Flight Zurich - Dubai - Colombo with Emirates
27.05.16Arrival in Colombo early in the afternoon. Raining. We ask a taxi service provider for the price to down town. He offers a cab with driver for 6 days for 300 USD. Sounds interesting. On the trip to the hotel our driver makes an offer for 50 USD a day. Not much of a difference to the agent's offer, but we can decide how many days to go with him. And he is a careful driver. First of all we decide to do a full day excursion for 30 USD the other day around Colombo. Hotel Rockwell sounds somewhat giant but it is a small boutique hotel in Borella district which is about 5 km from the city center. Friendly staff. We have our dinner at a restaurant where diners bring their alcoholic drinks along. We order ginger beer which is non alcoholic. At the walk back to the hotel it pours down with rain.
28.05.16We have an excellent breakfast at the small dining room of the hotel. Wijetunge, we call him Winny, is picking us up at 9 a.m. We first drive to the railway station to check timetables and prices. The 11 a.m. train for the next day is fully booked. The earlier train around 6 a.m. is too early for us. We are almost convinced to book Winny since travelling by bus is not an option. Busses of the Indian subcontinent including Sri Lanka are very spartan and have no baggage compartment. We visit the Fort and vibrant Pettah with its merchants, beggars, shoppers, workmen loading and unloading merchandise from the trucks. All kind of smells. A silent place is Viharamahadevi Park. Bats hanging on the trees. Unlucky me. A brown sticky dip drops on my shoulder. We also stop at Beira Lake and Galle Face Green at the sea shore. Most interesting site is the Buddhist temple Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara which is half an hour drive outside the center of Colombo. Lots of believers. Some donating fruits to others including us. Back at the hotel, we book Winny and his car for the next couple of days. Have dinner at famous restaurant Ministry of Crab at the Dutch Hospital. Of course, we order crab and repent it afterwards, not because of the taste. It is just too much of a hassle to get its flesh out of the shell. We get there and back by Tuk-Tuk. They operate with meters. However the ride back to the hotel cost us twice as much.
29.05.169 a.m. Winny is waiting at the reception. We change our travel plans and head direction Kandy instead of Anuradhapura. Our original itinerary plan was: Colombo - Anuradhapura - Dambulla - Kandy - Arugam Bay - Negombo. The road between Colombo and Kandy is very busy and urbanized all its way up. Somewhere Winny stops at a spice-garden, somewhere else at an elephant riding camp and close to Kandy he tries to bring us into a gem shop. We convinced him that we are neither interested in spices, nor in gems nor in riding elephants, not today, not tomorrow and not the days which follow. Kandy is situated at a tiny lake and surrounded by bosky hills. The city itself is vibrant, with lots of traffic noise and packed with people, just like other cities in the region. Our guest house is situated on the southern hill overlooking the lake. A 10 minute's walk and we are down in the center. In the afternoon we hike up to the Buddha Bahirawakanda. Monkeys are shaking avocados from a tree. The owner gets furious throwing stones after them. We are not allowed to enter the tooth-temple since my wife wears shorts. Just too bad. We have a beer in the pub instead.
30.05.16Getting money from the ATM is a hassle. Many machines reject my Maestro card even though it is on the valid card list. Maximum amount to draw out is 20'000 LKR which is about 135 USD. Today we plan to visit tea plantations. After an hour or two we spot the first field. We walk through the plants with its intensely green leafs. Here and there are plucker women harvesting. The road is curling along the valley. Somewhere we stop at a tea factory and get a guided tour through the production process. We tip the guide and buy some overpriced teabags at the end. The road is now reaching a pass at 2000m. Rain pours down. We reach the valley of Nuwara Eliya. Mansions, lakes and greens like in Scotland. The town itself is nothing different to all other Sri Lankan cities: traffic, people, noise and smells. Back in Kandy we have our first rice and curry dish at Sharon Inn. 12 different curry dishes, most of them based on vegetable and fruit. Very tasty.
31.05.16On the way from Kandy to Dambulla we have a first stop at Matale's Hindu temple called Sri Muthumariamman Thevasthanam. Its gopuram is the highest in Sri Lanka. Less interesting is the interior of the building. A bit further away is the Aluvihara buddhist temple. Boulders and caves inside with lying buddhas and wall paintings showing appalling torture scenes. Our guesthouse in Dambulla is called Saman's, close to the rock temple. We are somewhat surprised not to pay a fee at the gate to the temple. Hordes of monkeys populate the stairway accross the rock. The temple contains 5 caves packed with Buddhas. Later in the afternoon Winny takes us to the countryside with lakes and rice paddies. For dinner we have an excellent rice and curry dish.
