Unawatuna days

I did not know how close Unawatuna was to Galle when i booked my guesthouse in Unawatuna, it was in fact only 15-20 minutes in a Tuktuk, door to door.

Sam's guesthouse, where I stayed in Unawatuna was very good chose of accommodation. The family that runs it is very nice, they served great breakfast and also served good coffee. Not everyone that do that in this tea country. One downside of the guesthouse is the main road with a lot of traffic just outside the door, noisy during daytime. Still it didn't bother me, and it was quite at night and did not bother my during my sleeping hours. I knew about this traffic situation before I arrived, so it did not come as a surprise and I enjoyed my week at Sam's guesthouse.

Relaxing afternoon at Sam's

 
It was kind of strange to be alone again, the Saturday in Galle and the days here in Unawatuna. Having the meals alone again, and also have to decide where to eat. I think that I only have decided where to eat and eaten alone 2 times earlier in Sri Lanka. Nice to find my own restaurant and decide when to eat, but a bit boring to eat alone again.

Unawatuna is small, but a bit long stretched, but it helps when one find the shortcuts between some of the restaurants along the beach, and it is also a lot of western tourists here, and it is sort of a usual around the world beach community. Nice beaches and lots of nice restaurants, cheap ones and more expensive ones. I have eaten some more curry's, which is good food, but I was also very happy when I managed to get some good Italian style pizza with red wine.

Curry again.

Since I have had some dinners alone here, and been sitting and looking out at the ocean, I have been thinking about the 2004 BIG Tsunami, and most of what I have been walking through and seen the last week or so, was gone after the tsunami, and then I see building that have been built up, and not all the people that lost their life and home during few minutes that time. It is just unbelievable.

Tsunami 2004 - 30 000 killed in SL and 70 % of the coastline was affected, which mean that the area I have been in the last 1.5 week was heavily affected.

No name wreck

Diving, not good, but not bad either. I have done 6 dives. But it is for sure not a place I would go for a siving holiday, still a nice activity to do when one are in the area. Not much corrals (was better before the tsunami I have been told), but there is some school of fish around, some lion fish, scorpion fish, turtles, napoleons, and they have also come across whale shark just outside here. They have some wrecks to dive on, and I dove on 2 of them, one pretty good, the other it was very bad visibility and it was on 30 m, so it became a very short dive. Still, this is not Komodo NP, which is amazing as said many times before, and a place that I most likely will go back to.

I met up with Heidi and Luis for a day for lunch and dinner. Heidi was on a visa run from India, and Luis was coming up from Singapore for a week. I have never learnt Luis name before, but it is in fact the 3rd year on the row I meet him as well. I would have liked if they had stayed longer the one day in Unawatuna, since it was nice to meet them again, but they was destined to go somewhere else.

Jungle beach

The days I haven't been diving, I have been on the beach. In stead of the main beach, I have been taking a tuktuk to Jungle beach. Even if I mean a beach is a beach, Jungle beach had some nice trees that provided a nice shade and free sun beds. Stayed there all day, had some short swim in the ocean to cool down, and reading book after book. Just relaxing!

I took a private car/taxi to the airport. A 150 km and almost 3 hours long ride for 9000 rupee, cheep. Since it is the same as I pay for 20 minutes in a taxi from Stavanger airport and home. The journey home vent without any problems or delays. Colombo to Frankfurt with Sri lanka airlines and from Frankfurt to Stavanger with Lufthansa. A long but good travel back home.

Where to next? I do not know at the moment, but I will not be surprise if I find my way back to South east Asia again in a years time.

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Goodbye to intrepid

I am sitting by the pool at my 5 star hotel in Galle, after said godbye to the great folks I have been travelling with for the last 2 weeks. They went off to Colombo early this morning- Saturday April 5th, and I stayed back in Galle for one more day. I had to sign a form since I left the trip a day before we finnished.
A bit sad to say godbye, as I think we have gotten more close and got to know each other a bit better the last week, as one should expect. They have been a nice company and fun to travel with, and also out tourleader from Intrepid have done a good job and given us lots of information on Sri Lanka this 2 weeks.

