We started our last morning in Tangalle with a quick pre-breakfast swim in the rock pool. We enjoyed our stay hugely, but were ready to move about 1.5 hours west along the coast to Mirissa.
Mirissa is a low-key surfing town made up of a number of guesthouses, restaurants and shops set around a bay; an excellent place to end our time in Sri Lanka. The beach is beautiful and, although there are some biggish waves, it is a pleasant place to swim. A natural pool at the western end of the bay is a safe spot for children to swim. The main surfing area is behind the reef that creates the pool, so you can watch the surfers from the comfort of calm waters.
Our friends Nicki, Kallis and Luca had come to Mirissa a couple of days earlier, so we were looking forward to seeing them again. When Eleanor and I decided to explore just after we arrived, we ran into them after about five minutes walking on the beach. It is not a big place; we saw about three other couples from our accommodation at Tangalle within half an hour!
Eleanor spent the rest of the afternoon in the rock pool with Luca. She had a fabulous time and learned how to float using his water wings, so was very happy with herself. We ended up buying a pair each for Eleanor and Leo and their confidence in the water has improved dramatically. Floating makes Leo giggle and Eleanor shout with enjoyment.
In the evening the beach is picturesque in a different way. It is lined with restaurants, all of which have coloured lights and candles on the tables, some nights there and bonfires, BBQ's and fire poi demonstrations by restaurant staff. There is no need for shoes as the restaurants all have tables on the sand, although they are fairly close to the high tide line so you do have to be a little careful where you put your things.
We ate with Nicki, Kallis and Luca on our first evening, and most nights for the rest of our stay. While the adults sat and talked, the three children had a great time finding crabs, making sand cakes, jumping off sun loungers, watching fire pois and dancing to the restaurant music. Fun for everyone!
Whale watching is one of the big tourist attractions at Marissa, so we decided to give it a try. The boat left the port at 7am, so we only had time for a quick coffee/juice and biscuit at the guest house before jumping in the van. Breakfast was provided on the boat.
We saw a couple of dolphins, a puffer fish and lots of flying fish, but no whales unfortunately. When the whales stay away you can try again for free the following day; we decided not to take Eleanor and Leo again as it was an early start and not the most interesting morning for them.
Adrian went to continue the search while the three of us went to the beach with Nicki, Kallis and Luca. He did see a blue whale, but decided whale watching isn't all it is cracked up to be! The rest of us spent hours in the sea, playing in the sand and checking out the baby turtles at the hatchery on the beach.
Nicki was stung by a small scorpion, which was quite scary and put us all off the stretch of the sand! Fortunately, other than a big fright and a red mark she was absolutely fine. She intends to increase the scorpion's size when she shares the story with her friends and family, so don't be surprised if it becomes a larger scorpion in ours too!
As the massages in Ella hasn't been quite what we expected, we decided to give Shirodara another try in Mirissa. Basically, you lie on a table having warm oil drizzled onto your forehead for half an hour. Bliss! After almost two weeks on the beach, we hadn't realised that we could get any more relaxed, but it is possible. This time the oil came out of my hair after a couple of days, a vast improvement on the greasy unwashed look I had for a good few days in Ella.
On our last full day in Mirissa, the two families took a 45 minute tuk tuk ride to Unawatuna, a larger beach destination close to Galle. It was poya, the public holiday for the full moon, so the beach was filled with locals enjoying a day off and the atmosphere was fantastic. Unawatuna and the surrounding coast were badly damaged by the tsunami. Significant foreign aid meant that the town was rebuilt quickly and in the same place (right on the high tide line), but the are little signs like the shells of previous buildings and many grave stones dotted along the coast road.
As our flight to Singapore was at 11pm, we had most of our final day in Mirissa swimming, shopping and packing. Nicki, Kallis and Luca left that morning for Galle, so we had farewelled them the night before; Eleanor loved their company and was very sad not to be seeing them again, as were we all! Hopefully they will visit us in New Zealand one day.
We had an amazing four weeks in Sri Lanka, it felt like three holidays in one; the ancient cities, the hill country and the beach. The sights are interesting, the scenery beautiful, the beaches stunning, the food delicious and most of all the people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. It is an easy place to travel with children, the locals are so relaxed about everything and often willing to chat and/or play with them. If you haven't already been and ever have the opportunity to visit, take it!
