TravelStream™ news feed for member skcoll on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/skcoll en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:51:40 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/worldtour2005/1099228200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/worldtour2005/1099228200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/worldtour2005/1099228200/tpod.html Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:51:40 -0400 Gillian, Stewart & Calluna travel the world - Lovely Adventures With A Sheep

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Dublin, Ireland

Gillian

Gillian was a 60s girl - but only just. Born in 1969 she grew up on Kilbarrack Road on the North Side of Dublin. After her Irish Education she left to further her career in London. Never really believing she'd move home she was amazed in 1999 when she was head-hunted and brought home. She bought a house 5 minutes from where she grew up and happy at home....well, apart from the need to travel. For years she harboured the dream to travel and has wanted to do the Irish travelling year which she missed out on by focusing on her career. When she moved to Ulsterbank she made sure that they were aware of the desire and they cut a deal - work for 3 years and she could have a career break of a year. So then she started making serious plans to get her dream fulfilled!!

Stewart

Stewart was born in 1974 on the small Scottish Island of Coll. For holidays as a kid he used to travel with his family to the mainland and basically spent the time visiting relatives in East Kilbride with trips to Glasgow & Edinburgh. Before he met Insa in 1994 he had only spent about 18 days outside Scotland - on a WW1 school field trip and then some days in England with Mensa! Insa changed this and he spent more time in England and visiting relatives in Germany and Holland. After Insa died Stewart met Gillian in 2001 who really opened his eyes to travel..... even before this first World trip they has been to Wales, Finland, Italy, New England (where they got engaged in a hot-air balloon over New England in the fall), South Africa (where the honeymoon was), Paris (Stewart's favourite city), etc, etc. When Gillian first talked of her desire to travel, Stewart said he'd join her for a few months......eventually that grew and grew and Stewart decided that he couldn't live without her for a year..... anyway that's his excuse for going. Stewart is now an addicted traveller with a list of places he wants to visit!!

Calluna

Calluna is a Yorkshire Sheep. Stewart met Calluna in Masham (at the Black Sheep Brewery of course - even though she's whiter than white [g]), fell in love with her and brought her home to Scotland. When he knew that he was leaving to live in Ireland, Calluna was sent over as the advance party to keep his space and make sure the house was safe. Being small and squishy enough meant that she could accompany Gillian and Stewart on the full year of their travels. She had a ball, met lots of furry friends and is looking forward to more travelling. (PS - that's Lochie in the picture)

Baahli

Baahli was the newest addition to the Kennedy family. At our joint Hen & Stag at Oasis in May our good friends Phil & Oonagh presented us with Baahli as a companion for our trip around the world. He joined us for some early trip and accompanied us to South Africa on our honeymoon - for some strange reason his kilt seems to get a lot of attention. Sadly Baahli was not as squishable as Calluna and with the tight space in our bags for the Round The World Trip we elected to leave him behind to look after the house and Stewart's whisk(e)y collection. He reacted quite well but tended to party hard in our absence - he was seen at various parties, dinners and costume events in our absence. Baahli wrote a nice website for us which when he finally finishes it....we will show you the link. Andy & Sue joined us for three weeks for a leg in the states and they took pity on Baahli and brought him to visit!! So Baahli got to see Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, etc, etc....another very lucky sheep!
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Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

Day 7 : Tuesday 30th December 2008 Kandy, Sri Lanka - Nuwara Eliya

Wow - amazing Tuna Curry Breakfast for me......might try that at home! We're heading into the hills today. We taking a scenic train ride which is touted as one of the most beautiful in the world. We had tickets for the observation car - you sit facing backwards in the last carriage and there is a strip window around the carriage which offers views over the amazing countryside. There are 24 seats - we ended up being split up and only getting 1 window seat which we took turns in! Seats 11, 12, 23 & 24 were the best to have. Along the way we passed a train heading back to Candy which had a far better observation car - a huge window at the back of the carriage - luck will play a part on when, what train and who books for you. It was nice - we talked to the people around us - one family had the cutest kid who we swapped sweets with - she came up and asked which country we came from - and ran away giggling each time we told her. The other 2 white tourists were English - he was working for Arups in Abu Dabi - they are getting hit with the recession even over there. She was an events planner - spooky. At one point on the journey another carriage was hitched to the back - well more of a floor on wheels with an awning. The scenery was lovely - gradually working through towns and up into the hills - at times huge slopes fell away to the side of the train. As we got higher and higher the trees went from tropical to pines and then replaced by very pretty tea plantations. Over 4 hours later we arrived at our station, picked up by Amaranga and got taken by minibus to Nuwara Eliya. It's at an altitude of 1,868m - far higher than Ben Nevis which is only 1,344m - and is shadowed by the highest mountain in Sri Lanka. The town was founded as a hill retreat for the British during Colonial times - you can easily imagine the Colonial Brits (thanks Grom!) running into the hills away from the heat to find the cooler climate - there was a race course, a polo club, hunting..... It has an average temperature of 16 degrees and it showed! Quite a shock to come from the 30s to the 10s! The locals are wandering around in scarves and woolly hats - we're still in T-shirts. We had a very poor lunch in our hotel - the Alpine. Yuk food with little choice (both chicken) accompanied by a hovering waiter. After lunch we headed out to a tea plantation for an optional tour (about 2 quid) - we started with a cup of lovers leap tea and then got a tour of the processing building - the plantation is at the heart of the best Ceylon tea growing area and is described as the champagne of teas. The tour was interesting and our guide turned on quite a lot of equipment for us. The process from picking to packing takes 24 hours - the tea is then auctioned and therefore, we might drink tea from this plantation and never know it. It was nice to see the different grades of tea. The Plantation we visited is an ethical plantation and promotes education, health and sustainable living. They had a nice spelling error on one their signs which you should look at the pictures to spot - agreed, still room for improvement. After the tour Amaranga dropped us in town and we did a little ATM use and shopping - buying a Jackfruit from the local market. What we didn't know is that there are two types of Jackfruit - the kind you eat as fruit - and the kind you cook with - we bought the wrong one! The cakes looked nice but the flies in the bakery put us off. The supermarket provided us with the best find of the holidays - curry puff biscuits.....lovely. We found the Post Office with an original Post Box from Derby - the building itself looked amazing - red and white brickwork and very colonial feel. We walked back to our hotel - passing the golf course and the race course - remnants of the colonial time. The road was also lined with some lovely large colonial buildings. The evening meal was very poor - deep fried breaded fish for me with a pepper sauce. Michelle and Sam - mother and son from Somerset - joined us. They're in Sri Lanka for a wedding but have a tour similar to us before the wedding stuff starts. With her ankle still hurting we invited Sam to do the 3 hour walk with us the next day - with a little persuasion he agreed to join us. There were another 2 tables eating that night - 1 touristy and one which must be locals - they sat through the entire meal wearing woolly hats - yes - the temperature was dropping and dropping. We had music again - a solo guitarist who we sang along to - from the beatles to John Denver! I hope he enjoyed us singing along - we kept him later than he was planning with shouts of more. After he finally decided to finish we tipped him and we headed through to the bar and took advantage of the log fire and had another drink. Sadly the German spoilt it a little by smoking....grrrr. We headed to bed and wished we had a hot water bottle to heat us up. Very cold night but a snug sleep followed under a few blankets. The Hotel was actually nice - but the food was woeful.
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Tissamaharama, Sri Lanka