01.06.16Sigiriya is probably the most famous cultural site on the island. A huge rock with temples. 30 USD entrance fee is massive. The famous cloud ladies, the walk to the top over a breathtaking stairway, the views... almost worth the money. Not far from Anuradhapura is another impressive Buddhist site called Mihintale. The entrance fee is much less than the one to Sigiriya but the setting is almost that stunning. A monstruous white dagoba on one hill, a buddha on the other and a rock with people on its top. We climb the rock. The view is stunning. A hot and dry wind blows us nearly away. The place we stay over night in Anuradhapura is called The Grand. Sounds like a five star hotel but is primarily an event hall with four or five rooms for guests.
02.06.16We are about to leave the hotel when a band and dancers attire our attention. There will be a wedding party starting in half an hour. We wait and have the chance to follow the arrival of the groom and his entourage. No time to wait for the bride. The famous temples of Anuradhapura are awaiting us. First we visit the bodhi tree. Lots of pilgrims around. Then we walk to the great stupa called Ruvanveli Seya. So far we have not payed any entrance fee. Winny drives us to the information center and Jetavana-Museum. The ticket price is 25 USD. We are not surprised after Sigiriya. The museum is so-so. Jetavana Dagoba is different to the others. A massive pile of clay bricks. Dagobas are generally zinc white. We drive to the next site. Kings palace consists of a few base walls. Further down the road we arrive at a pond; Kuttam Pokuna. Some more dagobas around, a buddha, a pile of pillars, a carved flag and dagobas again. The archeological museum is closed and we are kind of disappointed. Sigiriya was more impressive and Mihintale as well. Anuradhapura is just not worth the 25 USD. We fee Winny and walk back to the hotel. A long walk in the heat of the afternoon leads through the busy streets of the new town of Anuradhapura.
03.06.16After three hours drive we arrive in Nilaveli and say goodbye to Winny. He's driving back to Colombo and we have a rest from temples and stupas. Hotel Bella Nilaveli, a small guest house, is right at the beach. A small fishing village nearby. A mile of beach only for us. The owner's dogs accompany us. Fishermen are getting their boats ready at 5 p.m. They will be fishing all night long. After dark the lamps of the boats are glittering in the horizon. Dinner is served at the yard outside.
04.06.16Another sunny day. In fact, there was no rain since Kandy. After having breakfast we walk to the village and take a tuk-tuk to Trincomalee. At the train station we prebook our trip from Passekudah to Colombo. On the way back from town we stop in Uppuveli beach. Palm trees are lining the sandy beach. Lots of guest houses and restaurants. A backpackers place. Quite busy compared to our Robinson's nest.
05.06.16Today we explore the beach up north. There are a few hotels spread along the coast. Some cemeteries and ruins which remind the Tsunami. The wave destroyed most of the buildings on the east coast. Earlier the region became deserted during the civil war. It was territory of the Tamil Tigers.
06.06.16We have ordered a taxi. The three hours ride costs us 85 USD which is not much but compared to Winnies day rate quite pricey. Passekudah beach is north of Batticaloa. We are staying at Amethyst resort, a four or five star place with spacy bungalows along a pond with crocodiles. The beach is wide having a few palm trees at the hotel section. In the late afternoon we walk to the northern end and do some snorkeling at the reef. The water is too shallow, difficult to keep the coral untouched.
07.06.16We walk to Kalkudah beach, another bay south of Passikudah. Not a single person around. Back at the hotel we spend all day on the beach.
08.06.16Early in the morning we get picked up by two tuk-tuks. My wife and my son fit in one, me and three suit cases fit in the other. The train station of Valaichchenai is a 15 minutes drive away from the beach resort. The train arrives at 7 a.m. on time. Not too many passengers inside. We have enough room. Riding train in Sri Lanka is quite a torture. The wheels don't roll, they jump on the rails. The faster the train the more it shakes. Nine hours later we arrive in Colombo Fort. We take a taxi to Negombo. In fact, finding a taxi in Sri Lanka is not easy. Tuk tuks are everywhere but you hardly find taxis. At least there are some in front of the railway station. Negombo is a busy town close to the airport. The beach is urbanized. One hotel is next to the other. Ours is called The Pearl. Not a pearl but situated on the beach front and quite centric. The sea is rough, prohibited to take a swim. Rain showers then and when. We are back on the rainy west-coast or better wet-coast. We finish the day with a beer in a pub.
09.06.16We take a tuk-tuk to the famous Negombo fish market. Guess I have never seen so much fish on a spot. Venders are offering all kind of sea food. Shark heads, crabs, lobster, rays, whatever gets stuck in the fishing net ends up here. Some marketers try to get rid of two or three tiny sardines, others stand behind a pile of lobsters. Some fishermen are drying their catch outside on large canvas. Around noon the catamarans with their famous red sails return from the sea. Later we have dinner at the same place as the day before, called Swiss Bistro or maybe only Bistro. The visit of the fish market inspires us to order lobster. It comes with a cheese sauce and tastes delicious.
10.06.16The transfer to Colombo airport takes about half an hour. Take off from Colombo is around 10 a.m. We stop for about 2 hours in Dubai and arrive in Zurich on the same day.