Oh, and on our last night, Adrian finally found a properly hot curry. He asked the waiter to tell the chef to hurt him. It worked! The curry reduced him to tears and left him barely able to talk. It was perhaps not the best meal the evening before a flight, but the hot-curry-hunt ended in success!
Thursday 29 November 2012
Saturday 24 November 2012
Tangalle: relaxing at the beach, cricket and a safari
Leaving the tea plantation we drove back through Ella, down Ella Gap and out to the coast. The drive down from the hill country is stunning and it was interesting to see the huge roads that are currently being constructed. They lead to a new Chinese-funded port. According to our driver, over the next few (many I imagine!) years, the existing village which consists of about ten houses beside the new road will make way for a city of about the same size as Colombo.
Our chalet on Marakolliya Beach, 3kms east of Tangalle, was one of about nine chalets right on the sand hidden in amongst coconut palms and about 150 metres back from the sea.
It is very quiet, apart from the sound of the sea, and is a beautiful stretch of coast. The sand is trillions of little pieces of shell, so comfortable to walk on and excellent for exfoliating feet! The sea is warm, but rough and not good for swimming. Fortunately there is a reef in front of the chalets forming a natural pool that makes swimming possible, although the strong pull of the water means you still have to be careful, especially at high tide. We all loved it, particularly Eleanor and Leo.
We soon fell into a routine; breakfast, swim, lunch, nap/quiet time, swim, relax, dinner, bed. We bought buckets at the local market, so although it isn't the best sand for sand castles there was something to cart sand, water and shells around.
On our second day we met a lovely English family, Nicki, Kallis and Luca. Luca is a couple of months older than Eleanor and the three children had a fantastic time together. He shares Eleanor's amusement at making up funny names, so they had each other in hysterics. Their accommodation was a few hundred metres down the beach and has a lovely pool with a children's pool attached, so a couple of afternoons when the sea was rough we went there instead.
In the week we stayed at Marakolliya Beach we only ventured further than Tangalle twice. We went to the third day of the Black Caps' cricket test against Sri Lanka in Galle. Just as well we chose that day as NZ lost at about 3pm that afternoon, so it didn't extend to a fourth or fifth day. When we arrived NZ were about 60 for three and they were all out about two hours later, leaving Sri Lanka a grand total of about 85 runs to chase in their second innings.
Despite being on the losing side, it was lots of fun. It cost about £1/$1.90 to get into a covered stand and the atmosphere was great. We were a little concerned about how Eleanor and Leo would find it, but they were good and, as has been the case all over Sri Lanka, no one minded them racing around a little. We sat just to the side of a friendly South African cameraman and found young kittens under the box he was standing on, so that provided an excellent distraction along with a few other children to chat with.
We took a break from the cricket to walk part of the way around the walls of the old Portuguese fort. It was lovely, but incredibly hot even with the sea breeze, so we soon headed back to the game. We sat in the little restaurant overlooking the pitch and ordered lunch joking that the match might be over before we finished eating. It was!
Our other excursion was a half-day safari to Yala National Park in search of elephants, leopards and crocodiles. It was a very early start for us, 5am! Apparently the animals are often out and about early, but retire to the jungle during the heat of the day.
We travelled on top of a windowless jeep, which was fun for Eleanor and Leo (even if they did fall asleep part way round!). We saw a baby crocodile, adult crocodile, lots of peacocks doing their mating dances, monitor lizards and loads of beautiful birds, but just one elephant and no leopards. The early start theory didn't work for us, but I guess wild animals can't be expected to show themselves just because we want to see them!
We stopped within the park near the beach where there had been a dining room that is now just a concrete pad. When the tsunami hit in 2004, 59 people were there for breakfast. It was a sunny and beautiful spot when we visited, but a sobering sight. Apparently the animals moved themselves inland and just one buffalo was killed by the wave.
The majority of our time in Tangalle was spent at the beach, so we ate most meals at the hotel restaurant, but we did manage to have a couple of evening meals in restaurants, including a lovely night out with Nicki, Kallis and Luca. Still no hot curry though, so we will make a real effort to find one in Mirissa, our last stop in Sri Lanka.
