Busy

What a day! Today went something like this...
Wake, shower, call mum for her birthday (happy birthday mum! 🎂), breakfast and then off in a tuk tuk to a lace seller. Turns out in a bit of a fan of home made lace! I bought a lovely nightgown and a white shirt that took a lot of hand work to make!
After that we left Mirissa for Galle. We made two stops along the way. The first was to see some fisherman on stilts. This form of fishing is quite old, and is no longer in use.. But... You can pay to take photos of three old men sitting on the stilts pending to fish. Its quite hilarious actually as the couple who came to Galle a day early said the fisherman 'caught' exactly the same fish we saw him catch today. Matish, our guide says if these guys catch anything these days, its a complete accident!
After that ten minute stop, we drove to Matish's house where his wife and mother cooked the whole group lunch. It was absolutely delicious! Luckily I had some children's gifts from home that I wasn't supposed to share on our hike, so I passed them on to his two daughters, Aurora and Pollyanna, who had a great hour or two playing with jumbo chalk on the lounge floor (cement) and covering themselves in texts (5.5yrs and 2.5yrs old... As you can guess it was mainly Pollyanna, the younger one who thought it great fun to black texta both her hands!).
After lunch we came to Galle. Where staying at one of the many hotels that are situated inside a fort. Its actually pretty cool. Also, the shops are fancy (normal) and the streets are clean (and the prices are very western... Not what we've been used to!).
Still it was lively to walk around before our fort sunset walk. We walked the perimeter of the fort and watched a bit of a sad sunset as it was quite cloudy tonight. Still I think I took a hundred sunset photos!
Tonight's dinner was a delicious seafood number (Sarah had the most devine fish, like a whole fish, cooked in a lime cream sauce - yum!).
Anyway, ita been a long day and we have a really early start tomorrow on what will be our last day of the tour.
Until then,
A x

Lazy day in the sun

What a lazy day we had today. It was a free day to explore Mirissa, so Sarah and I set off before the heat to explore the area. We ended up walking somewhere between 4-5kms towards what we had hoped was a small village which had some lace makers. No such luck! It was just another little town like any other. So we walked back some of the way via the beach, before finally resting our feet and taking a tuk tuk back to the hotel.
After a quick swim we headed to lunch across the road where we sat and enjoyed the water lapping at our feet (literally, it was high tide and the waiters kept moving the tables and chairs further away from the water while we ate!).
Then it was another swim and a nap for me.
Yep a seriously lazy day in Sri Lanka.
Tomorrow we head to Galle. Our last stop before our final night in Colombo.
Until then,
A x

Transit day

Yesterday saw us leave our lively hotel for a 7hr transfer. While it seems like a long time we had heaps of stops. The first was to a waterfall. Which was lovely, but nothing like those we saw in Scandinavia. The next stop was for a supermarket and atm (important holiday business), then a tea stop (because clearly we haven't already drunk our body weights in tea yet) and then to an elephant orphanage.
The orphanage was really great. We were there for the 12pm feeding session where all the baby elephants and a few of the older ones with issues, come in to a central feeding station for milk and fresh tree leaves. They were also able to splash around in the water to cool down. All up there were about 50 elephants. The oldest one had a stump for one of uts legs as it had been injured by a landmine. They made up a prosthetic for it and it seemed quite happy being the first to be fed for the day :)
After our elephant stop we had a quick lunch at a local bakery (takeaway style) before heading to our destination for the next two nights, Mirissa. This is our last two night stop as the tour is almost over. The beach is lovely, and not nearly as calm as we were told. Its also not as clear, so while I've enjoyed walking along it and sticking my feet in, I've also been just as happy to swim in our rooftop swimming pool which looks out to the ocean.
Today is a free day, so Sarah and I plan to explore the closer villages (on foot or by bike, we haven't yet decided).
Love to all,
A

Up, up and away...

