Our journey home took around 20 hours.
We left Velassaru at 7.30 am on the speedboat. The ride back to Male was far less comfortable than the ride out. It felt like we were on a roller coaster, the way the boat kept shooting over the top of big waves and slamming back down on the water. The elderly Italian lady we were sharing the boat with looked very unwell indeed!
At Male we had some bad luck. We arrived at the check in desk all ready to request the emergency exit seats on our onward flight from Colombo to Heathrow. Just as we were about to approach the desk, another British couple push in front of us from the queue next to us. We couldn't believe how rude they were. We saw them thanking the check in lady, smiling in a smug way. Amber said 'They better not have taken our emeency exit seats!'. I reassured her that we would have to have been extremely unlucky for this to be the case.
Our take off was delayed by an hour and a half while the engineers at Male tried to fix the dashboard dials on the plane! Always reassuring when the 'small technical glitch' is something so fundamental to the successful operation of the aircraft. On the other hand, better to give them as much time as they need to fix the problem than rush them and risk the dials failing at 35,000 ft.
Once we left Male, our journey to Colombo was otherwise uneventful. We only had half an hour to catch our connecting flight, but luckily the gate was right next to where we emergedfrom after leaving the plane from Male and we boarded in no time.
I should have held my tongue.
When we boarded the plane we realised we were allotted the seats behind the emergency exit seats. And who should be sat in front of us? You guessed it, our friends the queue jumpers. Nice. Amber was seething.
Thankfully the flight was rather empty and there was space available on the front row, where they usually put parents with small babies. I asked a steward if we could move seats to take advantage of the better leg room (and to prevent Amber from thottling the people in the emergency seats). He had no problem with it. We moved. Mission accomplished.
The flight took forever. First of all we left behind schedule. Then we were in the air for 11.5 hours. It would have been fine if the plane had been one of the newer ones with movies on demand, but sadly it wasn't, so we had to fit sleep between the films we wanted to watch. Saw some good ones though: 'Total Recall', 'Hope Springs' and 'Premium Rush'.
We were half dead by the time we arrived at Heathrow! Then we had the whole ordeal of waiting for the bus to ate us to the car park to rescue the car.
I have no idea how Amber stayed awake long enough to drive us back home!
For all the problems we had - the driver, the hotels and the blasted weather - I have to say that I really enjoyed our honeymoon. Sri Lanka is such an interesting country that no amount of bad experiences could really affect your perception of it as such; and the Maldives, well, we had truly rotten luck with the weather, but I couldn't fault the food or the level of service and even in the rain there is something special about being on such a small island. I'm not sure if we could ever justify a return trip to Velassaru, but I hope we will find time to return to Sri Lanka, as there is so much more I would like to see.
Did someone say leopards?
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Velassaru, Day 4
I think we were both hoping for a gloriously sunny day on this, the final day of our honeymoon.
Sadly it was not to be. We awoke to the same grey sky, howling winds and heavy rain.
We donned our raincoats and made for the shelter of the gym. Amber worked out a simple circuit: leg raises, dive bombers, walking lunges, chin ups and burpees. Nearly killed me! Amazing steak and hash browns at breakfast made up for it though.
After breakfast we returned to the room and watched 'The Three Musketeers'. It was actually much better than I was expecting, despite the excessive use of CGI.
Amber would have quite happily stayed in the room, sheltering from the miserable weather, but I was feeling cooped up, so we went for a walk around the island in the rain! I went for a refreshing swim in the sea and then we walked along the jetty to the spa (Amber was desperate to find out if there had been a last minute cancellation in the spa). We wandered over to the water villas too, just to take a look at what we could have been staying in if we'd forked out a bit more!
From the jetty we saw several sharks moseying through the water. They look so peaceful gliding through the shallows.
Walking back to the room along the beach we saw a huge stingray. I had to take a closer look, so I put on my snorkel and made my way over to it. I was expecting it to hang around, but it took one look at me and headed in the opposite direction. Charming.
We bumped into anther couple who were taking photos of a particularly aggressive triggerfish. I was intrigued, albeit sceptical at first, so swam over to it. My scepticism rapidly vanished as the fish came charging over to warn me off! I made a hasty exit.
Back at the room we did a bit of packing before visiting the library to use the computers, or rather I did, Amber made herself comfortable in one of the daybeds with a book.
We took a final lap of the island - a farewell lap - and then went over to Fen Bar to have a couple of cocktails. I ordered a Vampiro, which was essentially a tall Bloody Mary made using tequila instead of vodka. Not bad, but I definitely prefer the original.
Our final meal on Velassaru was supposed to be the 'candlelit' dinner on the beach we had been promised by KUONI, another 'perk' of being a honeymoon customer. The hotel had already informed us that our dinner wouldn't be on the beach on account of the threat of rain. As a result we ended up having a very unromantic meal sat at a table right in the middle of Turquoise surrounded by Japanese couples in beachwear! To make matters worse it didn't rain, so we could have had a private table on the beach after all. They didn't even offer us anything to make the night special, so the meal was no different to eating there any other night. A shame to end the trip on a low note. Oh well, more fuel for our complaints letter to KUONI. I'm not sure how we always seem to have rotten luck with companies famous for customer service, but we really do. There's a lesson to be learned in there somewhere!
Amber would have quite happily stayed in the room, sheltering from the miserable weather, but I was feeling cooped up, so we went for a walk around the island in the rain! I went for a refreshing swim in the sea and then we walked along the jetty to the spa (Amber was desperate to find out if there had been a last minute cancellation in the spa). We wandered over to the water villas too, just to take a look at what we could have been staying in if we'd forked out a bit more!
From the jetty we saw several sharks moseying through the water. They look so peaceful gliding through the shallows.
Walking back to the room along the beach we saw a huge stingray. I had to take a closer look, so I put on my snorkel and made my way over to it. I was expecting it to hang around, but it took one look at me and headed in the opposite direction. Charming.
We bumped into anther couple who were taking photos of a particularly aggressive triggerfish. I was intrigued, albeit sceptical at first, so swam over to it. My scepticism rapidly vanished as the fish came charging over to warn me off! I made a hasty exit.
Back at the room we did a bit of packing before visiting the library to use the computers, or rather I did, Amber made herself comfortable in one of the daybeds with a book.
We took a final lap of the island - a farewell lap - and then went over to Fen Bar to have a couple of cocktails. I ordered a Vampiro, which was essentially a tall Bloody Mary made using tequila instead of vodka. Not bad, but I definitely prefer the original.
Our final meal on Velassaru was supposed to be the 'candlelit' dinner on the beach we had been promised by KUONI, another 'perk' of being a honeymoon customer. The hotel had already informed us that our dinner wouldn't be on the beach on account of the threat of rain. As a result we ended up having a very unromantic meal sat at a table right in the middle of Turquoise surrounded by Japanese couples in beachwear! To make matters worse it didn't rain, so we could have had a private table on the beach after all. They didn't even offer us anything to make the night special, so the meal was no different to eating there any other night. A shame to end the trip on a low note. Oh well, more fuel for our complaints letter to KUONI. I'm not sure how we always seem to have rotten luck with companies famous for customer service, but we really do. There's a lesson to be learned in there somewhere!
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Velassaru, Day 3
We watched 'Chronicle' on the iPad before heading to the breakfast buffet at 9 am. It's a film that went straight to DVD, but for the life of me I can't see why. It's about three American college guys who gain telekinetic powers after coming into contact with, for want of a better term, an alien meteor. All three are college stereotypes: a jock, a stoner and an outcast (the stoner's cousin) and ass they learn how to control their powers they have some serious fun. Sadly, the outcast is a seriously troubled kid who feels like the whole world hates him. As the three teenagers become more and more powerful, outcast kid 'loses his shit' and kills two people, one of which is the jock (is that the sounds of legions of ostracized kids going wild?). Stoner guy saves the day by harpooning outcast kid with a massive stone spear. It all sounds corny as anything, but believe me it's done very well indeed and makes all the big blockbuster superhero movies of recent times look overworked in comparison. Plus it has a script. One to check out.
At breakfast we made a list of all the issues we've experienced during our KUONI trip, so we could relay them to Sam (the KUONI rep) and have him pass them on to head office. The list only underlined the fact that we should definitely be lodging a formal complaint to KUONI. The difference between the expectations set by KUONI and the reality of our honeymoon experience is striking.
We got in touch with Sam at reception (I think he had only just woken up at 10 am) and he was keen to meet up sooner rather than later to get this sorted as soon as possible. He turned up in reception at 10.15 am and we went thought everything. In the end we decided it would be easiest if we just sent our list to head office alongside the various bits of paperwork we had to sign and a covering email from Sam. I imagine we will still need to send a follow up letter to provide additional detail about each point on the list. For example, one of the points says simply 'Tea factory fiasco'!
Having dealt with this unsavoury task, we investigated the sea kayaking situation. Our package includes free use of the sea kayaks for an hour a day. We booked a kayak for a bit later on and went back to our water bungalow to get showered.
By the time we were ready to go kayaking, the weather had worsened and to cap it all it was raining. Given the choppy waves, the wind and the rain we decided to give kayaking a miss and went for a snorkel off the beach by Chill Bar instead. Visibility wasn't great, but we did see plenty of fish. These were mostly damselfish, with the odd wrasse, goby or parrotfish thrown in for good measure. Most spectacular were these huge orange triggerfish (Titan triggerfish), which we had been warned about by other snorkelers. Apparently the larger triggerfish get very aggressive in defense of their eggs, and are known to bite snorkelers. Judging by the size of the fish we saw, I'm not surprised people give them a wide berth. Seemed pretty chilled to me as I swam within a couple of feet of a few of them, but there are YouTube videos of them looking decidedly more aggressive. Amber was using me as a human shield every time one swam by!
Here's a YouTube vid I found of a Titan triggerfish 'attacking' a snorkeler.. Beautiful fish!
We couldn't believe the weather. Dark clouds, rain hammering down, rough sea, howling wind. It might as well have been the Peak District. We had a hot bath to get the circulation going and strolled over to Turquoise restaurant to have a big fat burger (and the obligatory sequence of cocktails - we had 10 drinks each!).
It rained buckets whilst we were eating. So much so that the staff had to deploy the floor-to-ceiling splash screens across the open front of the restaurant. Everyone was turning up for lunch either sporting the rather fetching Velassaru raincoat provided in all rooms, or at the very least cowering under one of the bright blue umbrellas. We'd managed to get to Turquoise before thee downpour, so we felt quite smug sipping our cocktails, watching everyone arrive looking somewhat bedraggled.
As the rain wasn't looking like it would stop any time soon, we spent a little while in the two boutique shops. One was full of the usual souvenir tat, with a few nice but seriously overpriced kaftans; the other full of very expensive, very ugly jewellery. The only piece worth looking at was a stunning sapphire and gold necklace priced at a laughable $12,000. Needless to say, Amber didn't walk out of the shop wearing said item.
The rain continued to hammer down for the rest of the day. We killed some time watching 'Wrath of the Titans', not the worst film I have ever seen, but certainly not one I will be watching again in a hurry.
Thankfully one of the TV channels is Nat Geo Wild. Thanks to the dire weather I am now rather addicted to the shows 'Gator Boys' and 'Python Hunters'. My kind of job: Getting paid to wrestle with alligators and humongous snakes.
We were lucky enough to succeed in booking an over-water table at the Sands restaurant for dinner. This was a private table sitting over the water on a platform with a thatched roof, accessed via a wooden jetty jutting out from the beach, where the main restaurant is located. In theory a very romantic setting. However, it was more like being marooned on a tiny island in the middle of a hurricane! At first we had wondered if they would even let us eat at the table, but when we arrived they had lowered splash screens on two side of the platform and we were given the green light to proceed with caution along the jetty (wearing our raincoats) to our table.
Amazingly the staff were more than happy to brave the elements, scurrying back and forth with menus, food and wine (which they eventually left with us to finish off). The Japanese lady who was serving us even brought us a replacement table light after the original one ran out of batteries, plunging us into darkness! Hilarious!
Apart from the wonderful comedy of it all, the best thing about the meal was that I was able to order half a dozen Pacific rock oysters as part of our Indulgence package. This usually requires a $30 supplement. I was slightly worried as to how fresh they might be, but they were fabulous, as was the rest of the meal. A great ending to an otherwise quite uneventful day.
At breakfast we made a list of all the issues we've experienced during our KUONI trip, so we could relay them to Sam (the KUONI rep) and have him pass them on to head office. The list only underlined the fact that we should definitely be lodging a formal complaint to KUONI. The difference between the expectations set by KUONI and the reality of our honeymoon experience is striking.
We got in touch with Sam at reception (I think he had only just woken up at 10 am) and he was keen to meet up sooner rather than later to get this sorted as soon as possible. He turned up in reception at 10.15 am and we went thought everything. In the end we decided it would be easiest if we just sent our list to head office alongside the various bits of paperwork we had to sign and a covering email from Sam. I imagine we will still need to send a follow up letter to provide additional detail about each point on the list. For example, one of the points says simply 'Tea factory fiasco'!
Having dealt with this unsavoury task, we investigated the sea kayaking situation. Our package includes free use of the sea kayaks for an hour a day. We booked a kayak for a bit later on and went back to our water bungalow to get showered.
By the time we were ready to go kayaking, the weather had worsened and to cap it all it was raining. Given the choppy waves, the wind and the rain we decided to give kayaking a miss and went for a snorkel off the beach by Chill Bar instead. Visibility wasn't great, but we did see plenty of fish. These were mostly damselfish, with the odd wrasse, goby or parrotfish thrown in for good measure. Most spectacular were these huge orange triggerfish (Titan triggerfish), which we had been warned about by other snorkelers. Apparently the larger triggerfish get very aggressive in defense of their eggs, and are known to bite snorkelers. Judging by the size of the fish we saw, I'm not surprised people give them a wide berth. Seemed pretty chilled to me as I swam within a couple of feet of a few of them, but there are YouTube videos of them looking decidedly more aggressive. Amber was using me as a human shield every time one swam by!
Here's a YouTube vid I found of a Titan triggerfish 'attacking' a snorkeler.. Beautiful fish!
We couldn't believe the weather. Dark clouds, rain hammering down, rough sea, howling wind. It might as well have been the Peak District. We had a hot bath to get the circulation going and strolled over to Turquoise restaurant to have a big fat burger (and the obligatory sequence of cocktails - we had 10 drinks each!).
It rained buckets whilst we were eating. So much so that the staff had to deploy the floor-to-ceiling splash screens across the open front of the restaurant. Everyone was turning up for lunch either sporting the rather fetching Velassaru raincoat provided in all rooms, or at the very least cowering under one of the bright blue umbrellas. We'd managed to get to Turquoise before thee downpour, so we felt quite smug sipping our cocktails, watching everyone arrive looking somewhat bedraggled.
