do have a good boom system! ;)
Video running some Sri Lankan music festival videos and music coming from loudspeakers - that wasn't actually as bad you might think.

But... in some point roads do get rough and driver is going fast. So then you might even get sick. I don't (like ever) get sick for driving, but this was a good test for that. It doesn't make it any easier, that you don't get any pauses in 2,5 hour trip (which seemed more like 3 or 4 hour trip in my watch). I got a need to take a leak after an hour of travelling in the bus, so it's really not comfortable to be on those roads, in a bus that you can't stop without leaving and there's no toilet. I don't know if AC buses do have toilets, but they don't go in this part of the country.

Bus did have a small compartment at the back of bus, so I could get my big rock sack to the back of the bus. That made many things easy, though I was quite a worried about it when leaving Tissamaharama station.

There are several sales people in some stations of the bus, but they don't stay in the bus during the trip.

Seats are small and therefore I bought two seats (well, one seat from Matara to Tissamaharama costed 137 rupies, so it's somthing like 0,90 euros and I travelled that long and therefore made sure to have the space for my other (smaller) bag besides me on the seat (even smaller bag didn't fit to upper shelves.

Always remember to give your seat to clergy, if you are sitting in the front of the bus.

Bus classes:
- AC bus
- Long haul bus (this I was travelling with)
- local bus (don't go there with all your luggage... or at least I didn't try that one)

sasri2016 - The Yala National Park Safari in Sri Lanka (spoiler warning - do not read, if you don't want to know what you will see there)

Safari in The Yala National Park was great!

I had a private jeep safari for a full day. I agreed it on phone with The Janaka Safari.

SPOILER WARNING - Do not read, if you want to be excited what you will see there!

Full day was  a bit too much, as I didn't get to see Leopards, which I (and everybody else) were excited to see. But the trip with the Janaka Safari was well organized, car was a big maxitruck (Bolero?), with four seats. All communications were handled through phone and worked just as planned. Price I will not put here on internet, but you can contact me personally, if you want to hear details about the trip.
Seats were adjustable, but there were no safety belts, which a bit killer during the higher speeds while driving from Tissamaharama to Yala National Park. Actually, when we got back from safari, driver almost drive over cattle. Couple men were taking their pack of "meat sources" at the road and basically blocking everything on that side of the road. As it's already dark, when full day (or evening) safaris end, driver didn't see those animals in time at was quite a quick stop. I would have appreciated safety belts... but no harm was done. :)

I saw:
- About 7 different wild elephants (some I saw couple times)
- A lot of beautiful birds (Jungle cock is Sri Lanka's national bird and is endemic)
- A baby crocodiles and couple adult crocodiles
- land monitor lizard (have to say, that this was awesome spotting from the driver)
- Mangustis (name is not probably written like that, you now this species from animation videos?)
- Water buffalos (They are huge too)
- Wild boars (having their butts in the mud)
- Spotted deer
- Sambala deer (didn't get to see the small deer)
- Toads, but they were in the water, so it's questionable how much of them I really saw. ;)


Some highlights from my pictures:

Green bee-eater

Peacock in its colourfulness

Crocodile and egrets

Indian Cormorants and Eurasian Spoonbill (possibly)

Eagle

Mongooses playing

Crested Serpent Eagle

Yellow-Wattled Lapwing

Toads

Pelican drying its wings and Spotted Deer coming drinking

Spotted deer checking, if it is safe to come drinking

Yes, it was safe to drink here

White-throated Kingfisher

Male Elephant (being angry)

Wild Boar (notice Spotted Deer at the left)

I spotted this black bird flying to its nest to feed its baby (no idea what bird this is)

There is one really special looking place, where is a bigger amount of water, lot of flowers growing in it and a huge amount of pelicans flying over that area. They have nests there, in dead trees, so they protect the area all the time. It's really beautiful scene. Sadly I would have needed much better lens to camera, than 70 - 300.

One tip: if you go to safaris, always try to get the first seats. Going is rough on those roads, and even on second row seats, the going is much more harder, than on the first row. This is an advice I got from British couple, who said they were doing a longer trip in asia. I shared my lunch from them and expect that they had their trip organized by Janaka also. They had some good advices.

Second tip: Remember to add your moisturizer/sun block during the safari. ;)
Someone did forget and afternoon was burning my skin.

sasri2016 - Food in Sri Lanka

So far (until Monday 4.4.2016 night) I have eaten following foods:

• Breakfast with some western and Sri Lankan foods (The Ocean Colombo hotel)
• Rice and Curry with chicken (Food court in Majestic City, “Suna Dewli” restaurant at Mirissa Beach, I & I restaurant in Mirissa)
• Kofta (Sugar Bistro, Colombo)
• Chicken enchilada with some french fries (Food court (ThaiExpress) in Majestic City)
• Calamari Roti (“Amarasinghe” restaurant at Mirissa)
• Grilled Fish (“Amarasinghe” restaurant at Mirissa)
• Cheese Kottu with chicken (Pilawoos street restaurant in Colombo Galle road, “Amarasinghe” restaurant at Mirissa)

Cheese Kottu from Pilawoos at Colombo and Kofta at Sugar Bistro have been kind of highlights of food so far.

