Afternoon in Hikkaduwa

After we finished our tour of Galle, we continued on our trip towards Colombo. We would be spending night in the popular oceanside town of Hikkaduwa. Of course, by now it was mid morning and we weren't hungry but this has been as much a trip to taste local foods as much as it has been as sightseeing trip. I have to admit, tried a few things that I still don't know the name for.....including this strange looking fruit that Chandana said grows in the backwaters (i.e. swamps) in this part of the country. The water is brackish and you can taste the saltiness in the juice. It's definitely an acquired taste and I have to give credit to my brother for acquiring the taste. Me? I took a sip to see what it was like but that was enough for me.

Morning in Galle.

 I
t was an early rise this morning.  We had to pack our bags as we would be staying at another hotel tonight.  As always, we made it downstairs in plenty of time and waited out front for Chandana and Chami to arrive.  For some reason, the front porch was filled with flies. Luckily, it was a short wait as I was starting to lose my patience with having to swat away flies every few seconds.  So annoying.

A Lazy Day.

After our visit to the Mirissa fish market, we stopped at a local restaurant for breakfast. By now I had lost track of how many meals of string hoppers, lentil curry and fish curry we had had. Still tasty but I have admit, getting a bit tiresome. The one unusual thing about this morning's meal was the hard boiled egg. It had a white yolk - yes, a white yolk!











I had never seen anything like that before but according to Chandana, it has something to do with the salt water here. Hmmm....don't know about that. I've been to many beach towns and have never seen an egg with a white yolk. Taste wise, it was no different from the regular yellow yolk.

Mirissa Fish Market.

We woke up before the crack of dawn this morning. It was still dark when we made our way to the front entrance of the hotel at 5:30am. Chami sooned joined us to wait for Chandana to arrive with the van. We were headed for the fish market at Mirissa. 

Flash forward about half hour and we're stepping out of the van. Dozens of men....I think I was the only woman in sight, were milling about the area alongside the boat dock.

Pooja Festival. Dondra.

When Chandana left us behind with the stilt fishermen, I thought he was taking his family home. Instead, they met back up with us at the hotel a short while later. Crammed into the last two rows of seats in the van were Chandana's wife, his three kids and his mother in-law and behind them, a bunch of his neighbors! I don't even know how many neighbors were back there. I felt bad that my brother and I had the entire first row to ourselves and I offered for his family to move up, especially his mother in-law, but they all wanted to be together.

Stilt Fishermen.

Earlier this morning, I had spotted the stilts, sticking out of the water at Polhena Beach and I made Chandana promise to bring us back tonight to see if the fishermen would be here. After all, they don't publish a schedule of fishing times so it would either be lucky and see fisherman or unlucky and just see poles.

Relaxing. Beach and Village.

Today, we spent the morning at the beach and the afternoon in the village.  It was a nice lazy which was good because the night would be packed with activity.

Our "doorman" at the hotel, a very handsome and friendly Dalmatian

When Chandana dropped us off last night, we had agreed to meet up with Chami at 8:30a this morning. The guy was keen and eager to get going because at 8:15a, he was knocking on our door to see if we were ready.

We were ready at 8:30a and headed out to the front of the hotel. Surprisingly, Chami was nowhere to be seen. I was guessing he had gone back to his room and lost track of time. No matter, we're not in rush.

Soon enough he appeared and we followed out to the road - which was pretty much just one lane.

Road trip to the beach.

I heard our house hostess rustling about outside our room. Once I'm awake, I'm awake so I quietly got out of bed, washed up and took a walk around the garden.  We're high up in the tropical highland and the air was crisp and cool.  We arrived in the dark last night so I had no idea what the landscape, around us, looked like.  We were in the middle of the jungle....literally.  There was lush, tropical vegetation all around us.

The house itself is a very simple structure.  The one unusual thing is that the roof actually stands above the house itself so there is a gap, under the eaves, to let air in. 

Inside, the house was immaculate - all the furniture was covered with slipcovers and the glossy marble floor was spotlessly clean.  It's obvious our hostess takes a lot effort to keep her house clean.  With it being so open to the outdoors, it must be quite a chore to just dust.

Burning off some calories. Horton Plains.

From Nuwara Eliya, we continued our way towards Horton Plains National Park. Earlier in our trip, Chandana had mentioned that if wanted to, he could arrange for us to climb up Adam's Peak which is located inside the park.  It would mean getting up at some ungodly hour, like 1am and hiking through the night to get to the top in time to see the sunrise. "No, thank you" was my reply. For a few minutes, my brother was interested and I didn't want to hold him back so I told him to go ahead. Either Chandana or Chami or both guys would go along with him so he should be okay and he had the proper shoes with him as well.

But, after more thought, he opted out as well so we're coming to Horton Plains just to hike some trails but not climb a peak. I was perfectly happy with that....I can burn off some calories without having to kill myself :-)

By late morning, we had left the tea plantations behind but the hills were still green and rolling and the weather still cool. I felt like I was back home on a cloudy spring day.

Ah....finally a bit of cool weather. Nuwara Eliya.

