Sri Lanka

When you work in a company with about 6,000 stewards and stewardesses, it’s very uncommon to get four days off at exactly the same time as your buddy. When Veronika find out that our schedules are matching, we decide to take advantage of it. But where to go? Not too far from Abu Dhabi, four days is not so much. Somewhere where weather is good now, but flights are not full yet. Somewhere where it is not that expensive (we are typical cabin crew with the inability to save money)… And Sri Lanka won!

Our friend gave us the contact for one Czech girl Helenka (Hanka Sri Lanka), who lives in Sri Lanka together with her Sri Lankan husband and do tours for Czech tourists around their country. To put our trip completely to their hands was a great idea. We don’t have to worry about anything at all, they will prepare some fantastic exploring program across the entire island with accommodation and transportation included. And we just can enjoy without any stress… Even though we don’t have to waste our time planning and researching, four days still pass so fast…

DAY 1

At the international airport in the capital city, Colombo, we arrive in the late evening. Our Sri Lankan guides have arranged for us an accommodation in the nearby Negombo, a touristic town. But somehow we have to get there first. Before leaving the airport, we let a young guy with broken English standing in front of the airport and trying to sell his taxi services to convince us. When he leads us to the dark parking spot and we see his broken car, we start to feel scared. Telepathically we are exchanging plans how we would defend ourselves if the young man happened to want to sell us for the organs. Fortunately, nothing is happening, Sri Lankan guy drops us off safely in front of our accommodation. The small guest house looks cozy. The manager has red eyes (perhaps from the weed) and always scratches his crotch, but the room he has given us looks nice. It costs about $ 50 a night. Just no hot water is running in the shower. As we see later, hot water does not run anywhere in Sri Lanka. I am very tired, but Veronica convinces me to go for some dinner and drink. The manager will arrange us typical tuk-tuk transport. We order some local dishes consisting of bread, rice and lentils and some local beer. In about an hour, our tuk-tuk driver is back to take us back to our room and cozy beds.

DAY 2

Elephant orphanage

The next morning, manager of our guest house wakes us up with breakfast. We are just having a coffee on the terrace when a Sanka – Helenka’s husband shows up in front of the house. A sympathetic little Sri Lankan with his messy hair and beard looks more like Jamaican. We jump in a spacious minivan with a driver and let’s go! The first stop is Pinnawala, a village with well known elephant orphanage. On the way we stop to look at the Porcupines who are kept on a leash like dogs! When we arrive to Pinnawala, we first go down to the pond, where the elephants have their bathing hour. We are throwing them bananas which they can spot out very easily thanks to their trunks! Apart from us there is a bunch of other tourists and a path to the pond lined with souvenir shops. We just stop at a mini-museum, where they show us how cleverly can elephant poo be turned into useful organic paper. Elephant poo is well used because of their high content of cellulose. Finally, we can get on the elephants as well. And we even pay for the elephant shower! 😀 Well, why would not we let ourselves splash with dirty water directly from the elephant’s trunk!

Tea plantations

A few hours later, we sit back in the car and head to the beautiful green tea plantations. The tiny, toothless women who collects tea leaves allows us to take some pictures for small tip. We continue to the Geragama Tea Factory, where our guide invites us to watch how the world-famous Ceylon tea (once Sri Lanka was called Ceylon), brought to the island by British tea-loving colonizers, is produced. Later, we can taste and buy different kinds of teas. Sri Lankans drink tea together with a caramelized dice of sugar. First they put sugar dice into mouth and once it starts melting, they have a sip of strong tea. It’s delicious!

In Kandy Town

Strong tea makes us more awake so we can go on with our long journey to the beautiful town Kandy, which sits by the large lake. On the way, however, we first stop for lunch. And after lunch in the nearby fabric store we can try some traditional Sri Lankan costumes. The fabrics are full of beautiful colors and I kinda regret that we did not dress up in traditional dresses before dinner, while we weren’t so bloated and full! When we arrive to Kandy, our first stop is the Gem Factory. We admire deep dark blue sapphires that we can not afford to buy. But we promise the merchants that one we will bring our fiancés here. 🙂 Out of curiosity, I wonder what kind of tourists travel here to buy these very expensive souvenirs. They say, mostly Chinese. When a twilight falls on the city, we settle down in a cultural house where some traditional dance show is about to start. Men in rich decorated costumes with their head movements remind me of horny roosters. However, it is fascinating to watch how they can spin couple of discs at once. The show ends in front of the building with fire walking – walking barefoot over hot stones and coals. Wow! It has a great atmosphere! Long day ends on the terrace of another very cozy guesthouse, where we are going to stay for overnight. The rooms are beautiful, the bathroom is very modern, but the hot water does not run again. Our guides Sanka and the driver even brought a bottle of homemade brandy and a pouch of marijuana. It seems that weed smoking belongs to Sri Lanka’s lifestyle…

