The hill country

Spent a few days in the hill country of Sri Lanka, we stayed in Ella and we walked up Little Adam's Peak... A short 2hrs trek with beautiful views took us to a green tea factory and a walk through some really nice tea plantations. The best of the tea from here goes into Lipton and Tetley's so it was nice to see the real deal.

After chilling out in Ella (chilling out is right as it was a few degrees less than the coast) we had booked a train to move onto Kandy, the second biggest city in Sri Lanka. We managed to get a seat on an Expo Rail carriage, where we could have a bit more room and free teas and coffees. We wanted to travel comfortably as this is supposed to be on of the best train rides in the world: and it was! The train slowly spirals around the mountain to take gain some height: Ella is 1031mt above sea level and the train passes some village that are over 2000mt above sea. You travel over old bridges (built by the British, of course!) at 20km/h, below you just tea plantations, valleys covered in mists and the odd waterfall. It was a long 6hr ride but the views were breathtaking!

After Kandy we hit Negombo for a couple of days before waving off Sri Lanka. Now onto Malaysia for more adventures!

Serendipity

Sri Lanka has been a really good surprise for us as we did not know fully what to expect. I guess the clue is in the title: the early Arab traders used to call this island Serendib - a word that has generated the English word serendipity: and we are definitely happy we came!

We have spent the last few days on the beach of Mirissa: a small stretch of sand on the south coast of Sri Lanka. You can surf/body board the waves during the day, then chill out at night when all the restaurants set up tables by the beach. You can dine with your feet in the sand, the stars above you, a candle lit on your table and watch someone juggling with firey ropes. Last but not least, you taste all the fresh fish you want as they display their catch for you to pick from: tuna, red snapper, groper and chicken fish. You can have it grilled, devilled (a local kind of sweet and sour sauce, served with rice) or pan-fried. A local Lion beer, cold and very cheap also goes down well.. As well as a few drops of rain at times, the ever-present monsoon season.

Our hotel was a 10mins walk away from the beach, on a river side. On the road we spotted a big spider, many fireflies and a big komodo dragon who was hanging out in the bushes. Needless to mention, it was taller than me. 

Mirissa is also a good spot for whale watching: after my NZ experience I was keen to give it another go. We boarded a crammed boat, many Chinese tourists and their massive cameras too, and sailed in very choppy waters, we could not take any pictures but we caught a glimpse of 4 blue whales and one that did its very famous splash-the-tail-in-the-water trick! 

The island is slightly smaller than Ireland but it's still Asia so travelling is slower and more complicated. Currently moving to the east coast then on through the hill country before flying out. Wish we had a bit more time to explore the north area but the rest of Asia awaits.

Beach temple festival

A short 2hour train journey from Colombo, lies Unawatuna: beach resort on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka.
We expected a few restaurants, hotels and watersports ... But we have been greeted by many local people, many pop-up shops (selling all sorts: men's shoes, cheese graters, goldfish, plastic jugs, bags and clothes), all here because of an annual Buddhist festival that has its centre in the temple on the beach.
You can walk up the temple (shoes off, of course!) bringing offers of fresh fruit, incense and oil to keep the flames  burning. It was very moving to see people sitting in prayer, in front of a big Buddha statue. The village was also dotted by the typical orange robes of the monks, that were anachronistically carrying smartphones at times!
We were also involved in a very colourful parade: drums, elephants, dancers and fighters all marched along the narrow street in Unawatuna all the way to the temple. I was really enjoying this, until the parade consisted of a group of young guys who had hooks threaded in the skin of their backs, while the rest of the group was pulling them!
To top it all off, the loudspeaker is on every day from 10am to 10pm, singing, preaching ... If only I knew what they are saying!