Yesterday's final destination was the hill station of Nuwara Eliya which is pronounced "New-rail-ia". Yes, I completely mispronounced it until Neil corrected me but you have to admit, it's not spelled anything like the way it's pronounced :-)

Sacred Temple of the Tooth Relic.

Poor guy, he got tired of me asking him to pose and smile for photos.

Today we're leaving Kandy and we've yet to visit the Temple of the Tooth (formally known as the Sri Dalada Maligawa Temple). It's not only the temple that hosts the Esala Perahera but more importantly, it's where the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Lord Buddha is (supposedly) housed.

The Esala Perahera. The 5th Randoli.

Oh, I was so excited for tonight to roll around. We spent the day sightseeing and it was fun and all but I couldn't wait to return to the viewing stand at the Queen's Hotel to see the final night time parade of the Esala Perahera. More performers! More elephants!

Where the natives live.

After our morning walk at Perediniya, Chandana asked if we would be interested in seeing how native i.e., aboriginal Sri Lankans live. We didn't have anything better to do so what the heck, we said, "Yes". I had absolutely no idea what we were in for but I'm always up for a bit of adventure. 

The Esala Perahera. The 4th Randoli.

Still pinching myself. I can't believe I actually got to see the Esala Perahera! What an amazing two nights!!

 Last night, Chandana took us to a viewing point high above Kandy.  With my naked eye, I could see the elephants parading by but it took a view through my zoom lens to really see well.  That was just a taste of what we would be seeing tonight and it got me so very excited!

Peredeniya Royal Botanic Gardens.

We spent this morning in a garden, in a Royal Botanic Garden known as Perediniya.  It is Sri Lanka's premier garden.

Located just a short drive from where we were staying, it was on our list of must-go-to places in Kandy.  Chandana got all four of us tickets and a map to guide us.  I left it up to Chandana and my brother to decide where to go - they are the real plant lovers so who better to read the map and figure out where the highlights are.

As they consulted the map, I looked around.  It was a very well manicured garden with lots of flowers in bloom.

I Love Elephants! Pinnewala.

A trip to see the elephants at the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage was always in the plans but it wasn't suppose to happen until another day or so.
 
Our final destination for today was Kandy and we arrived in to the outskirts of town well ahead of schedule.  There was plenty of time to go to Pinnewala - we would be there to see the afternoon feeding and bathing activities. I was so excited to hear that bit of news from Chandana!  I love elephants and I've never seen one up close - at least not any close than a zoo enclosure would allow me to get. Plus, I've never more than a few elephants at a time. At Pinnewala, they have almost 90 of them!

It's a lot of Buddhas! Dambulla.

From Sigiriya, it was a short ride to Dambulla and along the way, we took a break to enjoy some King Coconut juice. Though I still had water left in my bottle, it was nice to have a bit of the sweet coconut juice.

And the coconut is large - I can usually share with my brother although coconut is not on his list of favorite drinks.











Chami pulled into a small parking lot and we followed him to the temple. We had to walk alongside the main road for a bit. Though there was no sidewalk, I had no fear of being run over by cars - the drivers in Sri Lanka are well behaved i.e., they follow the rules of the road and stay in the lanes.  Even so, I was careful to not stray over to the road.

The bees are waiting! Sigiriya.

It was an early wake up call this morning. Last night, we had agreed with Chandana that we needed to be at Sigriya early as it would be at least two hour hike up and down and we wanted to avoid doing it in the heat of day. Knowing me, the slow poke, it would probably take more than two hours. :-(

It's all about Polonnaruwa!

Our day this morning began with breakfast on the balcony. 



We had ordered breakfast to be served at 7:30a and the waiter pretty much appeared on the dot with the food. It was our first taste of the string hoppers that is typical of Sri Lanka. The hoppers were accompanied by coconut sambol otherwise known as pol sambol, a green curry sauce and curried tuna. I nibbled a bit on my brother's breakfast as there was more than enough to share. The waiter soon returned with a pot of tea. I'm really enjoying the tea in Sri Lanka - they know how to brew it the way I like it!

And we're off! Anuradhapura.

I was up before the alarm went off at 5:30a. I quickly got out of bed and got ready for the day. I was so keen to get going that I rustled my brother awake the second I was out of the bathroom :-) He grumbled about being woken up so far ahead of time. What?? We only have a half hour to get going and he's wanting to linger in bed. No time for that. He can sleep in the car :-) I pushed him to get going and we were ready a few minutes before 6a.

I opened the door and saw both Marcus and Chandana chatting. I was glad to see that Chandana had arrived on time.

Chandana introduced us to our driver, Chami. He piled our luggage into the back of the mini van. Yes, it's just the two of us and the two of them and we're traveling in a mini van. I thought to myself that seems like overkill but maybe that's how they tour here. My brother and I got into the back seat and we got underway. Finally! The road trip begins!

Chami turned down the main road, in the same direction that we had walked in yesterday. I didn't follow all the turns that he took but as we drove along, I quickly realized that what we thought was Negombo town center was actually the outskirts of town. Soon, we passed through Negombo. It was early morning and the commercial establishments were not yet opened. Even so, I could imagine how lively (i.e., congested) the place would be once the day got going.