Sri Lanka and After

Our last update we were on our way to Penang to get our visas for India. Well, that didn't happen! We were informed that as we were only in Malaysia on a tourist visa we could not get a visa for India. Our only option was to get a 30 day e-visa which is what we have done.

Our new batteries arrived and were fitted relatively easily, thankfully. After a little sightseeing we headed  back north from Penang in preparation for our trip to Sri Lanka.

We flew to Sri Lanka on 24 November. It was a tedious journey. Air Asia changed the time of our flight from Kuala Lumpur so we had a 10 hour wait for our flight. This meant we arrived at Colombo at 10pm. The taxi had problems finding our hotel and ended up dropping us around the back which was a bit off putting as we had to practically step over sleeping bodies to get to the entrance. Once inside it was fine and when we explored the following morning we found it was very handy for the train and for sightseeing.

We left Colombo the same day by train and headed to the ancient city of Anuradapura. The train was OK except for the huge cockroach that was walking around our feet. Every time I moved my feet to avoid it the guy opposite took it as a sign that he could occupy all my leg room!  We hired bicycles to see Anuradapura so set off early to avoid the heat. When we got to the museum to buy our tickets we had to sit and wait for the ticket lady to eat her breakfast! We had a nice cycle through the countryside to see a number of Bagodas (big stupas). Most of the other buildings were just walls in ruins and were hidden in the trees.

Our next stop was a local bus ride to Polonnuwara which is another ancient city. This one was better preserved and a more compact site. Entry to both sites was $25 each which was a bit steep considering what there was to see. Another bus trip took us to Dambulla.  The buses are very cheap but going on them is quite an experience. They are usually crammed full. The seats are for 3 very small people and plastic so it gets very hot. The drivers are complete maniacs. They drive at full acceleration and then brake as hard as they can when they need to stop. The have 2 horns and could quite easily wear them both out in a day and they overtake whenever they want to. It doesn't matter if its a blind corner or if anything is coming the other way. Its best not to sit to near the front as the less you can see the better but at the back you get bounced out of your seat and can easily feel sick!

At Dambulla we visited a Buddhist cave temple and probably one of our highlights, Sigiriya. It cost $35 each to go to Sigiriya but it was one of the few places we didn't mind being charged a fortune as it was so amazing. Sigiriya is an ancient city that was built on the top of a 800m monolith. Not for those who suffer from vertigo! There are also amazing water gardens around the base of the rock and rock art part way up the vertical sides. Certainly worth a visit.

Our next stop was the previous capital, Kandy. Our hotel was slightly out of the city which was a good move as the whole place is full of traffic and very noisy. The roads only have 2 lanes but most of the time there is about 7 lines of traffic (mainly tuk tuks) all jostling for position! Our first day we went to the botanical gardens and the following day we had planned a hike in the Knuckles Range. We were aware there may be leeches so went prepared with long trousers tucked into our socks and velcro around the socks to stop anything getting down them. Our shirts were tucked into our trousers. The guides sprayed our boots and socks with a dettol and water solution and off we set.

The walk was down a wide road/track to a lookout point. The guides were soon showing us leeches and they were much smaller and thinner than we had envisaged. I (Karen) was walking with a pole and had a fright when a leech was suddenly on my hand having worked its was up the pole. Slightly later the guides were behind me and noticed my trousers and sock covered in blood. When we investigated 2 leeches had burrowed their way through my walking socks. They were sprayed with dettol to remove them. It spoilt the walk having  to keep looking at your feet to remove leeches. It was also a bit disappointing as it was no where near as long as we expected and the route back was the same way as that we had already walked.

We had a another day in Kandy and decided that this was too long a stay. Our hotel recommended a walk in a park overlooking the city. We were given a map and set off on a well signposted trail. The walk was circular but part way around the signposts disappeared. We took what looked like a wide track down the hill and started walking. We then discovered it was leech alley, they were everywhere. We walked quickly so as not to give them an opportunity to get on us and then had short stops to inspect each others legs. After about a mile the path just fizzled out and we had no choice but to run the gauntlet back. It was up hill but we were  practically running just to escape the leeches. We had no choice but to retrace our route the whole way making it a much longer walk than intended!

In the evening we went to see a Kandian dance show. We are not sure we ended up where we intended as we were charged a lot of money to see an am dram performance that didn't even last an hour. The area around the lake in Kandy is quite pretty but we never made it to see the Temple of the Tooth which is a very important Buddhist temple. We have just seen one to many Buddhas in our travels this year!

