jayterwilligerii

Taipei trip: Day 1 (7-9 June 2025)

Hey there folks. How have you been doing since I last posted an entry? I know you might have noticed that just like with my Argentina trip, I didn’t actually finish the entries for my Sri Lankan trip in December, but I still have my notes and eventually will get around to finishing both of those . . . Or at any rate, that’s the plan.

For this Taipei trip, I will be jumping around a bit at times, just hitting the highlights which I think that you might find to be either interesting or helpful. For my regular readers, I know many of you prefer the detailed entries, but don’t worry if I leave out something important. If there was something else you were hoping to know about, just drop a note in the comments, and I promise to give more details.

The first detail of interest was that I had booked this trip on Batik Air, an Indonesian airline, which appears to be somehow connected to Malindo Air, from Malaysia. I was a bit concerned about quality, since it’s a budget airline, and I only paid 19,000 INR ($222 USD) for a one-way ticket from Bengaluru to Taipei, with one checked bag and carry-on luggage included. However, the reason frequent flyer miles are lost on me is that I almost always just book the cheapest, reasonable looking flight . . . and that’s what I did this time as well. Unlike many online check-ins these days, I couldn’t do it until exactly 24 hours ahead of time, so that’s what I was doing at 11:16 PM on June 7th. To my pleasant surprise, I was able to choose my seats on both flights without being charged, thus securing my preferred aisle seats for free (which is of course the way it should always be). So, one point for Batik Air.

As soon as I had checked in, I had to decide how to get to the airport. Most of you know that I was an earlier adopter and big fan of BluSmart, but they have unfortunately stopped operating due to financial problems of their parent company. Using the logic that if one electrical cab company were good, then another might also be good, a few weeks ago I had booked with Shoffr for airport pickup and drop-off, being quite pleased both times. Hopefully this new company will fare better, since they are a bit more expensive, but also ONLY have very nice cars. Still, it was only 1120 INR ($12.99 USD) for the 26 km trip, which given the semi-luxury service, is still definitely a bargain.

As appears to be the norm, the fancy BYD e6 driver of the car was waiting in front of my apartment to pick me up 10 minutes before my scheduled pickup time, but I didn’t go down to the car until 7:57 PM on June 8th. Unsurprisingly, the ride was extremely comfortable and the driver excellent, with us arriving to Terminal 2 of the Bengaluru airport at 8:38 PM. Despite not having the much-pushed DigiYatra service, by 8:41 PM I was already in the door, heading straight to security, where I arrived at 8:42 PM. However, there, much to my surprise, they told me that I had to have a physical boarding pass, so would need to go to the check-in counter . . .what’s the point of an electronic boarding pass if you can’t use it?

The whole physical thing at the Malindo Air counter took much longer than anticipated, but that sort of thing frequently happens when I fly out of India, so maybe I should just change my expectations. When I finally did get my turn at the counter, they were very reticent about believing that I didn’t need a visa to visit Taiwan. They also wanted to know the next two countries I would be going to, insisting on seeing the tickets, and also insisting on seeing my ticket for my return trip to India . . . I wondered, If I hadn’t had a return ticket to India, would they still have let me have a boarding pass? I finished up there at 9:30 PM.

As I had promised to be more succinct this time around, I won’t give the full details of getting through immigration and security. If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you already know that this frequently takes a very long time in India, but despite needing to give my entire trip itinerary to the immigration officer, things still went very smoothly, and I was done with the whole process at 9:49 PM. With boarding scheduled in less than an hour, I decided to just head straight to the waiting area rather than going to the lounge.

With the new significantly discounted cost of international roaming with Airtel I was tempted to just do that this time around. I was going to be in 5 different countries over the next few weeks, and juggling the eSIMs, can get a bit daunting. If I had been able to get the 30-day package for only 3999 INR, that is probably what I would have done, but my trip was going to be a bit longer, meaning I would need the 90-day package for 5999 INR ($69.55 USD) which includes 40 GB of data across 189 countries. At this point, for most travellers who live in India, this is probably the best choice, especially if you are going to multiple countries. However, I am already used to juggling multiple eSIMs and even have a dual eSIM phone, so I took the wait time to buy a six gigabyte 6-day data only eSIM for Taiwan from Nomad for just $9.00 USD (774 INR).

My whole boarding process started at 10:40 PM, and despite having by passport and boarding pass checked three times, I was already seated on the first plane at 10:53 PM. I had two approximately 4-hour flights, with a layover in Kuala Lumpur. The seats on both flights were reasonably comfortable on both flights, being made of some sort of faux leather material, but needed just a little more padding. Furthermore, the interiors of both planes were also new looking and the flight attendants polite. As to be expected on this sort of budget flight, they didn’t even give water without paying, but the available snacks and drinks were not exorbitantly priced. Nevertheless, I decided to wait until my short layover in KL to buy a VERY hearty sandwich for 36.43 MYR ($8.58 USD). In Malaysia, I appreciated the convenience of their newer Rapiscan scanners, rather than the older ones which appear to still be the norm in India, and I was back on the next plane at 7:06 AM on June 9th. Whereas the first flight had been full, this time I had a whole row to myself, so while the seat itself was not better, at least I was not as cramped. Still, for flights less than 5 hours, I would recommend this airline.

The flight touched down in Taipei at 12:11 PM, and my Nomad eSIM immediately connected. Like many, if not most countries, before going through immigration, I had to do an arrival card, but this could be facilitated by doing it on one’s phone. As far as i could tell, that is what everyone was doing. The entire process from stepping off the plane to finishing with immigration was incredibly smooth, and I was finished with all of that at 1:00 PM. For those of you who don’t like to get fingerprinted, do note that you will get electronically fingerprinted in Taiwan, but if you are squeamish about that sort of thing in this day and age, you should probably just stay home.

Haowen had recommended me to exchange $200-$300 USD at the airport, but that seemed a bit excessive to me, so I only exchanged $100 USD for 296 NTD, right there at one of the multiple currency exchange counters. Note, unlike most other countries, if you are going to exchange cash, you should just do it at the airport. The rates are all strictly controlled by the government, and you don’t get ripped off. Of course, you can also just get money out of the ATM, but depending upon your personal bank, there might be a less favorable exchange rate. I had read online, and Haowen had also told me to expect to pay cash for pretty much everything, but I still had my doubts, which was why I didn’t exchange more right off. Spoiler alert, even though I was staying at Haowen’s apartment, a couple days into the trip I still found myself taking more money out of the ATM. Nevertheless, the bank fees also didn’t seem excessive, so don’t worry too much if you forget to bring a major currency which you can exchange.

As Haowen had offered to pick me up from the airport, I didn’t check transport options, but it seemed well-connected. Her beautiful, modern apartment which was located near Nangang MRT station was clearly very conveniently located. After sharing a nice meal together, I indicated that I would like to walk around a bit, so at 5:29 PM Haowen left me on the nearby left bank of the Keelung River, and I went walking towards Raohe night market.

The riverbank served as a sort of park and exercise path area.

This snail was huge! Would I see many more like this?

At least along the riverbank walkway, I really liked the way they had either painted or put tile images on what would otherwise have just been concrete walls.

After a leisurely stroll, with the sun beginning to set, I arrived at the market area at 6:13 PM. This early in the evening, and perhaps also deterred by the light drizzle, the market was not that busy, but there appeared to be all sorts of tasty looking food items. In addition, I noticed that at least here at this particular night market, claw machines and fortune tellers seemed to be in high demand.

At the end of the market, I saw Songschanciyou temple, which seemed to be an active place of worship.

I had intentionally not packed an umbrella, but at 7:01 PM I bought a tiny little automatic opening and closing umbrella which was just barely small enough to fit alright in my small messenger bag. It was laughably small by Costa Rican standards, but it was only 130 NTD ($4.34 USD) cash. Furthermore, looking around me, that seemed to be the size which most people had here, so maybe the rain usually is limited to this sort of a drizzle, which would mean that this size would be just perfect.

As I wasn’t really interested in buying anything else, I decided I could use this as an opportunity to try using the public transport system to go back to Haowen’s place. Haowen had lent me a public transport card and had said I could easily top it up as needed at any subway station. Thus, at 7:10 PM I entered the Songshan MRT station.

By 7:21 PM, within going one stop, I realized that I had evidently taken the wrong subway line. Sure enough, I was on the green line and needed to be on the blue line. This did not stress me out too much. Furthermore, to my eyes, at least for local transport, both the local train and the subway looked and seemed to operate exactly the same, but they aren’t. To add to the confusion, the local transit card also works perfectly on both the train and the subway. Getting turned around wasn’t a tragedy, since I wasn’t in a big hurry, but I realized I needed to pay closer attention to this for future trips around the city. I THINK that one time I took a local train and one time I took the subway, and the cost was similar both times, around 25 NTD ($0.85 USD). When I finally exited the train/subway station at 7:55 PM, I went to the attendant window and added 100 NTD to the card so that I would be ready for the next morning. I think you can also add money using one of the multiple machines in the station, but since there was a person there available, that’s the way I did it.

It was a short walk from there back to Haowen’s apartment, but I went ahead and grabbed a simple 49 NTD ($1.66 USD) ice cream stick at the nearby convenience store before heading into the apartment for the night.

Despite my bumbling, I was already impressed with the public transport system, and I also found the city to be very clean and orderly with many interesting sites along the way. In short, things seemed to be off to a good start. Keep reading along if you want to see how things went with my first full day in Taiwan. Finally, as always, don’t hesitate to leave your questions and comments in the section provided below.

Sri Lanka trip: Day 12 (25 December 2024)

Hey there folks, based on the date, I bet you were expecting something more exciting for Day 12 in Sri Lanka, but before you get too disappointed, you should also remember that a key reason why I chose to stay in Negombo my last two full days here was because I wanted to just get in some relaxation, and also to start getting caught up on the backlog of blog entries which had accumulated over the previous few months. Thus, the good news is that there was plenty of relaxation and catching up with the blog, but the bad news is that you probably won’t find it very exciting to read. However, there was still a bit of an interesting cultural snapshot which happened in the early evening, so if you feel like pushing yourself to read, you still might find something of interest.

Many of you will recall that I had gone to bed rather late the previous day, so I guess it isn’t that surprising that I didn’t get up, shower and head out more or less across the street to get the first meal of the day until 12:40 PM. Having noted that most of these places along the beach seemed similar, just like in Mirissa, I decided to just go into a place which was very close by, in this case, Oasis Fish & Lobster. In defense of many of these coastal places, especially with one that has the name “lobster” in the name, I’m highly allergic to crustaceans, so I didn’t really give them much of a chance to show off their skills with shrimp or lobster. Honestly, I don’t even remember exactly what I ate, but it was something with pork. The food was “perfectly adequate” yet uninspiring, with a cost of 4290 LKR ($14.49 USD). The one saving grace was that at least it was fast, and at 1:19 PM I had already finished eating.