Day 8 : Wednesday 31st December 2008 Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka - Tissamaharama (Yala)

We're up early to start our walk - we took a poor packed breakfast to eat along the way. There was frost on the cars (they tried to say it was ice!) and we're all wrapped up in layers. Amaranga handed us over to another driver who had a more robust van - which coped better with the bouncy hole filled twisting roads. We drove about an hour and a half before entering the Horton Plains National Park. On the way we stopped briefly at a view point - it's amazing to see as we are above the clouds in places! Sri Lanka is spread out in front of us - but some of it is below the clouds - just the occasional mountain poking through in the distance. We had a toilet/ticket stop at the park entrance - the 3 sided toilets were good with one open side giving amazing views over the park! The park also contained these 3 sided toilets along the way (which we found out minutes after Andy had, em, been in need) and even had trees growing through the structures. We tried to have a little snowfight - not enough frost to make balls. We continued into the park to the drop off point. It's meant to look very Scottish and you can see why - plains of grass, clumps of trees, mountains in the distance, stags, cold....... We got dropped off and started on our 9km walk - it was warming up so we stripped off most of the layers. The first section was mainly through trees (and quite cool) and brought us out to the mini-worlds end. A stop here and off again to the real worlds-end. Both the viewpoints have sheer precipices (World end - 1,050m drop!) offering a view down to the valley and across to the lovely ridge facing us. Leaving that we entered the second section - a walk through the plains - this left a couple of us with sunburn (not me!!). A little stop for some pooh-sticks - Andy the cheat won of course. We then came to the waterfall areas - a steep climb up and down brought us to the viewpoint for Bakers Falls. The altitude made it hard work on us and wasn't helped by the fact that there were some huge steps to negotiate near the falls. Sam had a little paddle at the midpoint of the falls while we all watched on wondering what to tell his mother if he fell in! A few photos later and we were off again through the plains - it was tiring, at altitude and hot. They appear to be putting in place permanent paths and in places these temporary works made life very hard - one uphill section felt like a concrete hurdles race. We got back to the minibus and headed back to town. Sam fell asleep.....and fell about the minibus! We got back to the Hotel and had a shower to freshen us up before heading away. We drove for a couple of hours - the train was a very scenic smooth way to get here - but the road down was very windy and to avoid getting car sick I tried to nap. We stopped half way down and had lunch in a very posh Hotel - it was very colonial with white jacketed waiters and some lovely food. Michelle and Sam pulled in just behind us so joined us for lunch. I, not feeling too good, had the wonderful prawn and peach cocktail - another thing to have at home. Michelle had the cheapest option - fish fingers - which turned out to be proper tuna goujons - wow. After lunch we continued down the hill - a brief stop a waterfall for a view, a look at the falls, the view, monkeys and tourist touts. We drove another 3 or 4 hours before arriving at our hotel - the very clean and modern Priyankara Hotel. We got into the lovely rooms, dumped our stuff, and headed into the pool to relax. We talked to a lovely little girl called Severina (English Dad, Phillipines wife - living in Sri Lanka for her work with a charity) and then chucked 2 young boys (1 Swedish, 1 Latvian) around the pool who were a bit more aggressive. The hotel was lovely - looked very new - but very empty......lovely view across paddy fields at the back, the staff were friendly, everything was spotless, they had a billiards table, nice bar, good air-con, hot-water. But our promised Gala dinner wasn't going to happen! I asked and was told that they didn't have enough people staying. We hooked up with Michelle and Sam and sat down for our New Years Eve Dinner - Chris donned her Sari and looked stunning - the hotel staff loved it! Severina brought her cat to meet Hippo. Our Menu was western....so 4 of us asked if we could eat Sri Lankan instead. They said yes and we were treated to a lovely Sri Lanka multi-dish meal - the lime pickle was awesome. We also arranged with the waiter that 2 of us wanted Sri Lankan for breakfast . Nothing special was happening for the bells so the 6 of us headed to our room - found a TV channel with a count-down and had a quiet arrack cocktail and headed to bed shortly after.

