Upon arriving in Colombo at 2.30am on a Monday morning the contrast to India was immediately apparent - enormous flood lit Buddha’s gazed serenely down on us as we marveled at the paved roads! The minimal rubbish along the streets! The lack of homeless people! The sweet scent of tropical flowers! The 30 degree temperature!
(This makes India sound terrible – it really isn’t. In staunch defense of India there are hot showers there, unlike in Sri Lanka where the freezing shower water appears to be imported directly from Antarctica.)
We had only ten days to explore this beautiful country so we spent it in a whirlwind of activity. From Colombo we travelled north-east to Kurunegala where we stayed for a few days with Namal and Neromi, the extremely hospitable uncle and aunt of Megan, a friend of mine from high-school. Happily for us they own a restaurant which is close to their home and a huge range of mouth-watering Sri Lankan dishes was sent up to the house for dinner every evening – usually comprising of dahl, sambal, the most amazing bread and a wide selection of curries.
Our first day of exploring started inauspiciously and heartbreakingly with a flat motorbike battery followed by witnessing a puppy hit and run! It improved significantly after that – we visited the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage where we got to feed baby elephants and then follow the herd to a river where they bathed. Shockingly not a single elephant sucked up the water in its trunk and then splashed it over its back – I was appalled that cartoons had been lying to me all these years!! There is still hope - somebody said that as the older elephants were orphans they may not have been taught this behavior by their parents and therefore would not be able to pass it down to their own children.
After tearing ourselves away from the elephants we headed to the majestic Temple of the Tooth in Kandy – a world renowned pilgrimage site that houses one of Buddha’s teeth (the tooth survived multiple attempts at destruction and is hidden from view, much like the body of St Francis Xavier in Goa). The vehicle emissions standards in Sri Lanka are not what they could be, which meant that after a day on the motorbike our faces were streaked black from the fumes of other vehicles on the road and we looked like chimney sweeps from 18th century England.
Our next explorations were ruin oriented – at an extremely early hour of the morning we climbed Sigiriya – a 370 metre tall ancient rock that was once the site of an epic pleasure palace/fort. On the way up we were dazzled by the murals of the Kings harem and by the mirror wall, a polished wall of rock on which visitors to Sigiriya from the 12th century onwards poetically carved their feelings of admiration for Sigiriya (it was neat seeing the devolution of the graffiti – the poetry generally declined over time and by the late 1800s the “Mark Robbins 11/4/1889” type stuff had started appearing). The 360 degree views from the top were incredible.
We jumped on the bus to Polonnaruwa where we had an incredibly lovely afternoon cycling around the ruins of the ancient city, which was the largest in southern Asia in its hey day. We took in the last ruin as the sun set and as night fell this enchanting place revealed its dark side (pun definitely intended). There were no street lights so we couldn’t see more than 3 metres ahead of us, and the air was suddenly thick with flies to the extent that it was incredibly difficult to keep them out of our eyes and mouths. We were managing these hazards reasonably well by cycling slowly and not talking when suddenly the potentially rabid neighbourhood dogs decided that it would be excellent fun to chase us down the street whilst barking manically! We cycled for our lives, wildly swerving all over the road trying to avoid pot holes, cars and people while yelling back and forth to make sure that we were both still alive, which lead directly to the inhaling of multiple flies. In these conditions we were no match for the dogs and luckily once they overtook us they lost all interest in us - but as a final insult each one insisted on screeching to a halt right in front our moving bikes, causing the need for one last perilous wobble per dog.
We headed to Colombo for the weekend and Megan took us out for a night on the town which was fascinating. At the places that we went to there were 25 – 30 year olds behaving how the more immature 18 year olds behave in NZ clubs – women in too skimpy clothing and men with striped shirts and super-gelled hair having serious discussions about hair straighteners and grinding away with drunken super-enthusiasm to the top 20 hits which are repeated ad nauseum. It wasn’t really our scene, but it was thrilling to have my first glass of wine since we left NZ.
We spent the last few days recovering from all of the excitement in Hikkaduwa, a beautiful Goa-esque west coast beach. We had a wonderful time in Sri Lanka, but I feel as though we barely scratched the surface. I would really like to spend some more time there to get a better understanding of what it’s all about.
At the Pinnewala elephant orphanage
I noticed later that I had grown a third leg in this shot... A keeper burst off about 15 photos of us here and in all of them another zoo keeper is almost perfectly hidden behind me.
At the temple of the tooth in Kandy. We got rushed past the vessel holding the tooth so I couldn't get a photo of it, but it looked like the golden thing behind the buddah statue... except bigger, and with more elephant tusks.
Oh yeah, that's right. I'm driving a tuk-tuk. Pete, it's not quite a Royal Enfield, but it's a start...
The famous cave paintings halfway up Sigiriya. Some of the paint was turning green in places and with their hands up like that, they kinda looked like a zombie harem.
And after a three hour climb we made it! The 360 degree views were pretty spectacular, but hard to capture on camera. Below is part of the palace complex where the water was collected.
And on to the ancient trading port of Polonnaruwa, ruins and monkeys galore.