I made a very minimal attempt to walk around a bit in the immediate area, but I wasn’t really into it, so at 1:47 PM I was already back in the room working on my travel blog. This became a bit of a marathon session, and I continued writing up until 5:21 PM. I felt good with that, since I finished an incomplete entry from earlier on, got it posted, and completely finished another entry which I would then be able to post later on. Some might argue that this seemed like it was turning into an unpaid job, but lots of people read or play games for several hours while on vacation, so why couldn’t I work on a personal travel blog?

Still, I WAS at a beach town, and even though I am not particularly fond of actually hanging out there for extended periods of time, those of you who have been following along have probably guessed that given the hour, there was a good chance that I was about to head back to the beach. Sure enough, at 5:30 PM I left the room to watch the sunset on the ocean, arriving at 5:42 PM. Today’s experience was a bit different from the previous days I had done this, since there was a quite a carnival atmosphere. At least in Negombo, the beach is clearly the place to be on Christmas day.

At 5:57 PM I once again caught the sun just as it disappeared, and once again I reconfirmed that this could easily become a peaceful, daily routine.

Now that I was there, I figured that I may as well make a bit of an effort to see if there was anything else of note, and there actually was! Check out some of the pics of this rather large, abandoned water park! I wondered what had happened here. Did people just lose interest? Was there some problem with the water supply? Had there been some horrible tragedy?! It looked like it might have been a rather fun place, but its new function seemed to be an informal gathering spot for young men to drink . . . but that may have just been for today.

At 6:10 PM, probably because it was a lot cooler now than during the day, I felt a bit more inspired to leave the beach area and go out walking for a bit.

However, simply walking up and down the street lost its charm after a short time, and at 7:23 PM I stopped in at some random restaurant to order fish curry coconut with rice, a tomato salad and a beer. Just as I was starting to get frustrated with the mosquitos despite using my repellant, the server came and put a mosquito coil next to me, and that mostly dealt with the problem. Unfortunately, it turned out that the “tomato” salad was at least 50% raw onion, which I really do not like, but as they had not specified that, I felt no compunction about returning it to the kitchen. But then while reading some news while I was eating, at 8:16 PM I read that just five days earlier the central government of India had reimposed the requirement to have a Protected Area Permit (PAP) to visit Manipur, effective immediately. So, it looked like my trip to Manipur the following week was most likely no longer going to happen . . . being preoccupied with this latest bit of news, I didn’t note down exactly when I left, but the bill was 2500 LKR ($8.50 USD).

I didn’t want to let a potential upcoming trip cancellation sour the end of my current vacation. So, on my way back to the room at 9:03 PM, I made sure to get a prepackaged ice-cream cone along with 100 grams of peanuts and my daily bottle of drinking water for a total of 760 LKR ($2.53 USD). At least I could have ice-cream! Back in the room at 9:16 PM, and still feeling a bit tired from yesterday, I was already in bed at 9:35 PM.

What more can I say? Not a lot happened on Day 12. Sometimes it happens that way, and sometimes that’s not really a bad thing. Your thoughts?

Sri Lanka trip: Day 11 (24 December 2024)

Hey there readers, as this has been one of my longer trips, if you have kept going since Day 1, then congratulations for your stamina. If you are however just starting out, I encourage you to look back at some of the earlier entries, not only about Sri Lanka, but also about some of the other places I’ve been able to visit over the past couple of years. Chances are fairly good that you will find something useful, and if not, then it’s almost guaranteed that you will find something to laugh about. With that out of the way, let’s get straight into Day 11 of my recent trip to Sri Lanka.

Unlike the previous evening, there had been quite a lot of noise coming into the room the night before. Clearly there had been some sort of a party nearby, and I think that the noise of the vehicles was also a bit more noticeable last night. However, with the wall unit air conditioner on, it functioned sort of like a sleep machine and also kept the room at a perfect temperature for sleeping. So, despite the noise from earlier in the evening, when I first woke up at 7:05 AM, I felt very rested. Yes, I was still a bit sad that I didn’t get to do the snorkeling with sea turtles, but that also allowed me to stay in bed later without any stress.

Still, I certainly didn’t want to hang out in bed all morning, so at 7:52 AM I got up, showered, and packed, then leaving the hotel at 9:17 AM. The location of the hotel was perfect for travel, so at 9:25 AM I was already in the bus headed back to Galle. This was a bit of entertainment in itself, as it appeared that I had got onto a disco bus. It probably would get old if doing it on a daily basis, but I rather enjoyed the music and the decorations which were included with my 200 LKR ($0.67 USD) bus trip back to where I would get my next bus for the day. Similar to when I had come here, I also noted that there were great views outside the window, as the road went right along the coast.

As the ride continued, at 9:59 AM I started to think that I could see the attraction of just hopping around some of these different villages between Mirissa and Galle. So many of the areas looked like nice places to be for a few days, especially if one is a beach person. I also wondered if these other villages were slightly less expensive than Mirissa, since Mirissa seemed to be the main beach town on the southern coast. Going back to the music, at 10:04 AM I also reflected on how I thought it was good that they were clearly playing local groups rather than international music. I also liked that the videos were not overproduced; for the most part, it was just images of the musicians themselves and some landscape. This made me think that there might be a greater appreciation here for actual music, rather than over the top costumes and fancy dancing. However, this might have just been the preference of this particular bus driver.

Up until 10:11 AM everything had been going along perfectly, but then we hit some sort of a snag. I wasn’t really fully sure of what was going on, but it seemed to be a problem with the engine. Regardless, the other passengers (almost all of whom appeared to be local) did not seem overly concerned, so I reasoned that maybe the engine just needed to cool down a bit? I don’t know what actually happened, but one way or another the bus was again in motion at 10:19 AM.

I had already been thinking that in a pinch, since I only had a maximum size carry on backpack as luggage, I could probably get off the bus and somehow easily get alternative transport to Galle. However, that was not needed, and at 10:21 AM, based on the signs, we were already technically in Galle, and then at 10:36 AM I got off the bus right near Galle fort along with the other final stragglers. Once more, as we had come through Galle, I thought that while staying in the fort itself had been nice, were I to come back on my own, I would probably stay in the actual city/town. I was sure it also had a lot to offer, and lodging would probably be cheaper for comparable quality.

Since I had arrived with a bit of extra time before catching my next bus, I went out wandering a bit with the vague notion that I would try to get something simple to eat for breakfast. I had been right that there were other interesting to see things in Galle, but my time was still limited, so at 10:58 AM I stopped a bit at Aravinda Food Cabin where I got some simple items to munch on for 500 LKR ($1.69 USD). They had more substantial food items available as well, but I just wanted something quick. Still, despite having paid only 500 LKR, I felt completely satisfied, and the food had also tasted pretty good.

At 11:21 AM I finished my food and started walking back towards the area of the main bus stop, intentionally following a slightly different route. Whenever I get a chance while traveling, and for that matter even when I have time at home, I try to switch things up a bit when I have the time in order to have new experiences. One never knows what might be seen along the way, and that was the case for instance when I saw this rather large dedicated “chest clinic” at 11:29 AM. I thought it a bit odd that such a large place in a relatively small city would be dedicated only to chest issues, but maybe it serves all of southern Sri Lanka or something like that? I suppose it may also just be a name which doesn’t mean much beyond the “clinic” part.

I arrived at 11:45 AM on the dot, as had been programmed when I booked the bus ticket with 12Go, and their representative Mr. Herbert was already there waiting along with another client. We set off walking and just three minutes later I was already on the bus; it had been waiting only for the two of us in order to leave. So, I guess that is what I get with the VIP assistance I had paid for, when I paid a total of $9.33 USD for the bus ticket. As mentioned earlier, I am sure that I could manage it on my own in the future, but if only using the service occasionally, the peace of mind bought by using this service, even having the bus wait for us, was more than enough to justify the cost. Doing a bit of investigating, I discovered that the local company provider for 12Go is Stef Lanka tours. Based on the limited interaction I had experienced with their workers, I would definitely contact them as an option to help me should I plan a future partially guided trip to Sri Lanka.

At 12:15 PM, just like when I came here from Colombo, a guy started going through charging people cash for the ride. Again, the same as last time, he didn’t even glance at me, even though I did not have a printed ticket to show this time. Those of you who have been reading along regularly know that the real cost of this bus trip is $2.66 USD, and it looks like most people just come, get in line, and then pay on the bus. Still, even at $9.33 USD, I considered what I had paid to be a bargain. I had complete peace of mind, and this comfortable air-conditioned bus still was much faster than going by train, as well as having many more departure time options. Like I said, it was fast, so at 1:15 PM we arrived at Makumbura bus station. From here I would need to get to Negombo, and I had not fully planned out how to do that.

However, I was at a central transport hub, so it seemed that it couldn’t be all that difficult to manage. Once again, I had the name of a recommended bus which I should take to the next bus destination in central Colombo. However, when I asked at the help desk, they just said “No” and pointed me to some other random line. I said, “So, I should take that bus?” This time there was no vocalization but just sort of a shooing direction towards the bus line. I figured that it was unlikely they weren’t going “away from” Colombo, and if it appeared that they were, I could always just get off at a nearby stop and take a cab or rickshaw.

So, at 1:17 PM I was in the random bus paying my 100 LKR ($0.34 USD) when the guy came around to charge us. This was perhaps pushing being adventuresome a bit far, but looking at Google maps to see our progress, we appeared to be going in the correct direction. Then at 1:22 PM a woman sat down next to me and when I asked if this bus was going to the Colombo fort area, she said yes. Thus, it seemed that all was going well. Furthermore, the bus was clean and reasonably well maintained. Unlike the other local bus I had seen a couple of days ago, this one seemed to have both buttons and a rope to pull in order to alert the driver when a stop was requested. Furthermore, it also seemed that people had the habit of using them. With that in mind, while I was certainly not “traveling in style at that moment,” I reflected that were I to return here, I would try to use local buses even more. Of course, that only makes sense if one is traveling with very limited luggage.

Providence was on my side, and at 2:29 PM I was off the bus at the central bus station and trying to follow the less than perfectly reliable Google map directions to the Negombo buses. I asked several people as I was walking, getting some significant variations in answers, but at 2:44 PM I was on the rather tiny Negombo AC express. Up until this moment, this definitely the most uncomfortable transport I had used during this trip, and had there not been AC, it would have been unbearable. The bus did not actually take off until 2:56 PM, picking up a few more people along the way, until we were completely packed in, including 6 people who were standing in the passageway at 3:13 PM. I suspected that they would have kept stuffing people in had there been the opportunity, but by that time we were on the highway.

Especially for such a full ride as this one, when the money collector started coming through at 3:16 PM, I thought it really would have made much more sense to charge people as they got on the bus. It was 310 LKR ($1.05 USD) for the ride, so I guess in financial terms it was still a bargain despite how cramped I was. Of course, had it been a longer trip, I would have thought otherwise, but at 3:48 PM I was already out of the bus at the main Negombo bus terminal. I could have taken a rickshaw or taxi to the hotel from there, but at that point I really wanted to stretch my legs a bit. Additionally, walking allowed me to see more of the city/town which I had not seen the last time I was here. I wasn’t lollygagging but also not rushing, and at 4:50 PM I arrived at the reception of Village Inn Resort.