Day 9 : Thursday 1st January 2009 Tissamaharama (Yala), Sri Lanka
Hmmmm. The holiday must have caught up with us. Chris and I had a lie in and only just made it to breakfast at 10am! I think the staff were annoyed but they still served us with a superb breakfast - tuna curry, lentil dal, coconunt sambol, string-hoppers, loads of fresh fruit and....... they prepare and eat milk rice and onion sambol on special occasions and the first day of every month - so we tucked into that too. After breakfast we went for a little walk - it appears our hotel was quite far out of town but we found a shop and shop-keeper who was very friendly! We headed back to the Hotel and broke all our rules by spending a couple of hours over lunchtime at the pool.......all 4 of us were burnt. At 2.30 we headed to reception to meet Amaranga - it was time for our Safari - we could have done this at 5.30am......but decided the afternoon tour would be better! We had a good jeep for the trip - Amaranga and our driver sat inside the cab and we sat on the open back of the vehicle. We drove for about an hour and arrived at Yala National Park. The park is famous for leopards, bears, elephants and birds - it's a mixture of jungle, beaches, scrubland, trees and rocky outcrops. A guide joined us a the park entrance and we headed into the park - we saw loads of birds (a kite, ibis, spoonbills, hornbills, storks, egrets, herons, peafowl, etc, etc), crocodile, elephants, boar, water buffalo (not bison), elk, deer, snakes, lizards, etc - my two highlights.......I finally got to see a mongoose and get a picture of it! (I've only ever seen them run fleetingly quickly across a road) and we saw a leopard.....briefly, but upright and moving - the other leopards I saw in Tanzania were asleep in trees! The leopard incident was funny - the drivers were talking to each other - suddenly we accelerated and sped along the road, took a turning, went through narrower paths dodging branches poking into the jeep and arrived in a clearing - with about 15 other jeeps! A leopard had been spotted and the vans jostled for position - forward, reverse, forward, reverse - all quite quickly and with very little room for mistakes - we did get our fleeting view of the leopard but I think watching the jeeps was more fun. Half way round the safari we stopped for a leg stretch - at one of the places where the Tsuanami hit - the foundation to a beach chalet was there along with a sweeping wave-like memorial. Sri Lanka was hit badly - but Brits arrived less than 24 hours afterwards to help - I think that quick help may have helped paper over the colonial issues. It started getting dark and we headed back to the hotel - slouching in the back to stop the insects covering our face and teeth! Once back we showered and ate - Michelle, Sam & I going Sri Lankan again and having another wonderful hot tuna curry. Going to miss this. Everyone is tired and sore with sun-burn so it was early to bed with after-sun miracle cream.
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Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

To discover the unknown is not a prerogative of Sinbad, of Eric the Red, or of Copernicus. Each and every man is a discoverer. He begins by discovering bitterness, saltiness, concavity, smoothness, harshness, the seven colours of the rainbow and the twenty-some letters of the alphabet; he goes on to visages, maps, animals and stars. He ends with doubt, or with faith, and the almost total certainty of his own ignorance.

From the prologue of Atlas by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Anthony Kerrigan
Also used in The Blind Traveller By Jason Roberts.

Holman (The Blind Traveler) on the "traveler's rest". "It is not altogether a life of idleness and dreams....It is part of the constitution of a traveler to look back with unsettled feelings, and to yearn for the time to come, which he believes to contain the great purpose of his life".
"He cannot be quite at ease. A thousand memories crowd upon him; He again treads the shore of a remote land, and feels the breath of an unaccustomed climate; He hears the sounds of an unknown language for the first time, and struggles through a crowd of novelties with the energy of one who is resolved to succeed; He indulges in the sanguine but natural prophecy that there remains for him a wider field, and a more & glorious work".'

The Blind Traveller By Jason Roberts - Lt James Holman R.n.,K.W.,F.R.S,1786-1857 The Blind Traveler
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/19/1230211500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/19/1230211500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/19/1230211500/tpod.html Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:12:14 -0500 Sri Lanka - Elephants & Curry Breakfasts.........and the most friendly people I have ever met.