The last two days have seen the group hiking. Yesterday was a 9.5km hike that saw us go from 1600+ meters above sea level and rise to the highest point of our walk at 1950ish meters above sea level. The hike wasn't difficult, it was just humid and warm.. Even though I thought being that high would make it cooler, I was clearly mistaken.
At that high above sea level we were actually walking in the clouds. Which was totally amazing to experience. The views were breath taking.. Unfortunately I didn't take many on my phone, but the good camera managed to capture a lot of it.
Along the walk (on a Saturday) we managed to catch a lot of locals. Unfortunately no tea picking was going on (the tea is planted on the sides of the steep mountains, with workers working from bottom to top). I don't know how the tea pickers manage it as the slope is really steep and the have to be like mountain goats to get to some of the tea plants. Our local guides for the walk Shiva and Dubula were fountains of knowledge and they pointed out many of the local sites. The tea plantation pickers are quite poor and the villages are quite remote. They earn in a good month about 4500 rupees which is somewhere around $40 a month. Their accommodation is provided, but they tend to be in ramshackle buildings that house multiple families. For instance one building will have 7 families in it. They have one room per family for sleeping,with a communal kitchen and bathroom for all 7 families to share, some have two bathrooms if they are lucky.
The children travel around 3km by foot, up a mountain (not barefoot, but close in thongs) to school and then the 3km back. Intrepid asked us not to give the children any gifts, which disappointed me at first as I had packed some things to give them. After doing the walk now, I can see why.most of them would run out to see us (its a weekend) and the first thing they would ask is if we had pens or pencils to give them. Intrepid has noted that its not good to build their expectations, or to encourage them to not work for what they have. Its so saddening to see all their cute little faces asking for coloured pencils. Our guide also mentioned that some of the children were missing school on weekdays so they could 'meet walking groups' who might have something to give them. Not great, so now I can see why it was suggested we don't give them anything. Still it was tough just to say hello and keep walking.
On arrival to our accommodation for the night we had some free time. This saw the group breaking up for some preferred activities. The dorm style accommodation had no WiFi or tv so we made our own fun. One group played cards,another learnt a local game called carrom (a disk flicking game that's played on a small table, similar to pool, but played in teams with your pointer finger), and crossword puzzle solving. By dinner time, 4hrs later we were all starting to feel weary after a long hike. Dinner was fantastic and afterwards the group continued to lightly party on till the late time of 9pm. I myself was in bed by 8:30 after a cold shower, but did manage to enjoy listening to our two local guides playing the drum and singing some local tunes. The guides sounds lively and the group really got into the music, even pushing furniture out of the way to do some dancing... No idea where that energy came from!
The next day (today - Sunday) was an early start. We were on the road by 7:30am for our final 11.5km hike. Todays hike saw us completing the devils' staircase who has been turned from steps to a road.. It's super steep. It was only a short hike up today.. Around 200meters higher up over about 2km, so not that hard. The rest of the morning was spent walking down hill. I can tell you afterwards my calves are hurting and need a good stretch out tomorrow. The hike took us about 5hrs to complete as we had multiple stops for those who were struggling. Impressively one of our group has been diagnosed with MS and she managed to complete the 11.5km by hold Shiva's hand the whole way. She was really impressive and so was he for his patience! By the end of it she was in severe pain, but she made it. She had a few tears at the end,which made me tear up a bit to. Pretty amazing she had the willpower to do it with numbness in one of her legs for half the walk.
After 3pm we had some free time so Sarah and I showered (best shower ever after the two days we had!) and a short walk around town. There isn't much around so we were happy to chill out at the hotel for an hour before dinner. Tonight we treated our selves to a super fancy dinner! 4 courses at a swanky hotel down the road.. It cost us $18.
Tomorrow we head to the beach via a waterfall (I'm sure it wont be that grand compared to Scandinavia) and a elephant orphanage.
Until then,
A x

Train + cooking demo

Short one today everyone... 7hr train trip took up most of our day. Boy was it long!
When we arrived in our new town Sarah and I stayed in for the hour before our cooking demo... It's a small town and Sarah started to cough like you wouldn't believe last night... Poor thing. She doesn't feel sick... We think it might be a small bout of asthma due to ask the enough and pollution in Kandy.
After that it was cooking demo night. Wahoo! Dinner was just amazing. We chopped our little hearts out, least to make curries, salads and even coconut milk.
Unfortunately they didn't provide recipes so Sarah scribed 9 pages worth in her diary which she let all of us take photos of. All I can say is they use lots of herbs and spices! Still, I'm excited to try them... Maybe mum and I can do a Sri Lankan family dinner one month... Hope you all like chilli!
Until... Two days time when we return to a WiFi zone,
A x
(we are hiking 20km over the next two days and tomorrow nights guesthouse is remote and dormitory style so I'm guessing no WiFi)