Unlike the first two lodging choices I had paid for directly during this trip, this place wanted full cash payment up front. Using local currency, I paid the equivalent of $53.46 USD for three nights. The entryway to the rooms was well-maintained and sort of pretty, but there were clearly mosquitos. Once inside, I thought that the room was adequate, certainly nothing to really complain about at that cost, but also certainly nothing to celebrate. Oddly enough, there was a television in the room, but there appeared to be no way to plug it in, but it was certainly a large space, especially for just one person. At the end of the day, as long as it was clean, safe and reasonably comfortable for sleeping, that was fine with me.

At 5:13 PM I was back out on the street headed towards St. Mary’s Church Pitipana. Several days earlier I had seen on AllEvents that there was an annual Christmas Carol service scheduled there at 6:00 PM. It had actually been for this specific reason, that I had chosen these particular travel times to go from Mirissa to Negombo, since I understood that Christmas was supposed to be a big deal here, and I thought getting an early start at 6:00 PM would be ideal. In my mind it had made sense that there would be only one “St. Mary’s” church in Negombo, but just to be sure, I checked Google Maps and realized that it seemed to be much further away than the St. Mary’s church I had seen when I had been in Negombo a little over a week ago. It would be impossible to walk there by 6:00 PM, so at 5:21 PM I used the PickMe app to get a tuk-tuk, which arrived almost immediately.

We pulled up outside the church at 5:40 PM, and I paid the driver 650 LKR ($2.21 USD) even through the app said 541. I walked over towards the church, which was pretty enough, and thought that it did not look like there was much going on for a big Christmas event which was supposed to start in twenty minutes. However, there were a couple of people around, and I asked them, thinking maybe that 6:00 PM was a general start time, but in reality, it would be more like 6:30 PM or even 7:00 PM. Well, those of you who know about Negombo already figured out that the post on AllEvents was wrong. Their New Year’s Eve service was scheduled to begin at 11:45 PM.

I considered just hanging out in that area since it looked like a different sort of locale to explore, but on the off chance that the wrong St. Mary’s had been indicated, at 6:02 PM I again got another PickMe tuk-tuk to St. Mary’s grand street, arriving at 6:10 PM. The bill was 400 LKR ($1.36 USD).

Yes, you’ve guessed it, this was becoming a bit of a comedy of errors, but I had already suspected something like this. It appears that any rando can put things on these event apps, or at least on the AllEvents app. At the next church I spoke to one of the priests, and he told me that at 11:00 PM they would have Christmas Carols, with a special mass at 11:45 PM. I could have used this realization to be annoyed with myself for not having left Mirissa a bit later, thus having been able to do the snorkeling with sea turtles at 8:00 AM, but I was still glad that I had arrived and got checked into my hotel in Negombo with minimal stress before it was dark out. It probably doesn’t actually make a big difference, but especially when there is a degree of uncertainty involved with travel, doing it in the daylight always feels more secure than doing it at night . . . or at least that is the case with me.

So, now what would I do? I wasn’t thrilled about being up so late, but I had also specifically come back to Negombo to experience Christmas there. With no other plan in mind, at 6:15 PM I set off walking, thinking that at some point I would find a place to get some dinner. As I wandered, I had ended up in a mostly residential area, so there were not a lot of options, but at 6:47 PM I decided to try some random little local place.

I had two dosas, an egg omelette, and some small local fizzy drink for a total of 400 LKR ($1.36 USD). The dosas were actually quite tasty, and for the first time ever, I ate them with just my right hand and no utensils. None had been offered, and I figured I may as well try, once I had properly washed my hands and the prominently placed sink. So between this meal and what I had eaten earlier in the day, it looks like my earlier question about the cost of “everyday food” in Sri Lanka had been answered. You may remember that most of the meals I had eaten before this day had cost about 3500 LKR each. While those meals had been decent, and in many cases had even been buffets, I would not say they had been almost nine times better than the two meals I had eaten today. Clearly, I had been paying for and eating “tourist food”. While there was nothing the matter with that, it was nice knowing that I had the option to eat simpler, yet still tasty food for significantly less.

Although they had made the dosas and the omelette right when I ordered, this was a bit of an express eating situation, and at 7:10 PM there was no longer any reason for me to be there. However, I still had several hours before 11:00 PM. How would I fill the time? Well, one thing that had been missing from my express dosa meal had been something sweet, so at 7:15 PM I stopped in at another little local place, this one specializing in ice cream. There I ordered Badam milk ice cream for 200 LKR ($0.68 USD). The second place had a bit more of a “hang out here” vibe, and they even offered me tea or coffee, so I definitely could have dragged things out longer, but at 7:41 PM I was once more out on the street.

Sticking with the food and drink theme, at 8:41 PM I bought a large bottle of water and a rather large bottle of Coke Zero from a mini mart for 350 LKR ($1.18 USD) since I had not seen any bottled water nor water purifier in the hotel, and regardless of whether or not the tap water was considered safe, I did not want to take any chances with just a couple more days in the country. Having exhausted my interest in just “wandering around” I was back in the hotel room at 9:10 PM where I resolved to rest for a bit, and that is what I did until 10:00 PM.

After a bit of internal debate, I decided it was healthier for me to walk to St. Mary’s Church Grand Street. Also, even though I had already seen many of them, I thought it would be nice to once again see the frequent nativity scenes alongside the road and just take advantage of having no obligations to do anything else at the moment. After all, it was Christmas, and some allowances had to be made. I arrived outside the church at 10:44 PM, and as it was almost entirely empty, decided to just sit on the “Jesus bench” awhile and wait until other people started to show up.

It didn’t take too long for people to start wandering that way, and I wanted a good seat, so I entered at 10:50 PM. To their credit, at 11:00 PM sharp the church bells started to ring, and right after that they moved on to the Christmas songs and a special sermon. Despite not understanding anything, I was glad that I had come. It was especially interesting for me to hear “Christmas carols” which seemed to have no relation to those which I had heard before. I did however think it a bit odd that the only ones who sang were those in the choir, even though they put the words up on easy to see screens throughout the church. Maybe the custom here is just to listen?

Yes, I was happy I had come, but I was also happy to finally slip out at 1:16 PM while everyone was going up for communion. The church and the grounds outside were full, but everyone was behaving in a very orderly fashion. Maybe I would have stayed through until the end, but as I was tired and did not actually understand anything which was being said nor sung.

So, 45 minutes later, having completed my final comfortable walk of the evening, or my first one of the next day depending on your point of view, I was safely back in the hotel room at 2:00 AM. And that was how I spent Christmas Eve in Sri Lanka. Some might say that it was a bit lonely, but over the years I have grown accustomed both to being alone on Christmas and to being in places where Christmas isn’t really celebrated. Thus, being in a place where it was celebrated with such vigor was a very welcome treat. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, would you have felt bad about a Christmas Eve like I had, or would you have enjoyed the adventure? As always, thanks for reading along and let me know your questions and comments in the section provided below.

Sri Lanka trip: Day 10 (23 December 2024)

Hey there readers. I hope things have been going well for you. I have actually just now finished my first week back at work, but I am determined to keep pushing ahead with these Sri Lanka entries so that this does not become either another unfinished trip report like when I was in Argentina (Yes, I hope to still circle back to that one.) or simply a very delayed report like when I was in Beijing. Incidentally, did I ever tell you that even the fastest of these entries takes me at least ninety minutes, and sometimes as long as four hours? So that means that I am either a very slow writer, (please no negative comments about the quality of the writing in addition to the tardiness 🤣) or writing is just really a lot harder than most people realize.

So, on Day 10 I was up at 5:00 AM, and happy to report that despite the balcony opening out on the main road, I had not found it hard to sleep at all. Given that this was still a vacation day, you might wonder why I would get up so early. Well, while I was trying hard to keep my expectations low, one of the big reasons I had come to southern Sri Lanka was to go out on a whale watching tour. Like most day trips which I select while traveling, this one had been booked through GetYourGuide, in this particular case costing $67.32 USD. I had always wanted to do one of these tours in Costa Rica but had found them too expensive. With that in mind though, I also suspected that this might be a case of you get what you pay for. Still, if nothing else, it would probably be a pleasant trip out on the ocean. Again though, anytime when booking something involving wildlife or weather, be prepared to be disappointed.

Nevertheless, I admit that right before I headed out the door at 5:58 AM, I was quite sad to see that my 6:00 AM “snorkeling with sea turtles” trip for the next morning had been cancelled, as the company was now saying that there were not a lot of turtles around at 6:00 AM, so it was better to move it to 8:00 AM. This did not seem to make sense, because the previous day I had been told by the same company that early morning was the best time, since after early morning feeding, most of them would head out to deeper waters. In reality, I suspect that they simply did not have enough signups at 6:00 AM, so they wanted to move it to 8:00 AM. Yes, I probably could have done the later tour, but that would have made it almost impossible to safely arrive for my bus trip from Galle to Colombo at 12:00 PM . . . so, I guess it wasn’t in the cards. Still, the main reason for me coming to Mirissa had been to do this whale watching tour, so I thought that I should just focus on enjoying what was already in motion.

Really it was a bit silly that the rickshaw driver had been scheduled to pick me up at 5:58 AM. The ride itself wasn’t even five minutes, and I was the first to arrive at the dock. On the plus side, I had no problem getting what I figured would be a prime seat. As more participants started arriving, at 6:14 AM the organizers started serving tea, which I politely declined. By 6:31 AM, I was starting to think that there really were quite a few people on this boat. In fact, it looked like it might already be near to full. There was both an upper and lower observation deck, both with comfortable chairs. Near us, I could see several other similar boats, doubtless preparing for the same sort of outing. It wasn’t until 7:00 AM that we finally pulled out of the dock; however, I wasn’t annoyed by the wait.

At 7:08 AM I noted that there had been a crying baby almost the entire time. This wasn’t such a big deal for me, but some of the German speaking passengers near me were clearly bothered. As a teacher, I guess I am just pretty good at cancelling out unwanted background noise. As we moved out to the open sea, different from when closer to coastal waters, one really appreciates the constant crests and troughs, even when the water was is quite calm like it was on Day 10.

Right at 7:18 AM, no doubt going with the strategy of “keep them fed to keep them happy” a guy came around passing out sandwiches, one of which I accepted. Unfortunately, it had tiny raw onion bits on it that were impossible to remove, so after just nibbling a bit on some of the bread, I wrapped it back up and put it in my bag to be disposed of later on. Evidently distracted or simply happy to have the sandwich, the constantly crying toddler stopped crying for a bit. Keeping us guessing though, he started up again with the wails at 7:24 AM. I did sort of wonder if it made sense to take such a little kid on this sort of a trip, since there were several others who also did not seem particularly interested nor pleased with the experience, but maybe it comes down to individual personalities. While it was pleasant to just watch the sea, there wasn’t really much to do as we headed out to deeper waters aside from observe those around me and engage in personal musings.

