Category: Sri Lanka

After screaming back up the very touristy west coast and into Colombo, with a pit stop at the very cool old Dutch Galle Fort, I was forced to find a room in what was supposed to be the lesser, less preferred annex of my guesthouse. At least according to reviews on TripAdvisor. As it turns out, I think the annex is much nicer. A little noisier due to traffic, but that’s what earplugs are for.

Awaiting my red-eye to Bangkok for the weekend, I decided to blow off Lonely Planet and just go explore some neighbourhoods in hopes of finding how the other half – in this developing country – lives. I only saw one McDonald’s the whole time I’ve been here, which feels like a symbol of middle- to upper-class life in a developing country, so I caught a tuk-tuk to Mickey D’s and started snooping around from there.

At first I couldn’t really find anything worth exploring, but eventually I got a few blocks over from the busy main streets and found all kinds of interesting back streets full of mansions and important government offices. There was the very swish-looking Prime Minister’s office, the huge mayor’s mansion, many government offices (including one for the dictionary of Sinhalese, the local language), the Russian Embassy, and the United Arab Emirates embassy – with a long line out the front door. Probably Sri Lankans hoping to work there. There were also nice, shady lanes that snuck past huge houses behind high walls, with very expensive cars out front and numerous servants tending and guarding important things like Hummers.

While snooping around, I also stumbled across a compound of museums and popped in to check out the Colombo National Museum. The building itself was probably the most impressive. Huge and built in the late 1800’s. It was full of artifacts from thousands and thousands of years of Buddhist, Hindu, Dutch, British, and Sri Lankan history. It was an interesting place to see after travelling around the country because it referenced quite a bit of places I had been. Afterwards, I caught my last crazy tuk-tuk back to my hotel for dinner and waited for my airport limo to whisk me away into the night for my red-eye.

Flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Bangkok, Thailand

A few final thoughts on the big drive around Sri Lanka. The country isn’t really all that big (about 300 km across), but it does take significant time to get from place to place due to sharing the limited road network with 20 million other cars, stray dogs, bicyclists, trucks, buses, tuk-tuks, farm machinery, and walkers, as well as dealing with repeated winding switchback roads up and down mountains.

My driver, Francis, may have been past retirement age and had only one good eye, but he seemed to handle the drive well, thanks to his 35 years of tour-driving experience. Francis was very nice and polite. He was definitely Old School, addressing me as ‘Sir’ and always discreetly disappearing from the dinner table when my meals were served to go eat with the other drivers/servants in the back room. I thought about inviting him to join me, but his English was terrible, and conversations were very difficult. In addition, I’m pretty sure he was paying far less than the tourist prices I was repeatedly stuck with paying.

Final Sri Lanka Drive: Yala National Park to Colombo, Sri Lanka

Francis told me that he actually retired from driving several years ago after his wife died. He decided to come back to work after finding it too boring and unsociable to be home by himself. He drove a Nissan station wagon that reminded me of one of my old cars in the U.S. It had over 330,000 kms on it and he treated it like delicate china. He liked the doors closed very gently and drove painfully slowly over any bumps he came across – which drove me a bit crazy, especially after having just barreled around the Australian Outback on 4wd tracks in my RAV4 last month. The safari tour in the Land Rover was completely at the opposite end of the spectrum, which made it extra fun.

Francis handled the crazy, chaotic Sri Lankan driving very well. People use horns constantly to alert other cars to your passing or to warn people walking along the road. I filmed several videos with my iPhone and have uploaded them to YouTube. I was amazed to see no accidents for most of the journey, but then found a big rolled truck on a switchback mountain road and another, more minor front-end crash the following day. Stray dogs were running around everywhere, but they always seemed to know how to get out of the way of cars at the last minute. I only saw one dog dead in the road from being hit on our entire journey. Francis told me most of the dogs were owned, but they certainly ran around like strays, and many didn’t look particularly well.

Unfortunately, much of the trip was in silence because it was too hard to communicate in English. He could recite interesting facts about Sri Lanka and the sites we visited fairly well, but if I ever said anything, I would have to repeat myself over and over – phrasing things in different ways – before he finally could understand what I was saying. 90% of the time he would completely misinterpret what I said and start talking about a different unrelated topic. It was just too frustrating to try and keep a conversation going.