My 20,000+ step day

Today started off with a tour of a tea factory. We learnt:
* ladies puck tea by hand and can pick between 25-30kg each per day!
* leaves are air compressor dried for 20hrs, handing turning them in batches of 1.5 tonnes, every 6hrs to reduce the tea leaf moisture by 50%
* tea is then rolled, squished, and rolled again, then finally chopped
* its then sun dried for 2.5hrs to turn black
* then its sifted to removed as many small stalks as possible
* then its sorted again, and again, to get rid of more stalks, until finally you're left with largish loose-leaf tea
* the dust that is left behind is inferior and sold to tea companies like Dilmah and Lipton who put it into tea bags!
Of course I bought a little bit of tea to take home :)
After that Sarah and i explored the hot, congested city. Where we were hassled to buy all sort of things, but luckily resisted. Faced with an entire free afternoon we thought it bust to take a tuk tuk to the royal botanical gardens and hang out there this afternoon. It was beautiful and peaceful and the orchid garden was a clear favourite.
Later today we met back with the group to see some traditional dancing, which included fire walking. It was ok.. But I wrote this post while there.. So not that fantastic... according to me.
After that we went to... Another temple! We are all adoring wearing our temple clothes in this heat! The temple was great. It has the left tooth of someone famous in it. We were all herded in to the temple to see this holy relic, only to be moved along after standing in front of it for less than two seconds! I kid you not, I hardly broke my walk while going past it. It turns out its housed in a golden shaped egg, but I have no idea what that egg looks like as I only caught a glimpse. We have all had to google it, or buy a postcard. Absolutely hilarious!
Tomorrow is a 7 hr train trip, followed by a cooking demonstration.
Until then.
A x

Lion's paw and spice farm

Another day in Sri Lanka, another early start! Today at 6:30am we met to go to Sigiriya. An awesome royal complex used around 500 AD. The site is up, up, up, on a hill and was quite a lot of steps to climb. Thank goodness it was early and slightly windy.. Perfect walking weather. Up towards the top we got to see some cave paintings that are still in great shape, 1600 years later. Unfortunately no photos as they are trying to preserve the frescoes. After that it was a hike up more stairs to the actual lion's paws. The view was spectacular.. Unfortunately I got a touch of vertigo and couldn't stomach the 30min climb further up the rock. Still it was fun.. And the sower afterwards was also enjoyable!
The afternoon saw us move to Kandy, stopping at a spice farm along the way.
The spice farm was fantastic! We got a lesson in local plants and their medicinal uses. A short lesson on cocoa trees, turmeric, peppercorns, ginger and cinnamon. We also got mini massages and of course the hard sell, which I totally fell for! Lots of purchases, which I hope will work.. Dad I have something for you to try :)
I managed to buy some lovely tea mix and even some curry spices which I cant wait to try out... When I get back home and after this curry coma wears off!
Sorry for all the posts at once as you can guess 'wifi' in Sri Lanka can also be a bit 'quirky'.
A x

Lets keep it real people

Ok, ok, so by now Sri Lanka is sounding all peachy! And it is, but here's a few home truths.. Its hot and humid, bloody humid! You cant be outside and standing without sweating! You drink copious amounts of water and hardly need to use the bathroom.
The food is awesome, but they eat curry and rice for at least two of the three meals a day, and sometime even for breakfast! Its craziness!
The showers are always interesting.. The hotel on day two had no hot water, and even though its hot, a lukewarm shower is better than freezing cold.
When it rains, it pours! Like buckets! You cant see 20 meters in front of you!
The roads are great, but drivers like to overtake on solid lines and so I've found its best not to look lol. Its perfectly safe as people on the opposite side of the road move to the side when a car coming in the opposite direction is on their side of the road.
No two power sockets are the same. Sri Lanka has like three different power outlets... Sometimes in the one room! Its hilarious, and sometimes means you play musical power sockets trying to find one to fit your international plug!
The girls wear ties to school, usually the boys don't. They wear them with a school dress and our guide thinks its for 'modesty' lol
The dogs! In a country of 21 million people there are more then 2 million dogs. They're skinny and manky, and they generally hang out in pairs (and like to bark at Amy in our group alot, because she wears a high pitched mosquito buzzer).
The mozzies are insane in some cities (thank goodness I'm not in one of those cities now).
And tipping... They don't like to be tipped with coins, only notes, even though its local currency.
And that's just some of the Sri Lankan quirks that are making this an amusing trip :)
A x

Elephants! Hundreds of them!