Our chalet on Marakolliya Beach, 3kms east of Tangalle, was one of about nine chalets right on the sand hidden in amongst coconut palms and about 150 metres back from the sea.
It is very quiet, apart from the sound of the sea, and is a beautiful stretch of coast. The sand is trillions of little pieces of shell, so comfortable to walk on and excellent for exfoliating feet! The sea is warm, but rough and not good for swimming. Fortunately there is a reef in front of the chalets forming a natural pool that makes swimming possible, although the strong pull of the water means you still have to be careful, especially at high tide. We all loved it, particularly Eleanor and Leo.
We soon fell into a routine; breakfast, swim, lunch, nap/quiet time, swim, relax, dinner, bed. We bought buckets at the local market, so although it isn't the best sand for sand castles there was something to cart sand, water and shells around.
On our second day we met a lovely English family, Nicki, Kallis and Luca. Luca is a couple of months older than Eleanor and the three children had a fantastic time together. He shares Eleanor's amusement at making up funny names, so they had each other in hysterics. Their accommodation was a few hundred metres down the beach and has a lovely pool with a children's pool attached, so a couple of afternoons when the sea was rough we went there instead.
In the week we stayed at Marakolliya Beach we only ventured further than Tangalle twice. We went to the third day of the Black Caps' cricket test against Sri Lanka in Galle. Just as well we chose that day as NZ lost at about 3pm that afternoon, so it didn't extend to a fourth or fifth day. When we arrived NZ were about 60 for three and they were all out about two hours later, leaving Sri Lanka a grand total of about 85 runs to chase in their second innings.
Despite being on the losing side, it was lots of fun. It cost about £1/$1.90 to get into a covered stand and the atmosphere was great. We were a little concerned about how Eleanor and Leo would find it, but they were good and, as has been the case all over Sri Lanka, no one minded them racing around a little. We sat just to the side of a friendly South African cameraman and found young kittens under the box he was standing on, so that provided an excellent distraction along with a few other children to chat with.
We took a break from the cricket to walk part of the way around the walls of the old Portuguese fort. It was lovely, but incredibly hot even with the sea breeze, so we soon headed back to the game. We sat in the little restaurant overlooking the pitch and ordered lunch joking that the match might be over before we finished eating. It was!
Our other excursion was a half-day safari to Yala National Park in search of elephants, leopards and crocodiles. It was a very early start for us, 5am! Apparently the animals are often out and about early, but retire to the jungle during the heat of the day.
We travelled on top of a windowless jeep, which was fun for Eleanor and Leo (even if they did fall asleep part way round!). We saw a baby crocodile, adult crocodile, lots of peacocks doing their mating dances, monitor lizards and loads of beautiful birds, but just one elephant and no leopards. The early start theory didn't work for us, but I guess wild animals can't be expected to show themselves just because we want to see them!
We stopped within the park near the beach where there had been a dining room that is now just a concrete pad. When the tsunami hit in 2004, 59 people were there for breakfast. It was a sunny and beautiful spot when we visited, but a sobering sight. Apparently the animals moved themselves inland and just one buffalo was killed by the wave.
The majority of our time in Tangalle was spent at the beach, so we ate most meals at the hotel restaurant, but we did manage to have a couple of evening meals in restaurants, including a lovely night out with Nicki, Kallis and Luca. Still no hot curry though, so we will make a real effort to find one in Mirissa, our last stop in Sri Lanka.
Monday 19 November 2012
Adrian's birthday and a tea plantation bungalow: a holiday from our holiday
We decided to treat ourselves to a couple of nights in a tea plantation bungalow to celebrate Adrian's birthday. There are a number of these bungalows around the hill country; they were the homes of the tea plantation owners. Ours, Kirchayn Bungalow, is about 15 minutes' drive from Bandarwela on the edge of the Aislaby tea plantation and was home to the Bostock family, but is now locally owned.
Before we leaving Ella for the bungalow on the morning of Adrian's birthday we took a quick tuk tuk trip to a tea factory. Unfortunately there was no production that day as the day before was a holiday for Diwali, so no leaves had been picked. Despite this and the fact that neither of us are big tea drinkers, it was interesting to learn about the production process. I hadn't realised that green, black and white tea all come from the same plant and that it is just the part of the leaf/process that varies. There was a tasting at the end; we both preferred the lighter teas that are apparently very popular in warm climates like the Middle East.