So here come more random thoughts and observations. As there were at least 100 passengers on this boat, and presumably most paid a similar fee to what I had paid, that meant that this outing had cost more than $6000 USD. Having noted that there were several other similar boats, the implication was clear. This is a big business. At 7:37 AM, after being enveloped in the cloud of vapor for at least the 10th time, my attention kept being drawn back to the two British woman in front of me who were constantly puffing on their sickly strawberry scented vapes the entire trip. Maybe this was better than constantly breathing in burning tobacco, but I’m actually not sure. As of 7:45 AM, all we had seen were other boats, fellow passengers, and of course water, but in the far distance I could see a line of 8 boats which appeared to be stationary. I suspected that those were other whale watching boats and that was the place to be, but I wasn’t exactly an expert on the topic.

So, it appeared that I was right about the other boats, since at 8:07 AM we pulled up in the general area of the other seven double decker boats and a couple of smaller speed boats. At 8:12 AM I did “sort of see” a few dolphins breaking the surface of the water. Like I said, when on a “nature tour” you get what you get. Still, while my logic may have been wrong, I thought that with so many of these boats, maybe the dolphins and whales don’t like to come close. Then at 8:25 AM I DEFINITELY did see several dolphins in the distance, and I tried to get a video, but with so many people it was very easy to have the view blocked. Furthermore, the sightings tended to be just glimpses, so if you blinked then you missed it.

Then at 8:35 AM I heard one of the boat hands say that we wouldn’t see any whales in these waters, since the water was not deep enough. I thought, fair enough, so wouldn’t it be more honest to call it a “dolphin watching” tour? But then I had to shortly thereafter eat my internal words, since at 8:56 AM we were clearly moving in a fixed direction further out into deeper waters. No doubt dolphins are an easy crowd pleaser, so it’s best to at least make sure that happens before heading out to deeper waters where whales were far less probable to emerge. As we were moving, I reflected on the fact that while there was no doubt that we were clearly “chasing” these animals, if your goal was to get as close as possible, the smaller speed boats had a clear advantage with the dolphins, but I was not sure how that would play out with the deeper waters. I wondered, just how far out could the smaller boats go?

At 9:06 AM a woman with a different crying kid sat down next to me, but he mercifully quickly quieted down. Then at 9:16 AM, as we seemed to have no clear destination in mind, just deeper water, I wondered if that was the strategy. Hang out in deep water on the offhand chance that there would be a whale? Then as an added bonus, at 9:21 AM we saw a massive container ship passing by. Maybe they should have added that to the tour description? I mean it really was rather impressive to see in person out on the ocean, maybe even as impressive as a whale? However, despite the excellent image quality, certainly it was not as photo worthy.

Then at 9:27 AM in the distance I could see about 4 boats in the distance which seemed to sort of be parked. I suspected that several more would come together to join a fleet of whale watching tourists, and that is exactly what had happened at 10:02 AM. We were 19 boats in total, 9 of them similar in size to the one I was on, and 8 being smaller crafts. So as mentioned earlier, this whole “whale watching” thing is definitely big business. While I was resigned to the fact that I probably would not see any whales, at 10:12 AM some people saw something which could have been a whale. Even I thought I saw something which might have been a whale blowing water out, but frankly it could have just been sea spray for all I know. Nevertheless, everyone was quite excited. The boat operators told us that it would be another 10-15 minutes before there might be a chance of the whale coming up to breathe again.

Knowing that I had at least 10 minutes, I decided to focus on other things, and once again noticed this long line of something sort of yellow floating on the surface of the ocean. I had seen it several times during the trip and had assumed that it was some sort of sea life, but I figured it could also be a type of pollution. Noting though that we were still seeing it this far out, I decided to ask and was a bit surprised by the answer. The boat worker told me that the yellow was mud, since when it rains a lot (which you will remember it had been doing) when the river runs into the ocean it takes a lot of mud which stays on the surface of the ocean for quite some time before eventually mixing in and sinking down.

At 10:25 AM the fleet was on the move again, presumably heading towards a spot where someone’s sonar had picked up a whale? Just in case, I decided to stand up for a bit to see if there might be a better chance of seeing something. However, by 10:50 AM it seemed to me that we might be heading back to the shore. Then, at 11:00 AM, for a tiny moment I saw something break the surface which I thought was probably a dolphin, but the boat hands claimed was a whale. Yes, I DID see it for sure, but don’t fool yourself, it was more of a tiny glimpse rather than anything clearly noticeable. Nevertheless, reenergized, they went in pursuit again, and at 11:15 AM I actually was fully confident that in the distance I did see a tiny bit of a whale’s back as it breached the surface and then sprayed out water. Again though, this wasn’t a National Geographic photography moment . . . still, it was a bit satisfying.

Then at 11:19 AM it was clear that we were on a mission to get back to the dock as soon as possible. So, things had been about what I expected, although I did secretly admit that I had hoped for a bit more. Yes, I had definitely seen several wild dolphins off in the distance, and I am “fairly confident” that I had sort of seen glimpses of a whale a couple of times. However, as I had mentioned before starting the tour, if you decide to do something similar in Sri Lanka, temper your expectations A LOT. There were however a lot of pluses which merit mentioning.

The boat seats were very comfortable, and whether or not I actually was, I felt completely safe at all times. Furthermore, while the sunny weather meant the sea had been calm and the sun strong, the covered roof of the boat along with the constant breeze coming off the ocean meant that I was comfortable throughout. However, since sunlight reflects off water, I had been extra cautious about wearing my sunhat and even reapplying sunscreen during the trip, and it seemed that my caution had paid off. There were also the multiple times that food was cleverly distributed, despite the fact that it was not always of the most notable quality: the tea at 6:14 AM, the unpleasant (for me) sandwiches at 7:18 AM, the slices of watermelon at 11:25 AM, and the cheap yellow cake and tiny bananas at 11:45 AM. Especially leaning into the cheap food strategy near the end of the trip was smart, since people will tend to remember that even if the tour itself did not otherwise meet expectations. Of course, there were also many nice views along the way, in particular if like me, you do not usually live on the coast nor frequently go out on a boat.

At 12:16 PM I was stepping off the boat and a short walk later, I reached my lodging where I paid 10,000 LKR total in cash for both nights ($33.80 USD). As with my lodging in Galle, I had booked on Booking.com, but it seems to be quite normal in Sri Lanka that one pays in cash once one arrives. They had not been pressuring me to pay nor anything like that, but I wasn’t sure when I would leave in the morning and also did not want to have to hunt around for someone to pay the next morning. I actually was a bit hungry since I had only eaten one tiny banana and a very small piece of cake, but it seemed to me that the sun was too strong for me to go out wandering around. Thus, I resolved to work on my blog for a few hours and then go out later once things had cooled down a bit.

At 4:12 PM I had finally finished the Day 4 post for my October-November trip to Beijing and got it posted. It would have been faster, but the internet was quite slow with uploading photos. So, between today and the previous day I had spent five hours working on my writing. One might debate about whether or not that was the best use of my time, since I am definitely not writing Pulitzer Prize winning content, but it filled my time and still allowed me to get into a different “vacation zone” while making me feel that I had done something productive and personally fulfilling as I waited for the weather to get a bit cooler. When I decided to leave the room at 4:51 PM, I was a bit cautious since I really had been very comfortable working in my artificially cooled room the last few hours, but the previous day I had made a resolution to try to see the sunset again. It turns out, my fears were completely unjustified.

At 5:01 PM when I stepped outside of the comfortably lit cocoon of cool which was my hotel room, I was extremely pleased to find that the temperature outside was just perfect! Given that I had a bit of time before wanting to be on the beach once more for the sunset, I wandered around a bit on a couple of the interior roads of Mirissa, and it was not until 5:37 PM that I arrived once more near parrot rock.

Of course, the previous day had certainly not been unpleasant, but at 6:02 PM I was a bit giddy since I had been able to see the entire uninterrupted sunset on the water. I remembered an old colleague Molly Schneider who I had visited quite a few years ago when we were both working on a mutual project between our two universities. She worked at University of California at Irvine, and when I was visiting there in order to promote the program in 2007 (I think), she had told me that she tried to finish each day watching the sunset on the beach. I had thought this seemed a bit silly, but I was starting to see the attraction. During the time we were working together to setup the program, it had been such a big deal for me, and I had even passed up an invitation to be principal at a school I really admired in Costa Rica in order to finish the project and make sure it was running smoothly. At the time it had almost seemed like a legacy for me . . .I wondered if the program was still running all these years later, but I suspected that it wasn’t. However, the sunset on the beach was certainly just as impactful as it had been all those years ago.

Enough memories of an old guy. The moment the sun disappeared; I headed back to the side roads of Mirissa to see a bit more of life off the beaten tourist track before it became too dark to be prudent to be walking around the mostly unlit streets. I was not able to get photos, but at 6:26 PM I saw two gigantic bats fly over as I was walking. They really do have massive wingspans!

Back on the main street at 6:39 PM and looking at all the restaurants and various smaller shops, most of which only took cash payment, and otherwise required a 3% service charge to pay with card, I reflected on how it was interesting to see how Sri Lanka appeared to be an almost entirely cash based economy, at least for tourism related things. I suppose that shouldn’t have surprised me that much since not long ago it was the norm everywhere, but it did. Also, as I decided to enter Big Belly restaurant at 6:40 PM, I reflected on how quickly it had become completely pitch-black outside in such a short time. Anyway, I ended up ordering a Lion Lager and at the suggestion of the waiter, garlic mushrooms with white rice. Similar to where I had eaten the night before, the food arrived after only twenty minutes, and in general was something I would recommend.

A7 7:42 PM it seemed that if I wanted to pay anytime soon, I would have to just go downstairs, so that’s what I did. They certainly don’t hassle you to pay and leave here. The bill was 3740 LKR ($12.79) which seemed a bit expensive for mushrooms and rice, but it had tasted decent and given that it was the only meal I had eaten that day, I was happy to have had it. Deciding to repeat my same routine of the previous evening, at 7:47 PM I left to go get another ice cream stick and soda from the same little shop from the day before, paying 400 LKR ($1.35 USD) for both. Then after a short walk, I was back in the hotel at 8:05 PM.