We had a long drive down to Mirissa from Haputale, in a van without AC, and it was very hot. It took us 7 hours, and part of the way was the driver going very slow, much slower than what the road and traffic would allow. Had lunch in the car as we where driving, roti - which was good, stopped for some photos of a waterfall and at a orphanage for young elephants. We reached our hotel in Mirissa at around 15.00, first impression was good, but that stopped when we entered our small cabins, they where dark and moisty, not any AC and not any fridge as promised. It was load music till around 3 at night. I think I was the only one sleeping good this 2 nights, some of us was so unsatisfied with the cabin that they upgraded to better rooms. I had a working fan and a fine mosqito net, the bed was good, and I had my to best night of sleeping in this bad cabin. :) My stomack started to work again, it have been very slow working this last week or so, painful. The cabins was bad, that is nothing to debate. The rest of the resort was fine, good buffet at the resturant and a very nice beach with nice ocean water to swim in, or if you prefered a pool, they had that too. Shitty room, but good days with some good red wine for the dinners - maybe the red wine fixed the stomack:)

We started for Galle at 11 in the morning, after most of us had nice break at the beach and did some swimming after breakfast. 15 minuttes before we where heading out, I decided to upgrade my stay in Galle, I wanted a pool, and I did not feel for changing hotel after one night, and in that way ruin the day. It was not cheap to get a hotel in Galle, one night at Deco on 44 costed me just as much as one week of sleeping in Unawatuna next week. Us$ 120 a night + taxes! But I took it anyway. Galle is only one hour away from Mirissa, and we only stopped to take photos of the fishermen on one legged stillts out in the water. A local women begged me for money since I was taking photos of the men, her family she said, maybe they where and maybe not. Anyway, I went soft and gave away 400 rupee (18 NOK), way to much for some photos. I sort of guess they make more money out of tourists taking photos of them then what they make of the fishing. They was fishing for small sardines said the women.

In Galle I went with the group to their hotel, had a coffee and agreed to meet up again with them for a guided walk around Galle fort, which is where we stay, inside the walls of the old fort. My hotel was only 5 minuttes away from their hotel. And the hotel is good, very nice room, a small but nice pool 3 meter outside my door, private almost, since I have been the only one using it while I have been here. I also had dinner and some drinks with the intrepid group, nice evening.
I like the fort in Galle, nice European style houses, since it have been buildt by the Dutch, very quite and almost only turistshops of different types here, and some nice small resturants, relaxed.
Tomorrow, Sunday April 6th am I going back down the road for 7-8 km to Unawatuna, and will most likely stay there till the day I go home. Will try to get some days with some diving, Heidi that I know from Malaysia and Singapore will come down for some days, and I look forward to meet up with her again. It's a year since last time.

Some of my travel companie, at the Galle fort.

Conwoy of motorcycles and cars as a warm up of the next day cricket match in Galle.

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Trekking in the highland of Sri Lanka

Sunday March 30th

We left Kandy on a train at 9 in the morning. Destination for the day is Bandarawela up in the highland of Sri Lanka, all sourunded by tea plantations going steep up the hillsides. The trainride that take us there is pleasent, expect that the seat is made of some plastic materiale, which make it very hot to sit on it. Since we are in a car with reserved seats, it is not more people there than it is suppose to be, windows and doors are open on all of the ride. The area we ride trough is beutyful, green and hilly, and on some places is the train following the top edge of a rim, with steep hills going down on both sides. We arrive Bandarawela around 15.00, and get picked up by to vans that takes us to our guesthouse, a new one, very nice located up in a hill with great veiw over the valley.

Dinner this night, will we have after a cooking demonstration, which meen that we help in preparing the food, and get some insight of how to prepare a Sri Lankan curry. It is a good demonstration, and we make a lot of dishes over open fire, and it taste awsome.
Take and early night, since we are getting up early for a 2 day treck in the highland. Well, going to bed early and gettiong up early is kind of the normal thing, so it is not a big thing really. Prepare a hiking back pack, and the rest of the luggage will be transported to the place we end up after the treck.
Monday March 31st and Tuesday April 1st.

Manage to get up this day to, have had a pretty good sleep. Getting a good breakfast at 6:15, and half an hour later are we on the way to the trainstation. We are back tracking a bit on the train, and leave the train on a tiny place where we can go straight into the woods. Todays hike take us up, we start at around 1600 meter above sea-level, and are on the highest point at around 1900/2000 meter, before we go back down to around 1700. The path goes between tall pine trees, into pretty tight vegetation on narrow pats and then again onto simple country roads made for transport of the the tea, passing true poor villages for the tea pickers and their family.

We come across a brown snake just after we have started, not poisenes according the the trekking leader, and we also saccrefice and pray for a safe hike to a hindu good. The hike is not very hard and long, we walk slowly and use around 4 hours for the hike into where we spend the night. Since we are at the trekking cabin at around 13:00 are we having a very nice and long relaxing day, outside in the shade of the sun, talking reading and drinking some beers, great day. Strugling a bit with my eyes at the eveing, they burn - and I think it is just because I have gotten sun screen lotion into them, wich is a bad match with the contacts. Lunch and dinner is curry as always, but the food is good. Our trekking guides and the owner of the cabin is entertaining us with some singing after dinner, and they have very good voices and it sound very nice, right music for the right place. It have, I think, the best day I have had in Sri Lanka.
Sleeping is dorm, pretty ok, only some snoring, but get a pretty good night of sleeping.