Once we arrived at the bungalow there was very little to do but eat, swim, play croquet, eat, walk around the plantation, read, eat and generally relax. So this is what we did for the next 48 hours. We had it to ourselves until late on the second night, so were very lucky.
Adrian's birthday celebration was low-key. We had ordered a birthday cake from a restaurant in Ella and, while it was a poorly-kept surprise, it was yummy and Adrian did have a couple of candles and a round of Happy Birthday. I 'let' him win at 500 later in the evening as a birthday present.
The house itself is huge, it has five bedrooms with four in the main house and the fifth in a separate building. Our room was the master bedroom complete with four-poster bed and doors opening onto the lawn leading to the swimming pool. There is also a dining room, lounge, study, sitting room and porch with a view out to the plantation.
Life would have been very comfortable for the family, but no doubt significantly less so for the Tamil workers who picked (and still do) the tea! There is something of the 'faded glory' about it now, our room could use new carpet and it is all a little ropey around the edges, but that was part of its charm.
All our meals and drinks were covered in the room price and the food was fantastic, from the home-made marmalade at breakfast to the curry (made up of about six or seven different vegetable dishes and a meat) for lunch and three-course dinner. For two days all we really did was fill in the time between meals. We had breakfast and lunch outside on the porch and dinner in the dining room as the evenings were a little cool. Waking up one morning with mist touching the grass and watching it slowly clear as we had breakfast was lovely.
There was no menu, but each day we could choose what we wanted to eat. Adrian's spicy curry yearnings were almost satisfied, but as his taste buds were still functioning after the hot pork curry, the search for truly spicy curry is ongoing. My favourite, other than the delicious curry (they made it more mild for me!), was the absolutely delicious steak with onion sauce we had on the second evening. The chef prepared something different for Eleanor and Leo if they wanted it, so we were all happy.
Eleanor and Leo loved all the space inside and out. They had loads of fun chasing our inflatable ball down a grassy slope until it was speared onto rose bush at the bottom and promptly deflated. The pool was a highlight, despite being a little chilly, but our croquet match was short-lived as the mallets were on the heavy side. Instead we rolled the wooden balls down the hill and chased after them.
The evening after Adrian's birthday Eleanor and Leo ate early and went to bed, so we had our meal alone. It was a pleasant change to have adult conversation at dinner rather than spending most of it cajoling young children into eating!
It was a very relaxing stop and lovely a way to celebrate Adrian's birthday, but after two days we were ready to reduce our food intake and head to the beach.
Before we leaving Ella for the bungalow on the morning of Adrian's birthday we took a quick tuk tuk trip to a tea factory. Unfortunately there was no production that day as the day before was a holiday for Diwali, so no leaves had been picked. Despite this and the fact that neither of us are big tea drinkers, it was interesting to learn about the production process. I hadn't realised that green, black and white tea all come from the same plant and that it is just the part of the leaf/process that varies. There was a tasting at the end; we both preferred the lighter teas that are apparently very popular in warm climates like the Middle East.
Once we arrived at the bungalow there was very little to do but eat, swim, play croquet, eat, walk around the plantation, read, eat and generally relax. So this is what we did for the next 48 hours. We had it to ourselves until late on the second night, so were very lucky.
Adrian's birthday celebration was low-key. We had ordered a birthday cake from a restaurant in Ella and, while it was a poorly-kept surprise, it was yummy and Adrian did have a couple of candles and a round of Happy Birthday. I 'let' him win at 500 later in the evening as a birthday present.
The house itself is huge, it has five bedrooms with four in the main house and the fifth in a separate building. Our room was the master bedroom complete with four-poster bed and doors opening onto the lawn leading to the swimming pool. There is also a dining room, lounge, study, sitting room and porch with a view out to the plantation.
Life would have been very comfortable for the family, but no doubt significantly less so for the Tamil workers who picked (and still do) the tea! There is something of the 'faded glory' about it now, our room could use new carpet and it is all a little ropey around the edges, but that was part of its charm.
All our meals and drinks were covered in the room price and the food was fantastic, from the home-made marmalade at breakfast to the curry (made up of about six or seven different vegetable dishes and a meat) for lunch and three-course dinner. For two days all we really did was fill in the time between meals. We had breakfast and lunch outside on the porch and dinner in the dining room as the evenings were a little cool. Waking up one morning with mist touching the grass and watching it slowly clear as we had breakfast was lovely.