As the rain wasn't looking like it would stop any time soon, we spent a little while in the two boutique shops. One was full of the usual souvenir tat, with a few nice but seriously overpriced kaftans; the other full of very expensive, very ugly jewellery. The only piece worth looking at was a stunning sapphire and gold necklace priced at a laughable $12,000. Needless to say, Amber didn't walk out of the shop wearing said item.
The rain continued to hammer down for the rest of the day. We killed some time watching 'Wrath of the Titans', not the worst film I have ever seen, but certainly not one I will be watching again in a hurry.
Thankfully one of the TV channels is Nat Geo Wild. Thanks to the dire weather I am now rather addicted to the shows 'Gator Boys' and 'Python Hunters'. My kind of job: Getting paid to wrestle with alligators and humongous snakes.
We were lucky enough to succeed in booking an over-water table at the Sands restaurant for dinner. This was a private table sitting over the water on a platform with a thatched roof, accessed via a wooden jetty jutting out from the beach, where the main restaurant is located. In theory a very romantic setting. However, it was more like being marooned on a tiny island in the middle of a hurricane! At first we had wondered if they would even let us eat at the table, but when we arrived they had lowered splash screens on two side of the platform and we were given the green light to proceed with caution along the jetty (wearing our raincoats) to our table.
Amazingly the staff were more than happy to brave the elements, scurrying back and forth with menus, food and wine (which they eventually left with us to finish off). The Japanese lady who was serving us even brought us a replacement table light after the original one ran out of batteries, plunging us into darkness! Hilarious!
Apart from the wonderful comedy of it all, the best thing about the meal was that I was able to order half a dozen Pacific rock oysters as part of our Indulgence package. This usually requires a $30 supplement. I was slightly worried as to how fresh they might be, but they were fabulous, as was the rest of the meal. A great ending to an otherwise quite uneventful day.
Monday, 17 December 2012
Velassaru, Day 2
TV alarm at 7.30 am again. 'Dancing with the Stars'. Must work out how to turn it off!
Because it was a grey morning, we decided to start our day off with a session in the Velassaru gym. It's the best equipped gym we've come across this trip. I spent most of the time running on a treadmill.
After breakfast I headed to the library to catch up on this blog. They have a couple of iMacs in there and a PC. I had only intended to spend an hour working on the blog, but in the end I got carried away and took much longer. Amber didn't mind, she was happily reading out on the sun deck despite the cloudy weather.
We gave up on the sunbathing and took the camera to the library to have a look through the photos from Sri Lanka. There are some great shots in there, even if I do say so myself. We borrowed the Cameron Diaz film 'Bad Teacher' from the library as we left, just in case the weather stayed rubbish.
The weather wasn't improving any, so we went for a tapas lunch at the Chill Bar, cuddled up in the safety of one of their lounge pods to protect ourselves from the strong wind. The croquetas de jamon were excellent.
We decided to give up hope of there being any more sunshine and confined ourselves to our room to watch the final episode of 'Californication' (what a brilliant show that is) followed by 'Bad Teacher'.
After our TV session I decided we needed some fresh air, so we went for a sunset dip in the lovely infinity pool. The water was perfect and the sun even made a brief appearance.
It was quite funny because we saw a woman who, with sunglasses on, was the spitting image of our friend Carolyn. She even had a tattoo in the same location on her right shoulder blade.
We'd reserved a table at Teppanyaki for 7.45 pm. This time we sat inside, right in front of one of the chefs, who had just returned from holidaying back home in Sri Lanka. He was in good spirits and produced a wonderful dinner for us: an amazing sushi platter followed by teriyaki chicken for Amber and spiny lobster for me. Outstanding!
The hotel had arranged a showing of 'Water for Elephants' on a big screen right on the beach. Amazing to watch a film under the stars, with the sea lapping at the shore. The staff even brought round little bowls of popcorn. Definitely an experience to remember. The film was pretty good too!
Because it was a grey morning, we decided to start our day off with a session in the Velassaru gym. It's the best equipped gym we've come across this trip. I spent most of the time running on a treadmill.
After breakfast I headed to the library to catch up on this blog. They have a couple of iMacs in there and a PC. I had only intended to spend an hour working on the blog, but in the end I got carried away and took much longer. Amber didn't mind, she was happily reading out on the sun deck despite the cloudy weather.
We gave up on the sunbathing and took the camera to the library to have a look through the photos from Sri Lanka. There are some great shots in there, even if I do say so myself. We borrowed the Cameron Diaz film 'Bad Teacher' from the library as we left, just in case the weather stayed rubbish.
The weather wasn't improving any, so we went for a tapas lunch at the Chill Bar, cuddled up in the safety of one of their lounge pods to protect ourselves from the strong wind. The croquetas de jamon were excellent.
We decided to give up hope of there being any more sunshine and confined ourselves to our room to watch the final episode of 'Californication' (what a brilliant show that is) followed by 'Bad Teacher'.
After our TV session I decided we needed some fresh air, so we went for a sunset dip in the lovely infinity pool. The water was perfect and the sun even made a brief appearance.
It was quite funny because we saw a woman who, with sunglasses on, was the spitting image of our friend Carolyn. She even had a tattoo in the same location on her right shoulder blade.
We'd reserved a table at Teppanyaki for 7.45 pm. This time we sat inside, right in front of one of the chefs, who had just returned from holidaying back home in Sri Lanka. He was in good spirits and produced a wonderful dinner for us: an amazing sushi platter followed by teriyaki chicken for Amber and spiny lobster for me. Outstanding!
The hotel had arranged a showing of 'Water for Elephants' on a big screen right on the beach. Amazing to watch a film under the stars, with the sea lapping at the shore. The staff even brought round little bowls of popcorn. Definitely an experience to remember. The film was pretty good too!
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Velassaru, Day 1
For some reason the TV in our room is set to turn itself on at 7.30 am. 'American Idol'...great.
The breakfast buffet was pretty good. Plenty to choose from, the highlights being maki rolls and fresh honeycomb.
After breakfast we lay out on our private sun deck reading. I went for a cheeky snorkel in the sea below our bungalow. So many fish! I can see why people rave about the snorkeling here.
At lunch time we went for a wander (you can walk around the island in 15 minutes) and stopped in the chill-out area to sit on Fat Boy bean bags and eat pizza. The pizza bases were more like Jacob's crackers, but the toppings were nice. Not as nice as the all-inclusive cocktails though!
After lunch we had a swim in the sea before grabbing our snorkels and snorkeling off the end of the jetty from which the water bungalows protrude. Again there were tons of colourful fish everywhere. I was looking at a couple of long thin fish with huge eyes and tiny mouths when I heard Amber making excited noises through her snorkel. She looked worried, so I made the thumbs up signal at her to indicate that we should stick our heads out of the water for a chat. Our conversation went something like this:
Amber: 'Did you see it?'
Me: 'See what, those freaky long fish?'
Amber: 'No, the MASSIVE sting ray! Isn't that what killed Steve Irwin?'
Me: 'What sting ray?'
Amber: 'You didn't see it?! Oh crap...'
...at which point Amber set off swimming to the jetty at great speed. I thought I'd better follow along to calm her down, but in her panic Amber kicked out and caught me full in the snorkeling mask with her foot. Ouch. Luckily nothing was broken. I couldn't help but laugh at the idea that, faced with potentially dangerous sea creatures, my wife had effectively kicked me in the face and left me to die. Thanks love! Glad it wasn't a big shark, put it that way.
Amber got the heebie-jeebies about the ray incident, so we decided to change location and snorkel in the shallow water off the beach in front of Chill Bar. In the open water there were plenty of large - mostly silver - fish and the patches of coral were teeming with damselfish, trigger fish, tangs, butterfly fish and more. I loved watching pairs of gobies interacting with each other by the mouth of their sand burrows. By this time it was getting cloudy, so visibility was okay, but not great.
We were booked in to do our 'sunset cruise' at 5.15 pm, so headed over to reception at 5 pm. Sadly the weather wasn't quite right for a beautiful sunset, but we did enjoy our trip on the traditional Dhoni boat. We shared the hour long cruise with another couple, who were friendly enough and also on their honeymoon. Oddly they had elected to spend a week in the Maldives and then finish their honeymoon with two days in Kuala Lumpur. Personally I would have done it the other way around, as really there is nothing to do in KL but eat and shop.
We borrowed 'The Big Year' DVD from the library to watch before dinner. Nice film about three American twitchers (played by Owen Wildon, Jack Black and Steve Martin) competing to see the most birds in a single year. It reminded me of my ornithologist colleague and his obsession with small brown birds.
We had another excellent dinner, this time at Etesian. Lovely food, plenty of booze. All good. We staggered back to our room, whereupon Amber went straight to bed. I stayed up watching National Geographic Wild.
The breakfast buffet was pretty good. Plenty to choose from, the highlights being maki rolls and fresh honeycomb.
After breakfast we lay out on our private sun deck reading. I went for a cheeky snorkel in the sea below our bungalow. So many fish! I can see why people rave about the snorkeling here.
At lunch time we went for a wander (you can walk around the island in 15 minutes) and stopped in the chill-out area to sit on Fat Boy bean bags and eat pizza. The pizza bases were more like Jacob's crackers, but the toppings were nice. Not as nice as the all-inclusive cocktails though!
After lunch we had a swim in the sea before grabbing our snorkels and snorkeling off the end of the jetty from which the water bungalows protrude. Again there were tons of colourful fish everywhere. I was looking at a couple of long thin fish with huge eyes and tiny mouths when I heard Amber making excited noises through her snorkel. She looked worried, so I made the thumbs up signal at her to indicate that we should stick our heads out of the water for a chat. Our conversation went something like this:
Amber: 'Did you see it?'
Me: 'See what, those freaky long fish?'
Amber: 'No, the MASSIVE sting ray! Isn't that what killed Steve Irwin?'
Me: 'What sting ray?'
Amber: 'You didn't see it?! Oh crap...'
...at which point Amber set off swimming to the jetty at great speed. I thought I'd better follow along to calm her down, but in her panic Amber kicked out and caught me full in the snorkeling mask with her foot. Ouch. Luckily nothing was broken. I couldn't help but laugh at the idea that, faced with potentially dangerous sea creatures, my wife had effectively kicked me in the face and left me to die. Thanks love! Glad it wasn't a big shark, put it that way.
Amber got the heebie-jeebies about the ray incident, so we decided to change location and snorkel in the shallow water off the beach in front of Chill Bar. In the open water there were plenty of large - mostly silver - fish and the patches of coral were teeming with damselfish, trigger fish, tangs, butterfly fish and more. I loved watching pairs of gobies interacting with each other by the mouth of their sand burrows. By this time it was getting cloudy, so visibility was okay, but not great.
We were booked in to do our 'sunset cruise' at 5.15 pm, so headed over to reception at 5 pm. Sadly the weather wasn't quite right for a beautiful sunset, but we did enjoy our trip on the traditional Dhoni boat. We shared the hour long cruise with another couple, who were friendly enough and also on their honeymoon. Oddly they had elected to spend a week in the Maldives and then finish their honeymoon with two days in Kuala Lumpur. Personally I would have done it the other way around, as really there is nothing to do in KL but eat and shop.
We borrowed 'The Big Year' DVD from the library to watch before dinner. Nice film about three American twitchers (played by Owen Wildon, Jack Black and Steve Martin) competing to see the most birds in a single year. It reminded me of my ornithologist colleague and his obsession with small brown birds.
We had another excellent dinner, this time at Etesian. Lovely food, plenty of booze. All good. We staggered back to our room, whereupon Amber went straight to bed. I stayed up watching National Geographic Wild.
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Maldives here we come
This morning I woke up and looked around our incredible room at Aditya. I looked up at the ornately carved, wooden headboard that looks like it was stolen from some ancient temple doorway; I looked out of the large glass doors in front of me at our private jacuzzi plunge pool; I looked up at the now bare ceiling that had been so spectacular last night with it's projected display of the night sky; I looked across the bed at my peacefully sleeping wife, in her element; and I thought, 'Bollocks. Now we have to leave.'
I feel sure that we will be returning to this hotel one day. There's something about it that makes it truly special.
Anyway, enough of that. Back to business...
Keen to make sure he fucked up at least one more time before we got rid of him, Stanley met us at 8 am to inform us that, yes, we were indeed supposed to be saying goodbye to him yesterday, as Kuoni in their infinite wisdom managed to arrange another driver to come and take us to the airport. Poor old Stanley, he really is quite useless! Apparently not his fault, however, as his handler had told him he was taking us to the airport. In any case, we filled in his survey form, said our very sincere thanks and tipped him 7,000 Rs (more to avoid any bad blood than becasue we felt he really deserved it). He seemed happy enough.
We left the hotel around 8.15 am with the aim of getting to the airport by 12 pm. Our new driver had obviously been to the same driving school as Stan the Man, and we slid through the traffic like an eel on Red Bull. That is, until we hit the Christmas shopping rush.
With today being a Saturday, hundreds of Sri Lankans were out trying to buy last minute gifts for family and friends. Amazingly, given that 70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhist, they still go all out for celebrating Christmas (presumably the corporate version of things, as opposed to the newborn baby surrounded by livestock version...). This meant that our driver ended up taking as many backroads as possible to avoid getting stuck - unfortunately, he wasn't the only one with this idea, so we kept getting stuck.
This would have been fine if both Amber and I hadn't both been in increasingly desperate need of a pee! It was Catch 22. We couldn't afford to stop becasue it was entirely feasible we might not be able to catch our flight to Malé, but on the other hand, no-one wants to arrive at an international airport having peed their pants.
Thankfully, after three and a half hours of careening around Sri Lankan backroads, feeling every single bump in our bladders and trying desperately not to laugh and make matters worse, we arrived at the airport at 12.15 pm, bid our driver farewell and made our way straight to the toilets. To any onlooker we must have looked hilarious, me pushing the trolley laden with bags and Amber hobbling beside me like a zombie - too afraid to run in case there was an accident!
Longest wee ever.
Colombo airport isnt very big, so we were through to departures in no time. Amber was keen to try our luck at getting into some of the executive lounges, but despite our best smiles and cunning use of the honeymoon card we were turned away from all of them. Amber has decided this means that she's a pleb. Maybe they have a 'no Essex girls' policy when it comes to airport lounges and business class upgrades in Sri Lanka...
We didn't have long to wait at our gate before boarding in any case, so before we knew it we had already boarded the plane and taken off to start the second phase of our honeymoon. We were both sad to leave Sri Lanka. It really does have so much going for it as a travel destination. Next time we will back-pack and dig a little bit deeper under the surface. Looking out of the plane window it felt like Sri Lanka was sad to see us go: The first truly overcast day since we arrived eleven days ago.
The flight to Malé took just on hour and fifteen minutes. Long enough for me to watch most of a terrible movie called 'This Means War'. It was already abridged for showing on airplanes, but the plot was so weak that I managed to skip through about half an hour of footage and still get the gist: Two CIA agent buddies compete to date Reese Witherspoon; much hilarity ensues (or not); they fall out; they team up to beat the bad guys; one of them ends up with Reese Witherspoon; THE END. This movie has lowered the bar significantly in terms of how I will rate movies in the future. You would have to work really hard to make a worse one.
