Sri Lanka

Over breakfast our host, working through a massive pile of curry (“Work hard, eat lots!”), told us his backstory. Joined the navy at 18, at 29 he was sent on a two week navigation course in South Korea. After ten days he went AWOL, then spent the next eight years working illegally, saving up enough

My first truly terrible night’s sleep since we arrived, the bed having all the comfy snugness of a slab of granite with a sheet on, but I did feel a bit bad after our host directly asked me how I’d slept and I told him. Poor chap looked so crestfallen. I do have a regrettable

Got a tuk tuk from the hotel (left a half-decent review after I calmed down), and the driver asked where we were going. We said Dambulla, and he dropped us off right by the right bus. Out of maybe 30 in a row. Saving us a load of hassle and effort with our rucksacks in

Full on day today. Started out by taking a trip to the local wildlife park, where we hired a couple of bikes and set off down the wibbly-wobbly path, initially seeing bugger all by way of wildlife, but lots of lovely nature – trees & creepers & that. Lots of birds, but we couldn’t actually

The one thing you really have to do in Kandy is visit the Temple of The Tooth. The tooth, that is to say, that was retrieved from the funeral pyre of the Buddha, and transported via a circuitous series of adventures to become the most venerated object in Sri Lanka. So we did it. We

Oh yes. Another travelling day today. Couldn’t get any kind of sense out of Google, which seems somehow to be oblivious to the fact that the massive storms of a couple of months ago have taken out the main train line, and kept insisting the train was the way to go. No biggy: we just

Definitely our most gruelling day so far, climbing up Ella Rock. The guides said it’s not for the faint hearted, and they weren’t kidding. It didn’t help that, as a blog or two had warned, the way up isn’t clear, and sure enough we missed it. We were still headed in more or less the

Funny old day.  On Eugenia’s recommendation, we decided to go to Dunhinda Falls. It sounded like the timing would be a bit tight – just one train there and one back and only two or three hours in between to get to the waterfall – but what the heck, let’s do it. Got to the

Who knew. And so much for that. Got to Ella late afternoon yesterday after a four hour coach ride along featureless motorways through featureless jungle followed by a long, grinding, winding haul up into the hills. The town itself, a ‘backpackers paradise’ according to the guide book, turned out to be the kind of place

Not much to say about today. We caught the bus to Ella. That’s about it. So, two weeks in, a few impressions of Sri Lanka… First and foremost, Sri Lankan people are lovely. Everywhere we go we’re met with smiles and kindness, (“Hello!”) and when people see you confused, they rush to help. The heat