Wake up at 5, and leave the bed a bit after 6, even is breakfast isn't before 7:15. Everyone is up a long time before that, and we get the breakfast a bit earlier. Good Sri Lankan breakfast, with sweet rice, some kind of panecake with potato curry and tea, since the coffee is to weak to drink. We are back on the trek at 7:30, and we have to get going up again to get out of the valley that we are in, and when we are on the top it is all downhill for a long way. We are walking on road all the way. Not sure if it really can be called road all the way, since it is in very bad condition. It is not many cars in the area, one truck for transporting tea, one ambulance, one tractor and one tuktuk. Well, they are at the moment working on upgrading the road. The hike of the day, takes trough more plantations and gives us a look into the tea workers life, as we see how the live and work - and it is hard work, since the tea plants are growing on steep hills. We learned the other night, that it is almost only women that pick the tea, they do a good jobb and pick quality tea leaf, but the men pick fast, and only think about picking as fast and much as possible, and the quality on the tea leaf is low, so they do not get to pick that often. We also stopped by a daycare centre for the pickers and said hi to the kids and took and showed them the pickture we took of them, to lots of pleasure for them and us.

At the end of todays hike we reach the highest waterfall in Sri Lanka, not much water coming down now in the dry season, but it is a nice shower and a culp to swim in under it, and so we do. :) An other good day, even if I have to admit that it was good to get out of my hiking boots, and into the flipflops, it was hard for the tow with all the down hill on road today.
After a lunch, 2 vans take us to Haputale, and here will we stay till tomorrow, when we set out to the ocean by Mirissa.

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Busy days in Sri Lanka

Tuesday March 25th
I guess we got in to Anuradhapura on my last blog entry. As I said there where we staying in Anuradhapura for 2 nights, or one full day. Much of this day was spendt on a bicycle, as we set out on at 7.30 in the morning, which make sense, since it it getting crazy hot a bit into the day. We did not have a very long ride, around 14 km all together with a lot of breaks as we where stopping at different stupas. A stupa is as you see a round construction, that usualla have some relic or maybe the ashes of an important munk in a small room in the middle of the stupa. The one we where looking at this day was all from before year 0, and it is pretty cool to see that they still stand as they did for over 2000 year ago.

All the stupas and monument are in a very large park, so it is not much traffic to care about. Just have to look out for monkeys and dogs mostly. They, both of them, are everywhere.
The bicycles we have is not great, but good enough for this small tour, and it gets hot, very hot - it is worst when we have a break or do some walking, on the bike are we getting some wind.

The afternoon are we spending by the pool, and have us some cold beers, well deserved and it tasts great!
Dinner is on a local resturant, and for the first time here in Sri Lanka am I getting something good, I think the name was koti, which is shopped roti. You know :) I am getting the big sneeze during dinner, not sure if it is allergie or a cold - it is a cold I find out the next day, since my allergie medisins dosn't help.
Wednesday March 26th

The next day are we getting picked up at the hotel by the local bus at 7:45, before it drives down to the busstation to pick up other passengers. It looks like there will be some passangers on the bus, and after some more stops it is more than full in my opinion. When we make stops at bus stations in small towns sellers are entring the bus selling water, lottery tickets, oranges and a lot more. The is not any livestocks on the bus, but a lot of people. One of my Australiens travelbuddies have a man sleeping with his head on the aussies sholder for the hole trip! We get into Polonnaruwa around 12 o clock. Checking into the hotel, getting some lunch and in total one hour rest from the bustrip before we are getting on foot to the bicicle rental and guide for one more guided cycle trip to look at more pagodas, this time from around 1200 AD, the ruins here are in a bit better shape, and we get to see some nice Budda statues as well, but all in all I am starting to gett enough of Pagodas and Buddha statues now, and since we started the bicling in the middle of the day, it is very very hot. Pretty happy when we get to the end of this cycle tour. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to see and get some of the history and more knowledge, but enough is enough.

Had a great dinner in Polonnaruwa, in a tiny resturant. *When we had entered it, it was only one table left. The kitchen was in a "glass box", so we could see the cook make the food, a tiny kichen by the way. Great food came out of it. Not a late night this night either, since we as usual should have a early start the day after, 6.45 to be exact.
Thursday March 27th
Made it up this day to, and we where going on local bus this day too. Since we got a bit smarter after the experience last day, we all took place in the 2 seaters this time, and not in the 3 seater, that way we cold keep a known company. Short ride this day, only 2 hours, and that took us to Dambulla. And since we do not rest that much, we had ourself one hour to get some breakfast before we where in a Tuktuk for a new sight. And this one, I must say was impressive, the name is Dambulla Cave Temple, lots of statues of Buddha in some caves on the top of a long hill and a lot of staircases. Nice statues, and impressive decoration on the cave walls, good!