Touch down! The plane landed before we'd even realised we were anywhere near the ground. Immigration went very smoothly and we were greeted by a chap with a Kuoni placard, who passed us onto another guy, who took us to our awesome speedboat.
We had the speed boat to ourselves, which was lovely, and as we shot off towards Velassaru I thought to myself, 'This is how it should be'.
In no time at all we were disembarking onto the jetty at Velassaru, where we met Sam Willems, our Kuoni rep. He was extremely polite, helpful and full of information about the island, which we lapped up, sitting in the Fen Bar sipping on fresh juice. We're booked onto the all-inclusive Indulgence Package, which entitles us to the breakfast buffet, a three-course lunch with drinks in any of the smaller eateries on the island (Turquoise and Chill Bar) and dinner in any of the restaurants in the evening (Teppanyaki, Vela, Etesian and Sand). As Sam described the quality of the food, we were both salivating!
We were shown to our water bungalow. These are the over-water bungalows that you always see in promotional material for the Maldives - wooden huts with thatched roofs suspended over the sea on metal beams and connected to the island by means of a wooden jetty. Tropical paradise eat your heart out. As expected, the sea is crystal clear and teaming with marine life.
As far as I could tell, our room was perfect. Nice bathroom with bath tub and shower looking out to sea at the neighbouring island; huge bed; Bose home theatre system connected to large plasma screen telly; private sun deck and ladder down to the water. Sweet.
Amber was less convinced, but then her standards when it comes to anything meeting expectations are (in)famously high - a fact which makes me feel quite proud of myself every day! It all boiled down to the fact that the bathroom was a little bit scuzzy: mould around the base of the shower, growing in the grouting between the tiles and around the base of the sink; and a nasty stain around the plu hole in the sink itself. For the amount of money you pay to come to the Maldives, Amber's right, you should be blown away by the levels of cleanliness in the room, and we weren't.
Despite being halfway through our complimentary bottle of champagne, I put a call in to Sam to see if we could look at another room. He went to check with reception for us. The response was that there was another room available, but that hotel policy dictated that guests weren't allowed to see rooms until they had been cleaned. The room wouldn't be ready until 8 pm. All we wanted to do was have a shower, unpack and get ready for dinner, so we decided against hanging around until 8 pm. Sam handled the situation perfectly.
For dinner we thought we'd try our luck at getting into Teppanyaki, as it's supposed to be the best restaurant on the island and has pride of place over the water at the end of a long jetty. We got lucky, they had availability at 8.45 pm. We headed to Fen Bar to kill some time and had a nice chat with the very friendly bar man, who it turns out is from Sri Lanka. He also makes an excellent caipirinha!
Dinner was very good. We were given a very romantic corner table, so we could watch the big fish swimming around beneath us. They clearly throw the offcuts of fish from the food prep over the side, so the fish beneath us were all playing the waiting game.
The food is Japanese themed, so we had sushi, followed by excellent wagyu beef to share (the waiter also brought me a plate full of sake-marinated grilled prawns becasue he didn't want me to miss out on the seafood!). We ordered two different desserts. Amber's was very good, mine was VERY odd - grapefruit-flavoured curd with wasabi icecream anyone?! The wonderful food was accompanied by an equally wonderful pinot noir.
I feel sure that we will be returning to this hotel one day. There's something about it that makes it truly special.
Anyway, enough of that. Back to business...
Keen to make sure he fucked up at least one more time before we got rid of him, Stanley met us at 8 am to inform us that, yes, we were indeed supposed to be saying goodbye to him yesterday, as Kuoni in their infinite wisdom managed to arrange another driver to come and take us to the airport. Poor old Stanley, he really is quite useless! Apparently not his fault, however, as his handler had told him he was taking us to the airport. In any case, we filled in his survey form, said our very sincere thanks and tipped him 7,000 Rs (more to avoid any bad blood than becasue we felt he really deserved it). He seemed happy enough.
We left the hotel around 8.15 am with the aim of getting to the airport by 12 pm. Our new driver had obviously been to the same driving school as Stan the Man, and we slid through the traffic like an eel on Red Bull. That is, until we hit the Christmas shopping rush.
With today being a Saturday, hundreds of Sri Lankans were out trying to buy last minute gifts for family and friends. Amazingly, given that 70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhist, they still go all out for celebrating Christmas (presumably the corporate version of things, as opposed to the newborn baby surrounded by livestock version...). This meant that our driver ended up taking as many backroads as possible to avoid getting stuck - unfortunately, he wasn't the only one with this idea, so we kept getting stuck.
This would have been fine if both Amber and I hadn't both been in increasingly desperate need of a pee! It was Catch 22. We couldn't afford to stop becasue it was entirely feasible we might not be able to catch our flight to Malé, but on the other hand, no-one wants to arrive at an international airport having peed their pants.
Thankfully, after three and a half hours of careening around Sri Lankan backroads, feeling every single bump in our bladders and trying desperately not to laugh and make matters worse, we arrived at the airport at 12.15 pm, bid our driver farewell and made our way straight to the toilets. To any onlooker we must have looked hilarious, me pushing the trolley laden with bags and Amber hobbling beside me like a zombie - too afraid to run in case there was an accident!
Longest wee ever.
Colombo airport isnt very big, so we were through to departures in no time. Amber was keen to try our luck at getting into some of the executive lounges, but despite our best smiles and cunning use of the honeymoon card we were turned away from all of them. Amber has decided this means that she's a pleb. Maybe they have a 'no Essex girls' policy when it comes to airport lounges and business class upgrades in Sri Lanka...
We didn't have long to wait at our gate before boarding in any case, so before we knew it we had already boarded the plane and taken off to start the second phase of our honeymoon. We were both sad to leave Sri Lanka. It really does have so much going for it as a travel destination. Next time we will back-pack and dig a little bit deeper under the surface. Looking out of the plane window it felt like Sri Lanka was sad to see us go: The first truly overcast day since we arrived eleven days ago.
The flight to Malé took just on hour and fifteen minutes. Long enough for me to watch most of a terrible movie called 'This Means War'. It was already abridged for showing on airplanes, but the plot was so weak that I managed to skip through about half an hour of footage and still get the gist: Two CIA agent buddies compete to date Reese Witherspoon; much hilarity ensues (or not); they fall out; they team up to beat the bad guys; one of them ends up with Reese Witherspoon; THE END. This movie has lowered the bar significantly in terms of how I will rate movies in the future. You would have to work really hard to make a worse one.
Touch down! The plane landed before we'd even realised we were anywhere near the ground. Immigration went very smoothly and we were greeted by a chap with a Kuoni placard, who passed us onto another guy, who took us to our awesome speedboat.
We had the speed boat to ourselves, which was lovely, and as we shot off towards Velassaru I thought to myself, 'This is how it should be'.
In no time at all we were disembarking onto the jetty at Velassaru, where we met Sam Willems, our Kuoni rep. He was extremely polite, helpful and full of information about the island, which we lapped up, sitting in the Fen Bar sipping on fresh juice. We're booked onto the all-inclusive Indulgence Package, which entitles us to the breakfast buffet, a three-course lunch with drinks in any of the smaller eateries on the island (Turquoise and Chill Bar) and dinner in any of the restaurants in the evening (Teppanyaki, Vela, Etesian and Sand). As Sam described the quality of the food, we were both salivating!
We were shown to our water bungalow. These are the over-water bungalows that you always see in promotional material for the Maldives - wooden huts with thatched roofs suspended over the sea on metal beams and connected to the island by means of a wooden jetty. Tropical paradise eat your heart out. As expected, the sea is crystal clear and teaming with marine life.
As far as I could tell, our room was perfect. Nice bathroom with bath tub and shower looking out to sea at the neighbouring island; huge bed; Bose home theatre system connected to large plasma screen telly; private sun deck and ladder down to the water. Sweet.
Amber was less convinced, but then her standards when it comes to anything meeting expectations are (in)famously high - a fact which makes me feel quite proud of myself every day! It all boiled down to the fact that the bathroom was a little bit scuzzy: mould around the base of the shower, growing in the grouting between the tiles and around the base of the sink; and a nasty stain around the plu hole in the sink itself. For the amount of money you pay to come to the Maldives, Amber's right, you should be blown away by the levels of cleanliness in the room, and we weren't.
Despite being halfway through our complimentary bottle of champagne, I put a call in to Sam to see if we could look at another room. He went to check with reception for us. The response was that there was another room available, but that hotel policy dictated that guests weren't allowed to see rooms until they had been cleaned. The room wouldn't be ready until 8 pm. All we wanted to do was have a shower, unpack and get ready for dinner, so we decided against hanging around until 8 pm. Sam handled the situation perfectly.
For dinner we thought we'd try our luck at getting into Teppanyaki, as it's supposed to be the best restaurant on the island and has pride of place over the water at the end of a long jetty. We got lucky, they had availability at 8.45 pm. We headed to Fen Bar to kill some time and had a nice chat with the very friendly bar man, who it turns out is from Sri Lanka. He also makes an excellent caipirinha!
Dinner was very good. We were given a very romantic corner table, so we could watch the big fish swimming around beneath us. They clearly throw the offcuts of fish from the food prep over the side, so the fish beneath us were all playing the waiting game.
The food is Japanese themed, so we had sushi, followed by excellent wagyu beef to share (the waiter also brought me a plate full of sake-marinated grilled prawns becasue he didn't want me to miss out on the seafood!). We ordered two different desserts. Amber's was very good, mine was VERY odd - grapefruit-flavoured curd with wasabi icecream anyone?! The wonderful food was accompanied by an equally wonderful pinot noir.
Friday, 14 December 2012
Monkeys on the roof!
We woke early this morning to the not-so-subtle sounds of Hanuman langurs leaping around on the roof of our chalet! A nice goodbye from Yala.
Stanley picked us up at 8:30 am after breakfast and we set off for Galle. Stanley was on strict instructions that we didn't want to do anything en route to Galle. We were keen to make the most of the boutique hotel at the end of our journey, as friends who've stayed there praise it very highly indeed.
Thankfully, once away from the Yala area, the roads returned to normal and, other than the obligatory swerving and near-missing that constitutes Sri Lankan driving, the journey was very smooth. We stopped briefly, by Tangalle beach, for a pee stop and to let Stanley fortify his lungs with more tar.
I managed to get a photo of a dead, dessicated fruit bat hanging from overhead wires, across the road from the gift shop. I'd been planning to get a photo of this for most of the trip, as we've seen so many dead bats hanging from wires, but hadn't had the opportunity until now. Fruit bats are widespread throughout Sri Lanka and forms colonies hundreds strong. Fruit bats don't use echolocation, relying instead on their eyes to navigate. Because the bats are mostly active at night, the black phone cables are all but invisible to them. As a result, it is not uncommon for bats to fly into the wire, get tangled up, and die. It's tragic, but very much a part of the scenery here in Sri Lanka and I was keen to get a picture to capture this fact.
A few hours later we arrived in Galle. Stanley was keen to impress upon us that Galle was a very interesting place and insisted that we should stop and have a look at a few things before heading to our hotel. He's not wrong about it being interesting: Galle has some fascinating history, having been a Portuguese colony from the 16th century and a Dutch colony in the 18th century. The architecture very much reflects this.
Galle fort is a World Heritage Site and, according to Wikipedia, the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers. Galle is also home to a cricket ground, the Galle International Stadium, which was rebuilt after the 2004 tsunami.
Galle was surprisingly nice, reminding me a lot of Granada in Nicaragua, thanks to the lovely colonial buildings and chilled out vibe. We were keen to get to our hotel, so we ended up on a whistle-stop tour, taking in a Dutch church, the wall around the old town and the lighthouse. Definitely a place to revisit and appreciate in a more leisurely fashion on a future visit.
Happy that we had given Galle the respect it was due, Stanley drove us to our final hotel, Aditya, which is situated part way between Galle and Hikkaduwa. We arrived around 2 pm.
The Aditya hotel is situated between Gaqlle and Hikkaduwa and is totally hidden down a narrow alley with apparently very little to advertise its existence from the main road. It's a hidden gem. A fact which became very apparent when we arrived and were greeted by smiling faces and garlands made from frangipani flowers. We were then sat down and offered cold, lemon-scented towels and fresh pineapple juice.
What a hotel! Our room (Daksa) is the lowest tier room room they offer and it was still beyond belief. Intricately carved wooden head board over a spacious bed, open air bathroom complete with his and her sinks, huge mirror and rain-shower, private jacuzzi pool, big plasma screen with Bose surround sound playing relaxing music. All artfully decorated. Absolutely stunning. We even got a congratulatory honeymoon chocolate mousse cake and a selection of petits-fours. To cap it all they had a pillow menu, so you could order exactly the type of pillow you'd like to sleep on! On the bedside cabinet was a copy of the Kama Sutra. They are obviously used to providing for honeymooners: This is certainly the first hotel I've ever stayed in that provides condoms (with added benzocaine for endurance, no less) in the vanity kit!
Once we finished gawping at our room, we walked down to the relatively deserted beach and strolled along the sea front for a bit. A beautiful slice of coconut-palm-lined tropical paradise. Interestingly, the sand was covered in hundreds of tiny trails made by baby turtles that had hatched the night before, desperately trying to find their way to the waters edge. Shame we didn't get to see any, there are several small turtle conservation centres set up along the coast here with concrete holding pools.
After the beach we headed back to the hotel to make the most of the lovely swimming pool, until the sun dipped below the horizon. There was a pair of
A few more episodes of 'Californication' before dinner, which was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately for Amber I decided to order Singapore crab, which was wonderful, but took me a very long time to eat. I didn't want to waste anything. The sauce was fantastic. The chef obviously knew what he was doing. He even came out and did the rounds of the tables. We heaped on the praise, but he did rather overstay his welcome, loitering by our table longer than was comfortable.
We had a big surprise when we returned to our room. The lights were off and the staff had laid out a total of 25 tea lights around the room. They had also turned on three black-light strip lights to illuminate an incredible diorama of the night sky, painted onto the ceiling in fluorescent paint (totally invisible under natural light). Amazing! They certainly know how to create the mood in this place. Amber was awestruck. Certainly the most impressive turn-down service I've ever seen.
We watched Al Pacino do his thing in 'Simone' before calling it a night around midnight. A wonderful end to the Sri Lankan leg of our trip.
Stanley picked us up at 8:30 am after breakfast and we set off for Galle. Stanley was on strict instructions that we didn't want to do anything en route to Galle. We were keen to make the most of the boutique hotel at the end of our journey, as friends who've stayed there praise it very highly indeed.
Thankfully, once away from the Yala area, the roads returned to normal and, other than the obligatory swerving and near-missing that constitutes Sri Lankan driving, the journey was very smooth. We stopped briefly, by Tangalle beach, for a pee stop and to let Stanley fortify his lungs with more tar.