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Colombo, Sri Lanka

Day 2 : Thursday 25th December 2008 Colombo, Sri Lanka
We landed at 8am - or was it?? - which is 2am Dublin time..... and we still had a full day to go. Very easy passport control and the armed security guard came over to say Merry Christmas as we waited for Christine and her non-swipe old style passsport. Had a bit of a wait for the bags - ok, well, my bag took the longest - at least they all made the 40 minute change over. Andy was only travelling with hand luggage - so he didn't enjoy waiting for our bags. We headed through the aircon terminal (through the special tourist customs channel - totally empty but the locals got a thorough search) to the heat (over 30 degrees for most of the holiday and no rain at all) and to meet Amaranga - our guide and driver for the next 10 days. Our transport was a white tourist mini-bus - comfy enough, good air-con and most of the seat-belts worked. Andy liked how clean and sanitised the area was......sadly only the airport and the environs. We headed into Colombo proper - good main road with mainly dirt tracks heading off it - lined with the usual Asian shops/houses and tropical lush vegetation. The bit we didn't really take to was the huge number of soldiers standing along the road - either end of bridges, main junctions, etc. Very heavy and visible military presence. We checked into our Renuka Hotel and Aramanga disappeared to spend the rest of Christmas with his family. Hotel was pleasant enough - 2 buildings linked by an above street corridor - and another separate bit that housed the swimming pool. After a quick freshen up 3 of us headed down to the pool (leaving Max to sleep) for a quick dip in the cool pool and a laze in the sun. After drying off we headed along the road into town for a little bit of snack shopping and possibly lunch. Even though it was Christmas day it seemed awfully quiet - deserted roads and not a lot of people. Not a lot was open so we continued along Galle Face road.....again - lots of soldiers and checkpoints (even the checkpoints were sponsored - often by life insurance companies!!). Almost everyone smiled at us and said hello - soo very friendly (though the whiteness of Chris may have encouraged them). After a while a soldier came up and made motions for us to leave the road - we were ushered into a swimming pool car park and told to wait under a tree.....not understanding we sent Andy up to talk to them.....turns out the President was about to pass by. 10 minutes later the Presidents convoy passed by - motorbikes, couple of blacked out cars, a truck full of soldiers, etc. We were released from the car-park - and guess what - the roads suddenly got very busy as traffic started streaming past us......they must have had the roads cordoned off further back. Most shops were closed but we stumbled upon a shopping mall which, though it looked closed, had an open food-court (with loads of different types of food from Malaysian to Korean).......Andy had a Pizza Hut pizza slice and Chris and I tried some local ice-cream. We bought a load of stuff in the supermarket (including wonderful pea crisps) - even the supermarket was friendly. When I got to the checkout they asked if I was happy - I said that I was and my happy status got printed on the receipt!!! We headed back to the Hotel and Andy & Chris headed for a nap. I took a wander along the other direction but turned back after 6/7 tuk-tuks stopped me - after all, a single white tourist walking - must (a) want a lift and (b) want to find the "massage" parlour.....they even had leaflets to show me of some of the girls. The four of us headed to the pool again in the afternoon and spent a lovely 3 hours heating up in the sun, cooling off in the pool, reading, sleeping, etc. It's a nice pool area but just needs the finishing touches - some rough edges. We left Max back in the room and headed off to see if we could get to the sea down one of the side streets - and the answer was yes - though we had to cross the railway line to get to the rocks and metre wide strip of soft sand. We sat on the rocks, Chris went for a paddle and Stewart tried to talk everyone into waiting for sunset. A train passed us and we waved at the locals who smiled and waved back..........and then after the train passed a policeman came up to us, asked what we were doing and basically told us that we were in the wrong area and made us move on. Ooops. We headed back, freshened up and headed down to the Hotel restaurant for food and drink. The restaurant was empty but had some tables set up for later. Now - a blackmark against Sri Lanka for Christmas - it's a public holiday and they don't serve alcohol.......so, on with the food. Chris and I ate Sri Lankan - an amazing array of curry dishes, side dishes, wonderful string-hoppers (noodles made from rice flour) - most Sri Lanka meals served up about 8 different dishes to pick your through. Andy & Max ate western - Max had the Spag Bol - which she said was the spiciest she'd ever had - served with luke-warm pasta. Andy.....well, requested Spag Bol without cheese and without mushroom........ After a while they came and asked if tomato sauce was alright with his meal.....confused? We were. They ended up bringing to the table a plate of luke-warm plain pasta and a little silver dish filled with Ketchup. Andy queried this as nicely as possible - they thought he didn't want onion or garlic either and were confused that he wasn't happy -he said that he wanted the meaty stuff........ they took a while but eventually brought some more meaty stuff out and patted it slowly into his lukewarm pasta from a small dish.....meanwhile, Chris and I were devouring the Sri Lankan stuff. Pudding was "interesting" - Wattalapam - first and last time for us - strange sort of crème caramel. After the meal we all headed to bed and some well needed sleep.
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London, England, United Kingdom

Day 12 : Sunday 4th January 2009 Colombo, Sri Lanka - Dublin

We arrive in Qatar and have a 4 hour stopover - we get something to eat and drink, trawl the duty free, use the free internet, try to spend the last rupees, read, talk, people watch and try to get through the 4 hours. We board and its a 7 hour flight which I manage to sleep some of - exhausted! Landed in London about 8am, we get our bags and I say goodbye to the others - they're driving up to Nottingham.......my flight leaves here at 1.30.....more airport time for me! There was no cheap solution to getting an earlier flight so I find a plug to charge my phone, set an alarm, cuddle my bags and grab an hours sleep sitting inside the terminal building! Check-in opens at 11 - I get rid of the bag and go through security.....I trawl the duty free, do some clothes shopping and buy some baileys to take home......2 litres for 22 stlg.....bargain. We eventually board and I chat to the Canadian girl beside me - she was moaning about being tired and how long she'd travelled to get to Dublin - I trumped her! I arrived in Dublin and Gill was there to pick me up. That night I had a roast veg dinner and opened my Christmas presents {g} A wonderful holiday over.
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Colombo, Sri Lanka

Day 11 : Saturday 3rd January 2009 Galle, Sri Lanka - Colombo

I get up before 6 and head alone down to the beach where......I watched the best sunrise I have ever seen. I sat on the beach and watched the sun-rise - a lovely pinky yellow sky and as the sun rose it gradually illuminated the trees and white beach along the length of crescent shaped bay. My words can't do it justice. Only a couple of people passed by and we shared early morning, "isn't this superb", greetings. I eventually headed into the water - still warm. Sam joined me about half six and we bobbed around enjoying the tail end of the sunrise. A special memory....but as I was alone, no camera. I headed back for a shower and the others got up and headed into the sea for a swim! We said goodbye to Michelle and Sam who were about to leave and headed for the buffet breakfast. Superb hot curry. After breakfast we packed and headed off - first up was the coral gardens and a glass bottomed boat ride. Sadly the coral isn't all that colourful or that great - the guides threw some bread off the boat and we got to see a load of colourful fish. They tried and failed to find a turtle but.......on the way back to shore we got hit side on by a big wave - it almost capsized us. They saw it coming behind us and tried to turn front on - but only got round to the side. I got soaked but thankfully the passports, the cameras and hippo all stayed dry. There was a definitely look of fear in the guides eyes as they spotted the wave coming towards us. We climbed back in the bus relieved not to have been swimming and headed off to another highlight - the Kosgoda turtle hatchery. It's basically a wildlife charity that follows turtles and rescues the eggs before the locals get to them - they even pay locals per egg that they bring to the hatchery. They re-bury the eggs in the sand and wait for them to hatch. They then keep them for three days (there's a tank for 1 day olds, 2 day olds and 3 day olds) before releasing them into the sea - the three days lets their shells and bellybuttons harden and improves their chances of survival. The hatchery also keeps injured/disabled turtles - blind, 3 flippered and 1 albino turtle. All the 5 staff are volunteers and survive basically off tips. We give generously. We get to pick up 1 day, 2 day and 3 day old turtles....my first one was quite docile but the second one lived up to the Stewart Turtle Experience and flapped wildly wanting to escape my evil clutches. We head off and stop at a local cafe along the way for lunch - cheap but very very slow. We head through Colombo with Amaranga getting more and more aggressive in his driving . Dropped at the airport and a quick WC change later and we're looking and feeling more human. Andy & Max eat in the airport not wanting to risk the plane curry - we shop a little and spend most of the remaining rupees - I bought a wonderful cinnamon hand cream. We take off about 8.30pm and have an easy 5 hour flight to Qatar watching Moulin Rouge (which made me sleep too) - I also think that walking through the airport we gain that half hour again because once on the plane our watches are out by half an hour again - confused? - we are.
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Galle, Sri Lanka