I get that today was probably not the extravaganza of humpback whales leaping from the ocean which you had been hoping for, and sure, even I had entertained a few fantasies of something similar. Regardless, I had been relaxed, done something different, and been able to get a bit introspective throughout the day. Does that seem like something you would also like, or are you more in line for the jam-packed adventures of my earlier days in Sri Lanka? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Sri Lanka trip: Day 9 (22 December 2024)

Hey there readers, so as those of you who have been following along regularly know, Day 8 did not end up in an ideal fashion, but it certainly could have been worse. No doubt partially as a result of that, I woke up at 5:00 AM and couldn’t really get to sleep again until about 6:30 AM. Then at 7:52 AM, I was fully awake once again and resolved to start dealing with whatever the day might have in store. At 8:19 AM I was out of the door, but it took a couple of minutes before anyone noticed me and then handed me a bill for my lodging in Mirissa. You may remember that I had booked with Booking.com, but like many places in Sri Lanka, you have to pay in cash after you arrive. Finally, at 8:25 AM someone noticed me, and I was given a bill for 9065 LKR ($30.91 USD), which means that for the second night which I had cancelled due to weather, they only charged me a $3.91 USD cancellation fee, which I understood was simply the commission which they would need to pay Booking.com. Honestly, I had been expecting to pay the entire $27 USD for the unused night, so only paying $3.91 USD was a much-appreciated good start to the day.

Walking out of the guesthouse at 8:27 AM, I was thankful that my only luggage was my maximum carry-on size backpack which really was quite comfortable. This meant it would be easy for me to wander around a bit before figuring out how to head over to Mirissa.

I had a general idea that I wanted to see a tiny bit of the actual city of Galle, get more cash out of the ATM just in case the smaller beach town of Mirissa did not have plenty of ATM machines, and perhaps also go to the Rumassala area. After getting cash out at 9:01 AM, I soon discovered that PickMe does not work as well in Galle as it does in Colombo, and I also had a very hard time making drivers understand where I wanted to go. I decided to take that as a sign to just look around a bit more before trying again.

Thus, when I saw Arpico Super Center at 9:32 AM, I thought that it might be a place I could get some simple sandals. Unfortunately, they only had flip flops, which I find very uncomfortable to wear, so I ended up just buying a small black umbrella for 1190 LKR ($4.02 USD). On my way out I checked again with PickMe to see the projected cost to go the Japanese Peace Pagoda – Rumassala, and the app said it should be 300 LKR. So, when a random tuk-tuk driver asked me where I wanted to go, and he said that he knew the place, I thought it would be fine until he told me it would cost 2000! Keeping in mind that it might just be worth it to get there and be done with it, I offered 1000, but he refused until I just said no thank you and walked away. At which point he begged me to let him take me for 1000, but I completely ignored him and kept walking. Yeah, I don’t do bargaining well . . . I mean I ALWAYS give a decent tip to drivers, but it really upsets me when I feel like they are trying to take advantage of me. So again, I took that as a sign to keep walking, and sure enough, I came upon a little stand selling the slider type sandals which I wanted for the low cost of only 1000 LKR ($3.38 USD).

Encouraged by my success with the sandals, I tried the PickMe app again at 9:53 AM. This time it worked, and I was on my way at 9:58 AM. When we arrived at 10:09 AM, the stated bill was 270 LKR, but I paid him 500 LKR ($1.69 USD). The driver at first thought I did not understand the correct price and kept trying to give me the change, but then I was able to explain to him that I was grateful for his honesty, but that I really did not want to give him something extra due to his excellent driving and great service. Thus, he earned a 46% tip, and we were both very happy with the transaction. Going up, I also saw that it while it would have been possible, the to reach the pagoda would have taken way longer than I wanted, and I would also have arrived rather worn out had I simply decided to walk the whole way. The pagoda itself was pleasant enough, as was the view from that general area.

I could have also gone down to a nice beach from there, but I had really only wanted to see the view from the spot before figuring out how to get to Mirissa. So, at 10:31 AM I started walking down to the main road where I had a vague idea that I would either try to get a taxi from there or if possible, maybe even just flag down a local bus. As I walked down, I reflected that if I were to return, I would probably not actually stay inside the fort. There would still be plenty to see, with even the possibility of going to walk around in the fort at night, and it would also be less expensive. It would have been possible to get a vehicle down to the main road, but I felt that I needed the exercise, and most of this road always had good shade where I could walk.

According to Google Maps (admittedly not always the best source of information) and a couple of other sites I had read online, near the road heading up to the Peace Pagoda from the main road, there would be a bus stop where I could wait for bus #350 heading to Mirissa. I however quickly realized that a flaw in my plan was that most of the buses either did not have numbers, or did not have numbers that I could read. Nevertheless, it all worked out since at 11:10 AM a random bus going by sort of slowed down a bit and when I called out Mirissa, the guy hanging out the door motioned that I should jump on, which I did without the bus ever actually having stopped. Once I had sat down, the same guy came to charge me 200 LKR ($0.68 USD) and even gave me an automatically printed little ticket from a machine on his belt. Looking at the route on Google Maps, it seemed that as long as we stayed on the main coastal road, we would get to Mirissa, but I resolved to look periodically just in case. The bus itself was clean, comfortable and not at all crowded. There was even a convenient rack to put my backpack.

It looked like it would be around 45 minutes until Mirissa, so I decided to get a head start checking how I would get back to Negombo on the 24th. Unfortunately, it appeared that there was no way to easily go directly from Mirissa with the times that I wanted, so I decided to go ahead and once more use 12Go to book an express bus back from Galle at 12 PM on the 24th. I had been pleased with their service before. This time, as I really wanted to make sure that there would be no issues with me getting back to Negombo before 5 PM on the 24th, I decided to pay a bit more and get “premium support” whatever that means. The cost for the bus back to Colombo had a cost of $8.98 USD, which I happily paid, remembering how well the company had handled things on my way here the day before. With a 12 PM departure on the 24th, it also meant that if all went well, I would be able to squeeze in early morning snorkeling with sea turtles in Mirissa on the same day.

It is kind of fun making travel decisions on the fly like this, but it is certainly not a luxury afforded to everyone. As we passed Welligama on Matara Road at 11:55 AM, I saw a really amazing huge tree which appeared to be growing right out of the ocean, but I unfortunately could not get a picture. In general, it was a rather scenic route, and with the windows open, it was perfectly comfortable in the bus. However, as my stop neared at 12:01 PM I started to become a bit unsure how I was supposed to signal that I wanted to stop. There were what appeared to be signal buttons on the roof, but nobody seemed to be using them, and the driver was definitely not stopping at all of “the stops” which appeared on the map.

Whether or not the button actually did anything, I pressed it at 12:05 PM, and one way or another the driver got the message, and I was off the bus almost immediately in front of my lodging in Mirissa at 12:07 PM. Similar, to the boarding process, it was more of a leaping off rather than a leisurely stop and step down, but I was used to that from travelling on local buses in much of Latin America. My initial impression of Isindu Sky Lodge was very positive, despite the less than stellar ratings on Tripadvisor. I was a bit nervous about noise from the street, since it I had a balcony facing the main road, but the room itself looked great.

After getting fully settled in, at 12:33 PM I decided to go try to find some food, as I had not eaten anything since my exorbitantly priced yet elegant “cream tea” of the previous day. As I stepped outside, I noticed that there was also a local school nearby, which had what appeared to be a large pool of stagnant water next to it. I hoped that it was something temporary which would drain very soon, as it would otherwise be a big mosquito risk for the students, and those who were staying nearby (including myself).

There seemed to be quite a few options for food, but after a short walk, at 12:50 PM I decided to give K40 Mirissa Restaurant a try. The place looked simple but pleasant, and I decided to order Rice and Fish Curry with Ambarella Juice.

I had already learned that unless getting a buffet, Sri Lankan restaurants appear to generally cook meals from scratch, so I was not surprised nor upset that it was not until 1:34 PM that my food arrived. The meal was tasty and also tasted great. When I paid and headed out at 2:23 PM, the bill was 2000 LKR ($6.84 USD).

Walking back towards the hotel, at 2:35 PM, I was a bit surprised to see these graves so close to the beach. My initial thought was that maybe they were from the tsunami of 2004, but I then decided that was probably wrong, since they seemed to have different dates, and the plot did not look particularly well cared for.

It was a bit hot out, so from 2:58 PM to 5:23 PM I stayed in my hotel room working on my travel blog. I thought it might have cooled down a bit, and I had also read that nearby parrot rock was the best place to see the sunset. As I reached the general recommended area at 5:38 PM, I saw that going up on the actual rock was not something that made sense for me with my shoes, and frankly also did not seem necessary. However, the beach itself was beautiful, and I resolved that as long as it was not an undue burden, I would make sunsets on the beach part of my routine for the rest of my days in Sri Lanka.

As I waited and watched, I noticed that despite having put on SPF sunblock on my face and neck in the morning, moving to the shade whenever possible and also always wear a sunhat, I clearly had quite a bit of red on my face and of course also my arms, where I had neglected to put any sunblock. I decided that I would need to be a bit more careful the next day, also putting sunblock on my arms and reapplying to my face and neck every three hours. I certainly did not want to have an unpleasant sunburn for my final days in Sri Lanka! As there were some clouds in the distance, I didn’t get to see the sun as it touched the water, but I did catch it in the final moment as it appeared to sink into the clouds at 5:50 PM.

I left the beach at 6:06 PM and walked a bit more until arriving at Maggie’s Roti Shop at 6:20 PM where upon the same being suggested by the server, I ordered Fish Devilled and Mango Juice. The food came out much quicker than I had expected, and I was finished at 7:00 PM. While I had “liked” the food, I did not find it to be fabulous. Notably, I had told them to please use a “normal/standard” amount of chili, since I was used to the same, but I did not find it to be spicy at all. The bill was 2400 LKR ($8.11 USD), and while I personally did not find this to be a huge amount, I was starting to wonder if this was how much average Sri Lankans would always pay when eating out. I had intentionally tried to find “simpler looking” places the last couple times I had eaten, and while this was definitely not expensive for a foreign tourist, based on what I knew of earnings in Sri Lanka, it seemed to me that it might seem quite expensive to common people. Of course, so far, I had always been eating in what I guess would be considered “tourist” places, so maybe that was the reason?

On my walk back to the hotel, I bought a small soft drink, a bottle of bottled water and a standard ice cream on a stick from a simple looking place, arriving back to the hotel room at 7:36 PM.

I had seen these “bakery rickshaws” a few times during the trip.