Sophie calm before the onslaught of flying insects & dogs
Where you end up when all the seats in the train are taken... not so bad really. And finally, a cricket related parade that we enjoyed from Megan's lofty apartment in Colombo.
(This makes India sound terrible – it really isn’t. In staunch defense of India there are hot showers there, unlike in Sri Lanka where the freezing shower water appears to be imported directly from Antarctica.)
We had only ten days to explore this beautiful country so we spent it in a whirlwind of activity. From Colombo we travelled north-east to Kurunegala where we stayed for a few days with Namal and Neromi, the extremely hospitable uncle and aunt of Megan, a friend of mine from high-school. Happily for us they own a restaurant which is close to their home and a huge range of mouth-watering Sri Lankan dishes was sent up to the house for dinner every evening – usually comprising of dahl, sambal, the most amazing bread and a wide selection of curries.
Our first day of exploring started inauspiciously and heartbreakingly with a flat motorbike battery followed by witnessing a puppy hit and run! It improved significantly after that – we visited the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage where we got to feed baby elephants and then follow the herd to a river where they bathed. Shockingly not a single elephant sucked up the water in its trunk and then splashed it over its back – I was appalled that cartoons had been lying to me all these years!! There is still hope - somebody said that as the older elephants were orphans they may not have been taught this behavior by their parents and therefore would not be able to pass it down to their own children.
After tearing ourselves away from the elephants we headed to the majestic Temple of the Tooth in Kandy – a world renowned pilgrimage site that houses one of Buddha’s teeth (the tooth survived multiple attempts at destruction and is hidden from view, much like the body of St Francis Xavier in Goa). The vehicle emissions standards in Sri Lanka are not what they could be, which meant that after a day on the motorbike our faces were streaked black from the fumes of other vehicles on the road and we looked like chimney sweeps from 18th century England.
Our next explorations were ruin oriented – at an extremely early hour of the morning we climbed Sigiriya – a 370 metre tall ancient rock that was once the site of an epic pleasure palace/fort. On the way up we were dazzled by the murals of the Kings harem and by the mirror wall, a polished wall of rock on which visitors to Sigiriya from the 12th century onwards poetically carved their feelings of admiration for Sigiriya (it was neat seeing the devolution of the graffiti – the poetry generally declined over time and by the late 1800s the “Mark Robbins 11/4/1889” type stuff had started appearing). The 360 degree views from the top were incredible.
We jumped on the bus to Polonnaruwa where we had an incredibly lovely afternoon cycling around the ruins of the ancient city, which was the largest in southern Asia in its hey day. We took in the last ruin as the sun set and as night fell this enchanting place revealed its dark side (pun definitely intended). There were no street lights so we couldn’t see more than 3 metres ahead of us, and the air was suddenly thick with flies to the extent that it was incredibly difficult to keep them out of our eyes and mouths. We were managing these hazards reasonably well by cycling slowly and not talking when suddenly the potentially rabid neighbourhood dogs decided that it would be excellent fun to chase us down the street whilst barking manically! We cycled for our lives, wildly swerving all over the road trying to avoid pot holes, cars and people while yelling back and forth to make sure that we were both still alive, which lead directly to the inhaling of multiple flies. In these conditions we were no match for the dogs and luckily once they overtook us they lost all interest in us - but as a final insult each one insisted on screeching to a halt right in front our moving bikes, causing the need for one last perilous wobble per dog.
We headed to Colombo for the weekend and Megan took us out for a night on the town which was fascinating. At the places that we went to there were 25 – 30 year olds behaving how the more immature 18 year olds behave in NZ clubs – women in too skimpy clothing and men with striped shirts and super-gelled hair having serious discussions about hair straighteners and grinding away with drunken super-enthusiasm to the top 20 hits which are repeated ad nauseum. It wasn’t really our scene, but it was thrilling to have my first glass of wine since we left NZ.
We spent the last few days recovering from all of the excitement in Hikkaduwa, a beautiful Goa-esque west coast beach. We had a wonderful time in Sri Lanka, but I feel as though we barely scratched the surface. I would really like to spend some more time there to get a better understanding of what it’s all about.
At the Pinnewala elephant orphanage
I noticed later that I had grown a third leg in this shot... A keeper burst off about 15 photos of us here and in all of them another zoo keeper is almost perfectly hidden behind me.
At the temple of the tooth in Kandy. We got rushed past the vessel holding the tooth so I couldn't get a photo of it, but it looked like the golden thing behind the buddah statue... except bigger, and with more elephant tusks.
Oh yeah, that's right. I'm driving a tuk-tuk. Pete, it's not quite a Royal Enfield, but it's a start...
The famous cave paintings halfway up Sigiriya. Some of the paint was turning green in places and with their hands up like that, they kinda looked like a zombie harem.
And after a three hour climb we made it! The 360 degree views were pretty spectacular, but hard to capture on camera. Below is part of the palace complex where the water was collected.
And on to the ancient trading port of Polonnaruwa, ruins and monkeys galore.
The oldest hindu temple on the site, quite eerie as the sun dropped.
Sophie calm before the onslaught of flying insects & dogs
Where you end up when all the seats in the train are taken... not so bad really. And finally, a cricket related parade that we enjoyed from Megan's lofty apartment in Colombo.