There was no menu, but each day we could choose what we wanted to eat. Adrian's spicy curry yearnings were almost satisfied, but as his taste buds were still functioning after the hot pork curry, the search for truly spicy curry is ongoing. My favourite, other than the delicious curry (they made it more mild for me!), was the absolutely delicious steak with onion sauce we had on the second evening. The chef prepared something different for Eleanor and Leo if they wanted it, so we were all happy.
Eleanor and Leo loved all the space inside and out. They had loads of fun chasing our inflatable ball down a grassy slope until it was speared onto rose bush at the bottom and promptly deflated. The pool was a highlight, despite being a little chilly, but our croquet match was short-lived as the mallets were on the heavy side. Instead we rolled the wooden balls down the hill and chased after them.
The evening after Adrian's birthday Eleanor and Leo ate early and went to bed, so we had our meal alone. It was a pleasant change to have adult conversation at dinner rather than spending most of it cajoling young children into eating!
It was a very relaxing stop and lovely a way to celebrate Adrian's birthday, but after two days we were ready to reduce our food intake and head to the beach.
Friday 16 November 2012
Beautiful Ella
The train journey up into the hills from Kandy to Ella passes through some stunning scenery. Rice fields are replaced by tea plantations and the hillsides are dotted with tea factories and little buildings. The observation car was fully booked, so we went ordinary first class, which was very comfortable; just as well as the trip took about seven hours!
We arrived at our guest house after dark hungry and ready to sleep. When we got up the following day, we were greeted by a stunning view down Ella Gap, a forested canyon between two peaks. We spent many hours over the next few days relaxing on the balcony enjoying the view from our hammock. Ella is a cute little town with a main street lined with little restaurants and accommodation; despite it being touristy, we were pleased to see the restaurants as it is the first place we have had much in the way of options to eat outside of our guest houses.
There is a Sunday market at nearby Bandarawela, so we caught a tuk tuk to visit. Bandarawela is a busy town and, on Sunday mornings, it bustles with local people buying fruit, vegetables and all sorts of other supplies. We bought bubble mixture for Eleanor, Leo and Sandaru, the almost three-year-old son of our guest house owners. Eleanor and Leo's little pots were almost finished before we arrived back for an afternoon nap!
Sri Lanka has a particular type of head massage called shiro dhari, which involves having massage while oil is drizzled onto your head. We found somewhere on Main Street in Ella and decided to give it a go, along with a full body massage and steam bath. This place didn't have the drizzling apparatus, so the head massage involved a dollop of oil in your hair. The steam bath was kind of like a wooden sun bed that encloses you completely with a little space for your head to stick out. Herbs are heated in water over a gas flame, so it is all warm and smells great. It was all very relaxing and left our skin feeling amazing, but it took about four days and two washes to get all of the oil out of my hair, so there are lots of greasy-hair photos! Nonetheless we have decided to try again at the beach to see if we can find somewhere that drizzles the oil.
We ate at a couple of restaurants around the town continuing Adrian's search for a spicy curry. He had some good meals, but no joy on the heat front. However, I had a pizza that was so hot in places it made my tongue throb! Leo insisted on sharing it with me until he hit a good chilli and it made him cry. I had been taking them off, but obviously missed one.
We visited Dowa, a little temple with a four-metre high Buddha carved into the rock outside. I don't think it is big on the list of things for tourists to do as the children there made a huge fuss of Eleanor and Leo. Which kinda makes it perfect for us.
There are a lot of walks in the hill country, but many are several hours long and require an early start for a clear view before the haze sets in. We found a couple that were more our speed, so spent one morning walking up Little Adam's Peak for a spectacular view over Ella Gap and an afternoon walking along the railway tracks to Rawana waterfall. Eleanor continues to impress us with the distances she can walk now and both she and Leo enjoyed our little adventures, particularly the novelty of walking on the train tracks and stepping to the side when a train came along. It felt kind of like 'Stand By Me', except that we are not teenage boys and we weren't looking for a body!
The next day was Adrian's birthday and we left Ella that morning for two nights in a tea plantation bungalow.