I managed to get a photo of a dead, dessicated fruit bat hanging from overhead wires, across the road from the gift shop. I'd been planning to get a photo of this for most of the trip, as we've seen so many dead bats hanging from wires, but hadn't had the opportunity until now. Fruit bats are widespread throughout Sri Lanka and forms colonies hundreds strong. Fruit bats don't use echolocation, relying instead on their eyes to navigate. Because the bats are mostly active at night, the black phone cables are all but invisible to them. As a result, it is not uncommon for bats to fly into the wire, get tangled up, and die. It's tragic, but very much a part of the scenery here in Sri Lanka and I was keen to get a picture to capture this fact.
A few hours later we arrived in Galle. Stanley was keen to impress upon us that Galle was a very interesting place and insisted that we should stop and have a look at a few things before heading to our hotel. He's not wrong about it being interesting: Galle has some fascinating history, having been a Portuguese colony from the 16th century and a Dutch colony in the 18th century. The architecture very much reflects this.
Galle fort is a World Heritage Site and, according to Wikipedia, the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers. Galle is also home to a cricket ground, the Galle International Stadium, which was rebuilt after the 2004 tsunami.
Galle was surprisingly nice, reminding me a lot of Granada in Nicaragua, thanks to the lovely colonial buildings and chilled out vibe. We were keen to get to our hotel, so we ended up on a whistle-stop tour, taking in a Dutch church, the wall around the old town and the lighthouse. Definitely a place to revisit and appreciate in a more leisurely fashion on a future visit.
Happy that we had given Galle the respect it was due, Stanley drove us to our final hotel, Aditya, which is situated part way between Galle and Hikkaduwa. We arrived around 2 pm.
The Aditya hotel is situated between Gaqlle and Hikkaduwa and is totally hidden down a narrow alley with apparently very little to advertise its existence from the main road. It's a hidden gem. A fact which became very apparent when we arrived and were greeted by smiling faces and garlands made from frangipani flowers. We were then sat down and offered cold, lemon-scented towels and fresh pineapple juice.
What a hotel! Our room (Daksa) is the lowest tier room room they offer and it was still beyond belief. Intricately carved wooden head board over a spacious bed, open air bathroom complete with his and her sinks, huge mirror and rain-shower, private jacuzzi pool, big plasma screen with Bose surround sound playing relaxing music. All artfully decorated. Absolutely stunning. We even got a congratulatory honeymoon chocolate mousse cake and a selection of petits-fours. To cap it all they had a pillow menu, so you could order exactly the type of pillow you'd like to sleep on! On the bedside cabinet was a copy of the Kama Sutra. They are obviously used to providing for honeymooners: This is certainly the first hotel I've ever stayed in that provides condoms (with added benzocaine for endurance, no less) in the vanity kit!
Once we finished gawping at our room, we walked down to the relatively deserted beach and strolled along the sea front for a bit. A beautiful slice of coconut-palm-lined tropical paradise. Interestingly, the sand was covered in hundreds of tiny trails made by baby turtles that had hatched the night before, desperately trying to find their way to the waters edge. Shame we didn't get to see any, there are several small turtle conservation centres set up along the coast here with concrete holding pools.
After the beach we headed back to the hotel to make the most of the lovely swimming pool, until the sun dipped below the horizon. There was a pair of
A few more episodes of 'Californication' before dinner, which was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately for Amber I decided to order Singapore crab, which was wonderful, but took me a very long time to eat. I didn't want to waste anything. The sauce was fantastic. The chef obviously knew what he was doing. He even came out and did the rounds of the tables. We heaped on the praise, but he did rather overstay his welcome, loitering by our table longer than was comfortable.
We had a big surprise when we returned to our room. The lights were off and the staff had laid out a total of 25 tea lights around the room. They had also turned on three black-light strip lights to illuminate an incredible diorama of the night sky, painted onto the ceiling in fluorescent paint (totally invisible under natural light). Amazing! They certainly know how to create the mood in this place. Amber was awestruck. Certainly the most impressive turn-down service I've ever seen.
We watched Al Pacino do his thing in 'Simone' before calling it a night around midnight. A wonderful end to the Sri Lankan leg of our trip.
Thursday, 13 December 2012
Bundala Safari
Our alarms went off at 5 am. We chucked on clothes and headed to reception to exchange $120 for rupees so we could pay for our morning safari. We also picked up a couple of packed breakfasts that we'd ordered last night. Stanley and our driver/guide (same guy as yesterday) were on time, so we set off a bit before many of the other jeeps, which can only be a good thing.
Bundala was a good hour and a quarter away from the hotel down some extremely bumpy roads, but we saw plenty of good birds along the way.
As a result of organising our trip at relatively short notice, we ended up having to drive past the main park entrance to the ticket office. Stanley bought our tickets while we checked out the bathroom facilities (horrendous). Minutes later we were in Bundala National Park, a protected Ramsar site famous for its birds, and justly so! We saw tons and tons of them. And even though we were expecting to see fewer mammals here, we still saw several mongooses going about their business.
The highlight of the Bundala safari had to be stumbling upon a peacock displaying to a peahen in the middle of one of the dirt tracks. He was absolutely lost in the moment, so I was able to get some beautiful photos and even a video of him in full swing. It's a sight that will stay with me forever. It's rare in life to see anything so beautiful. The peahen was less impressed. She wandered off halfway through, leaving him to finish the show alone!
On the way back, we stopped off at an ATM to grab some more cash. We were back at Chaaya Wild by 11.00 am, after another bumpy ride. While the room boy was cleaning our room we sat out on the balcony, writing and listening to Elbow' latest album.
On the way to spend some time by the pool, Amber managed to befriend a couple of stray dogs. There are a few that hang out at the hotel because they know that with enough persistence the guests will feed them scraps. If the guests aren't so forthcoming, they're more than happy to steal food. I played a fun game with one of them: him pretending not to eye up my cheese sandwich and me moving the offending item to the opposite side of my sun-lounger each time he moved closer to it. In the end I got bored and left the sandwich on the floor. My playmate wasted no time in crawling under the sun-lounger to steal it and eat it greedily about two feet from me. It was a horrible sandwich anyway. Sri Lankan bread is the pits, so I was happy for him to have it.
Lying on my sun-lounger I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. One of the land monitors, which are rife in the hotel grounds, had wandered over to the swimming pool. I thought he might take a dip, but he (like the dog) was only scavenging for food.
We had a couple of bowls of French fries in Pug Marks for lunch. When we sat down, there was a horrific National Geographic documentary on the plasma screen about the use of snakes in Chinese medicine, showing people butchering live snakes and drinking their bile, blood and beating hearts. The footage made me feel very angry and very sad all at once - Chinese medicine is the root of all evil when it comes to wildlife conservation. Just plain dumb. You'd think that a country so hungry for progress in the fields of science and technology would have worked out by now that eating and drinking tiger, bear, seahorse, shark and snake body parts isn't going to make you a better, faster, stronger person. Don't even get me started on how China is the biggest consumer for illegal elephant ivory...
After a brief swim in the pool, we dried off in the sun, returned to the beach chalet to have a lie down (it's exhausting, all this relaxation!) and watched a few more episodes of 'Californication'. Then we stuck some clothes on so we could go exploring with the camera. Plenty of animals, but nothing new to add to the list. We walked back to the hub of the hotel and headed up to the observation deck. One of the guys up there told us that there had been a leopard on one of the large boulders jutting above the scrub forest last night, in full site of the observation deck. It had apparently stayed there for an hour and a half. It left around the time we were returning from our Yala safari. Typical. You spend half a day driving around a national park famous for having the highest density of leopards in the world - to no avail - and then one rocks up at your hotel when you're not there! Oh well, at least it was nice and relaxing up there on the observation deck enjoying a nice cold Lion lager.
We left the observation deck just before it got dark.
Nothing left to do but stuff ourselves at the buffet. It's a hard life!
Birds of Bundala:
- pheasant-tailed jacana
- purple swamp-hen
- common moorhen
- intermediate egret
Bundala was a good hour and a quarter away from the hotel down some extremely bumpy roads, but we saw plenty of good birds along the way.
As a result of organising our trip at relatively short notice, we ended up having to drive past the main park entrance to the ticket office. Stanley bought our tickets while we checked out the bathroom facilities (horrendous). Minutes later we were in Bundala National Park, a protected Ramsar site famous for its birds, and justly so! We saw tons and tons of them. And even though we were expecting to see fewer mammals here, we still saw several mongooses going about their business.
The highlight of the Bundala safari had to be stumbling upon a peacock displaying to a peahen in the middle of one of the dirt tracks. He was absolutely lost in the moment, so I was able to get some beautiful photos and even a video of him in full swing. It's a sight that will stay with me forever. It's rare in life to see anything so beautiful. The peahen was less impressed. She wandered off halfway through, leaving him to finish the show alone!
On the way back, we stopped off at an ATM to grab some more cash. We were back at Chaaya Wild by 11.00 am, after another bumpy ride. While the room boy was cleaning our room we sat out on the balcony, writing and listening to Elbow' latest album.
On the way to spend some time by the pool, Amber managed to befriend a couple of stray dogs. There are a few that hang out at the hotel because they know that with enough persistence the guests will feed them scraps. If the guests aren't so forthcoming, they're more than happy to steal food. I played a fun game with one of them: him pretending not to eye up my cheese sandwich and me moving the offending item to the opposite side of my sun-lounger each time he moved closer to it. In the end I got bored and left the sandwich on the floor. My playmate wasted no time in crawling under the sun-lounger to steal it and eat it greedily about two feet from me. It was a horrible sandwich anyway. Sri Lankan bread is the pits, so I was happy for him to have it.
Lying on my sun-lounger I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. One of the land monitors, which are rife in the hotel grounds, had wandered over to the swimming pool. I thought he might take a dip, but he (like the dog) was only scavenging for food.
We had a couple of bowls of French fries in Pug Marks for lunch. When we sat down, there was a horrific National Geographic documentary on the plasma screen about the use of snakes in Chinese medicine, showing people butchering live snakes and drinking their bile, blood and beating hearts. The footage made me feel very angry and very sad all at once - Chinese medicine is the root of all evil when it comes to wildlife conservation. Just plain dumb. You'd think that a country so hungry for progress in the fields of science and technology would have worked out by now that eating and drinking tiger, bear, seahorse, shark and snake body parts isn't going to make you a better, faster, stronger person. Don't even get me started on how China is the biggest consumer for illegal elephant ivory...
After a brief swim in the pool, we dried off in the sun, returned to the beach chalet to have a lie down (it's exhausting, all this relaxation!) and watched a few more episodes of 'Californication'. Then we stuck some clothes on so we could go exploring with the camera. Plenty of animals, but nothing new to add to the list. We walked back to the hub of the hotel and headed up to the observation deck. One of the guys up there told us that there had been a leopard on one of the large boulders jutting above the scrub forest last night, in full site of the observation deck. It had apparently stayed there for an hour and a half. It left around the time we were returning from our Yala safari. Typical. You spend half a day driving around a national park famous for having the highest density of leopards in the world - to no avail - and then one rocks up at your hotel when you're not there! Oh well, at least it was nice and relaxing up there on the observation deck enjoying a nice cold Lion lager.
We left the observation deck just before it got dark.
Nothing left to do but stuff ourselves at the buffet. It's a hard life!
Birds of Bundala:
- pheasant-tailed jacana
- purple swamp-hen
- common moorhen
- intermediate egret
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Yala Safari
So get this: Today is 12/12/12. I am so glad I am not in England, in the cold, listening to the drivel they will almost certainly be putting on every TV channel and radio station about this being the last date of its kind for a very long time. Far better to be in forested surroundings, under a blazing sun, fantasizing about the possibility of seeing a leopard for the first time.
Our safari jeep wasn't due to show up until 2 pm, so after breakfast we strolled down to the beach to take in the view and write a birthday message to Amber's mum in the sand. The sea here is apparently pretty dangerous, shelving off deeply with strong rip tides. One of the girls on reception told us that a young child had been swept away by the sea a few years ago.
Later we wandered over to the lake. Amber spotted movement at the water surface that turned out to be one of the mugger crocodiles trying to eat a dead stork that was floating on the surface. Wildlife in action! We watched it struggling to tear the bird apart, clamping its jaws around part of the bird and spinning in the water to tear a piece off. It wasn't working too well. In the end the croc got tired of our prying eyes and swam away with the bird in its jaws.
As we were grabbing a drink in the bizarrely-named 'Pug Marks' bar, we bumped into Stanley, who stopped to talk about arranging the safari. Irritatingly, he had somehow inflated the price he quoted yesterday by 1500 Rs per person! We couldn't believe it. It is almost as if he actively wants us to mistrust him! All the same, at 7500 Rs each, including park fees, his price was still a darn sight cheaper than the $80 a head that hotel is offering. After some deliberation we gave Stanley the green light to book the safari and he left us alone.
After lunch we went to talk to reception about getting a free upgrade to a beach chalet. According to our Kuoni brochure, we are entitled to this upgrade as one of the perks of being on a honeymoon booking. As I said yesterday, the hotel didn't recognise this fact, which I assumed was because all the beach chalets were fully booked. As it turned out, they had availability today and were happy to move us from room 154 to room 139 (much to our room boy's disgust - he didn't look happy as he watched his chances of getting a tip from us go up in smoke). It would have been nice if they had contacted us to ask if we wanted to upgrade, rather than the other way around, but from our experience so far, it seems Sri Lankan hospitality still has a little way to go in terms of customer service, at the luxury end at least.
The beach chalet is great, higher ceiling, more space and a balcony looking out over greenery to the waves crashing on the shore. Checking availability was definitely the right move!
At 2 pm we headed over to the Safari Pick Up point to meet Stanley and our jeep driver. As we watched a steady stream of plush safari jeeps turn up to pick up other hotel guests, we half expected, given Stanley's track record, that our jeep might turn out to be an old rust bucket. Incredibly, Stanley managed to exceed our expectations, delivering not only a jeep on a par with the others (bar the smashed rear window), but also a driver who was a competent naturalist. Result.
What can I say about the Yala safari experience? It was brilliant! The park is criss-crossed with a network of dirt roads, allowing jeep access to a wide range of habitat types. For the most part the park is scrub forest, with bigger trees and boulders rising above the scrub, providing vantage points for a wide range of birds and mammals. Other areas consist of wetland, grassland or water bodies, all of which teem with life. We saw hundreds of animals, many of which are hard to see here, including wild elephants, sambhur deer, spotted deer, hanuman langurs, toque macaques, ruddy mongoose, hornbills, mugger crocodiles, two species of bee-eater, fan-tailed flycatcher, spoonbills, jacanas and enough peafowl to last you a lifetime. Our driver was excellent. Excellent at spotting hidden wildlife and with an encyclopaedic knowledge of English common names.