Another day another local bus! This time Sarah and I were smart! Seated on the two seater side of the bus meant we didn't have any of the shenanigans from the day before! This 2.5 local bus ride weren't a bit better and we managed to get to the hotel relatively unscathed.. Of course it was still bumpy, but what can you do! Our private intrepid bus once again followed us and again we thought... Why?
Our early departure and arrival at our next hotel meant we were too early to check in. As we had packed up (pretty terrible breakfast boxes) tea and coffee was in order. From the hotel we jumped straight on to our intrepid bus to go to a beautiful cave monastery. The caves held over 170 Buddha statues in three different caves. The ceilings were beautifully painted and it was so nice and peaceful to wonder around. While we were there we managed to get some monsoonal rain.. Which lasted about 45min and was just amazing to watch. It blew in so quickly, pouring buckets and buckets of rain, and then suddenly clearing to blue sunny skies again. You'd have thought it would have taken the humidity away, but just one hour later it was back!
As the monastery was up on a hill, and I'm prone to slipping (Lara you know how terrible I can be!) I was casually escorted down by two lively Sri Lankan ladies who held my arms while we came down the hill. So lovely of them! Rosie (pretty sure that was her English name!) kept reassuring me I'd be fine.. She must have been around 60, and was wearing thongs on her feet! Her daughters friend had my other arm and she was in high school. I must have looked like a frail old Nonna, but I didn't care... I stayed upright! One in our group did nit. Poor Neil,who has had two knee replacements, did not! :(
Our cave trip was followed by a lively bakery lunch (I couldn't stomach rice and curry again) and a walk around town.
About two hours later we made our way to our optional activity of a wildlife safari. While we didn't see a huge range of animals we did see... Oh about 200 elephants!
I kid you not, the wildlife park was full of them and we managed to get about 20 meters away from them.. They were in herds of around 50-60 and were just everywhere! The wildlife reserve wasn't huge, and yet they all looked like they are living really great.. Happy swinging trunks were seen on all of them!
Dinner.. Cheese and tomato sandwich.. Haha!
A x

Bus rides can be painfully long

Today started with intrepid thinking it was a great idea to make the white people go on a public bus. The point of this, I'm not entirely sure, because our regular private bus followed along behind it. Seemed a waste to me... But hey I guess these are the 'experiences' we pay for. So.. Early morning bus.. I'm half asleep and stupidly I picked the three seater side, and not the two seater side. Poor Sarah had the middle seat and a little old Sri Lankan man who decided to nod on and off on her shoulder, poor girl! It was a long bumpy, 3.5hr ride... So bumpy I think my fitbit clicked over, without my moving! It was an older persons dream.. As all I could think while I was bumping along, was how much the floor vibrated, just like those mats you buy on the shopping channel to circulate the blood in your legs!
After the bus ride we jumped on more bikes (these one seemed to go a bit faster than yesterday's which was nice!). The ride was around some a historic royal site, including a bath, assembly area and what would have been a throne. Really beautiful.
From there we saw the most amazing carved Buddha's, carved out of a giant rock face, they were sitting, standing and lying. Just amazing to imagine them being carved out.. At around 14meters high, it must have taken forever!
There happened to be protests in the area that day, so traffic was diverted and we managed to get banked up when a truck with logs  on it got stuck trying to make a sharp turn. It was lively to see all the locals get out of their cars from hundreds of meters away to  try to push the truck.. Of course there was no such luck as it was massive!! Instead a local came by with a tractor and managed to help the truck start again.. Such community spirit!
After that we had dinner at the place of a local family. The family is quite poor, the 2 daughters are married with children, and they all live with the parents. Our guide called our host, the grandfather who owned the property 'big black brother'. Quite a laugh as he has naturally darker skin than most Sri Lankans! The food was to die for. Home made, mainly on the fire. The money they get from intrepid groups is their only income and the groups visit just 3-4 times a month. It cost us less than $10 Australian dollars and they so appreciated us coming. They taught us how to make daal and coconut roti.
It was a really special night, one not to be forgotten.
A x

If I see one more Stupa...

Today started well.. Early 7am start for a nice bike ride in Anuradhapura. It was a balmy 29 degrees.. And I put the humidity at around 115%. Basically like riding in a swimming pool, but not as pleasant.
Luckily the first pit stop was a magnificent Stupa. For those don't know what that is, its an extremely large dome, which house some type of Buddhist relic. In the case of the first one we saw today it was a whole bowl of relics. You cant go inside and see, but its assumed, or people have faith, that its in there. The stupor is surrounded by large slabs of stone and you have to walk around it bare foot. The first stupa we saw today had thousands of people at it. Entire towns book in a time slot, to march under beautifully long pieces of coloured fabric, which they offer up to the Buddhists and it goes around the first level of the stupa. I'm nit sure if you can see the beautifully coloured fabric in the picture I'm posting today.
After that we saw more stupors! Old ones, newer ones, smaller ones.... I'm a bit stupaed out actually... Its a bit like churches in Europe!
We also saw the world's oldest recorded tree. Who'd have thought it was in Sri Lanka! It was grown from a tree that wad once in India (border changes mean its now in Nepal) and it was planted in 247BC. I was so excited to see it and thought it would be this amazing, sprawling, huge tree... See picture... Quite a disappointment. Oh well!
After that it was a bit more riding (at snails pace) and a light, delicious picnic lunch.
By 2pm we were all hot and bothered, and have since spent the last 4hrs by the hotel pool.
Dinner time!
Much love,
A x

Sri Lanka day 2!