DAY 3

In the temple

The new day starts in the Buddha’s Tooth Temple in Kandy. We leave the shoes in front of the gates, only barefoot you can enter the temple. Floor stones are so hot, that it is quite challenging. The whole area is full of different aromas of aromatic incenses and flowers, and the sound of drums. There are a lot of people. A crowd of believers who came here to bring flowers or rice on the altar or groups of tourists that are desperately looking for umbrellas of their guides.

Ayurveda Garden

Our next stop is Ranwali Spice Garden, a splendid Ayurvedic garden where rare spices and herbs are grown and used for production of miraculous Ayurvedic medication, masks and oils. For the first time, I can see how coffee plants really look like and where cinnamon or vanilla comes from. Our visit finishes in a shop with Ayurvedic medicine, where I end up with weight loss pineapple tablets, which dissolve in water, clove teeth whitening powder and hair growth oil. As a bonus we get an excellent spinal and foot massage from Ayurvedic students for free.

As time passed, here is my review of Ayurvedic medication I’ve bought: Tablets for weight loss don’t do any miracle. I had to throw away my hair oil, because although it smelled amazing, I had a greasy hair even after several wash. Teeth whitening powder is, however, great. My teeth are not whiter, but I feel it cures my gums.

Sigiriya

After visiting the Ayurvedic Garden, perhaps the best of Sri Lanka waits for us. The beautiful village of Sigiriya. There, our guides arranged a safari village trip for us, which starts with a ride on a wain pulled by ox. This way we get to the lake where is a romantic wooden boat waiting for us. It takes us on the other side of the lake to a wooden cottage in the tree crown. It is supposed to protect people from the attack of wild elephants! Down in the shelter, two older women start preparing traditional Sri Lankan meal. Everything is made on stones. First they break coconut on the sharp rock, then they peel coconut meal just with the help of natural shredder. Coconut goes to everything: to salad, to spicy chatni made out of red peppers, to rice and to desserts as well. Women want us to get involved in preparation but we are bit clumsy. I have to admit, it is the best dinner I ever ate! Even a restaurant in Hong Kong with 2 Michelin stars and dishes with pure gold can not beat this meal. Natural raw materials, hand work and open fire. Meal is served in wooden bowls or on banana leaves and you must eat just with your hands… The most enjoyable experience of my life!

On the top of the rock

After a fantastic lunch, we continue to Sigiriya Lion Rock. A huge, lion-like rock once used to be a palace of one crazy maharaja. We climb the steep stairs higher and higher, closer to the sunset. Just do not look down please! We could not even wish for better timing. We reach the top just with golden hour. And up there, the view is majestic! I do not know why I’m getting dizzy. Is it from the heights, or beautiful scenery in front of my eyes?…

Creepy night

When sun disappears from the sky, we go back to our car. But we are changing plans. Instead of the planned return to Negombo, we decide to move to the Hikkaduwe, surfing paradise. However, the journey is long. We are trying to find accommodation where we could spend the night, but with no success. We are far from tourist area, and our options are very poor. Finally we give up and settle down in a simple hostel. The room does not look very clean even though they tried to keep it in order. I feel again like 18-years-old student in college residence with shared bathrooms, mold and cockroaches. Veronika, who has never experienced students days, is horrified. Never mind, one night we can survive…

DAY 4

Surfing

Next morning we want to leave our inconvenient accommodation as soon as possible. In a while, we are on our way to Hikkaduwe. There we go straight to the beach. While Veronika pays for two hours of surfing with an instructor (another Jamaican-like looking guy), Im just enjoying the sun or feeding giant turtles. When I traditionally burn my nose, we move to a beachfront restaurant for a tasty Sri Lankan lunch (shrimp curry and roasted banana as a dessert). After lunch we finally meet Helenka. Together with Sanka they take us to their home where we can have a shower and some rest before a long trip to Colombo and night flight back to Abu Dhabi… Thank you for everything Hanka Sri Lanka!