Though they are totally different style as Sugar is fine-dining place at poshier part of Colombo and Pilawoos is a roti place/street restaurant at lower part of Colombo. Kottu was very big and filling, while Kofta was quite small. It was still enough to make the hunger go away and it had SO amazing taste!

Yesterday (Tuesday 5.4.2016) I had an awesome vegetable rice & curry at Amarasinghe restaurant, just besides my hotel Riverside Cabanas. There is one hotel, ExtremeHost -hotel between Amarasinghe and Riverside Cabanas. This is also a good addition for Riverside Cabanas, to have such a good restaurant nearby. By the way, I noticed food menus here on the hotel's pillar at the lobby. I asked from concierge about the menus and he said that because it's now already an off season, no need to make food. All people just go out to nearby restaurants.

I also ate fried rice with seafood for lunch yesterday, at I & I restaurant. It costed something like 460 LKR (about 3 euros) with small sprite making 70 LKR from that price. It was okay and nice to have a lunch, that wasn't so spice, for a change.

sasri2016 - Ceylon tea

This is my first meet with my own bought ceylon tea.

First tea I brought on this trip were already on my first visit to Majestic City in Colombo. There was a some kind of a luxury tea shop (with probably high prices, but seemed still okay to get something even for budget traveler). I bought a pack of five different Ceylon teas, eached packed into their own package, so I could taste them. Packages were colored like this:

• Red: Nuware Eliya
• Brown: Matale
• Black: Ruhunu
• Blue: Dimbula
• Green: Uva

I had no way to make them (as they were sliced tea leaves, that were not in a ready to use tea bag) in Colombo hotel, although I had a tea/coffee maker in my room there. So in Mirissa hotel, I asked them to make my breakfast tea from “Uva” package and gave it to them night before.

When I got to breakfast next morning, they made the tea pan from my Uva tea. That was surprisingly light and not so dark tea. I simply loved it! Adding honey to this tea, would probably suite like fist into the eye.

I did the same procedure next day (last night actually) and I am now at the breakfast, in the hotel's lobby.
This time I gave them Dimbulla tea (from the blue package). This is not as good as the Uva tea. This is also milder and not so heavy as ceylon tea often is. I don't say that this isn't okay, but as Uva was so amazing tea, this was kind of a disappointment after that one.

- Updated at the end of the trip -

I still like Uva tea most. Though one tea, which probably was flavored, was quite good. It had sugar in it, but combination was strangely working. I did get it as a surprise offering from Bala at Sea Zone hotel (you can read about it in my Nilaweli post).

People mostly use Dilmah tea bags here, which I really don't like that much. I think that some people in Finland might like it. Too dark and strong for me. It doesn't offer the light sweetness at all, but only the sour part. Like one acupuncturist said to me, I eat too much sour things and should eat more things like salad leaves. 

Did you know, that China had six necessities of life, which palace could not tax? These were firewood, rice, cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Guess which was the seventh necessity added to the list? Yes, tea of course.

sasri2016 - First days in Mirissa

Mirissa is a tourist destination, small village by the sea with a nice beach. You get the goods and bads, that come with that. It's laid back, its cheap, but its harder to find what you want and Tuk-tuks charge here typical overprices from foreigners. Sadly PickMe didn't find any tuk-tuks or cars from here, so I needed to pay the tuk-tuks the foreigner price.

The Mirissa beach.

Beach is nice. The western part (on the right side) has waves for surfers and eastern part has lower waves, so if you don't like them, you don't have to be swimming in waves.

When I went there, right after I had arrived to Mirissa, the storms were coming. I didn't really mind that so much (I am on vacation and I am used to these showering rains in Asia during my previous trips). I went to check the lunch at the beach restaurant (“Suna Dewli” or something like that) and sit down to the plastic chair, under the plastic roof on the beach.

When I got my foods, also got the rain. The plastic roof almost kept the rain and I could finish my lunch at that table, but after eating I moved to open space, under the restaurant. Oh I enjoyed the restful moment, seeing the kids running at the beach and mothers trying to catch them. A big local guy from the restaurant, went swimming while semi-wild dogs of restaurant/beach followed him to the water – this was probably quite a sweet sight to women on beach, like the lady on the table next to me. I actually think she did photograph with her cell phone, while the guy came from the sea with dogs following him. ;)

I kept sipping the sprite I ordered and reading The Way of Tea – enjoying my mundane existence once more.

The hotel.

Riverside Cabanas is not that big hotel. It's located besides a small river (at least its not that wide in this location). And on the other side of the main road, than the beach is. So its kind of further away from the beach, but its really not that far away. Of course it could be nice to have a direct access to beach, but this hotel has a nice touch and feeling.