Day 10 : Friday 2nd January 2009 Tissamaharama (Yalla), Sri Lanka - Galle

Again the Hotel did me proud - they had gone out and bought hoppers for me! They're like thin pancakes made from rice flour - some served plain to dip in curry and others served with a fried egg in them.....Yum. With it was the usual breakfast of stringhoppers, fish curry, a lentil dahl. Yum. I'd been asking and looking for hoppers since arriving - now I'm happy! We set off along the coast - a very good straightish tarmac road - you can tell we're approaching the tourist beach area where the money comes. Along the way we had a small market stop - the food area was bustling with locals and full of colour and smells - we looked briefly at some emptier clothing stalls but ended up with nothing. We also passed a tuk-tuk shop and made enquires into the cost - 2k USD new. The south coast is famous for stilt fishermen - they climb a pole in the water and fish from it......we got a photo stop (organised for tourists i think) with two of them (poles not even in the water but on the edge)- as soon as one of us had put the camera down them climbed down the poles and came looking for tips! Aswell as the stilt fisherman we also passed a group of people fishing from rubber rings! The coast is lovely - white sand beaches, palm trees, bays of blue sea, stilt fisherman everywhere. We arrived at our Hotel - Unawatuna beach resort that feels backpackery - and nice. We had lunch before heading out to see Galle town. We had a quick visit to another jewellery shop - they had a moonstone mine out the back and allegedly still mined it - we're a little sceptical and think it's just for tourist show! The actual jewellery inside is nicer than what we saw in Candy - but none of us were in the shopping mood. Next stop was Galle Fort - yet another Unesco World Heritage site. It's a Dutch fortified city and it's the best kept example surviving in Asia - Amaranga dropped us off and we wandered along the bastions. The bastions are still under repair following the tsunami - thousands died inside this city when the wave hit. It's very hot - we have a lovely walk along the seaside bastions....most of the locals are even cowering in the shade. We pop into the Dutch Church where the cleaner points out lots of stuff and asks to put something in the donation box. Almost the entire internal floor seems to contain graves. We head back to the Hotel and fulfil my other wish - some beach time.....I head into the water and don't really come out except to take some pictures. The beach is white sand lined with hotels/restaurants and lots of palm trees (one even has a palm tree growing through it) - the water is warm and has nice waves breaking - enough to dump you on the sand if you're too near the beach. Because of the waves it's not crystal blue but rather murky with sand - but we spend a lovely couple of hours bobbing around in the warm water taking in the amazing views. There are lots of firecrackers and the occasional gunshot - the locals are celebrating both the New Year and a capturing of major Tamil territory in the North of the island. We wait for sunset and get a lovely one. After the sun has gone, we head into the swimming pool - which we find to be heated!!! We head back to the room and change for dinner. We have a nice buffet meal with Sam & Michelle. After the meal Andy, Chris & I have a walk along the beach and a paddle. Some of the buildings are lit up like Blackpool - but we get a lovely view of the stars.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/19/1230471060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/19/1230471060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skcoll/19/1230471060/tpod.html Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:32:43 -0500 Sri Lanka - Elephants & Curry Breakfasts.........and the most friendly people I have ever met.

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Kandy, Sri Lanka

Day 5 : Sunday 28th December 2008 Dambulla, Sri Lanka - Kandy
A lovely Roti breakfast and we hit the road. It's shop day! First up was a furniture store - nothing much of interest - some nice elephant & turtle tables but nothing grabs us - we leave with a fridge magnet for Chris. The next stop was much better - a spice garden. We get a tour and get shown all sorts of spice (ginger, peppers, cinnamon, turmeric, etc, etc) and the occasional fruit. We persuade them to strip and open a coconut for us. We're then taken to a little hut and given a little tea - and the garden man explains more about spices and their applications and lets us try some essential oils. I get a little area of my leg done with hair remover - allegedly permanent after 3 months of applications - no pain, no rash, no heat. The other 3 get a lovely massage. We buy bits and pieces in the shop and head for lunch in a touristy looking restaurant above a supermarket - lovely mulligatawny soup for me. We did a little supermarket shopping and spotted our first penguin - penguin rice. The next stop was the Premadasas jewellery shop. It's quite upmarket. We get shown a rather blurry video about Gem mining and processing, get shown the workshop, they clean Maxines rings and then we browse. We eventually get a couple of pieces chosen and the haggling begins - Andy excels at this and we think we walked away after over an hour of haggling with a good price! About a third off the displayed prices. The experience Andy has of testing car salesmen seems to have worked very well - the salesmen asks Andy what he does for a living when the deal is eventually done! Next stop was a silk shop and Chris got dressed in a Sari - she looked fabulous but the Sari cost 85 stlg. She explains it's for a costume party and we get the cheaper range! She bought one for 25 quid while the rest of us wander round trying not to get sales people pestering us. We get to the Thilanka Hotel and after a quick trip to the rooms we head to a dance show - an hour of traditional dance and drumming - and surprisingly cheap drinks. They round the show off with some firewalking - impressive. Back to the Hotel and down for a buffet meal - a good range of Sri Lankan and western meals keeps everyone happy. The crab claw curry was lovely. They have a band which cover western hits and perform some Sri Lankan stuff - they wander table to table playing to people - we manage to avoid them. Michelle and Sam are here again and gone done by the band - sadly on a trip to Lucky Spice Garden Michelle had gone over on her ankle and had a trip to Hospital! - now hobbling with a cane. After the meal the 4 of us found some nice seats in reception and sit around chatting before heading to bed.