After showering and putting out clothes for the next day, I was in bed at 8:30 PM, since the following morning I was supposed to have a rather early pickup from the hotel, and I definitely did not want to miss the tour which I had planned. All in all, I felt that it had been a very successful Day 9 in Sri Lanka. A big part of my plan this second week had been to have more relaxation time, but I also had wanted to still see some interesting things along the way. What do you think? Would you have liked this first full day in southern Sri Lanka, or do you think I should have tried to do more? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Sri Lanka trip: Day 8 (21 December 2024)

Hi again everyone. I hope you have been enjoying finding out a bit more about Sri Lanka. So, as I think I had mentioned before, up until today I was on a pre-packaged tour deal with had been set up by Mai Global Travels. While I was mostly happy with the experiences which had been planned, I do actually think it was a bit more expensive than it needed to be, in particular since we were in a triple room throughout. However, maybe our driver Erik was getting paid very well . . .? if so, then I think it is okay, but I have my doubts about him getting even $100 USD a day. In addition to the $695 USD with each of us had paid . . .meaning it was right at $100 USD a night per person, at the end of the trip when all of our other expenses had been added up, I had spent 70994.50 LKR additional in total for the first seven nights, for an additional $242 USD. So, the cost per night had been $133 USD. The main advantage of the planned trip had been having Erik available to just take us around all over the place, and except for the time in Hatton, that had been especially useful. However, if you come with two weeks, I suspect you can spend that same amount, still have good food and more than acceptable lodging, and do everything which we had done in seven nights. Of course, that was all supposition, but I was going to find out a little of what it would be like to manage things on my own over the next few days.

After Dorothee and I had our last breakfast together at 8:30 AM, Erik arrived at 10:10 AM to take Dorothee to the airport, and we said our goodbyes at that time, with the three of us together leaving Erik with a tip of 30,000 LKR ($102.31 USD). I then used the PickMe app to get a rickshaw to the Makumbura transport hub on the outskirts of Colombo. The rickshaw picked me up at 10:21 AM, and we arrived quite early to the station at 11:05 AM. The cost of the ride had been 1100 LKR ($3.75 USD). The station was very clean, and while a bit busy, did not seem all that chaotic.

My bus was not actually scheduled until 1:00 PM, but I was supposed to meet my contact from 12Go at 12:45 PM and given that I wasn’t really sure how things worked here, I had decided that I would prefer to arrive very early and just wait at the station. Given that the station itself was perfectly comfortable, I thought this had been a good decision. From 11:15 AM to 12:15 PM I did Duolingo on my phone. Then looking around again, I reflected that I wasn’t really sure why I needed to have a contact from the booking agency, since it seemed that I should just be able to be told the gate number and go from there, but for whatever reason, this was the system they had put in place. I had been informed that I was supposed to meet the contact in front of the nearby Pizza Hut at 12:45 PM, so that is where I headed at 12:30 PM, right after I had paid 20 LKR ($0.07 USD) to use a very clean public restroom at the station.

I was getting a tiny bit nervous at 12:42 PM, but when I sent a message to the company via WhatsApp, they apologized and said that due to the high number of travellers today, the on the ground contact needed me to change spaces, going back to the station. There Ranga met me, apologized for the inconvenience and showed me a place to sit, while he said he would take finish taking care of everything and make sure that I got on the bus without any problems. As far as I can make out, in reality they do not actually have a “reserved seating” system on these buses. Rather, people just come, stand in line, and then get on the bus. The extra amount I had paid, had been in order to get someone to stand in the correct line for me, and then to assure that I actually got on the right bus. This really did seem like five-star treatment. Yes, there were a LOT of people waiting for the bus to Galle, but it didn’t appear to be a disaster. Still, the extra assistance was much appreciated, and given how little I had paid, it certainly seemed to be a bargain for me to not have to stress about anything.

At 1:25 PM I was in the very comfortable bus going to Galle. I seemed to be the only person who was obviously not South Asian, but that was perfectly fine. It appears that the “real cost” of the bus was only 780 LKR ($2.66 USD) but I had paid $8.76 USD at 12Go, which means that I had paid $6.10 USD for all the handholding, having someone put my bag below for me, not having to wait in line (which had certainly been a plus) and of course not having to find the correct bus line on my own. No doubt a local person would find this additional cost to be absurd, But I felt that this was a bargain, and still much cheaper and faster than the first-class train to Galle, which was the only option available when I had decided to book about a week before. Maybe I had missed out on some of the “authentic experience,” but I was perfectly happy with the peace of mind which had been bought with my six dollars.

At 1:36 PM I put on my audiobook and sat back to relax for the ride. A guy came through charging everyone else cash, since I seemed to be the only one to actually have a ticket ahead of time, but he didn’t even ask to see my ticket. Presumably, with the extra treatment I had paid for, he was clearly aware that I was the crazy foreigner who had paid 4 times more than necessary, but I was a happy foreigner, so that was just perfect for me. As we travelled, I noted that the highway was in excellent repair and the ride very smooth. Similarly, while the view from the bus window was not of the ocean, it was nice looking nature. At 2:58 PM we arrived right outside the front of Galle Fort, and I headed in walking to find my lodging for the night at Nisala Guest House, where I had booked 2 nights on Booking.com for a cost of $54 USD in total.

Upon arrival, I was greeted and offered a nice glass of passion fruit juice. After just a few minutes to drop off my things, I decided to go out and wander around Galle Fort while there was still daylight.

As luck would have it, at 5:18 PM there was an absurdly strong cloudburst, and the first place I could duck into was an extremely fancy hotel. I strongly suspect it may be the most expensive place in Galle. While the workers had not pressured me to buy anything, I felt a bit guilty just sitting in their lobby waiting for the heavy rain to stop, so I went ahead and asked for a menu and ended up ordering “afternoon cream tea” for a cost of 5200 LKR ($17.78 USD). This consisted of two scones, clotted cream, delicious jam and of course very good black tea. It was by far the most expensive thing I had eaten so far in Sri Lanka, but I really did have to admit that the place was extremely elegant and the service outstanding.

As it was still raining, and I also wanted to further justify the cost of the “cream tea,” I stayed there until 6:46 PM. The rain was a bit less than it had been, but it continued coming down, and I still had no umbrella, not that an umbrella would have done much with the initial heavy rain. Still, the whole point of staying in Galle Fort had been to have access to the evening shops, cafes, etc . . . so I decided to go out and try walking a bit more. I did have the opportunity to briefly see the rather picturesque Dutch Reformed Church at 6:56 PM.

Unfortunately, very soon after that, it started raining quite heavily once again, and I took refuge under the awning of a clothing shop. Then much to my surprise, even though I had not gone into the store, the shopkeeper kindly offered me a chair to sit on at 7:20 PM. One hour later, the rain was still coming down quite heavily, and I was still in the same chair. It was then that I started to reevaluate whether or not Galle was a good place for me to spend two nights. It was all very beautiful etc . . . and no doubt I would have enjoyed it even more with a companion or two, but the whole point of coming to Galle Fort was supposed to be wandering around the streets at night. Whether or not the forecast was accurate (Who could say?), but when I checked, heavy rains were also projected for the following evening. Thus, at 9:20 PM, still in my same hiding place outside the shop, I decided that I would instead go to Mirissa the next day, booking a whale watching tour via GetYourGuide on December 23rd for a cost of $67.32 USD. This meant that I would “lose” $27 USD for the unused night at the hotel in Galle, but if it was just going to be raining like this again in the evening, I was fine with that.

At 9:25 PM, despite the rain which was still relatively heavy, I decided that I had better try to get back to my lodging or risk spending the entire night in the same chair. Dodging under different awnings etc . . . I was able to get back to the homestay at 9:37 PM, take a shower and hang my clothes to dry, and then get in bed at 10:04 PM. In conclusion, that was my first solo night in Sri Lanka. While things had not gone exactly as planned, I had at least been able to see a bit of Galle Fort, and I acknowledged that it really was something which I was glad that I had at least made an effort to explore. The rain had been a bit annoying, but the weather is going to do what it is going to do. I reasoned that even if it were to be raining a lot in Mirissa, at least I would still be able to do the whale watching tour, and if things went well, I might even be able to squeeze in snorkeling with sea turtles. Of course, for the most part I was just trying to take things as they came and just enjoy a few days of relaxation.

Do you have any guesses about how things went for the following days? Or do you think it is best to just wait and see? Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Sri Lanka trip: Day 7 (20 December 2024)

Hey there virtual travellers, jumping right into Day 7, in the morning we had a breakfast at the hotel at 8:30 AM and then were picked up by Erik at 9:40 AM.

We made a stop at 9:57 AM to wander around Independence Square in Colombo 7, but were quickly back in the car after around 25 minutes.

Having spent around 25 minutes wandering around, we then took a short trip in the van to get to Gangaramaya temple at 10:31 AM. The cost of entry was 400 LKR ($1.36 USD) per person. Again, we of course had to take our shoes off. Note, if wearing socks, it is better to also take socks off since throughout many of these temples there will be damp rugs which I think are meant to help keep things a bit cooler. As we walked around, I once more noted that they are definitely not shy about displaying ivory tusks here, at least not in a religious context.

At 11:03 AM I was thinking to myself that it was very odd (for me at least) the way they had so many random old items mixed in with obvious religious symbols. I wondered if anyone had done any work to actually catalogue and study the items, since it seemed that quite a bit of history could be gleaned from some of them. While this perhaps reads as unkind, at times I sort of felt like this was just a dumping ground for stuff when someone’s grandparents died. No doubt many, if not most of the donations on display had been made with true devotion, but others really just seemed rather haphazard.

At 11:13 AM I especially wondered what the significance of clocks and watches was. There were so many there, many of them obviously just cheap LCD watches, and there was no obvious attempt to display them in any sort of a nice way.

Extra points for anyone who notices the item in the upper right-hand corner of this picture.

From there we walked to another nearby religious site (yep, shoes off again despite it being in the direct sunlight), this one being on one of Sri Lanka’s approximately 34,500 manmade lakes.

At 11:37 AM we were back in the vehicle headed over to a different area of the city where we arrived at 11:53 AM. There they had a very interesting mosque which is open to be viewed by tourists, but not until 4:00 PM, so we missed that. Still, the general area around there was nice, and I thought it might be good to wander around there a bit more.

Then at 12:17 PM we went into a very fancy looking “ayurvedic” skin care shop where Laurianne seemed to be in her element. Although I did not want to buy anything, it certainly was pretty inside.

A short walk from there we arrived at a pleasant seafood restaurant at 12:54 PM.

The bill at the restaurant was 14000 LKR ($47.74 USD) and a short trip later, Dorothee and I were left at Barefoot to do some shopping (meaning Dorothee would buy, and I would wander around) at 2:30 PM and Erik took Laurianne back to the hotel before heading to the airport for her flight back to Shanghai. I was sorry to see Laurianne, as I really did feel that she had become a nice friend during our time travelling together . . .

There actually was quite a bit to see at Barefoot, and we even had a couple of simple drinks in the cafe for a cost of 1400 LKR ($4.77 USD) for the two of us. We stayed there until 4:07 PM and then I got a PickMe rickshaw for 400 LKR ($1.36 USD) which left us at the hotel at 4:20 PM. We rested briefly, and then I convinced Dorothee to go out for an evening walk from 5:11 PM to 7:25 PM. For one direction we stayed on the beach, but on the way back we walked along the street, since there were no lights on the beach. I think it was a bit more than Dorothee had bargained for, but she was a good sport about the whole thing.

Having already been out much of the day, Dorothee and I decided to have our final dinner together in the hotel restaurant at 8:40 PM, and that was the end of Day 7.