We had a luxurious (relatively) trip from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya on an air conditioned coach. It was slightly more expensive than the bus and we had to buy a seat for each of our bags but it was still cheap. The route was very scenic with lots of tea plantations and very hilly. Nuwara Eliya is called Little England as it has a British climate due to its altitude. True to its name it rained a lot and  was very cold. We had to ask for an extra blanket for our bed and we purchased thick woolly hats to wear.

We had a trip to Hortons Plains and Worlds End planned from Nuwara Eliya. We were collected at 5.30am so we had multiple layers of clothes on and our new hats. There is supposed to be lots of wildlife at Hortons Plains but you don't see it as there are too many people. It was a nice walk, again with bad signage but the view at Worlds End was lovely and clear. The reason for the early start is that the view clouds up as the sun rises and as it was the rainy season, it rains every afternoon.

Our exit from Nuwara Eliya was by train. The trip to Ella is a very scenic railway ride. In fact it is so popular that all we could get were 3rd class tickets which were fine. Nuwara Eliya station is memorable for one of the worst toilets of the holiday. In general the public toilets in Sri Lanka were pretty bad but the ones in Nuwara Eliya were horrible. I think the prize for the worst ones goes to Galle station though where the smell was so bad that I never even made it anywhere near the door!

In Ella we had chosen a small hotel which according to Booking.com had amazing views. It did have the views but what we failed to realise was that to get to it we had to climb from the road up a series of steps followed by a track that was so steep that if it was a ski run it would be a black! By the time we got to the place we needed oxygen! And to top it all, a leech had got into my sandals and had a suck between my toes!  Each time we did the walk to and from the hotel one of us had a leech on us (most often Mike). It was difficult to feel relaxed as we always worried about the ones we hadn't found!

Despite the trials of the hotel we visited a tea factory which was very interesting and walked up Little Adams peak which has lovely views. Our stay in Ella also ended badly. The bus from Ella to Tissa (town near Yala NP) was full when it arrived at the stop. We were all shoe horned onto the bus with some people standing on the steps not even being able to get onto the bus properly. The driver made no concessions to the fact that we were all wet (from the heavy rain) sardines with nothing to hold onto and we were thrown around every time he slammed his breaks on and then re-accelerated. It is probably the closest we have both come to loosing it. Tempers get a bit short when you are enduring those conditions and then it's made worse by locals who have no concept of waiting and just push passed you. In fact, the locals just have no concept of personal space at all. We were charged quite a lot for this horrendous drive and then were kicked off in a town somewhere to change buses. A  relief as at least we got a seat on the next bus!

We had a full day booked in Yala NP starting at 4.30am (and we didn't get back until 7pm). We had an excellent guide and saw lots of amazing birds, Sloth bear, Elephant and a very distant Leopard. The roads in the park are definitely only for 4 wheel drive vehicles. Some of the roads were actually rivers due to the amount of rain. An excellent day and well worth the visit.

The following day we had an afternoon safari booked in Bundala which is quieter than Yala and supposedly better for birds. We saw very few birds (we saw much more in Yala) but did see lots of monkeys and Elephants. A second day at Yala would probably have been better but you never know.

Our last stop before we got back to Columbo was Galle. An extremely touristy old Portuguese fort town.  It is full of gem shops and expensive restaurants. Nice to see but not worth staying more than a day.

We didn't see much in Columbo other than the independence monument and the park. By this time we had ran out of steam and decided our stay in Sri Lanka had been about a week too long. We had eaten enough curry and rice and wanted our comfortable bed back.

Our memories of Sri Lanka are of an expensive place where prices for accommodation are at least double the price in other parts of Asia and the cost of food is the same as the UK (unless you live on curry and rice). They think their monuments are better than they are, otherwise why do they charge soooo much to get into them, and finally leeches. Against that the wildlife is amazing and Sigiriya verges on a Wonder of the World!

We returned to the boat just before Christmas. We spent Christmas day at Rebak resort. They provide a Christmas brunch with sparkling wine so we went along with friends Sharon and Lindsay off Songlines. We then met up with them again for New Year when a group of 10 of us went out for a meal in Kuah before seeing the New year in on Songlines.

Since then we have been working hard on the boat trying to do much needed internal varnishing. We are also staring to get the boat ready for its big trip across the Indian Ocean.

We are now in Pangkor where we are leaving the boat to fly to India tomorrow. We are staying 30 days in India and then fly to Kathmandu to hopefully walk the Annapurna circuit. This will probably be our last update until we return from Nepal in mid April.

Happy 2016 everyone.