Getting back to the hotel around noon, and get to check in and relax for some hours, not sleeping, but some internet and blogging. In the afternoon are we getting picked up by some jeeps, and are going on a safari to find us some elephants. To be on the road here is often a near death experience, but if one want to get anywhere, thats what you have to do. The driver gets us safe into the park, but then the care brakes down. Luckily we get a new one pretty soon, after we also have a ride with someone else for a while. And we find elephants, lots of them, counting them to be more than 70 all together, and it is a great sight. Amacing animals, all femals but one,

and many with their "kids", the male that is trying to get lucky is huge, very huge compare to the others. Really glad I did this, amazing!
Have the dinner at the hotel this night, a good meal and have some red wine with the curry, and some of us manange to sit up till almost 23:00.
Friday March 28th
Late to bed, but still I wake up way to early this morning as well, the mean earlier than I had to, 5 instead of 6, since we also today are leaving the hotel at 7 in the morning. In a private bus today, thanks for that! The bus will take us to Kandy, the second biggest city in the country. The ride is smoot, having a lunch stop in a spice and herb garden, great food, and we also have an included massage in the price, and I get a great neck and shoulder massage. We arrive Kandy around 16.30, gets one hour to check in and freshen up before we head out to the Temple of the Tooth. Tooth you say, yes, one of Buddhas tooths are here in a shrine. We do not get to see the tooth off course, but we get a climps of the "box" where they keep it, nice experience, but not extremely interesting. Dinner is not any good this night, cold, and my stommac is not so good either. Stuffed.
Good to get to bed this night, and I am only using the fan and not the AC, and gets a pretty good sleep out of the night.
Saturday March 29th

Lots of freetime today, great, but still I get up at 6.30 to get an early breakfast since we are doing a small morning trip to a tea factory. Ok, and I even drink some tea, and buy some tea to bring home as well. After that, some shooping, and I find what I want. A painting for my wall at home, some pillowcases, a tablerunner and some plateholders or whatever they are called.
And from the last hours, just been chillin in the shaddow and writing up this - if you managed to get this far. Tonight, some tradisional dance show and dinner some place, hopefully better than last night. Kandy, btw is nice to look at, and extra nice from the hotel high over the city centre.

"Add-on" on April 1st to finnish up Kandy. We went to some tradisional dance in the evening, unfortunatly I had some tall person in front of me, so I missed a bit, but it was pretty good, even the music was a lot better than in the tempel. We ended the good stay of Kandy on a rooftop resturant, great veiw and good food, mexican in fact, with red wine this time, and a mojito and singapore sling as a finnish - nice!

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On the road again with Intrepid

Flew into Sri Lanka yesterday and met up with my travelcompanions from Intrepid in Negombo. We are a full group this time, and that mean that we are 12 travellers on the road. We are 6 Australians, 2 Germans, 2 Americans (USA), 1 Irish and 1 Norwegian, and we are quite spread out in age, guessing from late 20's till early 60's, so we should be a good mix, for some strange reason am I assosiating myself toward the younger crowd, even I'm not that young eny more. :) It seams to be a group of nice people, 4 knew each other from before, the rest was unknown to each other. Last night we went for dinner, and a few driks in the hotel bar after, and today have we been on the minibus from Negombo to Anuradhapura (some difficult names here, and I do not think that I will manage to remember them all). It was a 6 hour ride, with some stops on the way for shopping, photostop at a hindu temple, taking a look at how they use the coconut and harvest it, with tast sample of coconut water, coconut flower "juice" straight from the tree, coconut "meat" and at the end for some lunch - curry off course, very spicy!

The man on a wire, is the one who is "milking the coconut flower, and he is using the rope between the trees so he do not have to walk up and down every tree. Looks like a dangeroud job I think, but according to our tourleader, it was not many accident, and I would not be surprise if the few accident that happends, is fatal.
We will be staying in Anuradhapura for 2 nights, I the guesthouse is nice, the room is just amazing, very big. AC and tv is also nice.

Since we have spendt some hours on the road today, it have given us some experience with the traffic. It is not crazy, or at not Vietnam crazy, but it is not like home either, far from it. It is almost always room to overtake the car in front of you, the bigger you are, the bigger are your right to do it. So one is overtaking even if there are wihicles coming towards you, it goes well, and we have not seen any accidents this first day. The nature we are passing is green, very green and nice, and we have also been crossing some bridges over well filled rivers. It looks beautiful.

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