We arrived at our guest house after dark hungry and ready to sleep. When we got up the following day, we were greeted by a stunning view down Ella Gap, a forested canyon between two peaks. We spent many hours over the next few days relaxing on the balcony enjoying the view from our hammock. Ella is a cute little town with a main street lined with little restaurants and accommodation; despite it being touristy, we were pleased to see the restaurants as it is the first place we have had much in the way of options to eat outside of our guest houses.
There is a Sunday market at nearby Bandarawela, so we caught a tuk tuk to visit. Bandarawela is a busy town and, on Sunday mornings, it bustles with local people buying fruit, vegetables and all sorts of other supplies. We bought bubble mixture for Eleanor, Leo and Sandaru, the almost three-year-old son of our guest house owners. Eleanor and Leo's little pots were almost finished before we arrived back for an afternoon nap!
Sri Lanka has a particular type of head massage called shiro dhari, which involves having massage while oil is drizzled onto your head. We found somewhere on Main Street in Ella and decided to give it a go, along with a full body massage and steam bath. This place didn't have the drizzling apparatus, so the head massage involved a dollop of oil in your hair. The steam bath was kind of like a wooden sun bed that encloses you completely with a little space for your head to stick out. Herbs are heated in water over a gas flame, so it is all warm and smells great. It was all very relaxing and left our skin feeling amazing, but it took about four days and two washes to get all of the oil out of my hair, so there are lots of greasy-hair photos! Nonetheless we have decided to try again at the beach to see if we can find somewhere that drizzles the oil.
We ate at a couple of restaurants around the town continuing Adrian's search for a spicy curry. He had some good meals, but no joy on the heat front. However, I had a pizza that was so hot in places it made my tongue throb! Leo insisted on sharing it with me until he hit a good chilli and it made him cry. I had been taking them off, but obviously missed one.
We visited Dowa, a little temple with a four-metre high Buddha carved into the rock outside. I don't think it is big on the list of things for tourists to do as the children there made a huge fuss of Eleanor and Leo. Which kinda makes it perfect for us.
There are a lot of walks in the hill country, but many are several hours long and require an early start for a clear view before the haze sets in. We found a couple that were more our speed, so spent one morning walking up Little Adam's Peak for a spectacular view over Ella Gap and an afternoon walking along the railway tracks to Rawana waterfall. Eleanor continues to impress us with the distances she can walk now and both she and Leo enjoyed our little adventures, particularly the novelty of walking on the train tracks and stepping to the side when a train came along. It felt kind of like 'Stand By Me', except that we are not teenage boys and we weren't looking for a body!
The next day was Adrian's birthday and we left Ella that morning for two nights in a tea plantation bungalow.
Saturday 10 November 2012
2012 11 Kandy, Sri Lanka
2012 11 Kandy, Sri Lanka, a set on Flickr.
Photos from our time visiting in and around Kandy, Sri Lanka. Click on link to view all 60.Friday 9 November 2012
Kandy
The road from Dambulla to Kandy is much better than those we had travelled on earlier. It is sealed. Our driver was also a bit more of a risk-taker (not to the point of being uncomfortable, but definitely less relaxing!) than Rolland, so it was a faster journey all round.
There are a couple of interesting sites along this road, so we arranged to pop in on our way past.
Nalanda is a very pretty little ruined Buddhist temple in the forest. Our next stop, Aluvihara is a series of monastic caves built into rock. The paintings in one of these caves show devils punishing sinners in hell. One picture shows people being hammered onto a thorn tree; it is certainly enough to put you off misbehaving! The next cave had nearly life-size models of the pictures. Gruesome!! Our final stop was at a Hindu temple in Matale. The detail in the images is incredible and we were fortunate to be able to look around during a service.
After considerable hunting, we found our accommodation, a quiet spot tucked away in the Kandy hills. It was so peaceful that we decided to relax there for the afternoon. Eleanor and Leo spent most of it playing with the owners and their family while we caught up on blog posts and photos. The evening meal was delicious, Adrian's desire for Sri Lankan curry is at least partially quenched.
We visited the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, where one if Buddha's teeth is kept. The story goes that it was snatched from the fire of his cremation and smuggled into Sri Lanka in a princess' hair. It has moved around Sri Lanka and occasionally been pinched, but now rests in Kandy. The temple is beautiful and right on the edge of Kandy Lake, so after our visit we went for a short walk around the lake.
