Week One

Mount Breeze hotel, Ella

19c and tipping down

I'm wearing socks

First things first, trying to get the keyboard to attach to the phone AND find a comfortable position in which to type. Some things are never easy.

We arrived January 1st after a gruelling 32 hour journey beginning with a 3.5 hour coach trip from Bristol to Heathrow.  It ended with us arriving in Negombo at 7pm the following day.  It was dark, and raining but 25c, so that's alright then.

These days we like to take a day or two to settle in to a country, get over the jet lag and get our heads around the money, climate and general ambience of the place.  It was 1990 and the civil war was raging the last time we were here, the population has grown from 17mn in the early 90s to almost 23mn today, they've had the devastation of the tsunami in 2004 plus all the government ills of two years ago.  The people of Sri Lanka are paying the price for a reckless, corrupt government is the story we are hearing over and over.

Our trip started out at Lucky's place in Negombo, where we bumped into Lucy, just about to start a 12 day tour with a group of likeminded people, we spent the day wandering the beach, drinking juices and generally chatting.  Sitting on our balcony in the evening we spotted fireflies, bats and an owl flitting around.  The giant Fruit Bat we had spotted during the day hanging from a wire we have since decided was probably dead.  They generally hang around in large groups and are a real sight to behold when they decide it's time to depart.  Proper Alfred Hitchcock moment.

Train journeys are cheap and are one of the best ways of getting around the island.  HOWEVER, they are not as reliable as everyone would like and they are subject to all kinds of shenanigans when purchasing tickets for the popular, scenic routes.  

Tickets, with seat reservations, go on sale 30 days in advance, at which point banks of people, employed by agents and touts, man\woman the internet to purchase tickets.  At 0.75p for an 8 hour journey, they are super cheap but can be sold on the black market to desperate tourists for many times that price.  We heard of a guy who paid 20 quid (just discovered the GBP sign doesn't work) for a part journey in 1st class.  Anyways, if you're not prepared to pay the touts, but want to take the train then you have to join everyone else in the queue for the 2/3 class tickets which go on sale on the day and they do not sell out.  For as long as people are buying they are selling, which makes life interesting when getting onto the train and the inevitable scramble for seats.  Dave was far too polite and it was up to me and my elbows to do the shoving.  Phew, we actually got a seat on the Colombo to Habarana section however we weren't so lucky on the extremely scenic Nuwara Elliya to Ella section, where we stood for the whole 3.5 hours.  The views were incredible, tea as far as the eye can see, sholas, neatly laid out on precipitous slopes; it's hard work picking tea.  

Habarana, where we decided to base ourselves for Sigiriya, is not a tourist destination and as such not very well served by accommodation or restaurants etc, but it was fine for a couple of nights.  We climbed Sigiriya (Lion's Rock) back in 1990 so this time decided to climb Pendrigala, to get a bird's eye view of Lions Rock.  These two massive rocks rise up from the surrounding plains majestically.  There is a reclining Buddha almost at the summit of Pendrigala and a temple at the base.  It was a hot climb and my legs were complaining for several days afterwards, but we're glad we did it.

We took a taxi from Habarana to Kandy, having decided that while we prefer to take public transport we needed to give ourselves a break ocasionally and not subject ourselves to a whole day of sweatiness to go somewhere that we could do in 2.5 hours. 

Kandy is Sri Lanka's 2nd largest city, it's where Buddha's tooth is, a very sacred site for Buddhists.   The lake is beautiful and full of wildlife, we spotted Kingfishers, Land Monitors, Turtles, Cormorants, Little Herons and even a Pelican.  We managed to avoid the offerings of the tuk tuk drivers, preferring to walk everywhere.  

It was in Kandy we both started to feel yucky.  Head colds extraordinaire

 so decided to stay on for an extra night but go to a backpackers hostel as we were missing the whole traveller's vibe.  It was basic, as they always are, but the family running it were wonderful.  In the evening there was a cookery demonstration and every one got to eat afterwards.  Five of us were interested enough to join in the demo and help with the creation, breadfruit curry with fresh coconut, spinach curry, rice and popadoms and a coconut sambal.  Absolutely delicious.

We thought having the Uber and Pickme apps would make life easier when it came to negotiating fares but no, they still want to negotiate even when theyv'e accepted a fare.  We've discovered it's really only a starting point. So off to Nuwara Elliya (aka Little England) we sped in our tiny red, beaten up Muruti taxi, up to one of the highest points in Sri Lanka.  Out came the Rab down jackets for the first time this trip and on went the longies and the socks.  Of all the places this was the one I remembered most about.  I recalled going to the library to look up a butterfly we had seen and was pleasantly surprised to see the library is still there.  We're not sure sure if The Polo Club we remembered refusing to go into because the sign on the door said 'no locals allowed' is a figment of our imagination, or, whether it did exist but is long gone.  The Golf Club survives as does the Post Office and the clock tower.  Little England indeed, a touch of Dorset in the architecture.

The train journey from Nuwara Elliya to Ella is without doubt spectacular, even if one is standing in a squished carriage with the great unwashed. We've been lucky enough to have cycled several routes around tea plantations in Sri Lanka and India.  We've met the women (and they were all women) picking tea, a hessian sack strapped to their forehead.  When the sack is full they tie it up and leave it at a specific point where a man (yes, always a man) driving a little bike with a trolley will pick them up, take them back to the factory and weigh them.  They get paid by the weight.  Most workers have tied accommodation and the plantations also provide schooling and medical care.  It's a family thing, I believe there are similar set ups for railway workers just like there was in the UK back in the 50s and 60s.  My family lived in British Railway flats for years until they were sold off to the council. 

Ella at first sight reminded us of Kuta in Bali.  This is the first true backpacker area wev'e been to in Sri Lanka.  Lots of reggae music, extortionate prices for simple dishes and plenty of elephant trousers.  Some travellers have a complete aversion to these kind of places, we quite like them for a day or two.  

Our plan today was to walk to the viewpoint to see the famous Bridge and watch a train go over it.  That has been completely scuppered by monsoon-like rains.  It's supposed to be the dry season but as we know, the world's climate is at the very best unpredictable and at the worst devastating for communities.  Yala National Park, one of Sri Lanka's main tourist attractions, has been closed because of waterlogging as the vehicles are getting bogged down.  We learnt this morning at breakfast that the road to Bundala Bird Sanctuary has been closed due to flooding, so we'll have to find a different route down south and get our bird sanctuary fix another time, hopefully in India.

Talking of birds, while I've been sitting here typing a Loten's Sunbird (aka Long Billed Sunbird) has been hopping around the shrub in front of our balcony.  It has beautiful iridescent blue feathers on it's back and a very long, hooked beak.  We've also spotted a pair of Red Vented Bul Buls, very distinctive with their crested heads.  

It's still raining.  We'll have to venture out at some point later today to get food, we've got umbrellas but unless it lightens up a bit we're going to get wet anyway.  Hey ho, the joys of travelling in sub tropical countries.  There's a reason Sri Lanka is beautifully green.

Laters