Day 6 : Monday 29th December 2008 Kandy, Sri Lanka
Another day another Unesco World Heritage site! After a buffet breakfast (curry for me!) we head for the Sacred City of Kandy and the Temple of the Tooth. Kandy is set around a man-made lake and is very picturesque. The temple houses the "Relic Of The Tooth Of Buddha" - it's one of the holiest sites for Buddhists in the world and enormous numbers people make the pilgrimage to here. When the Buddha died he was cremated - but before that happened his left canine tooth was removed - and that is the relic that is now housed here - hmmmm. The temple has suffered a few terrorist attacks - including one in 1998 when Prince Charles was visiting. Because of the repeated attacks security is very high - if you visit here take as few items in with you as possible! I got a lengthy search as my pack was quite full that day. Calluna and Hippo were both examined closely as was the sun-tan lotion, the platypus water carrier, etc, etc. You walk up along a path, leave your shoes, go through more security and get into the temple proper. The temple is surrounded by white walls and once inside there is loads of ornate carving. We get a quick tour before the main even - I feel out of place - there are hundreds of Buddhists here worshipping and it feels like we're intruding on them. They're bringing offerings of flowers and a table is set up on the first floor for them - directly opposite the door where the relic will be shown to them - this happens 2/3 times a day. We are taken behind the tooth temple and shown a mirror Buddha which follows you around the room - this room has lots of murals/paintings telling the story of the relic. We head back to the front of the Temple of the Tooth and wait......bells ring, two drummers appear and drum away, the doors open, people bring offerings into the temple, monks appear and then we're back upstairs amongst the devotees. We pass through the throng trying to glimpse the relic casket and then downstairs into another temple - where a crystal Buddha is displayed - then it's out and into the library where some ancient texts are stored. Back out to the gardens for a look around and then off again. We had parked in a council carpark and we walk back taking in the views - the pizza hut, the colonial style buildings, the view across the lake, the smiling locals, the highland ice-cream. We then head up and around the hills down windy roads and stop at 3 different temples. We're not sure of their significance - or even their names. I think we got a little templed out. The first temple was on a hill-top with a covered stupa outside which had little shrines on 4 axes - there were also ancient writings on the rock beside it. The temple itself contained Buddhas which glowed if you used your camera flash. Temple 2 seemed to be further away - it was Hindu inside and I've never seen a design like it. It was like a temple within a temple with some superb brick arches - the temple man showed us around and instead of demanding a tip asked that we donate in the temple donations box. Around the back over the hot rocks was more writing on the rocks and a little building which if you went through offered superb views over the countryside. Wow. Temple 3 was even more interesting - a drumming temple. Lots of timber columns supported the roof structure that was said to look like a pheasant. The columns had amazing carvings on them. The inner temple itself was a small and gaudy . Just outside this temple we saw our second penguin - inflatable ones on a stall. Next up was a funny lunch - the only other group were a family from England with very plummy accents...some of their conversations had us smiling and trying not to laugh. Food was nice - devilled fish for me. The next stop after lunch were the Royal Botanical Gardens - Amaranga dropped us off and left us to our own devices. We wandered around - dwarfed in places by giant bamboo and by palm lined avenues, the flower gardens were a little devoid of colour, they had a pedestrian suspension bridge at one end, hundreds of fruit bats lived in the trees at one end - the highlight was the Orchid house - some lovely plants. It got hot and Andy/Max headed out. Chris and I continued for a bit more - found the double palm avenue and the memorial - Chris hugged a giant tree much to the amusement of the group of Sri Lankan women looking on. After a few more photos acting silly we joined Max & Andy and headed off. We picked up the jewellery bought yesterday and stopped off at a viewpoint which looked over the lake and the city. We headed back to the Hotel and watched the sunset from the poolside - the pool was very cold but refreshing. Our plummy "friends" from lunch were at the poolside too......Arabella. Had a nice meal again but were captured by the band! The fish-pakora was the highlight and every time I walked by I took some more pakora! Same again - after dinner we sat around listening to the musak in reception and chatted.
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Dambulla, Sri Lanka

