Sri Lanka – Negombo to Kandy

After three easy days in Bangkok at the Skyview hotel, I flew to Sri Lanka, three hours away. I have to say the airport experience in Bangkok was shockingly efficient. From check in I was through in 16 minutes, and check in took ten of them. That was the least efficient.

Once in Sri Lanka, the hotel was about 20 minutes north of the airport to a beach resort in Negombo. First time I’ve seen a beach in a month. There are 22 million people in Sri Lanka, and they are still recovering from a civil war that lasted 26 years from 1983 to 2009. Two unrelated facts in the same sentence. You’re welcome.

I met with the group at 6 pm and my initial reaction was that this was going to be a long week. One couple, six solos, three of each persuasion. Our guide was Mohammed but likes to be called Sam, and his English was challenging. It was the shortest and least informative orientation meeting I’d encountered in 11 of these trips.

The following morning we headed north on an 18 seater bus. I was lucky enough to have the whole back row to myself. Our first stop after about four minutes was a fish market. There’s nothing like a fish market to arouse the nostrils in the morning.

After that, we continued along the coast road and stopped to see a guy up a palm tree. He was collecting oil from the tree that was supposedly 4% alcohol. After distillation it becomes over 40%. It didn’t taste too bad. Somewhat fizzy.

Next up was the Wilpattu National Park with a three hour Safari in a jeep on the schedule. I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to it. It was only three weeks ago that I’d been jiggled around all afternoon in Nepal searching for the elusive tiger. I asked Sam what our chances were of seeing the highlight of this park – a leopard. He replied, “One in 10”. If he wanted us to witness “guaranteed” animal sightings, he might as well have taken us to a zoo.

It started poorly. A group of deer followed by a monitor lizard. Not actually following the deer you understand. Then a colourful small bird called a bee-eater. Our driver then spotted a sloth bear a quarter of a mile away in a bush. We waited patiently for him to do something exciting, or come a little closer, but we were out of luck. It started to improve when we saw a water buffalo actually in the water. Then a mongoose from 80 yards, (they’re quite small anyway), Followed by a peacock and a peahen. Then a crocodile 60 yards away in a small pond/ large puddle.

Then it happened. A leopard had been spotted (pardon the pun), and every jeep in the park headed in the same direction. I counted 13 jeeps at one point. It was about 200 yards away sitting at the base of the tree doing nothing. I couldn’t even see it for the first 10 minutes. It crossed my mind that it could actually have been a stuffed animal. I mean nobody was going to get out of the jeep and take a closer look.

Then just as we were about to leave he started to move. He came closer and closer and ended up in a clearing. We were able to get good photos. On the way out of the park we saw another sloth bear eating termites behind a bush. Then he obliged by moving away from foliage. At one point the driver stopped to show us a tortoise. A tortoise! It’s fair to say there were highlights and also low lights. The potholes had jiggled me to 16,000 steps.

Our final moment of excitement was passing a peacock with his feathers out. He was trying to woo a peahen close by but she wasn’t interested in the slightest. He was shaking his arse and making a strange rustling noise with his feathers.

I’m going to add jeep Safari’s to my intervention list along with overnight trains. By the end of it I had a sore neck and a damp arse. It was mighty hot out there.

It was another hour to our hotel which was fairly remote. I got into my room and a lizard scurried across the floor and ran up the curtains. I went to reception and asked for a different room. Preferably one without a reptile. I pointed out that I had paid for a single supplement. My animal sightings were done for the day.

On Wednesday our first stop was Mihintale which is a temple complex at the top of a hill. This is supposedly where Buddhism was introduced to the king of Sri Lanka, Devanampiyatissa, by a monk called Mahinda. The king ruled from 307 BC to 267 BC so it was a while ago. There were 1000 steps to the top and near the summit was the shoe abandonment area. I had to continue barefoot which was a little uncomfortable on the sandy terrain. Well worth it though.

Next up was the famous cave temple in Dambulla. I’d learnt my lesson and brought along my thick aeroplane socks which are as good as flimsy shoes. It was much hotter by then and those who chose to go barefoot were running across the stones like they had ants in their pants. It was quite amusing. There were about half a dozen caves and they were rather impressive although, I have to say, I’m suffering from a lesser known condition called Buddha-itis. Every temple I visit seems to have dozens of Buddha sculptures of various sizes.

Our next activity on this full day of adventure was a tractor ride. A small contraption pulled us along in the back on a cart. Then it was a dugout canoe across the lake for lunch. Apparently our intended lunch spot was too busy so we ended up going out on the lake about 200 yards then coming back to the same shoreline about 50 yards from where we started. It was comical. I volunteered to be the second oarsman.

We then went to a village hut and watched a woman prepare us lunch. It was tastier than it looked, but that’s not saying much because it looked awful. I did the best I could. All I can say is that the bananas at the end saved the day.

Then it was tuktuks back to the bus for the onward journey to another challenging 3 star hotel in the middle of nowhere with no other dining options close by.

Six of us left early for to climb Sigiriya. I first became aware of Sigiriya as a teenager, and it’s been on my bucket list ever since. Also called “Lion Rock”, and “The Rock Fortress”, it’s a huge standalone sheer rock that rises 650 ft.

It was quite the climb with some scary sections, but the summit was well worth reaching. I spent a good 40 minutes on top discovering all the different levels before the descent.

On the way down there was a final cave with paintings on the wall. You had to climb a spiral staircase and when I got to the cave there was a no photography sign. It was basically paintings of topless women. They made me climb up the spiral staircase and I couldn’t even take pictures of cave painting tits. I did manage to get one over my shoulder on the way out.

We left at 11 am heading south for our overnight stop in Kandy. 90 minutes in and we stopped at a spice garden which I had very little interest in. I left the others and went wandering around. I returned early from my sauntering and poked my head in the spice garden. I lasted less than 3 minutes.

The scenery on the drive was very interesting. Both the countryside and the towns and villages we passed through. Kandy is located in hill country and is the fourth largest city in Sri Lanka. We arrived at our lodging at a reasonable time and it was right in the centre of town. I strolled around for a couple of hours and concluded that I didn’t particularly like Kandy. It was nice to be back in civilisation though.

You can normally trust the tour guide to provide accurate information, but after Sam said there was 7 billion people in the world and that half of them live in India and China, I had to start fact checking everything he said. I did find a quiet moment to update him on some of the world population stats that he was providing, and he was grateful. Pedantry is alive and well.