Yala is truly a birder's paradise, with so many species so readily seen. I'm not really into wading birds, which is why many species haven't made it onto the list (I couldn't readily identify them), but I reckon we easily saw ten different species of wading birds alone, probably more.
We were in the park for hours, only getting back to the hotel around 6:30, after the sun had set. Great value for money. Sadly the leopards, for which the park is famous, had eluded us, but we were more than content with what we did see. The highlight had to be stopping metres away from a female elephant and her calf, who were amazingly well hidden behind a row of trees, and watching her bring the calf out to cross the road. She was remarkably unphased by the three jeeps full of gawping tourists, but her baby was clearly afraid, hiding behind its mum for safety. Magical.
On the back of having such a great experience today, we tipped our driver 500 rupees and arranged with Stanley to go to Bundala National Park early tomorrow morning, with the same driver, for the same price as today. We are being picked up at 5.30 am.
We had a hilarious experience on the way to dinner. We were walking along a path with our torch when suddenly Amber froze on the spot and whispered 'There's something in the bushes! I just heard something!'. I shone the torch around the floor, but couldn't see anything. Then I heard the noise too and shone the torch in the direction the noise was coming from to reveal...a water buffalo, not three feet from where we stood! On seeing it, Amber began walking away, at a speed that would put an Olympian to shame, dragging me along with her! I explained that the buffalo was probably just resting up for the night, but she was having none of it, convinced it was going to charge us any second. So funny! Needless to say, the buffalo stayed right where it was, mildly perturbed about the strange floating light that had blinded it briefly as it enjoyed some peace and quiet in the darkness.
There was one good thing about it being 12/12/12: The hotel took 12% off the price of all the wine. We were given a much nicer table tonight, on the balcony, so we felt it was only right to take advantage of the wine offer.
Early night tonight as we have to be up at 5 am tomorrow.
Yala wildlife (new additions only):
- common iora
- barn swallow
- Malabar pied hornbill
- Ceylon green pigeon
- orange-breasted green-pigeon
- green imperial pigeon
- Kentish plover
- black-winged stilt
- white-bellied sea-eagle
- Eurasian spoonbill
- lesser adjutant
- Indian darter
- giant squirrel (Chaaya Wild grounds)
- sambar deer
- spotted deer
Our safari jeep wasn't due to show up until 2 pm, so after breakfast we strolled down to the beach to take in the view and write a birthday message to Amber's mum in the sand. The sea here is apparently pretty dangerous, shelving off deeply with strong rip tides. One of the girls on reception told us that a young child had been swept away by the sea a few years ago.
Later we wandered over to the lake. Amber spotted movement at the water surface that turned out to be one of the mugger crocodiles trying to eat a dead stork that was floating on the surface. Wildlife in action! We watched it struggling to tear the bird apart, clamping its jaws around part of the bird and spinning in the water to tear a piece off. It wasn't working too well. In the end the croc got tired of our prying eyes and swam away with the bird in its jaws.
As we were grabbing a drink in the bizarrely-named 'Pug Marks' bar, we bumped into Stanley, who stopped to talk about arranging the safari. Irritatingly, he had somehow inflated the price he quoted yesterday by 1500 Rs per person! We couldn't believe it. It is almost as if he actively wants us to mistrust him! All the same, at 7500 Rs each, including park fees, his price was still a darn sight cheaper than the $80 a head that hotel is offering. After some deliberation we gave Stanley the green light to book the safari and he left us alone.
After lunch we went to talk to reception about getting a free upgrade to a beach chalet. According to our Kuoni brochure, we are entitled to this upgrade as one of the perks of being on a honeymoon booking. As I said yesterday, the hotel didn't recognise this fact, which I assumed was because all the beach chalets were fully booked. As it turned out, they had availability today and were happy to move us from room 154 to room 139 (much to our room boy's disgust - he didn't look happy as he watched his chances of getting a tip from us go up in smoke). It would have been nice if they had contacted us to ask if we wanted to upgrade, rather than the other way around, but from our experience so far, it seems Sri Lankan hospitality still has a little way to go in terms of customer service, at the luxury end at least.
The beach chalet is great, higher ceiling, more space and a balcony looking out over greenery to the waves crashing on the shore. Checking availability was definitely the right move!
At 2 pm we headed over to the Safari Pick Up point to meet Stanley and our jeep driver. As we watched a steady stream of plush safari jeeps turn up to pick up other hotel guests, we half expected, given Stanley's track record, that our jeep might turn out to be an old rust bucket. Incredibly, Stanley managed to exceed our expectations, delivering not only a jeep on a par with the others (bar the smashed rear window), but also a driver who was a competent naturalist. Result.
What can I say about the Yala safari experience? It was brilliant! The park is criss-crossed with a network of dirt roads, allowing jeep access to a wide range of habitat types. For the most part the park is scrub forest, with bigger trees and boulders rising above the scrub, providing vantage points for a wide range of birds and mammals. Other areas consist of wetland, grassland or water bodies, all of which teem with life. We saw hundreds of animals, many of which are hard to see here, including wild elephants, sambhur deer, spotted deer, hanuman langurs, toque macaques, ruddy mongoose, hornbills, mugger crocodiles, two species of bee-eater, fan-tailed flycatcher, spoonbills, jacanas and enough peafowl to last you a lifetime. Our driver was excellent. Excellent at spotting hidden wildlife and with an encyclopaedic knowledge of English common names.
Yala is truly a birder's paradise, with so many species so readily seen. I'm not really into wading birds, which is why many species haven't made it onto the list (I couldn't readily identify them), but I reckon we easily saw ten different species of wading birds alone, probably more.
We were in the park for hours, only getting back to the hotel around 6:30, after the sun had set. Great value for money. Sadly the leopards, for which the park is famous, had eluded us, but we were more than content with what we did see. The highlight had to be stopping metres away from a female elephant and her calf, who were amazingly well hidden behind a row of trees, and watching her bring the calf out to cross the road. She was remarkably unphased by the three jeeps full of gawping tourists, but her baby was clearly afraid, hiding behind its mum for safety. Magical.
On the back of having such a great experience today, we tipped our driver 500 rupees and arranged with Stanley to go to Bundala National Park early tomorrow morning, with the same driver, for the same price as today. We are being picked up at 5.30 am.
We had a hilarious experience on the way to dinner. We were walking along a path with our torch when suddenly Amber froze on the spot and whispered 'There's something in the bushes! I just heard something!'. I shone the torch around the floor, but couldn't see anything. Then I heard the noise too and shone the torch in the direction the noise was coming from to reveal...a water buffalo, not three feet from where we stood! On seeing it, Amber began walking away, at a speed that would put an Olympian to shame, dragging me along with her! I explained that the buffalo was probably just resting up for the night, but she was having none of it, convinced it was going to charge us any second. So funny! Needless to say, the buffalo stayed right where it was, mildly perturbed about the strange floating light that had blinded it briefly as it enjoyed some peace and quiet in the darkness.
There was one good thing about it being 12/12/12: The hotel took 12% off the price of all the wine. We were given a much nicer table tonight, on the balcony, so we felt it was only right to take advantage of the wine offer.
Early night tonight as we have to be up at 5 am tomorrow.
Yala wildlife (new additions only):
- common iora
- barn swallow
- Malabar pied hornbill
- Ceylon green pigeon
- orange-breasted green-pigeon
- green imperial pigeon
- Kentish plover
- black-winged stilt
- white-bellied sea-eagle
- Eurasian spoonbill
- lesser adjutant
- Indian darter
- giant squirrel (Chaaya Wild grounds)
- sambar deer
- spotted deer
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
The road to Yala
Given that we had a long drive south to Yala, we thought we'd better make the most of the trails around the bungalow and stretch our legs before breakfast. We saw several parakeets and hanging parrots, but not much else. Nice to stretch our legs and take one last look at the view before leaving.
We breakfasted, bid farewell to Johnny and then, as scheduled, left the wonderful Ceylon Tea Trails to drive to Yala.
Oh...dear...God.
The roads from Hatton to Yala appear to have been designed as some kind of stomach-churning roller coaster of doom. Apparently the main highway is closed right now, so we had no choice but to take the winding route. To make matters worse, it seems that Stanley has decided to punish us for making him wait until 11am to pick us up, by driving like a total maniac! As a result, not only did we have to cope with the road having more hairpins than Marge Simpson's hair, we also had to put up with Stanley accelerating into all the bends and slamming on the brakes every five minutes to avoid hitting a car/goat/bus/person/motorbike/dog. On the plus side, the drive only took FOUR HOURS!!! Bleeurgh.
We did thankfully get two stops: One for a (sadly very cold) curry buffet lunch by a river; and one to look at a stunningly beautiful waterfall. Without those stops, I am pretty sure either myself or Amber would have redecorated the inside of Stanley's Nissan.
Anyway, by some miracle we finally arrived at the Chaaya Wild hotel without either of us throwing up (or worse) and things started to improve. On the bumpy road to the hotel entrance we saw a jackal, a peacock, a crocodile, a mongoose, several water buffalo and a hoopoe! Not bad for five minutes in the Yala National Park!
The layout of the hotel is awesome. Wooden chalets dotted through scrub jungle connected by pathways which all radiate outwards from a central hub containing the reception, bar, restaurant, swimming pool and observation deck. As you drive the final stretch to the main entrance, you pass an artificial lake complete with painted storks, egrets, herons and even a crocodile. Nice.
As part of our Kuoni honeymoon package, we were expecting to be upgraded from a jungle chalet to a beach chalet. However, although the guys at reception congratulated us on our marriage and winked conspiratorially at us, there was no sign of our free upgrade and we were installed in a jungle chalet all the same. Very little to complain about though. The chalet was lovely: rustic wooden charm with luxury bathroom facilities. A little slice of bush-chic, as the Lonely Planet puts it.
Interestingly, the hotel has a policy that guests should remain in there rooms after dark, and only walk at night accompanied by a staff member with a torch. In theory this is to protect us from being gored by a wild big, trampled by a wild elephant or bitten by a wild snake. In practice, the staff here are so tiny that I can't imagine they would be of much help in any of the aforementioned scenarios! Keen to get my bearings, I left Amber to recover from the drive and headed out as the sun set, to hunt for geckos. As it got darker I became convinced that all the talk of savage wild pigs was probably a bit of an exaggeration, but then it dawned on me that no one else was around, that I didn't have a torch...and that there was a wild boar on the path in front of me.
I beat a hasty retreat back to the chalet. This was made somewhat difficult by the fact that none of the sign posts for the room numbers make any kind of logical sense.
Back in the room Amber and I caught up on series four of 'Californication' on the iPad and then got ready for dinner (we are on half-board here). We decided it made sense to be escorted to dinner, but actually the paths are all lit up at night, so I reckon unless you were very unlucky you would be fine to walk between your room and the main hotel hub at night. On the way to dinner we passed a sounder of wild pigs, who didn't seem all that wild at all, hanging out round the back of the kitchens!
The food situation is comical. On the one hand you have decent Sri Lankan options and one or two reasonable western dishes; on the other you have miserable looking salads that no-one in their right mind would want to eat, a ropey pasta/stir fry counter and the most repulsive selection of desserts I have seen in a long time. I hate buffets like this. Surely it would be better to offer two or three western options that actually taste nice, the full Sri Lankan curry selection (because it is criminal not to eat local food on holiday) and just a couple of decent desserts. I'm sure hotels could save a lot of time and money in doing so. I have never met anyone whose favourite dessert was pink blancmange on a dry sponge base.
Tomorrow we are going on safari in Yala National Park proper. I can't wait!
Only a few animals to add today:
- mugger crocodile
- Kandian gecko
- streak-throated woodpecker (Ceylon Tea Trails)
- common hoopoe
- black-naped hare
We breakfasted, bid farewell to Johnny and then, as scheduled, left the wonderful Ceylon Tea Trails to drive to Yala.
Oh...dear...God.
The roads from Hatton to Yala appear to have been designed as some kind of stomach-churning roller coaster of doom. Apparently the main highway is closed right now, so we had no choice but to take the winding route. To make matters worse, it seems that Stanley has decided to punish us for making him wait until 11am to pick us up, by driving like a total maniac! As a result, not only did we have to cope with the road having more hairpins than Marge Simpson's hair, we also had to put up with Stanley accelerating into all the bends and slamming on the brakes every five minutes to avoid hitting a car/goat/bus/person/motorbike/dog. On the plus side, the drive only took FOUR HOURS!!! Bleeurgh.
We did thankfully get two stops: One for a (sadly very cold) curry buffet lunch by a river; and one to look at a stunningly beautiful waterfall. Without those stops, I am pretty sure either myself or Amber would have redecorated the inside of Stanley's Nissan.
Anyway, by some miracle we finally arrived at the Chaaya Wild hotel without either of us throwing up (or worse) and things started to improve. On the bumpy road to the hotel entrance we saw a jackal, a peacock, a crocodile, a mongoose, several water buffalo and a hoopoe! Not bad for five minutes in the Yala National Park!
The layout of the hotel is awesome. Wooden chalets dotted through scrub jungle connected by pathways which all radiate outwards from a central hub containing the reception, bar, restaurant, swimming pool and observation deck. As you drive the final stretch to the main entrance, you pass an artificial lake complete with painted storks, egrets, herons and even a crocodile. Nice.
As part of our Kuoni honeymoon package, we were expecting to be upgraded from a jungle chalet to a beach chalet. However, although the guys at reception congratulated us on our marriage and winked conspiratorially at us, there was no sign of our free upgrade and we were installed in a jungle chalet all the same. Very little to complain about though. The chalet was lovely: rustic wooden charm with luxury bathroom facilities. A little slice of bush-chic, as the Lonely Planet puts it.
Interestingly, the hotel has a policy that guests should remain in there rooms after dark, and only walk at night accompanied by a staff member with a torch. In theory this is to protect us from being gored by a wild big, trampled by a wild elephant or bitten by a wild snake. In practice, the staff here are so tiny that I can't imagine they would be of much help in any of the aforementioned scenarios! Keen to get my bearings, I left Amber to recover from the drive and headed out as the sun set, to hunt for geckos. As it got darker I became convinced that all the talk of savage wild pigs was probably a bit of an exaggeration, but then it dawned on me that no one else was around, that I didn't have a torch...and that there was a wild boar on the path in front of me.
I beat a hasty retreat back to the chalet. This was made somewhat difficult by the fact that none of the sign posts for the room numbers make any kind of logical sense.
Back in the room Amber and I caught up on series four of 'Californication' on the iPad and then got ready for dinner (we are on half-board here). We decided it made sense to be escorted to dinner, but actually the paths are all lit up at night, so I reckon unless you were very unlucky you would be fine to walk between your room and the main hotel hub at night. On the way to dinner we passed a sounder of wild pigs, who didn't seem all that wild at all, hanging out round the back of the kitchens!