Now that I am writing this, my original reservation would be ending today, but last night I reserved the room for two more nights, because I like it here. That probably tells a lot. Well the crazy heat in these beach sites is quite something to me (and probably for many scandinavian people), but I have started to take daily naps during the hardest heat.

The Whale Watching trip.

Trip was kind of nice. It costed 4000 LKR (+ 200 LKR for tuk-tuk back to hotel, as only the pick up from the hotel was included).

Main point being, that neither of these two boats (they said that there were 6 boats in total going out that day to see whales), that were sailing close to each other, found any whales. So that was really disappointing. The heat is quite much on the boat, but gladly I was wise enough to get a seat from the lower deck. I would have been fried on the top floor. I did get sun burn to my arms, as forgot to add sun block to them. Legs were fine, because remembered to take care of them.

Blue whales and sperm whales live in 20 nautical mile area, at the site where we traveled. There is one more whale type that randomly travel trough this same area, but then of course you need to be very lucky to see them during the trip. It was about 6 nautical miles from Mirissa harbour to get to that area, where they live.

Those creatures are so huge and it would have been so amazing to see even one and to even be so lucky to get a picture of it. They are on the surface only for half a minute or something like that and come up to the surface once in 15 to 45 minutes (that is when they have to come up to breath). But sadly we didn't. We saw dolphins on three occasions. On first two occasions we get to take some pictures of them. Third time it was so small group and they dived deeper when the boat got closer to them. Second occasion was a group of 300 to 500 dolphins and that was a nice sight.

I have seen dolphins from a catamaran trip with my wife, in Spain (Costa de Sol). I think this was a bigger group, but on that catamaran trip, we were able to follow the dolphins for a long time and it was really easy to take video and so many photos of those lovely creatures.

I ended up sleeping for maybe ¾ of the return part of the trip – I think they poured some sleeping powder into the sweet tea that was offered in the beginning of the trip. ;)

Then a couple on their honeymoon came down from the top floor and a Sri Lankan tour guide, sitting besides me was their guide. They were here for one week and were originally from Switzerland. We shared a lot of our experiences from Sri Lanka and asia with each other. They have had a great, going around this island in a week. They suggested a hotel (something like Pakshan) from near the Sigiriya site, which they clearly loved a lot (hotel and Sigiriya).

There was a very good deck guy handling the lower deck. He aided me a lot to stay on feet while I was focusing to take pictures of the dolphins. It's actually not that easy to stay on two feets, while boat is little rocking, you try to focus the objective of camera to dolphins and still see the whole picture, where the next dolphin is going to jump. Couple of them did really do really nice jumps, with a jolly turn-arounds during the jump. But that was so random, that it wasn't possible to catch a picture of them. I asked about a fishing trip from this deck guy and he said he could do it for about 16 000 – 17 000 LKR (about 113 €).

Am I happy about the whale watching trip? Yes, I am. It was nice trip and got to see dolphins. If there would have been rough sea, it might not have been so good – but well maybe then if we would have seen the whales. If I would have got seasick, then it certainly would have not been worthy of the effort.

Wrote this during my breakfast at the hotel lobby (Tuesday morning, 5.4.2016).

sasri2016 - Travelling to Mirissa

Oh yeah – this was an experience! You might think a train travel is just one day amongst the others – but not that sunday in Sri Lanka. “Everybody” was travelling. Trains were totally overcrowded and there is no passenger control (except when you get out of the train at destination train station). So there was like ¼ of people in train not having seats. It took at least half an hours for train to start moving from the platform and the air was standing still. So everything was as it should be – too many people, too much heat, no air conditioning or air flow, (my smaller backpack did fit to the shelves over the seats, but...) big Deuter backpack didn't. So then I was standing in the middle of old train wagon, surrounded by people, having my big backpack in the middle of alley and sweating more than normally in sauna (well temperature probably was closer 40 C than 80 C, so I kept my clothes on ;). Then all kind of salesmen started to sell all kind of things at the alley. That's probably a good business, but it was annoying when the train was so crowded and no space for them to pass by. They had really hard time to walk past me (I was probably one of biggest guys in the train and had my backpack laying there in the narrow alley).

Later, when the train got moving, it started to get easier. While air flow was established by moving train and more people did get off from the train, seats became available and the heat wasn't so bad anymore. Then I also got a seat for the last part of the trip, as most people left at the Galle station.

I am writing this (and post before this) at the “lobby” of the Riverside Cabanas -hotel. Its already past midnight and grasshoppers are jumping to the table, and singing by the river. No monkey (or much of dog) sounds. Strangly more quiet evening than last night. Well, sound of air conditioner's outside unit keeps me well aware, that we are quite well out from the actual jungle.

Fan is blowing, so mosquitos keep (somewhat) away. But I am starting to feel “the pressure” of nightly jungle and I don't want to start a fight with the monkey for my eyeglasses... so better to stop now and get to my room. But have to say, that temperature is now great (25 – 27 C) and night is beautiful.