Day 3 : Friday 26th December 2008 Colombo, Sri Lanka - Dambulla
We got up shortly before 6 as our breakfast was to be delivered to our rooms at 6 as we were being picked up at 6.30. It didn't materialise - we changed, packed the bags and headed to reception at 6.25 where we started to ask why our 6 O'Clock breakfast hadn't made it to the room - the receptionist looked confused and pointed to the clock - it wasn't even 6 now....... We are still confused - when we got off the plane they told us that it was 8 - but it wasn't - it was only 7.30. We had lived a day - half an hour wrong - and which stupid countries have a half hour time zone......aaaagghhhhh, we got up half an hour earlier than we needed. Thinking back, we must have been in the restaurant before it opened last night!! They took us through to the breakfast room and we had tea & toast before climbing aboard the minibus and setting off. The roads were quite busy and Amaranga did well honking the horn, overtaking everything that moved and progressing along without too many sharp braking manoeuvres when something bigger than us came towards us...... We had a stop along the way for some tea and cashew nuts - a little too overpriced to buy a bag but nice to try. The first main stop for us was the Pinnawela Elephant Orphange. The orphanage was set up over 30 years ago and housed 69 elephants at the time we visited - the biggest elephant herd in captivity in the world. We parked up, walked through a tat shop, got our tickets and walked up and over a small incline to be greeted by 20/30 elephants standing in front of us eating. As we got closer the workers picked us out and took us close to an elephant to pat them and get our picture taken and......tip the locals for the pleasure. They have a couple of famous elephants - one elephant (the only one we saw with tusks) was blind and one had been injured on a land mine. After standing around taking in the herd we were brought to the baby feeding area - where baby elephants (chained at the feet - we assume they get too excited) are bottle fed. You can pay extra to feed them but we didn't seem to be offered this. They feed very very quickly and down a bottle quicker than I can. After a while watching them we then headed across the road to the river - with a quick stop to see how Elephant Dung Paper is made {g} Elephant dung has lots of fibre and doesn't seem to smell and with 69 elephants passing by twice a day I guess they have plenty to work with. I now have a lovely elephant dung fridge magnet. We headed to the river and were ushered into a restaurant to get great seats with a view over the river. We felt like we had to have a drink - so I had a coke - Andy went for a diet coke which they didn't have - the start of the Asian experience of (a) not having diet coke or (b) charging 2/3 times the normal price if they did have it. So one cheap drink got us 4 good seats. After a little while the elephants appeared and headed into the river to wash, piss and shit - watching the water change colour with elephant dung - you could almost play pooh sticks with the dung as it went over the shallow rapids. It was lovely just watching them (the elephants, not the dung) cool off, splash around and enjoy themselves - they have a two hour bath-time twice a day. We left after a while and headed towards Dambulla. The road was typical tropical asia - houses/shops built along the main road, paddy fields behind, then tropical trees and then hills - the further away from Colomba the less glass windows. We got to our "lovely" hotel for lunch. Na Mala is a hotel made up of eco-rooms - little semi-detached chalets set apart in a lovely green area with trees around - some of us liked this Hotel and some didn't - we had lots of good thing and bad things here - I'd come back. After our welcome drink of star-fruit - we had lunch - I tried the Sri Lanka omelette - sounded nice - turned out to be just onion omelette - no curry or chilli in sight. Had a chat with the waiter and asked for a good Sri Lankan meal tonight and not the western stuff on the menu we had seen. After lunch we had a refreshing swim in the hotel pool before heading out for the Golden Cave Temple. It's a Unesco World Heritage Site. The car park has a museum and huge modern Buddha statue - but the good stuff is up the hill! A long and hot climb up lots and lots of steps took us to the temple - there were quite a lot of Monkeys and touts along the way - both looking to jump on unsuspecting tourists. Along the way we got a view of Sigiriya 20km away in the distance - we're climbing that????? We got to the top, left our shoes with the shoeman so he gets his tips and entered the temple. The temple dates back to 1BC and consists of 5 caves which house amazing cave paintings and lots of statues - mainly of Buddha in various poses and a couple of other historical figures. They range in date and wow-factor but these are the best preserved cave temples in Sri Lanka. Being a Holiday there were lots of Sri Lankans visiting and surprisingly few tourists like us. On the way out one monkey liked our group - Amaranga got in the way and the monkey had a go at his leg. We headed back down (with a view of monkey sex that I'm still trying to forget) and back to the hotel after a supermarket visit to stock up on water and snacks. Before our evening meal we hit the pool - they kindly put the lights on for us - but that spoilt it for us. We got to know our neighbours in the pool - Michelle and Sam - who you'll hear more about! After a while we persuaded Chris to put the lights back out - she found the light switch in a space under one side of the pool - managing to get back out of the room without injuring herself, we lazed in the pool looking at the amazing array of stars above us. Being quite remote - the street lights weren't strong. Wow. I love stars. Eventually we left the pool and headed for food. Swimming was our freshen up - the rooms don't really have much hot water so shaving and showering weren't pleasant experiences - the tap in the room beside us doesn't even work. In terms of food they had indeed done us proud and the four of us tucked into another wonderful Sri Lankan meal - the highlight was the deep-fried flower petals. If you finished a bowl they'd refill it unless you said you were done. I said that everything was mild so they brought out some coconut sambol - coconut laced with chilli, lime and spice.....yum. Mix it in with a mild curry to heat things up. Had a couple of beers (3 Coins ok, Lion nicer, Irish dark nice - same price, double strength and like a Scottish Heavy) and sat about chatting in the bar. Now......the restaurant and bar were open sided - and Max got attacked by the mossies (by the end of Na Mala Max was bitten over 80 times) - and bats fly overhead (and dive bomb the pool!). We headed to bed. Chris and I set up the mossie nets over our twin beds and lay down to read tomorrows itinerary.....while she read I lay on my pillow listening to her Franglish......a cockroach ran from under my pillow and along my arm........ I think I squealed, I definitely jumped and Christine laughed. We got the cockroach off the bed but after that we both found it quite difficult to settle down after that. Na Mala is quite rural - there were lots of noises, lots of scurrying, something on the roof - it took some time to get to sleep - we chatted away into the wee sma' hours. All in all Chris and I found and killed 5 cockroaches in our 2 night stay - but we both still enjoyed the place.