The food situation is comical. On the one hand you have decent Sri Lankan options and one or two reasonable western dishes; on the other you have miserable looking salads that no-one in their right mind would want to eat, a ropey pasta/stir fry counter and the most repulsive selection of desserts I have seen in a long time. I hate buffets like this. Surely it would be better to offer two or three western options that actually taste nice, the full Sri Lankan curry selection (because it is criminal not to eat local food on holiday) and just a couple of decent desserts. I'm sure hotels could save a lot of time and money in doing so. I have never met anyone whose favourite dessert was pink blancmange on a dry sponge base.
Tomorrow we are going on safari in Yala National Park proper. I can't wait!
Only a few animals to add today:
- mugger crocodile
- Kandian gecko
- streak-throated woodpecker (Ceylon Tea Trails)
- common hoopoe
- black-naped hare
Monday, 10 December 2012
It's all good at Norwood
I love it here! Breakfast was a very splendid affair: huge plate of fruit, lovely tea (obviously), huge full English breakfast with not one, but two perfectly fried eggs, all served outside in glorious sunshine to the sound of Ceylon hanging parrots in the tree tops. Brilliant.
After breakfast we borrowed a couple of mountain bikes and took ourselves off on a tour of the tea plantation. So many smiling faces everywhere we went. Literally everyone we saw said hello, or goodbye, or gave us a wave, or honked their car horns. Okay, so a few of the kids did say 'money', but hey, you can't blame them for trying their luck. Sometimes it probably pays off. We gave them short shrift, however. They smiled all the same.
The sun was fierce, so by the time we got back to the bungalow my legs had been thoroughly toasted. On the plus side, thanks to our exertions on the bike ride we were both ready to face to cool of the swimming pool. We both read a bit on our sun loungers and then took the plunge. Yes, it was colder than we had been expecting, but swimming a few lengths beneath the enormous stand of giant bamboo was wonderfully refreshing.
After our swim we ate a lovely three course lunch and then set of for the third bout of exercise of the day, a leisurely 12 km walk to the Castlereagh bungalow, where we had arranged to have high tea.
The walk was lovely, with plenty to captivate the senses: excitable kids desperately calling from hillside houses in the hopes of getting a wave in return; tea pickers busily going about their business; friendly tuk-tuk drivers offering us lifts and tea bushes as far as he eye can see. All too easy to forget that tea plantations are a biodiversity disaster, they look so beautiful. We saw several more species to add to the wildlife list. The highlight was surely a green forest lizard basking at the side of the road on some equally green vegetation. A brilliant spot, which resulted in several equally brilliant photos.
At Castlereagh we bumped into Johnny again and the three of us chatted for a while over high tea. Johnny reckons that if I want to present documentaries about wildlife then I should just start making my own films. Turns out he works for the Telegraph and is currently working on a piece about sea planes in Sri Lanka. Interesting bloke.
We got a lift back to the bungalow for around 6.30 pm and have been sitting in the lounge drinking Jack Daniels and coke and writing our diaries. Johnny is joining us for dinner.
Dinner was delicious, as expected. We had requested that the chef prepare a Sri Lankan feast for us and he didn't disappoint. We had spicy chicken curry, baby jackfruit curry, fish curry, aubergine curry, fresh poppadoms, boiled rice and even buffalo curd. Yum. We gorged ourselves.
Johnny was great company and full of stories. Turns out his wife was a personal trainer and co-author of 'The Crunch', a best-selling fitness book. Johnny was saying how much he had enjoyed the walk down to Castlereagh earlier today and that, presumably on the back of this, he was toying with the idea of setting up a blog called 'Walking Plus' which would deal with different walks around the world in terms of the layers of history involved in the walk, the sites seen along the way and the personal experience of walking the walk. Sounds like a great idea to me!
We adjourned to the living room where the staff had lit a somewhat feeble fire. Luckily Johnny was on hand, as a self-confessed pyromaniac, to get the blaze going properly. There was another couple sitting on one of the sofas who had arrived earlier today. He was Japanese and she was Korean, but grew up in the States. Interestingly they both live in Afghanistan, one managing UN donations and the other helping to promote peace. It was fascinating hearing their description of life in Afghanistan. I can't imagine living long term in such a controlled environment. Perhaps this is why they have done so much travelling this year. They reeled off a list if countries that most people would be lucky to visit in a lifetime. Anyway, between us, them and Johnny there was plenty of common ground and we chatted away until 1 am, with the all-inclusive alcohol flowing steadily. The most entertaining topic of conversation was when the Korean girl started explaining that YouTube is banned in Afghanistan, so they had totally missed all the hype about 'Gangnam Style', a dance hit by the Korean musician Psy, which has taken the Internet by storm. They had obviously seen all the videos by now and it was god to get a Korean perspective (albeit from a Korean who grew up in San Fransisco).
Today's list is pretty impressive:
- Ceylon hanging parrot
- scaly-breasted munia (nesting at Norwood)
- common skink (Mabuya carinata)
- Ceylon white eye
- great tit(!)
- blue-tailed bee-eater
- Loten's sunbird
After breakfast we borrowed a couple of mountain bikes and took ourselves off on a tour of the tea plantation. So many smiling faces everywhere we went. Literally everyone we saw said hello, or goodbye, or gave us a wave, or honked their car horns. Okay, so a few of the kids did say 'money', but hey, you can't blame them for trying their luck. Sometimes it probably pays off. We gave them short shrift, however. They smiled all the same.
The sun was fierce, so by the time we got back to the bungalow my legs had been thoroughly toasted. On the plus side, thanks to our exertions on the bike ride we were both ready to face to cool of the swimming pool. We both read a bit on our sun loungers and then took the plunge. Yes, it was colder than we had been expecting, but swimming a few lengths beneath the enormous stand of giant bamboo was wonderfully refreshing.
After our swim we ate a lovely three course lunch and then set of for the third bout of exercise of the day, a leisurely 12 km walk to the Castlereagh bungalow, where we had arranged to have high tea.
The walk was lovely, with plenty to captivate the senses: excitable kids desperately calling from hillside houses in the hopes of getting a wave in return; tea pickers busily going about their business; friendly tuk-tuk drivers offering us lifts and tea bushes as far as he eye can see. All too easy to forget that tea plantations are a biodiversity disaster, they look so beautiful. We saw several more species to add to the wildlife list. The highlight was surely a green forest lizard basking at the side of the road on some equally green vegetation. A brilliant spot, which resulted in several equally brilliant photos.
At Castlereagh we bumped into Johnny again and the three of us chatted for a while over high tea. Johnny reckons that if I want to present documentaries about wildlife then I should just start making my own films. Turns out he works for the Telegraph and is currently working on a piece about sea planes in Sri Lanka. Interesting bloke.
We got a lift back to the bungalow for around 6.30 pm and have been sitting in the lounge drinking Jack Daniels and coke and writing our diaries. Johnny is joining us for dinner.
Dinner was delicious, as expected. We had requested that the chef prepare a Sri Lankan feast for us and he didn't disappoint. We had spicy chicken curry, baby jackfruit curry, fish curry, aubergine curry, fresh poppadoms, boiled rice and even buffalo curd. Yum. We gorged ourselves.
Johnny was great company and full of stories. Turns out his wife was a personal trainer and co-author of 'The Crunch', a best-selling fitness book. Johnny was saying how much he had enjoyed the walk down to Castlereagh earlier today and that, presumably on the back of this, he was toying with the idea of setting up a blog called 'Walking Plus' which would deal with different walks around the world in terms of the layers of history involved in the walk, the sites seen along the way and the personal experience of walking the walk. Sounds like a great idea to me!
We adjourned to the living room where the staff had lit a somewhat feeble fire. Luckily Johnny was on hand, as a self-confessed pyromaniac, to get the blaze going properly. There was another couple sitting on one of the sofas who had arrived earlier today. He was Japanese and she was Korean, but grew up in the States. Interestingly they both live in Afghanistan, one managing UN donations and the other helping to promote peace. It was fascinating hearing their description of life in Afghanistan. I can't imagine living long term in such a controlled environment. Perhaps this is why they have done so much travelling this year. They reeled off a list if countries that most people would be lucky to visit in a lifetime. Anyway, between us, them and Johnny there was plenty of common ground and we chatted away until 1 am, with the all-inclusive alcohol flowing steadily. The most entertaining topic of conversation was when the Korean girl started explaining that YouTube is banned in Afghanistan, so they had totally missed all the hype about 'Gangnam Style', a dance hit by the Korean musician Psy, which has taken the Internet by storm. They had obviously seen all the videos by now and it was god to get a Korean perspective (albeit from a Korean who grew up in San Fransisco).
Today's list is pretty impressive:
- Ceylon hanging parrot
- scaly-breasted munia (nesting at Norwood)
- common skink (Mabuya carinata)
- Ceylon white eye
- great tit(!)
- blue-tailed bee-eater
- Loten's sunbird
Sunday, 9 December 2012
Hats off to Hatton!
The Ceylon Tea Trails deserves every accolade it has achieved as far as I'm concerned. Currently it is ranked, according to Trip Advisor votes, as the number one all inclusive hotel in Asia and the number four all inclusive hotel in THE WORLD! Not bad, eh?
I am starting tonight's entry from our mosquito net shrouded four poster bed in our room, whose name is apparently Jeffery, at the Norwood bungalow (one of four bungalows making up the Tea Trails). Since arriving we have completed a marathon feasting session involving a splendid afternoon tea outside overlooking a magnificent view; a fish-balls and curry snack whilst watching 'Real Steel' in the TV room with Lion lager; a four-course dinner with Chilean white and red wine; and a sweet sherry (which I still maintain was port) in the sitting room, whilst chatting to our new acquaintance, Johnny, a travel writer from London and who has challenged us to a game of croquet tomorrow evening before dinner.
What a brilliant way to end another day in paradise.
We had a great morning. As promised, Stanley took us to the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, where we spent an enjoyable two and a half hours wandering around gawping at the wonderful array of plants and trees from all over the world. There was a multitude of stunning birds to add to the list, but the highlight had to be the vast colony of screeching, squabbling fruit bats, which seemed to have colonised every large tree in the gardens. Some of them were flying between the trees and at one point a great horde of bats took flight, circling over the Great Circle - the large circular lawn in the centre of the gardens - like something from a horror movie. Amazing! Their orchid collection was pretty spectacular too.
At 12.00 pm we headed out of the gardens and bought a bag of freshly chopped mango, at which point Stanley turned up to collect us.
Before heading into the gardens, we had arranged with Stanley that we would travel to Hatton by train, which I am sure suited both parties: Stanley would have a chance to relax a bit in our absence; and we would get a chance to avoid the horribly windy, nausea-inducing road to Hatton while at the same time benefiting from some incredible views.
It all sounded too easy, which of course it turned out to be. Thanks to some more of Stanley's marvellous miscommunication, we had a bit of a stand off in Peradeniya train station. According to the 2012 Lonely Planet guide to Sri Lanka, a first class ticket from Kandy to Hatton should cost 110 Rs, so we figured it would even cheaper from Peradeniya, which is much closer. You can imagine our surprise when Stanley asked for 3,000 Rs to pay for our tickets! Amber wasn't having any of it, so we wasted some more time arguing over this unexpected and very unwelcome additional expense. Ultimately we decided to tell Stanley that we weren't prepared to pay this amount and would have him drive us to Hatton instead. At this point Stanley took it upon himself to inform us that the seats had already been booked and that the tickets were non-refundable. I could have murdered him! I think he could tell, I didn't make much attempt to mask my frustration.
Anyway, in the end I decided we would take the hit and get the train. After all, the views were said to be spectacular and it would give me some time to calm down.
The train was almost half an hour late. When it finally showed up, we were shown into a very fancy air-conditioned carriage by staff in very smart uniforms...and suddenly the penny dropped. Stanley, in his infinite wisdom, had booked us into a privately run luxury Expo Rail carriage, complete with comfy seats, plug sockets, stewards, bottled water and a meal thrown in to boot. A quick squiz at the Lonely Planet confirmed that there are indeed a couple of operators that run private luxury carriages attached to the standard trains and that a ticket for one of these should cost in the region of $12. So, it turns out we weren't getting taken for a ride after all. I almost felt sorry for Stanley...but not quite. He could have saved himself a whole lot of hassle if he'd only asked us what ticket we wanted to buy. By all accounts the standard first class on these trains is perfectly acceptable.
Our journey to Hatton was very comfortable and every bit as picturesque as we'd been told it would be. I spent a large amount of time engaged in a hilarious 'turf war' with some of the other tourist passengers all of whom, like me, were desperate to get a decent shot of the scenery! The train was shaking all over the place, so we all had a hard time keeping our balance.
We pulled into Hatton station just after 3 pm. Lo and behold, Stanley was there to meet us. He must have really put his foot down, as the road to Hatton is far from straight. I guess he didn't want to risk upsetting me any more! Anyway, we are all friends again now and I think the opportunities for more miscommunication will be significantly fewer once we leave for Yala.
The trees around Norwood bungalow are full of birds, so quite a few additions today:
- white-bellied drongo (Peradeniya Botanical Gardens)
- purple sunbird (Peradeniya Botanical Gardens)
- Philippine shrike
- brown shrike
I am starting tonight's entry from our mosquito net shrouded four poster bed in our room, whose name is apparently Jeffery, at the Norwood bungalow (one of four bungalows making up the Tea Trails). Since arriving we have completed a marathon feasting session involving a splendid afternoon tea outside overlooking a magnificent view; a fish-balls and curry snack whilst watching 'Real Steel' in the TV room with Lion lager; a four-course dinner with Chilean white and red wine; and a sweet sherry (which I still maintain was port) in the sitting room, whilst chatting to our new acquaintance, Johnny, a travel writer from London and who has challenged us to a game of croquet tomorrow evening before dinner.
What a brilliant way to end another day in paradise.
We had a great morning. As promised, Stanley took us to the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, where we spent an enjoyable two and a half hours wandering around gawping at the wonderful array of plants and trees from all over the world. There was a multitude of stunning birds to add to the list, but the highlight had to be the vast colony of screeching, squabbling fruit bats, which seemed to have colonised every large tree in the gardens. Some of them were flying between the trees and at one point a great horde of bats took flight, circling over the Great Circle - the large circular lawn in the centre of the gardens - like something from a horror movie. Amazing! Their orchid collection was pretty spectacular too.
At 12.00 pm we headed out of the gardens and bought a bag of freshly chopped mango, at which point Stanley turned up to collect us.
Before heading into the gardens, we had arranged with Stanley that we would travel to Hatton by train, which I am sure suited both parties: Stanley would have a chance to relax a bit in our absence; and we would get a chance to avoid the horribly windy, nausea-inducing road to Hatton while at the same time benefiting from some incredible views.