The New Zealand cricket team were in Kandy while we were there, but as we didn't have time to get to a 20/20 match, we will try to get tickets to one day of the test in Galle next week.
We changed accommodation that afternoon (as we left it too late to book a place for three nights!) and spent the rest of the day sitting on our new balcony listening to the river and watching the rain. At night the sound of nature is incredibly loud; the river, birds and insects are all competing. We had to speak up to hear each other across a small coffee table. What way to spend a couple of evenings.
This guest house is run by a couple with three children aged between 18 and seven. They are all great with Eleanor and Leo, but Jason (the seven year old) must have wondered what hit him when his father told him to play with Eleanor and he spent the rest of his afternoon being bossed around by a three year old! Leo takes a little longer to warm up, but once he relaxes he is almost as involved in it all as Eleanor. They were so busy playing together that we were hardly needed, so had a real holiday.
The next morning we visited Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage, where they have about 80 elephants of all ages, including two tiny (relatively speaking!) ones recently rescued from agricultural wells. Eleanor and Leo had a great time watching them eat and bathe in the river; a beautiful sight! They even had the opportunity to feed an elephant bananas which was quite a thrill, although Eleanor was a bit scared when it got close.
We loved being able to get so close, but did think the elephants must have an awful lot of human contact. It was also sad to see an elephant tethered when he clearly didn't want to be, even if if was only so he could drink his milk. Maybe if visitors were kept further away it wouldn't have been necessary.
On our way to the orphanage we found a couple beside the road with two porcupines, so we stopped for a look. They were healthy looking and tame, so it was quite amazing to see them, but there is definitely something not right about having this sort of animal on a lead by the side of the road.
All in all it was a great day, despite being a little uncomfortable ethically at a couple of points.
Tomorrow we catch a train to Ella right up in the hills. Both the journey and the destination are meant to be beautiful, so we are very much looking forward to it.
There are a couple of interesting sites along this road, so we arranged to pop in on our way past.
Nalanda is a very pretty little ruined Buddhist temple in the forest. Our next stop, Aluvihara is a series of monastic caves built into rock. The paintings in one of these caves show devils punishing sinners in hell. One picture shows people being hammered onto a thorn tree; it is certainly enough to put you off misbehaving! The next cave had nearly life-size models of the pictures. Gruesome!! Our final stop was at a Hindu temple in Matale. The detail in the images is incredible and we were fortunate to be able to look around during a service.
After considerable hunting, we found our accommodation, a quiet spot tucked away in the Kandy hills. It was so peaceful that we decided to relax there for the afternoon. Eleanor and Leo spent most of it playing with the owners and their family while we caught up on blog posts and photos. The evening meal was delicious, Adrian's desire for Sri Lankan curry is at least partially quenched.
We visited the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, where one if Buddha's teeth is kept. The story goes that it was snatched from the fire of his cremation and smuggled into Sri Lanka in a princess' hair. It has moved around Sri Lanka and occasionally been pinched, but now rests in Kandy. The temple is beautiful and right on the edge of Kandy Lake, so after our visit we went for a short walk around the lake.
The New Zealand cricket team were in Kandy while we were there, but as we didn't have time to get to a 20/20 match, we will try to get tickets to one day of the test in Galle next week.
We changed accommodation that afternoon (as we left it too late to book a place for three nights!) and spent the rest of the day sitting on our new balcony listening to the river and watching the rain. At night the sound of nature is incredibly loud; the river, birds and insects are all competing. We had to speak up to hear each other across a small coffee table. What way to spend a couple of evenings.
This guest house is run by a couple with three children aged between 18 and seven. They are all great with Eleanor and Leo, but Jason (the seven year old) must have wondered what hit him when his father told him to play with Eleanor and he spent the rest of his afternoon being bossed around by a three year old! Leo takes a little longer to warm up, but once he relaxes he is almost as involved in it all as Eleanor. They were so busy playing together that we were hardly needed, so had a real holiday.
The next morning we visited Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage, where they have about 80 elephants of all ages, including two tiny (relatively speaking!) ones recently rescued from agricultural wells. Eleanor and Leo had a great time watching them eat and bathe in the river; a beautiful sight! They even had the opportunity to feed an elephant bananas which was quite a thrill, although Eleanor was a bit scared when it got close.