Day 4 : Saturday 27th December 2008 Dambulla, Sri Lanka
I woke early - and when the alarm next door went off (Michelle & Sam) and they started talking we got a bit worried about having kept them awake with our cockroach and inane chatter. At breakfast I headed over to apologise - they said they didn't notice. It turns out they were on a very similar tour to us - a day ahead but having an extra day in the middle - so we ended up seeing them often and eating together in places. Now, breakfast was lovely - warm Roti onion bread with butter/jam and a choice of egg if you wanted. After brekkie we headed out. First up was another elephant experience - an elephant ride. We climbed up a ladder onto a boarding platform and onto the elephant...... four of us on one elephant. We headed past a load of houses, down a tree lined path and into a lagoon. There was a Mahoot to steer and a friend to take pictures of us. He earned his tip (which neither of them thought was enough) by wandering through the lagoon waist deep in water with the elephant shit (or coconuts as Max thought they were when they went floating by) around him. They picked Hibiscus for the girls, made water-lily necklaces, let 3 of us ride on the elephants neck (after Thailand I was never doing that again), sold us overpriced mango to feed the elephant......the elephant would curl the trunk up over the head and blow hot air if we weren't quick enough feeding a mango to the trunk......at one point that hot air contained mango juice or elephant snot which ended up in my eye! After 40 minutes or so we got back to the van and headed off again - not sure which is bumpier - the van or the elephant. Next up was Polonnaruwa. It was the medieval capital of Sri Lanka from about the 11-14th centuries - another Unesco World heritage site. After a quick bird watching stop at a reservoir and a little mix up with our entry tickets (prices had gone up since the company had bought the tickets) we entered the huge complex. The ruined city covers a vast area and we were herded around lots of ruins in various states of repair - there seemed to be hundreds of school kids around - imagine that, on Christmas holiday but taken away on a school trip in full uniform. Anyhow - lots of ruins in the first area - a palace, council buildings, temples, the princess pool, the remnants of a 7 storey building. Next up was a large temple area with most devoted to the Buddha tooth - 5/6 temples and stupas, amazing carvings of dwarves, horses, elephants, buddhas, etc. Shoes off, hat off, walk across the hot stones....dress again, next temple, repeat. There was also a temple in the Cambodian style which really did smack of Ankor Wat. The next stop was again a real highlight of the holiday - we wandered through a tat market and along a causeway to find Gal Vihariya - a rock temple - boring you think? No - 3 amazing Buddhas carved out of the rock - you can see the grain of the rock spread through the statues - the reclining one is some 46ft long and the standing one 23ft tall - they are absolutely stunning. We took a quick walk on the rocks behind which had been quarried (holes and burning timber) - they were roasting in the sun. We then had a brief stop at the second largest stupa in Sri Lanka before heading off for lunch - and King Coconut juice to try (the orange ones you see everywhere). After lunch we had a longish slowish drive along bad roads to what was the holiday highlight for me - the rock fortress of Sigiriya (Lion Rock) - another Unesco site. This part of Sri Lanka is flat - from the cave temple yesterday you could see kilometres of flat land stretching into the distance with the occasional hill breaking through the tree canopy. If you take that occasional hill and multiply in terms of height and shape - then you get Sigiriya!! It's easy to see why the ancient Sri Lankans were attracted to Sigiriya - like Ayres rock or Devils tower it's a very distinctive landmark which stands out hugely in the surrounding. However, as we neared Sigiriya it was difficult to spot the hill through the trees, which considering the size of the hill, is quite amazing- the road was very bumpy and at one point we heard two cracks - which we later found to be our suspension breaking!! Our driver told us that there is a poor village at the bottom and that the locals expect us to take a local villager and not our guide up to the fortress - allegedly it's their only real source of income. So being good gullible? tourists we went for the local guide. Sigiriya has been inhabited on and off over the last 2,000 years - some people even think it would have been inhabited in prehistoric times. It's been used by Kings and monks and both have left their impression on the landmark. The base of the rock is surrounded by two moats and then inside that - gardens - some of the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. As you walk up a central path the gardens on the right have been excavated and repaired......the gardens on the left have been left untouched for Archaeologists in the future to uncover when techniques and learning is better. There are terraced gardens, rock gardens, fountains which still work, a swimming pool, water gardens. There are signs of small inhabited areas - monks meditation areas, sentry posts. We're shown some holes in the rock.....they're bond points where stones/bricks are laid to get a secure foundation - lots of the rock was covered by brick/stone in this way. A lot of the walls would have had more paintings - but they're worn away - you can still see drip lines above alcoves which would have protected the art from rainwater running down the rocks. After exploring the gardens we're led through an entrance and start the steps which will eventually take us to the top. The guide tells us that there are about 1,250 steps - we didn't count. In ancient times they would have scaled the rock using ropes - I'm glad there are steps. It's hot and some of the steps are narrow, some are steep, some have handrails - most dont......other locals wait around to help you up (for a tip of course) but our driver told the villager that we were young enough not to need help! The steps continue and then - a spiral stair! The stair took us up to the Gallery where there are some ancient frescos of bare breasted females (some with 3 nipples, some with 6 fingers). After admiring the view - both the Frescos and the landscape - we head back down another spiral stair - this one has come from the London Underground! British Colonial engineering {g} The next sight to greet us is the mirror wall - a highly polished wall running opposite the rock forming a corridor - the wall would have reflected the rock paintings and brought illumination to them. Bits of the wall are still polished today - the guide pointed out some of the graffiti that adorns the wall - some is over a thousand years old. We continue - turn the corner and climb more steps. On the way our guide points out a huge rock which the defenders had hollowed out underneath and propped - they would have sent it careering down the cliff face onto their attackers. This set of stairs takes us to a landing area - an important place - nowadays what you see are a pair of lions paws.....the touts show us renditions of what they think would have been there - an elaborate stone/brick/timber structure in the shape of a huge lion - you'd enter through it's mouth to gain access to the summit of Sigiriya. The paws are huge and the whole animal must have been so impressive. So what's there now? Well - more steps! We rest a while, take some pictures and head up again when we saw a gap in the flow of people. The stone stairs lead to 2 metal stairs side by side - 1 for up and 1 for down. They're very narrow in places but it's the easiest bit of the climb - you've got a good railing to hold onto, the people are bunched together and climbing slowly and there's a lovely cooling breeze at this height. We continue up and get to the top of Sigiriya - the top was built all over with royal buildings - many foundations still exist, a large pool is in good condition, there's a shrine in good condition - but I guess the view is what you're really here for - and the sense of achievement in climbing this. It's a little hazy and we all consider coming back tomorrow to see if we could get a better view - honest. You get a great view of the landscaped gardens some 600ft below - further afield you see trees everywhere - we're on the edge of a national park and it's stunning. After a lovely rest and pictures - we head back down. On the way back we got a closer look at the rock trap. At the lower levels we go down a slightly different way and get shown various other buildings/areas that the monks/royalty used. A bit of imagination and you see a bustling royal court. We get back to the minibus and Amaranga shows us the broken suspension. This leads to a very slow journey back to the Hotel as we crawl along the bad roads and don't go much faster on the tarmac! Amaranga arranges to have it fixed that night after dropping us back to the Hotel. A dip in the pool and another lovely Sri Lankan meal follows - they even made a spicy chicken dish for me! I got lucky I'm told - a bat pooed on my arm during the meal! Michelle and Sam had moved on and Andy & Max had been moved into the adjoining hut. We head to bed early to escape the mossies and get some rest.
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