What a day. We had a beautiful breakfast by the swimming pool... Followed by a 5 hr bus trip. Which sounds kind of boring, but it wasn't!
Our trip today included a supermarket stop, which all of you will know is a favourite pastime of mine when visiting another country. I tried my first type of banana today, there are apparently 60+ types of banana in Sri Lanka according to our guide. I'm aiming to try at least 5 different types while I'm here... I don't want to just live on bananas!
After that we went to a family run business that uses the coconut husks to make some amazing things... Like rope! And did you also know that they can make a type of treacle from the coconut  plant... The many uses of coconut in Sri Lanka is amazing and nothing is wasted!
We also went to an amazing temple that is currently being built. No photos sorry.
After that it was a lunch stop on the side of the road...like literally a hut on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere... For a tasty buffet.
Our hotel is another mini oasis.. See picture of hotel pool, which I will be enjoying tomorrow afternoon.
After that we went to the 'birth place of Buddhism' in Sri Lanka. No idea what its called. But I took some nice pictures for you all. ... Unfortunately I missed the money shot of the giant troughs used in the refectory for rice and curry. The rice one was about 70-80 cm deep, about the same wide and about 5 meters long! Crazy. Sorry I completely missed the photo, you'll just all have to visit for yourselves.
After sunset on the top of the hill we went for a most amazing meal at a local restaurant. Paid top dollar... $3.50 Australian! My taste buds are slowly getting used to all of this chilli.
Until tomorrow.
A 

Touch down... Colombo

Before I even get to Colombo, could I just give a shout out to the airport shuttle bus driver.. I knew this trip was going to be a good one when the bus driver started his journey with 'apologies to all those on board, this trip usually takes 25min, but tonight there seems to be a lot of traffic on the road. Don't worry though... We have WiFi onboard... Or... You could all just talk to each other, how nice would that be!'. A few chuckles later off we went...

I think this has set the tone of the trip. My new Sri Lankan travellers are all great 'talkers'.

I unknowingly encountered the first at the Melbourne airport when she tried to give me a worn tatty copy of a book she had just finished. Since then we have spent the afternoon in Sri Lanka discussing her life woes. All good though, she's vey lovely!

Ok. Group make up for Lara!

12 travellers
1-2 are Sarah and I (Aussies)
3-4 are Sandra and Trevor, she lady of leisure, he an engineer (Aussies)
5 is Debbie, semi-retired teacher I think... Older empty nester (Aussie)
6 is Donna for Scotland and travelling around for three months
7 is Neil, retired navy officer from Perth
8 is Bidi... And I'm actually not sure that is her name, possibly retired (Auckland)
9 is Lidia, my arvo buddy, retired from illness, has been homeless, may be again, but super optimistic! (Margaret river, W.A)
10 is not Camilla but Cosima? (pronounced Cosema?) no story yet (Aussie)
11 is Marita, prep teacher from Melbourne suburbs
And
12 is Amy(?) a very beautiful blonde high school teacher of 7-10 and runs her own theatre company (Melbourne)

Our guide is Matish, a Li ely Sri Lankan guy, who's assistant (baggage collection, bus tidier, etc) is Hemah(? Hymeh?) and the driver Lal.

And that's all in a nutshell. Everyone is super travelled and are great talkers. No sense of this being a quiet trip.

Ok, generally Sri Lankan musings...

Its hot, like walk off the plane, slap you in the face, deep inhale hot!

The shower (in my hotel) and I have had a spitting competition, I won on all accounts (you cant even call it a trickle!).

Mosquitos are everywhere.. Like 8 bites in my room and counting... Dengue fever season has started. Cases in three of the places we visit.... Tell me, why the heck did I get a polio shot and not something for dengue fever! Ugh

The food has been truly delicious. Lunch was a prawn noodle salad, and dinner was a devilish calamari with rice. Attaching food photos!

Tomorrow is a lovely start to the trip with an 8:30am leave time. Breakfast from 7am. More on tomorrow... Tomorrow!

Must be up shortly.

A xox