It all sounded too easy, which of course it turned out to be. Thanks to some more of Stanley's marvellous miscommunication, we had a bit of a stand off in Peradeniya train station. According to the 2012 Lonely Planet guide to Sri Lanka, a first class ticket from Kandy to Hatton should cost 110 Rs, so we figured it would even cheaper from Peradeniya, which is much closer. You can imagine our surprise when Stanley asked for 3,000 Rs to pay for our tickets! Amber wasn't having any of it, so we wasted some more time arguing over this unexpected and very unwelcome additional expense. Ultimately we decided to tell Stanley that we weren't prepared to pay this amount and would have him drive us to Hatton instead. At this point Stanley took it upon himself to inform us that the seats had already been booked and that the tickets were non-refundable. I could have murdered him! I think he could tell, I didn't make much attempt to mask my frustration.
Anyway, in the end I decided we would take the hit and get the train. After all, the views were said to be spectacular and it would give me some time to calm down.
The train was almost half an hour late. When it finally showed up, we were shown into a very fancy air-conditioned carriage by staff in very smart uniforms...and suddenly the penny dropped. Stanley, in his infinite wisdom, had booked us into a privately run luxury Expo Rail carriage, complete with comfy seats, plug sockets, stewards, bottled water and a meal thrown in to boot. A quick squiz at the Lonely Planet confirmed that there are indeed a couple of operators that run private luxury carriages attached to the standard trains and that a ticket for one of these should cost in the region of $12. So, it turns out we weren't getting taken for a ride after all. I almost felt sorry for Stanley...but not quite. He could have saved himself a whole lot of hassle if he'd only asked us what ticket we wanted to buy. By all accounts the standard first class on these trains is perfectly acceptable.
Our journey to Hatton was very comfortable and every bit as picturesque as we'd been told it would be. I spent a large amount of time engaged in a hilarious 'turf war' with some of the other tourist passengers all of whom, like me, were desperate to get a decent shot of the scenery! The train was shaking all over the place, so we all had a hard time keeping our balance.
We pulled into Hatton station just after 3 pm. Lo and behold, Stanley was there to meet us. He must have really put his foot down, as the road to Hatton is far from straight. I guess he didn't want to risk upsetting me any more! Anyway, we are all friends again now and I think the opportunities for more miscommunication will be significantly fewer once we leave for Yala.
The trees around Norwood bungalow are full of birds, so quite a few additions today:
- white-bellied drongo (Peradeniya Botanical Gardens)
- purple sunbird (Peradeniya Botanical Gardens)
- Philippine shrike
- brown shrike
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Stanley screws up
Today went a bit wrong, thanks to Stanley's questionable skills...
The morning was good. We went to the Temple of the Tooth, which was great. A whole temple devoted to one of Buddha's actual teeth. How awesome is that?! With today being a Saturday, the temple was packed with people coming to see the tooth relic, carrying offerings of lotus flowers. Needless to say, we were forced to do a lot of pushing and shoving to have a chance of seeing anything! I really enjoyed the temple: the people, the smell of incense, the frescoes, the architecture. Loved it. Even got to see one of the temple 'tuskers' (the name given to the few Indian elephants that grow large tusks) going for its morning stroll.
Then things started to go downhill. We got in the car and Stanley started driving. We thought we were going to a nearby tea factory, but as he carried on driving...and driving...and driving...we realised he was taking us tens of miles from Kandy. By the time we had worked this out it was too late and we were stuck with Stanley's (bizarre) decision to drive us halfway to Nuwara Eliya (tomorrows destination!) to visit the Glenloch tea factory. We weren't overly impressed with him, but seeing as we were there we went along with the tour of the factory, which to be fair was pretty informative, if a little brief. At least we now know that the correct term for English breakfast tea is broken orange pekoe! The female guide explained all the processes that go into making white, green and black tea, all from the same plant. White tea uses unopened leaf buds only, making it the most expensive, green tea is dried to 50% and not allowed to oxidise, black tea is allowed to oxidise (which turns it black). Tea strength is dictated by colour (black being strongest) and how finely the tea is chopped, with smaller particles giving stronger tea. After the tour we were given a complimentary cuppa. We bought a few boxes of loose tea to take home.
Our next exciting destination was the dramatic Ramboda waterfall, accessed via the Ramboda Falls hotel. Nice place, but it was a shame that there was no access route down to the river, as I would have liked to check it out for more birds and lizards. I made do with a few shots from beneath the falls. The Snake falls were also visible from this location. Walking around the garden we saw a Small day gecko on the wall of the hotel. Another nice and relatively rare addition to the list.
On the way back to Kandy we stopped twice. Once to take a photo of the big hydroelectric reservoir and once to buy some red bananas, which Stanley reckons are the best in the world. He may be right, they are very sweet.
We made Kandy around 3 pm and ditched Stanley for an hour and a half, while we got some food at Devon restaurant (huge portions) and then went to check out one of the markets. Most of the goods on offer weren't all that appealing, but we did get sucked by one man who had some beautiful pashminas. He wanted 3,800 Rs each for them, but after some fun haggling we got three for 7,000 Rs.
We had a few minutes to sit and look out over the lake before meeting Stanley, where we were lucky enough to see a kingfisher (same species we have in the UK) who was busy fishing from a lamp attached to the roof of a jetty projecting into the lake.
Reunited with our driver, we instructed him to take us to Uddawattekelle sanctuary. Technically the sanctuary ticket office closes at 4.30 pm, but they were kind enough to let us in at 3.45 pm. It's a lovely piece of forest and we made the most of the available time before they shut thefts at 6 pm. Two fantastic animals to add to the list: a male Indian paradise flycatcher and an Indian muntjac (another species we have in the UK).
Stanley was whinging away about how we should have allowed more time to walk around, but I reckon seeing the flycatcher and the awe-inspiring climber-covered trees was easily worth the 650 Rs entrance fee.
Back at the hotel, we went night swimming in the hotel's lovely pool, with fruit bats wheeling overhead. Swimming and bat watching is a hard combination to beat.
Unable to face the awful Christmas music in the restaurant, ordered room service for dinner and watched 'The Eagle' and 'The Hangover 2' back to back.
Wildlife for today:
- small day gecko (Cnemaspis podihuna)
- kingfisher
- Indian paradise flycatcher
- Indian muntjac
- house sparrow
The morning was good. We went to the Temple of the Tooth, which was great. A whole temple devoted to one of Buddha's actual teeth. How awesome is that?! With today being a Saturday, the temple was packed with people coming to see the tooth relic, carrying offerings of lotus flowers. Needless to say, we were forced to do a lot of pushing and shoving to have a chance of seeing anything! I really enjoyed the temple: the people, the smell of incense, the frescoes, the architecture. Loved it. Even got to see one of the temple 'tuskers' (the name given to the few Indian elephants that grow large tusks) going for its morning stroll.
Then things started to go downhill. We got in the car and Stanley started driving. We thought we were going to a nearby tea factory, but as he carried on driving...and driving...and driving...we realised he was taking us tens of miles from Kandy. By the time we had worked this out it was too late and we were stuck with Stanley's (bizarre) decision to drive us halfway to Nuwara Eliya (tomorrows destination!) to visit the Glenloch tea factory. We weren't overly impressed with him, but seeing as we were there we went along with the tour of the factory, which to be fair was pretty informative, if a little brief. At least we now know that the correct term for English breakfast tea is broken orange pekoe! The female guide explained all the processes that go into making white, green and black tea, all from the same plant. White tea uses unopened leaf buds only, making it the most expensive, green tea is dried to 50% and not allowed to oxidise, black tea is allowed to oxidise (which turns it black). Tea strength is dictated by colour (black being strongest) and how finely the tea is chopped, with smaller particles giving stronger tea. After the tour we were given a complimentary cuppa. We bought a few boxes of loose tea to take home.
Our next exciting destination was the dramatic Ramboda waterfall, accessed via the Ramboda Falls hotel. Nice place, but it was a shame that there was no access route down to the river, as I would have liked to check it out for more birds and lizards. I made do with a few shots from beneath the falls. The Snake falls were also visible from this location. Walking around the garden we saw a Small day gecko on the wall of the hotel. Another nice and relatively rare addition to the list.
On the way back to Kandy we stopped twice. Once to take a photo of the big hydroelectric reservoir and once to buy some red bananas, which Stanley reckons are the best in the world. He may be right, they are very sweet.
We made Kandy around 3 pm and ditched Stanley for an hour and a half, while we got some food at Devon restaurant (huge portions) and then went to check out one of the markets. Most of the goods on offer weren't all that appealing, but we did get sucked by one man who had some beautiful pashminas. He wanted 3,800 Rs each for them, but after some fun haggling we got three for 7,000 Rs.
We had a few minutes to sit and look out over the lake before meeting Stanley, where we were lucky enough to see a kingfisher (same species we have in the UK) who was busy fishing from a lamp attached to the roof of a jetty projecting into the lake.
Reunited with our driver, we instructed him to take us to Uddawattekelle sanctuary. Technically the sanctuary ticket office closes at 4.30 pm, but they were kind enough to let us in at 3.45 pm. It's a lovely piece of forest and we made the most of the available time before they shut thefts at 6 pm. Two fantastic animals to add to the list: a male Indian paradise flycatcher and an Indian muntjac (another species we have in the UK).
Stanley was whinging away about how we should have allowed more time to walk around, but I reckon seeing the flycatcher and the awe-inspiring climber-covered trees was easily worth the 650 Rs entrance fee.
Back at the hotel, we went night swimming in the hotel's lovely pool, with fruit bats wheeling overhead. Swimming and bat watching is a hard combination to beat.
Unable to face the awful Christmas music in the restaurant, ordered room service for dinner and watched 'The Eagle' and 'The Hangover 2' back to back.
Wildlife for today:
- small day gecko (Cnemaspis podihuna)
- kingfisher
- Indian paradise flycatcher
- Indian muntjac
- house sparrow
Friday, 7 December 2012
Randy in Kandy
I am writing today's entry lying on the bed in room 402 of the Earl's Regency hotel, Kandy. The time is 8.02 pm. Don't worry, this blog hasn't turned to smut. The title refers to something funny that happened earlier in the day...
We left the Jetwing Vil Uyuna with heavy hearts at 9:30 am. Such a magical place. As usual we were met by Stan the man, who was sporting a bright green polo shirt and seemed in good spirits.
Our first port of call was the uber-kitsch Golden Temple in Dambulla, which has been recently revamped using money donated by Japan. On Stanley's recommendation, we didn't bother going inside the temple, just took a few photos and walked up and down the steps to the parapet. The two major features are the enormous gold Buddha sitting happily atop the temple and a long train of orange robed plaster monks lined up in pilgrimage to the top. Colourful, yes, but slightly unnerving. Up on the parapet we found a new bird to add to the list. Sadly, this one was deceased; an endemic Ceylon small barbet that had apparently flown into the glass windows of a small office stationed up there and died. Shame, it was a pretty little thing. Found a small dying frog up there too. No idea how the hell that came to be there.
Back down the steps we were met by the sight of half eaten mangos raining out of a tree. More toque macaques. As I was snapping away, a large male walked past my left leg and started to eat one of the fallen fruit. He wasn't keen on having me there as an audience, so he turned to face me and gave me a very menacing grunt. I walked away hastily. No one wants to get bitten by an angry macaque.
We drove on for a bit, only stopping briefly to mark the central point of the country, a place called Naula (or at least Stanley said something that sounded like 'nah-ooh-la'!). Nothing of much not here other than that there was a road bridge crossing a large river, from which I saw our first stork-billed kingfisher, the largest kingfisher in Sri Lanka.
Next stop was the New 9 Paradise spice garden. We would never have known about this place, but thankfully Stanley was all over it and had planned it in as part of our itinerary for the day. When we arrived I wasn't sure what to make of it. Our guide introduced himself as Chamindra and led us on a highly informative tour around the spice garden, which began by him showing us the plants they use in Sri Lanka for natural Ayurvedic remedies, several of which had no common name as they are found only in Sri Lanka. Next we sat down in a little hut while Chamindra gave us a hands on demo of all the hand made products produced at the gardens. It turns out he is an Ayurvedic doctor, a claim which was certainly supported by his impressive knowledge of all the herbs and spices and their effects on the human body. We were shown a huge assortment of lotions and potions including organic equivalents to oil of olay, tiger balm, Veet hair removal cream (for which I was the guinea pig - only on my shin, before you get any ideas!) and even Viagra! I was fooled into eating half a teaspoon of the latter before Chimandra revealed to me what it was, hence the title of today's post. Amber was most amused.
After the demonstration session, we were offered some pressure point massage, which seemed foolish refuse. Not the best massage I've had this trip, as the masseur was a trainee, but as it was free, so I can't really complain. Massages complete, we headed to the shop to peruse the goods. Everything was pretty pricy, but at least here there was a chance of the produce being genuine. We bought several items including the herbal balm and oil of ulay. Chimandra gave us a 15% discount and a free bottle of pure vanilla essence, which probably means that we paid over the odds for what we bought, but we'd had a good time, so didn't mind.
The remainder of our journey to Kandy passed pretty quickly, helped by the fact that both Amber and I slept for most of it. We were shattered.
The Earl's Regency is a huge hotel built into a hillside 4 km from Kandy, with incredible views. It's theoretically the number one hotel in the area, used by dignitaries and the well-to-do, but on first impression it seemed to be just like any other big corporate hotel. The enormous kitsch blue-striped Christmas tree in the foyer, complete with Disney-esque polystyrene angels, did nothing to allay my fears. It appears that playing the honeymoon card gets you very little in this type of establishment. No room upgrade, no champagne, just a free drink in the bar and a few fruits and chocolates. That's corporate hospitality for you.
We arrived at 2.15 pm, dumped our bags and headed into the hotel restaurant to grab a bite to eat. I got really excited to see that they had Hokkien Mee on the menu, one of my all time favourite Asian dishes. We ordered a plate each. When they arrived I was horrified to see that the drab plate of noodles bore absolutely no relation to real Hokkien Mee. Gutted. Still, we were hungry, so ate them anyway.
Stanley picked us up at 4 pm and we drove to the viewpoint overlooking Kandy town, which is named Arthur's Seat after Arthur C. Clarke, author of '2001: A Space Odyssey', who emigrated to Sri Lanka from England in 1956 to pursue his interest in scuba diving...apparently. Anyway, the view was excellent and Stanley had an opportunity to share some of his knowledge of the town.
The viewpoint is right next to a gem mining museum, which Stanley recommended we visit next. We weren't sure what we'd make of it, but it was actually really interesting, particularly the short video showing how the miners hand build the mine and sieve the gravel for gem stones. After the video, our guide talked us through the gems of Sri Lanka (in both their natural and polished forms), showed us some guys making jewellery and then took us to see the finished product in the showroom, whereupon he stuck his salesman hat on and proceeded to try and sell us most of the store! Most of it was rather ugly, but there was one stunning blue sapphire ring, which looked great on Amber's finger. We gave it some serious consideration, but in the end decided it was too much to pay for another ring so soon after buying engagement and wedding rings. You should have seen the look of thunder the guide gave us when he realised we weren't going to buy that ring! He made it very easy to leave.