We loved being able to get so close, but did think the elephants must have an awful lot of human contact. It was also sad to see an elephant tethered when he clearly didn't want to be, even if if was only so he could drink his milk. Maybe if visitors were kept further away it wouldn't have been necessary.
On our way to the orphanage we found a couple beside the road with two porcupines, so we stopped for a look. They were healthy looking and tame, so it was quite amazing to see them, but there is definitely something not right about having this sort of animal on a lead by the side of the road.
All in all it was a great day, despite being a little uncomfortable ethically at a couple of points.
Tomorrow we catch a train to Ella right up in the hills. Both the journey and the destination are meant to be beautiful, so we are very much looking forward to it.
2012 11 Dambulla & Sigiriya, Sri Lanka
2012 11 Dambulla & Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, a set on Flickr.
Photos from our visits to Dambulla and Sigiriya. Click the link to view all 53 photos.Dambulla and Sigiriya
As we arrived at our hotel in Dambulla in the mid afternoon, we dropped our bags at the hotel and grabbed a tuk tuk to the cave temples. It is a decent 200 meter uphill walk, which Eleanor managed all of by herself with just a little convincing.
There are five caves containing about 150 Buddha images in total and the interiors are beautifully painted. The caves were converted into temples in the first century BC and changes have been made by successive kings over the years. They are fascinating and the view from the top out over the countryside towards Sigiriya is amazing.
Afterwards we returned to the hotel for a swim in the pool. A storm started just as we left our room, so we swam in the rain until the first flash of lightening then got out, much to Eleanor's annoyance. In our defence, we did not want to risk being fried!
The following morning Rolland drove us to visit the rock fortress at Sigiriya. It is a huge rock in the middle of flat land that archeologists think it has been used as a monastery since the 3rd century BC, while locals believe it was a royal palace.
The hike to the top is massive, climbing numerous stairs (someone told me it is 2400; I didn't count, but it didn't feel like that many) through gardens and via some beautiful frescos. Eleanor walked the majority, but it was too much for Leo, so Adrian carried him most of the way up. We were sweating buckets by the time we finished the climb.
Near the top, there are two huge lion's paws that were once part of a massive crouching lion; people would have walked through the paws and into its mouth to climb the final stretch. It must have been incredibly intimidating!
At the summit there are amazing views, the remains of some buildings and a throne/meditation seat depending on your perspective.
We were all exhausted after the climb, so had a rest before another swim in the late afternoon. Perfect for cooling off!
That night we said goodbye to Rolland, who was heading back to Anuradhapura to collect his next tourists and booked a driver to take us to Kandy the following day.
There are five caves containing about 150 Buddha images in total and the interiors are beautifully painted. The caves were converted into temples in the first century BC and changes have been made by successive kings over the years. They are fascinating and the view from the top out over the countryside towards Sigiriya is amazing.
Afterwards we returned to the hotel for a swim in the pool. A storm started just as we left our room, so we swam in the rain until the first flash of lightening then got out, much to Eleanor's annoyance. In our defence, we did not want to risk being fried!
The following morning Rolland drove us to visit the rock fortress at Sigiriya. It is a huge rock in the middle of flat land that archeologists think it has been used as a monastery since the 3rd century BC, while locals believe it was a royal palace.
The hike to the top is massive, climbing numerous stairs (someone told me it is 2400; I didn't count, but it didn't feel like that many) through gardens and via some beautiful frescos. Eleanor walked the majority, but it was too much for Leo, so Adrian carried him most of the way up. We were sweating buckets by the time we finished the climb.
Near the top, there are two huge lion's paws that were once part of a massive crouching lion; people would have walked through the paws and into its mouth to climb the final stretch. It must have been incredibly intimidating!
At the summit there are amazing views, the remains of some buildings and a throne/meditation seat depending on your perspective.
We were all exhausted after the climb, so had a rest before another swim in the late afternoon. Perfect for cooling off!
That night we said goodbye to Rolland, who was heading back to Anuradhapura to collect his next tourists and booked a driver to take us to Kandy the following day.
2012 11 Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
2012 11 Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, a set on Flickr.
148 photos from our time in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
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