Dorothee would be leaving the next morning, but I had decided to stay on in Sri Lanka on my own for another week. While it had not been the sort of travel which I would have normally chosen to do on my own, I will admit that it had been nice to change things up a bit. Certainly, it had been pleasant sharing with Dorothee in a non-work setting and also getting to start to make friends with Laurianne. On a separate note, earlier in the evening I had booked a bus ticket to Galle with 12Go, but I was a bit uncertain as to how well it was all actually going to work out. Of course, if you want to know what happened, you will just have to keep reading when Day 8 comes out.

Sri Lanka trip: Day 6 (19 December 2024)

Hey there everyone, considering how I had kept you hanging while I finished by entries about the trip to Beijing, if you have actually kept up with reading all of these entries about Sri Lanka, then you are definitely to be congratulated for your stamina. Anyway, I will just jump straight ahead into Day 6.

I think we were all awake no later than 7:00 AM, but Laurianne got up much earlier and even saw the sunrise. However, as there was no rush to do anything, I stayed in bed until 7:40 AM, then having a light breakfast at the hotel before departing in the van with Erik at 9:38 AM. From there, it was a relatively short trip to Tea Castle St Clair where we arrived at 9:58 AM.

While I can’t say that I am particularly interested in the topic, I was still very impressed with the crazy variety of teas. However, for someone who is really into it, I wonder if this would have been seen as a “cheap” tourist attraction or as something which was really special. For instance, what would Beth Johns’ mom have thought? I wonder.

Then at 10:18 AM we had a special tea presentation in which we learned (or at any rate heard) about the general characteristics of different types of tea. Evidently white tea, in general terms, is considered “the fanciest” but she also said that green tea was very special. One thing that distinguishes white tea is that there is no fermentation process. Honestly, for me, the white tea was so mild that I could have believed I was just drinking oddly flavored water; I guess I’m not very cultured. The only one that I categorically did NOT like was the gunpowder tea . . . the name gives a bit of a hint as to why.

Many of these places would have been displeased had I been visiting by myself, but Dorothee and Laurianne made up for my lack of purchases.

As far as the plants go, I was interested to learn that every 12 months, they completely cut away all of the green, leaving only the wood, but then the green grows back and they once again harvest the tea leaves.

We left around 10:45 AM but then stopped at a lookout spot to see Devon Falls in the distance at 10:58 AM. Evidently it is possible to take a trail up close to the waterfalls, but most people just stop where we did and look from a distance.

We were only there for a couple of minutes before driving on a bit more to stop at the viewpoint to see St Clair’s Falls at 11:02 AM.

Again, it was all very beautiful, but after looking around for a few minutes we were all ready to move on, and that is what we did at 11:09 AM, with the next stop being Christ Church Warleigh where we arrived at 11:48 AM. This really was incredibly charming, both inside and out, but there were no pictures allowed inside.

This is still a fully functioning church for the nearby community, and I thought it would be quite nice to go there for a service. However, despite all of its charm, there wasn’t a huge amount to see once one had walked around a couple of times. Shortly thereafter we were off once again to see if we could visit the dam, but it was evidently not possible that day. So, we just stopped to take a couple more pictures at 12:20 PM before getting back in the vehicle again at 12:23 PM.

Believe it or not, that was the only thing that was scheduled today, which was a bit of a shock as we started heading back to the hotel for our last night in Hatton. We had some discussion of things to possibly do . . . certainly at some point we would get lunch? The most interesting idea on the table was to go to the city/town of Hatton and just wander up and down the streets for a bit, but there was nothing of known note to do there. Then at 12:47 PM we made the decision to just leave right then and have an extra night in Colombo rather than spending two nights in Hatton. This would mean that we would “lose” the night already paid in Hatton and also would have to pay an additional night in Colombo, but it seemed worth it. Even Erik said he had never understood why we were scheduled for two nights in Hatton.

Yes, it was very pretty in Hatton, and for me at least the temperature was perfect, but it was also a bit boring, especially when thinking how there was so much to see and do in Colombo. While this might seem like a glitch or a downside of the trip, it is actually really liberating to make a decision like this. That’s another bit of my travel wisdom; when following an itinerary, even if you have already paid for something, it really is okay to change your mind and do something else instead. We were back at the hotel to gather our things at 1:18 PM, and thankfully my laundry which I had left to be washed the day before for a cost of 1000 LKR ($3.41 USD) was mostly dry. I put the lightly damp socks aside in my lightweight, cloth laundry bag as we got in the van once again at 1:44 PM and headed to Colombo. This time I switched things up a bit and decided to sit in the front passenger seat.

We stopped at 2:52 PM at a place I think called The Bridge Restaurant for lunch. It certainly had a beautiful view from the balcony, and there was even a live guitarist/singer. Frankly, he did not play/sing very well, but he was trying to entertain. The food also was also not particularly impressive, but more than adequate. However, the view and the general setting was very nice. The total cost of the buffet for all of us was 10500 LKR ($35.81 USD). We left there at 3:46 PM, with me once more riding in front with Erik.

As we continued on our way to Colombo, I noted that the seat in front was not quite as comfortable as in the back, but the improved view really did make my general trip more pleasant, which was important, because it was not until 6:57 PM that we finally arrived at our lodging for the evening, Sayura House.

Wanting to take advantage of our last evening in which all three of us would be together, at 7:29 PM we were out walking and went to the highly recommended Barracuda club which was nearby. There was a live band which sounded okay, but we found it too loud; although, we appreciated the background music as we sat out on the beach having our various snacks and drinks. We definitely made the most of our last night out together, and the final bill of 30,000 LKR ($102.31 USD) reflected the same. While that does seem like a lot of money, we had a very nice time, and it was not until 11: 30 PM that we headed back to the hotel for the night, so I think it was worth it.

So, things had clearly not gone exactly as originally had been planned, but I think that it was still a very good Day 6 of our trip. I was also VERY happy that we had traveled all of those hours on a day in which we otherwise would not really have been able “to do anything” in the afternoon, as that meant we would be able to take better advantage of the next day in Colombo before Laurianne would have to take an early evening flight back to Shanghai. What do you think? Did we make the right decision? Would you have just stayed another night in Hatton even though there really wasn’t anything more to do? Have you ever changed your travel plans like this on the spur of the moment? If so, how did it go for you? If you have answers to any of these questions you would like to share, or maybe you have some of your own questions, you can put all of that right there in the comments section below.

Sri Lanka trip: Day 5 (18 December 2024)

Hey there everyone. So having really pushed myself to write two of these entries yesterday, I was tempted to let today slide and not do any, but then I remembered that the Sri Lanka trip was 14 days long and that once I am back at work, I will probably not even be able to finish one entry a day. Those of you have been reading along will have noticed that the pace of the last couple of days was intense. Once more, not having actually checked the agenda for today, I was wondering just how much longer we would keep up with this pace. I mean it had been amazing so far, but it was just so much in such a short time . . .

Anyway, we were up at 7:15 AM and had a quick breakfast at the same hotel as last night. Dorothee and Laurianne had the “western breakfast”, but I chose the Sri Lankan breakfast. We all agreed that the food was alright, and then we were in the van once again at 8:18 AM.

While the lodging had been pretty, I think it would have actually been better to not be so far from the actual city. Certainly, were I to visit here again, that is a change I would make. Shortly after we departed, at 8:58 AM we were already outside the Royal Botanical Gardens. We paid 3540 LKR ($12.00 USD) each for our entry fee, plus an additional 1000 LKR ($3.39 USD) for the buggy rental and the “sort of guide”.

This place was actually far nicer than I had thought it would be. And once again, there were so many fun facts. To begin with, this is definitely not a “natural” garden. They have lots of types of different collections of plants: grass, bamboo, agave, palm trees, etc . . . There are 200 different types just of palm trees in the garden! I did not ask about the size of the place, but it is huge, but amazingly there are only 130 workers total who manage everything: administration, gardening, cleaning, etc . . .

Yes, it is a collection of different types of grass . . .

Whenever there are pine trees with slanted trunks, at least like the ones here, it is because termites have eaten more of one side of the roots.

At 9:33 AM we came upon this area which is of different trees planted by various visiting dignitaries and heads of state over the years. While it wasn’t quite as pretty as some of the other sections of the garden, I thought it was a very nice way to note the history of many important visitors.

Evidently this is a good place to work, as the buggy driver said that he had been working there for twenty years. At 9:57 AM we came upon the topiary section.

Since we were zipping around in the buggy (basically an electric golf cart) we didn’t closely see many things, and there was a lot of stuff that I was not able to write down before we were on to the next section. So you will forgive me when I simply say that I also saw this neat looking tree . . . no further information available 😕.

At 10:00 AM we were at the orchid house, which is supposed to be one of the main points of pride for the park, but I guess we were not overly impressed, since by 10:08 AM we were back in the buggy once again.

Then, almost immediately after we left the orchid house, we were out the gates and again getting back in the vehicle with Erik at 10:13 AM. As I have mentioned earlier during this Sri Lanka trip, most everywhere only accepts cash, and places that accept cards usually charge a 3% surcharge. With that in mind, Laurianne was starting to feel in a bit of a bind, even though both Dorothee and I said that we could manage the cash expenses for the rest of the trip, since as frequently happens when travelling, her bank had put a freeze on her bank card. The day before she had called her bank and over the phone explained to her that YES, it really was her, so she was hoping that she would be able to get money out of the next ATM we encountered.

As luck would have it, she had no problems that time getting cash. However, it highlights a regular problem with travelling abroad. It’s generally not a good idea to depend on a single payment method, especially when travelling by oneself. Traveler’s checks used to be a reliable fallback, but these days I suggest always having cards from at least two different banks and a minimum of $100 USD with you at all times when travelling. As a further backup, always make sure to have a way you can easily contact family members should you be robbed or just somehow lose your valuables. So, on that cautionary note, at 10:40 AM we were at a very picturesque train station which is still in regular use.

I found it a bit odd that we were going to take a train and then meet Erik at our arrival point. This of course meant that going by road would be faster than train, and we already had a perfectly good van and excellent driver. However, this was evidently all part of the plan. Anyway, at 11:42 AM we were on our third class reserved train and in our seats. I have to say, it was way nicer than I would have expected for “third class”. But the seats did start to feel rather uncomfortable by the time we arrived in Hatton at 1:53 PM.

Evidently taking a second or third class reserved train ride is one of those “must do” things in Sri Lanka. Don’t get me wrong; it was pretty, but I felt that we actually wasted quite a bit of time. Would I do it again if I had plenty of time to spare and it wasn’t difficult to get tickets (evidently it is difficult to get reserved tickets), probably I would at least consider it. However, if road travel is faster and even cheaper, then maybe you can just skip the train. There are plenty of beautiful places all along the roads of Sri Lanka. Still, as I said, at 1:53 PM we arrived at Hatton, where Erik was waiting for us. We were finally able to mail the postcards which Laurianne and Dorothee had been carrying around for several days, and then we looked for a place to eat. While I was a bit horrified that we chose an Indian restaurant, I knew that for Laurianne it might be something special/different, and I have to admit that the food actually wasn’t bad. For the three of us, it was 6150 LKR ($20.93 USD) including some very pleasant fruit juices.