Being a devout Buddhist, my driver would conduct a brief prayer on his steering wheel every morning before we headed off. He would also discreetly prop his hands up in a prayer gesture and bow his head every time we passed a statue of Buddha.

On the last day of driving, Francis took me on a whirlwind tour along Sri Lanka’s scenic west coast. Along the way, we stopped at a few beaches and tourist sites, including Galle Fort and Galle Lighthouse, as well as the Kosgoda Sea Turtle Conservation Project.

UNESCO World Heritage-listed Galle Fort was a 16th-century Portuguese fortress built in 1588 and expanded by the Dutch in the 17th century. It has a lighthouse, cobblestone streets, and well-preserved Dutch-colonial architecture.

About 50 kms north was the Kosgoda Sea Turtle Conservation Project. They protect turtle eggs by incubating them in hatcheries and caring for injured turtles. They also release hatchlings into the Indian Ocean.

Final Sri Lanka Drive: Yala National Park to Colombo, Sri Lanka

Yala National Park in Sri Lanka is renowned for its exceptionally high density of Sri Lankan leopards and its diverse wildlife, including Asian elephants, sloth bears and crocodiles. It also has water buffalo, spotted deer, hornbills, wild peacocks, sambar, wild boar, jackals and monkeys. You can not visit the park without a guide, and roads in the park require a 4WD truck, preferably a Land Rover. My guide, a long-time local and somewhat of a cowboy among the guides, laughed at all the cheap Indian 4WD vehicles getting bogged in the mud.

Yala National Park Safari

I had a great time on my safari, but unfortunately didn’t get the chance to see any leopards or bears because it was raining. Leopards and many other animals like to take cover to get out of the rain. I did manage to see everything else, however, which was really pretty amazing. Half the fun was just banging around the rough roads in the old, beat-up Land Rover. The guides all seemed to know each other and used hand signals to let everyone know what kinds of animals they’d spotted and where. An index finger curved down meant elephant, and a hand extended like it was holding an egg at its fingertips meant a leopard (outlining a leopard’s spot).

I spent the night in Nuwara Eliya, nestled in the mountains near Sri Lanka’s highest peak, Pidurutalagala (Mount Pedro), at 2,524 m. It’s a beautiful old town where the British used to send people during the hottest months to cool off. The town, often called “Little England”, is still full of big, luxurious British government homes, a big golf course, and a horse racing track. Today many of the big homes are either hotels or occupied by the very wealthy.

It is downright cold at night, and I had to bundle up in thermals to sleep – which always seems a bit weird in the tropics. The area is surrounded by market gardens, tea plantations, and spectacular views.

The drive down was really spectacular first thing in the morning, with amazing views off the highlands through the dreamy morning mist and down into valleys of terraced market gardens and tea plantations. At least, I thought so. My driver could not understand why I kept asking him to pull over so I could take these pictures. He eventually relented.

From there, my driver and I descended back to hot, humid sea level, stopping at a few more temples along the way before eventually arriving at the world-famous Yala National Park.

The Drive from the Central Highlands to Yala National Park

I decided to join the throngs of Buddhist pilgrims climbing the 5,200 steps to the top of Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada), a 2,243-metre-tall (7,359-foot) sacred mountain, and one of Sri Lanka’s taller mountains. Adam’s Peak is where, legend has it, Adam stepped down from the heavens to Earth. The scuttlebutt is that you wake up at 2 am (!) and start climbing the steps by 2:30 am to reach the top before sunrise and see the surrounding mountain ranges at dawn.

The route is fairly well lit and has booths of food, trinkets, and toys all the way up. When you first leave your guesthouse to start the climb, you can see the trail of lights heading straight up into the sky, which looks pretty impressive.

Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada) 5200 Step Climb

Unfortunately, I chose an unusually busy day to attempt the climb. I probably got up around 4000 steps before I came to a screeching halt behind hundreds or thousands of Buddhist pilgrims trying to do the same thing – or possibly even making the climb for legitimate religious reasons (there is a temple on top). I waited in line for about two hours, and it didn’t budge.

The sun rose, so I decided to bail and at least photograph what I could on the descent. Yes, it was a hard climb and a difficult-on-your-knees descent, but it was nice to see the mountains up close. In fairness to those in line for genuine religious reasons, it was probably best for me to give up my space in line, anyway.

Afterwards, my driver scheduled me in for a nice surprise Ayurueda treatment to have my legs massaged. It was very nice, and I think it certainly helped.

