Sri Lanka

Yes, more happened in Sri Lanka than the wedding. The four of us, (Dave, Sam, Rich and I) got to kick around and see a bit of this beautiful country. Sri Lanka is all about elephants, ancient cities, and beaches - and we saw plenty of them all.

Tourism in Sri Lanka isn't doing very well at the moment. We were there at what should have been the start of the busy tourist season but, everywhere we went, we were essentially alone. Sri Lanka has had some bad press lately due to the "situation" with the Tamil Tigers and the occasional bombing of an official's relative. Because of this, alot of embassies have advised their citizens not to go to Sri Lanka. This was both good and bad. It meant that it was always easy to get a hotel, the prices of things were always very negotiable and we were almost always the only ones at any of the tourist spots. Of course, meeting other tavellers was pretty difficult. Oh well, we had each other and that was certainly enough!

We spent a few boring days in Colombo as we waited for the rest of the gang to arrive and got a few things done for the wedding. It happened to fall on a holiday so nobody was around and everything was closed - for 3 days straight. Not to worry, we ended up checking out the pool and restaurant at a fancy hotel nearby.

Once we all arrived in Colombo, we had a few days to get out and explore a bit before heading to the pineapple plantation so we decided to check out Kaudula National Park to do an elephant safari. It was terrific and surprisingly relaxing. I've seen elephants in Africa but Sri Lankan elephants are different. Firstly, they're more colourful, they have pink freckly cheeks and they're smaller than African elephants. They also seem to be used alot more as working animals and we sometimes saw them hauling huge loads of wood or branches down the city streets. The elephants we saw on safari were wild, though, and it was neat to see them in such a huge eden-like expanse.

Near Kaudula is a city called Polonnaruwa which was once the Chola and Sinhalese capital and is now home to 1,000 year old ruins. They are amazingly well preserved and the statuary is particularly serene and beautiful. The Buddhists really know how to make a place feel peaceful.

After the wedding and our few relaxing and fun-filled days at Hideaway, we took off again - this time to Kandy, the next biggest city in Sri Lanka after Colombo. En route, we stopped in at the Pinnawala elephant orphanage. I have never seen so many elephants in one place before! It was incredible. They are free to roam around and, twice a day, they head off to the lake for a swim - past all the shops! We had all the shop owners asking us to take a step in to avoid them as they lumbered down the sidestreet only feet away from where we were standing. Rich even got to go right in and wash an elephant and Sam fed a bottle to a baby.

Kandy was fun. We had been warned by the guidebooks, by the hotel manager, by everyone we met, to look out for the touts and scammers - especially around the lake. I don't know if it's that there were no tourists around and so the touts couldn't be bothered with us but we had no problems at all. Kandy is a really quaint town with a beautiful little lake, an awesome temple and a decent pub. We also got to see fire walkers and fire eaters! I used to think that kind of thing was a hoax. All I can say is that, if it is, they are really clever performers. It sure looked like the real thing to me! I don't know how they do it (if anyone reading this knows, don't tell me for now - I would rather remain amazed for a little longer...). They had people walking on hot coals, running flaming torches along their skin and putting them in their mouths. Crazy stuff - very spectacular.

After visiting loads of temples and elephants, there was just one more thing we needed to experience in Sri Lanka - the beaches! We visited two. The first, in Mirissa, was described as a "sleepy beach town". I think that's guidebook speak for "dead town with not a soul in sight, barbed wire fences and guard dogs at each hotel". At least this was my impression when we first arrived at night. In daylight, it didn't seem quite so bad. It had a peaceful beach and, after heading out on a "little stroll", we ended up on a fantastic multi-hour hike along the rocky coast. Luckily, we managed to pop up the cliffside, just at the point of total exhaustion, at a really posh resort and got ourselves alot of water, a snack and a swim in their pool to cool off.

The next day we headed off to Hikkaduwa. Now, this beach town is a happening place! There were loads people, shops selling locally made surfwear, carvings and other artwork, cafes and restaurants selling amazing seafood dishes all over the place and it had the coolest club we've been to so far - Vibrations. From the outside you never would have guessed there was anything there at all but once inside, you find yourself in a cool treed courtyard with a stage, a huge dance floor and nifty cubby hole seating areas around the outside with little clay oil lamps lit all over the place. There was a DJ for the first little bit and then an amazing percussion group came on and just rocked the place! We danced until the wee hours of the night. It was a really awesome way to spend our last night together.

To cap off our visit, back in Colombo and after seeing Dave off at the airport, Sam, Rich and I finally found a great place that sold locally-made goods, called Barefoot. The quality was amazing and the prices were so reasonable - we bought up a storm. It was a nice way to end our time in Sri Lanka and allowed us to pick up a few final gifts before heading off to Australia for family, fun and Christmas! It also redeemed Colombo in our eyes a bit.

I would definitely go back to Sri Lanka - who knows, maybe an anniversary at Hideaway...