At 2:45 PM we were back in the van, now headed up to our lodging for the evening. Then at 3:05 PM we pulled up outside one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed, The Argyle. I mean this place was proper fancy. They met us with hot towels and asked to sit in elegant chairs while they managed the check-in process and brought us some delightful welcome drinks. I mean wow, it was just too good to be true.

And like I said, it wasn’t true . . . Erik had made a big mistake and brought us to the wrong place. We were not actually registered there, but rather at the Grand Argyle. Still though, the workers were incredibly polite and even apologized that it had taken so long for our welcome drinks to arrive, which they insisted that we still have before we left. Still, I reasoned if that was the Argyle, and we were going to the GRAND Argyle, then our place was going to be a veritable palace! Thus, we got back in the vehicle and continued further up the mountain.

As you have no doubt already guessed, when we pulled into The Grand Argyle at 3:28 PM we couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed. To be fair, if we had never seen the first place, then we would certainly not have thought anything negative about the second place, except for the fact that it was literally in the middle of nowhere, but it was impossible to not make comparisons.

Left with nothing else to do but walk around or use electronics, at 3:53 PM we went out walking. Dorothee and Laurianne were keen on walking through a tea plantation (evidently, it’s a thing?) but I thought I would be happier just walking along the road. It turned out that the tea plantation walk had not been all that fulfilling, as shortly thereafter I came across Laurianne and Dorothee on a different area of the road, and we all walked around together until 5:04 PM when the two of them decided to just go into the hotel again, but I wanted to see a bit more if possible before it got dark.

I was actually a bit sorry for them that they did not continue on with me, since I found some other interesting sites which were also particularly beautiful with the setting sun.

I even got to see a local religious procession of some sort.

Still, it was quickly getting dark, and I definitely did not want to get lost out here on my own, so I took care to be back to the hotel at 5:51 PM. Dorothee was reading a book and Laurianne was taking care of some work, so I decided to follow Laurianne’s example and work on my pending blog entries from my October trip to Beijing. It was time well spent, and by 7:34 PM I had finished, edited and posted Day 3 of the Beijing trip. I was also quite happy about the chilly air, but Laurianne and Dorothee needed to break out sweatshirts and cooler weather gear. At 7:40 PM dinner was served.

They really did do a wonderful job of presenting the dinner, and we had a nice time sharing with one another until 9:08 PM when we decided to turn in for the evening. Certainly, I could not deny that it was a very peaceful and beautiful setting in nature. However, I wondered how we were going to fill up the next day, since we were scheduled to spend two nights here. Maybe the town was actually closer than it seemed, and we could simply take some time to do some exploration there the next day? Again, I could have just looked at the itinerary to know what was scheduled, but I hadn’t looked yet, so also saw no reason to start doing it now.

Yes, this was a very different day from the last few days of the trip, but I reasoned that maybe that was a good thing. Sometimes it is good to just reconnect a bit in nature. However, even that seemed sort of limited here. Regardless, I am sure that we were going to figure out a way to make it work for Day 6. Of course, if you want to find out, then you will need to keep reading. Thanks again for following along with my travels and do let me know if you have any questions about anything I mentioned today.

Sri Lanka trip: Day 4 (17 December 2024)

Hi there readers. What have you thought about Sri Lanka so far? Has it been living up to your expectations, or did you think it would be a different experience? Is there anything in particular you hope to see in the days to come? While I am not at all certain that I will be able to deliver a trip that goes along with any preconceived notions you may have had, I do promise to give a faithful retelling of what I saw, thought and felt along the way.

Keeping that in mind, our 7:30 AM breakfast was uninspiring, and I couldn’t be bothered to take any pictures. However, I appreciated that Laurianne shared some of her nice pour over Colombian coffee packets which she had brought along and then prepared for us herself. The departure from the homestay, for which Laurianne and I at least were happy to leave, was at 8:30 AM. Eric, our driver, told us that it would be 20 minutes for us to get to our first stop. His timing was a bit off, but at 9:05 AM we were at another temple with a lot of stairs, with a cost of 2000 LKR ($6.84 USD) for us to be able to go up. The stairs themselves were not that terrible, and by 9:17 PM we were already at the place where you probably already guessed, we would once more have to take off our shoes. However, unlike where we had been yesterday, there was a whole system for keeping the shoes safe while one entered the religious site.

At 9:23 AM we were in the first hall of Buddhas. While this site was mostly Buddhist, there was also some mixing, since some Hindu gods were also displayed.

There were a few different rooms. In some of them the statues were carved directly out of the rock, but in others there were carved statues, some even of wood which had been brought in from outside. On a separate note, when I asked, our driver/guide said that special allowances were made for actual worshippers who were in wheelchairs etc . . . so that they would have access to the temple. The last cave, which was also the furthest from the entry was the newest one. It had actually been made by the local village chief, so that his people from the area would also have access to the worship site.

Okay, so here are some other tidbits. The place where we were visiting was called the Dambulla cave temple. Like every other historic religious site around here, basically everything has some symbolic meaning which I of course did not understand. The first reclining Buddha seen when one enters from the stairs is from about 2000 years ago, with each area afterwards being a bit newer. Then right about as the drum started at 9:57 AM to indicate that we had to start leaving, I learned my favorite fun fact for the day. The dome shape of the Buddhist stupas is based on the shape of the Bo tree leaf, and how it looks when it is folded in half. These, trees, under which it is said that the Buddha meditated, are considered holy throughout all of Sri Lanka.

Incidentally, it is possible to hire an official temple guide for 750 LKR ($2.57 USD), which I most certainly would have done had I been on my own. When we went to get our shoes, we paid a 100 LKR ($0.34 USD) shoe care fee. My feet were very gritty at 10:05 AM when I was cleaning them before putting on my shoes and socks to walk back down, but the wet wipes in my shoulder bag helped get them clean. Then we headed back down the stairs where we arrived at the car park at 10:15 AM and then entered the van. Up until now, the day had been very overcast, but it had not been raining.

Our next step along the way was at a 10:53 AM; it was an herb and spice garden and of course shop. We had a bit of a tour, learning some facts and all sorts of supposed healing properties of different herbs and spices. While I did not believe much of what the guide said, I thought he did a very good job of making the whole experience quite interesting.

Some fun facts learned were the following. One of the reasons that Vanilla is so expensive is that most of it is artificially pollinated. The self-defense spray Mace is an extract from Nutmeg. There are more than 500 types of Aloe Vera. There are two types of Sandalwood, I think one is red, and the other is yellow. Turmeric is frequently used for preserving food, similar to salt, and Clover powder used to be commonly used to clean teeth. Once we were up to the hut area, he made the most of his marketing spiel to explain how these different mixed creams and oils can cure/fix everything one can imagine, and as part of the sales pitch smeared creams and oils on Dorothee and Laurianne, but I politely declined all of that. I did however enjoy smelling some of the essences.

I had no intention of buying any of the stuff in the shop, but I had been entertained by the guide, so when he left us at the shop at 12:06 PM, Laurianne and I each gave him a 1000 ($3.42 USD) LKR tip. Dorothee and Laurianne then did a bit of shopping in the store, with us then once again in the van at 12:20 PM.

The road to Kandy had a lot of twists and turns, and I was starting to get a bit nauseous, so when Dorothee expressed interest in getting out and looking around a bit at the Kandy War Cemetary from WWII at 2:01 PM, I was good with getting out to at least not be in the vehicle for a few minutes. I was very impressed with how well the cemetery was maintained. It was also interesting, because I had never really thought about Sri Lanka having been involved in the second world war.

However, our visit was brief before we were back in the vehicle and then we stopped at Oak Ray Regency Hotel at 2:26 PM to get a buffet lunch. The setting of the restaurant was beautiful, but the food was average at best.

The cost of the buffet for the three of us was again 10500 LKR ($35.81 USD) and we were once more on our way 3:00 PM, arriving to a parking spot in the center of Kandy at 3:24 PM. We had just one hour to explore a bit before meeting Erik for the next item on the agenda.

When we met back up with Erik at 4:30 PM, he told us that Kandy has approximately 35,000 lakes, and 99% of them are manmade, including the main one we had seen there in Kandy. At 4:43 PM we were at the folkloric dance place, where we had to pay 2000 LKR ($6.82 USD) each.

As we were leaving the dance hall at 6:09 PM I had to admit that I really had been very entertained. Of course, I have no idea if they were really “dancing correctly” or if they were doing anything “authentic”, but there is no doubt that they were trying their best, and for the most part there was never a dull moment. Finally, the whole fire walking etc . . . stuff at the end was a bit over the top, but what a way to end the show!

We had to rush from the dance place to the nearby Buddha tooth temple where we arrived at 6:15 PM and each paid 2000 LKR ($6.82 USD) to enter. Of course, this was another no shoes place. We went all over the place in there, and at times I was a bit anxious with the press of people. Special thanks to Laurianne, as she could tell that I was freaking out a bit about it and took some extra pains to calm me down and also prevent too many people from constantly pushing me from all sides. The first thing that struck me as I entered was that these people were definitely not shy about displaying elephant tusks, at least not in a religious setting. There was some sort of a religious ceremony going on related to the tooth of the Buddha relic which supposedly is located here.

At 6:58 PM we were outside for a few moments. And I was glad of that. We saw the preserved body of Raja the Tusker and then I stayed outside while Dorothee and Laurianne lit some oil lanterns in a glass enclosed space. Honestly, I was just happy to have a break from so many people and so much noise from the inside of the temple.

The temple was all very impressive, and I might even be interested in going back to see it again, but not when there are so many people. At 7:13 PM we were out and getting our shoes. With my “baby feet” all of that walking around barefoot, especially outside, had also been a bit tough. At 7:22 PM we were back in the vehicle and going very high up the mountain to Mount Blue Kandy, where we would be spending just one night. We arrived at 7:38 PM. No doubt the view would have been impressive, but it was very overcast with the recurrent rain. We had dinner at and then more or less went straight to bed. The room was nice as was the food, but arriving so late, we didn’t really get to appreciate it much.

It did not actually look this bright. This was using night sight on my Google Pixel camera. In reality, it all just looked pitch black with a few dots of light.

This is what it actually looked like from the balcony without using night sight.

We finished our food at 9:45 PM and went straight to bed. And once again, WOW! That had been a very packed day! We saw and did so many things, that it wasn’t until I was looking back over my notes and pictures that I realized just how much had been fit into a single day of travel. Do you think it was too much for a single day, or is that the way you like to travel? What part was your favorite? Was there anything that you think you would have skipped? Anyway, as always, thanks for reading along and let me know your thoughts and questions in the comment section below.