After Kandy, we headed into the mountains, which is always a relief when you’re sweating in the tropics. As soon as we started climbing the switchback roads, we found ourselves in tea plantation country.

In Sri Lanka, aka Ceylon, tea is still hand-picked by Indian Tamil people whom the British brought in to work for their tea plantations. Today, descendants of those original Indians continue the back-breaking work in rain and shine.

The higher the elevation of the tea, the better the quality. The women out picking tea leaves seem happy to be photographed, perhaps to break up the monotony of their days. Tea leaves are picked every 10-12 days, so finding pickers to photograph can be tricky.

I visited a tea factory where they convert green leaf into finished black tea. Interestingly, the factories only operate at night to keep the tea cool during processing. On a factory tour, they can only show you the machinery, which isn’t that exciting to photograph without the tea. They also cut and sort tea into different grades and sizes that affect the tea’s strength, then sell it wholesale to tea retailers. Tea retailers then mix the grades to create their own blends.

The tea plantations had trees sporadically planted throughout the tea-growing fields to provide partial shade as the sun moved, protecting the leaves from burning due to prolonged sun exposure.

I made a short visit to Kandy’s Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya, which were nice to walk around (especially the orchid gardens). The place was full of young romance. It is kind of funny to watch young couples try to be affectionate until they notice you (or anyone else) and quickly stop all physical contact. Obviously, public displays of affection are taboo ’round these here parts!

Walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya

The big visit of the day was a special temple in Kandy that houses one of Buddha’s teeth in a golden casket: the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. The place was a mob scene of Buddhists making a pilgrimage to pray and leave a special offering for the monks to deliver.

I did manage to catch a glimpse of the golden casket, which is opened once a year for a ceremony, but it reminded me of the time I saw the Mona Lisa in Paris at the Louvre and could only just glimpse it because of the sheer number of people there.

Many elderly and sick people in Sri Lanka clearly seem to have medical conditions which would likely be addressed in the West. Things like glaucoma, arthritis, hip and knee problems, etc. It would appear the fervour of religiousness may be a substitute for their ability to get medical care. So many people making these religious visits appear to be suffering from health problems, unfortunately.

I did a bit of a runaround in Kandy for several hours before heading off to the mountains in south-central Sri Lanka. I was ushered into a few factories along the way. One was a wood carving factory that produced many elephants and other objects that looked very familiar to me from international craft shops in the USA.

I was getting the hard sales pitch when busloads of other tourists suddenly flooded in to distract the sales employees. It’s not like I don’t appreciate their work, but when you’re extensively trekking through many countries on your way around the world, you have to travel light and don’t have much space or weight available in your backpack. On these seven-month journeys, my pictures are my souvenirs!

I also visited a batik clothing factory a few doors down the street that produced some nice designs but wasn’t nearly as bustling.

Overall, Sri Lankans have been consistently friendly, warm, and accommodating, with minimal hassle. Also, younger Sri Lankans seem to speak and understand English much better than their elders. English is taught in schools here, and I was told 80% know it, but I think many have forgotten all but a few words, like me with Spanish. So far, Sri Lanka reminds me of elements of Egypt, India, and Thailand.

The food here in Sri Lanka has been very good. Nice and spicy but not too hot. Sri Lanka is famous for their spices. And tea, of course! Some friends in Perth mentioned that they stuck to vegetarian offerings while travelling through Nepal to avoid food poisoning, so I have been following their advice. Every place I have stayed has offered a free, generous breakfast with things like eggs, crepes, fresh fruit, coffee, toast, and lots of other stuff I avoid because it involves meat. When they serve you lunch or dinner, they seem to like to present everything on as many plates as possible. It looks like a huge banquet when you get started, and you definitely feel very full afterwards even without any meat. Everything I’ve had so far has been very tasty. And it’s usually super cheap unless it’s a touristy place. A full dinner seems to come in at around $6.50.

Kandy is Sri Lanka’s cultural capital, but it seems a bit small for being second only to Colombo in size. Kandy sits on a beautiful lake and is full of busy markets, temples, and chaotic traffic. I spent a few hours running errands around town this afternoon and lost my driver in the process. Unfortunately, I was forced to call my hotel back in Colombo to have them contact him – which didn’t make him look very good, but I really had no other choice.

All good now, but for some reason I’ve found myself in a hotel with no other guests. Hmmm…