After the gem museum we went to the Arts and Culture Centre to see some traditional Kandyan dances, some of which were good (back flips) and some of which weren't so good (two blokes in huge wooden masks stumbling and spinning blindly around the stage). The dances were all performed to the sound of traditional drums. After the dancing they upped the ante with a fire eating and fire walking show, which made for a good finale. Interestingly there is a colony of swifts breeding inside the Centre and every so often one of them would fly out in front of the stage, screeching loudly, as if in protest to the noise of the drums.
Back at the hotel we cashed in our free drinks voucher and had a couple of cocktails looking out over the valley before heading back to the room to unpack.
The hotel had a Friday night Indian buffet, which we took full advantage of. I ate so much I could barely move. Absolutely stuffed!
A few more species for the list:
- Indian jungle crow
- lesser whistling duck
- Ceylon small barbet
- stork-billed kingfisher
- Indian shag(!), Lake Kandy
- black-crowned night-heron, Lake Kandy
We left the Jetwing Vil Uyuna with heavy hearts at 9:30 am. Such a magical place. As usual we were met by Stan the man, who was sporting a bright green polo shirt and seemed in good spirits.
Our first port of call was the uber-kitsch Golden Temple in Dambulla, which has been recently revamped using money donated by Japan. On Stanley's recommendation, we didn't bother going inside the temple, just took a few photos and walked up and down the steps to the parapet. The two major features are the enormous gold Buddha sitting happily atop the temple and a long train of orange robed plaster monks lined up in pilgrimage to the top. Colourful, yes, but slightly unnerving. Up on the parapet we found a new bird to add to the list. Sadly, this one was deceased; an endemic Ceylon small barbet that had apparently flown into the glass windows of a small office stationed up there and died. Shame, it was a pretty little thing. Found a small dying frog up there too. No idea how the hell that came to be there.
Back down the steps we were met by the sight of half eaten mangos raining out of a tree. More toque macaques. As I was snapping away, a large male walked past my left leg and started to eat one of the fallen fruit. He wasn't keen on having me there as an audience, so he turned to face me and gave me a very menacing grunt. I walked away hastily. No one wants to get bitten by an angry macaque.
We drove on for a bit, only stopping briefly to mark the central point of the country, a place called Naula (or at least Stanley said something that sounded like 'nah-ooh-la'!). Nothing of much not here other than that there was a road bridge crossing a large river, from which I saw our first stork-billed kingfisher, the largest kingfisher in Sri Lanka.
Next stop was the New 9 Paradise spice garden. We would never have known about this place, but thankfully Stanley was all over it and had planned it in as part of our itinerary for the day. When we arrived I wasn't sure what to make of it. Our guide introduced himself as Chamindra and led us on a highly informative tour around the spice garden, which began by him showing us the plants they use in Sri Lanka for natural Ayurvedic remedies, several of which had no common name as they are found only in Sri Lanka. Next we sat down in a little hut while Chamindra gave us a hands on demo of all the hand made products produced at the gardens. It turns out he is an Ayurvedic doctor, a claim which was certainly supported by his impressive knowledge of all the herbs and spices and their effects on the human body. We were shown a huge assortment of lotions and potions including organic equivalents to oil of olay, tiger balm, Veet hair removal cream (for which I was the guinea pig - only on my shin, before you get any ideas!) and even Viagra! I was fooled into eating half a teaspoon of the latter before Chimandra revealed to me what it was, hence the title of today's post. Amber was most amused.
After the demonstration session, we were offered some pressure point massage, which seemed foolish refuse. Not the best massage I've had this trip, as the masseur was a trainee, but as it was free, so I can't really complain. Massages complete, we headed to the shop to peruse the goods. Everything was pretty pricy, but at least here there was a chance of the produce being genuine. We bought several items including the herbal balm and oil of ulay. Chimandra gave us a 15% discount and a free bottle of pure vanilla essence, which probably means that we paid over the odds for what we bought, but we'd had a good time, so didn't mind.
The remainder of our journey to Kandy passed pretty quickly, helped by the fact that both Amber and I slept for most of it. We were shattered.
The Earl's Regency is a huge hotel built into a hillside 4 km from Kandy, with incredible views. It's theoretically the number one hotel in the area, used by dignitaries and the well-to-do, but on first impression it seemed to be just like any other big corporate hotel. The enormous kitsch blue-striped Christmas tree in the foyer, complete with Disney-esque polystyrene angels, did nothing to allay my fears. It appears that playing the honeymoon card gets you very little in this type of establishment. No room upgrade, no champagne, just a free drink in the bar and a few fruits and chocolates. That's corporate hospitality for you.
We arrived at 2.15 pm, dumped our bags and headed into the hotel restaurant to grab a bite to eat. I got really excited to see that they had Hokkien Mee on the menu, one of my all time favourite Asian dishes. We ordered a plate each. When they arrived I was horrified to see that the drab plate of noodles bore absolutely no relation to real Hokkien Mee. Gutted. Still, we were hungry, so ate them anyway.
Stanley picked us up at 4 pm and we drove to the viewpoint overlooking Kandy town, which is named Arthur's Seat after Arthur C. Clarke, author of '2001: A Space Odyssey', who emigrated to Sri Lanka from England in 1956 to pursue his interest in scuba diving...apparently. Anyway, the view was excellent and Stanley had an opportunity to share some of his knowledge of the town.
The viewpoint is right next to a gem mining museum, which Stanley recommended we visit next. We weren't sure what we'd make of it, but it was actually really interesting, particularly the short video showing how the miners hand build the mine and sieve the gravel for gem stones. After the video, our guide talked us through the gems of Sri Lanka (in both their natural and polished forms), showed us some guys making jewellery and then took us to see the finished product in the showroom, whereupon he stuck his salesman hat on and proceeded to try and sell us most of the store! Most of it was rather ugly, but there was one stunning blue sapphire ring, which looked great on Amber's finger. We gave it some serious consideration, but in the end decided it was too much to pay for another ring so soon after buying engagement and wedding rings. You should have seen the look of thunder the guide gave us when he realised we weren't going to buy that ring! He made it very easy to leave.
After the gem museum we went to the Arts and Culture Centre to see some traditional Kandyan dances, some of which were good (back flips) and some of which weren't so good (two blokes in huge wooden masks stumbling and spinning blindly around the stage). The dances were all performed to the sound of traditional drums. After the dancing they upped the ante with a fire eating and fire walking show, which made for a good finale. Interestingly there is a colony of swifts breeding inside the Centre and every so often one of them would fly out in front of the stage, screeching loudly, as if in protest to the noise of the drums.
Back at the hotel we cashed in our free drinks voucher and had a couple of cocktails looking out over the valley before heading back to the room to unpack.
The hotel had a Friday night Indian buffet, which we took full advantage of. I ate so much I could barely move. Absolutely stuffed!
A few more species for the list:
- Indian jungle crow
- lesser whistling duck
- Ceylon small barbet
- stork-billed kingfisher
- Indian shag(!), Lake Kandy
- black-crowned night-heron, Lake Kandy
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Sleepless in Sigiriya
As you may have guessed, I didn't sleep so well last night. I woke up at 3.45 am to the sound of a heavy thunderstorm hammering down on the roof and couldn't get back to sleep. My beautiful wife was less than impressed with me. Especially as I kept asking if she was awake...
In the end I gave up trying to sleep altogether and decided to go for an early morning jog around track that delineates the periphery of the hotel complex. I figured that 6:00 am would be an optimal time to see birds and I wasn't wrong. I saw bedraggled peafowl hunched in big dead trees, bright green barbets and bee-eaters zipping over the water catching insects, pairs of bright yellow orioles foraging in the trees, and even the national bird of Sri Lanka, a male Ceylon jungle fowl, complete with flame-like crest. I also saw our friend the ruddy mongoose padding along the track in front of me.
Breakfast was a very tasty affair. I opted for the Sri Lankan breakfast, which put Amber's American breakfast to shame, comprising chicken curry, red potato curry, coconut sambal, chilli sambal, daal, fish curry, rice noodles, rice noodle hoppers and rottis. It definitely set me up for the day.
Our plan for today was to climb up Sigiriya rock, by far the most impressive attraction this area of Sri Lanka has to offer and a definite must-do as far as our itinerary was concerned. Stanley picked us up at 8.45 am and drove us straight to the ticket office located in the Royal Gardens, to the west of the site, beyond the outer moat. We paid $60 for two people and headed over the inner moat (pausing briefly to feel sorry for a stray puppy who was paralysed from the waist down and forced to drag his back legs along the ground - awful, I had to pull Amber away in tears) and through the formal Water Gardens whilst Stanley parked up. We met up with him in the Boulder Gardens and he accompanied us halfway up the hill, to the point where the stone steps started to get steep in the Terraced Gardens. At that point his fitness levels got the better of him and headed back to the car. Amber and I continued onwards and upwards.
Sigiriya rock is the hardened magma plug of a volcano that eroded millennia ago. Nowadays it is a World Heritage Site, but prior to that it was a Buddhist monastery site, complete with sacred caves, natural archways, a mirror wall covered in ancient monastic graffiti and steps carved out of huge boulders.
Perhaps the most famous aspect of climbing Sigiriya rock is the horror it presents for people who suffer from vertigo. Before this trip I had read several stories of the route to the summit, with tales of people taking one look at the spiral staircase attached to the cliff face by what appear to be rather unsubstantial thin metal beams and 'choosing life' instead. I have no love of heights, but thankfully have always been able to conquer my fear by concentrating on other things in the environment (like the steps, not the view down!) and the statistical unlikelihood that I would be the one to plunge to my death when so many other people have survived the ordeal before me. Looking up at the rickety stairs fastened to the cliff face was enough to leave me feeling distinctly weak at the knees, but I dragged my sorry ass up them anyway. Some of the steps were rusting apart, which didn't help! Amber found it all rather entertaining, as she is used to me being the fearless, relaxed one on our holidays. Nothing like the care and support of a loving wife, eh?
Anyway, thanks to my unwillingness to suffer mockery at the hands of my wife, we made it past the terrifying section - which involves two sets of enclosed spiral staircases and an enclosed ledge hundreds of metres above ground which houses ancient frescoes of incredibly well endowed bare-chested women - and carried on up the famous Lion Staircase to reach the top in double quick time.
I am glad we did.
The view was nothing short of spectacular.
I got some great photos, my favourite being one of Amber leaping for joy from the top of a low wall, arms and legs in all directions!
Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, I spotted a male garden lizard in full breeding colour - performing his territorial display for all he was worth - on the top of one of a wall. He was amazingly photogenic and, crawling slowly on my stomach to get ever nearer, I made the most of this opportunity to get some great shots. As luck would have it, we saw another group of these lizards on the way down, so there will be no shortage of photos of this species in my collection.
Having started the climb around 9:30 am, we were reunited with Stanley in the car park at 11:30 am, where I spotted a small group of toque macaques sitting on the roof of a souvenir hut. They are obviously pretty used to human presence and had no problem with me snapping away.
After visiting Sigiriya rock, Stanley took us to an ayurvedic spa where, for just $50, we were treated to two hours of wonderful treatments, which included: a head and shoulder massage, a full body massage, 10 minutes lying in a herbal steam box, 10 minutes in a sauna and a special treatment good for headaches and sinus pain that involved have hot water infused with herbs trickled onto our foreheads from a bowl with a string hanging from it. By the end of it we were both a horribly oily, sweaty herb-infused mess, but a quick shower later left us both feeling refreshed an revitalised. I have no shame in admitting I love a good spa treatment, when it really is good, and this definitely was one of the better treatments I have experienced. Ayurvedic power for the win!
Lunch was a simple-but-scrumptious beef curry, made all the better by the antics of a large troupe of toque macaques playing in the trees around the restaurant. They are a comical looking species, with most adults having centre-parted hair and very stern expressions. Great to watch them leaping between the palm trees, especially one of the females and her tiny baby, which was clinging on to its mother for dear life, upside down, as she hurled herself around the canopy. Got some more great shots. I am so glad I made the decision to buy myself this (Panasonic LUMIX FZ200) camera for this trip, I have been so impressed by all that extra zoom.
Stanley was keen to get us involved in some more activities to afternoon, suggesting that we go see the wild elephants at Kaudulla National Park, but given that it is expensive to get into the parks and that a paid guide is compulsory, we decided we'd much rather wait until we are in Yala to get our wild elephant fix. We made a short pit stop to grab some bottled water and made our way back to the hotel.
Once back at Vil Uyana I headed out to take a walk up the road outside the hotel in search of more weird and wonderful wildlife, but there was a storm brewing and I didn't get more than half an hour into my walk before the rain started and I had to abort the mission. Amazing how well animals can predict the onset of rain. They had all gone into hiding long before the rain started and all I saw on my walk was a trio of very miserable looking peafowl hunched down on top of a dead tree in preparation for the downpour.
I love swimming in tropical rain, so once I got back to the room I persuaded Amber that we should go and use the hotels lovely freshwater infinity pool and embrace the storm, which we did, although sadly the rain stopped as we left the room. I think the hotel staff thought we were crazy to be going swimming in those conditions, but it was great to be out in the elements with a dramatic backdrop of brooding rainclouds and the occasional flash of lightning. We even got to add another bird to today's list: a greater coucal.
After our swim we got changed and headed out for a pre-dinner drink. Amber had a very strong Black Russian and I had a large bottle of Lion stout (Lion being the local beer brand), both of which left us rather inebriated! We swayed upstairs to dinner and enjoyed a couple of curries and a very quaffable Gewürztraminer, all to the sounds of a somewhat better live musician (compared to last night - he was still no virtuoso!) and his mandolin-like instrument.
Today's additions to the wildlife list are as follows:
- Ceylon jungle fowl
- toque macaque
- woolly-necked stork
- purple heron
- white-rumped munia
- Indian robin
- brown-headed barbet
- little green bee-eater
- greater coucal
- snakehead (Channa punctata) in Sigiriya inner moat
In the end I gave up trying to sleep altogether and decided to go for an early morning jog around track that delineates the periphery of the hotel complex. I figured that 6:00 am would be an optimal time to see birds and I wasn't wrong. I saw bedraggled peafowl hunched in big dead trees, bright green barbets and bee-eaters zipping over the water catching insects, pairs of bright yellow orioles foraging in the trees, and even the national bird of Sri Lanka, a male Ceylon jungle fowl, complete with flame-like crest. I also saw our friend the ruddy mongoose padding along the track in front of me.
Breakfast was a very tasty affair. I opted for the Sri Lankan breakfast, which put Amber's American breakfast to shame, comprising chicken curry, red potato curry, coconut sambal, chilli sambal, daal, fish curry, rice noodles, rice noodle hoppers and rottis. It definitely set me up for the day.
Our plan for today was to climb up Sigiriya rock, by far the most impressive attraction this area of Sri Lanka has to offer and a definite must-do as far as our itinerary was concerned. Stanley picked us up at 8.45 am and drove us straight to the ticket office located in the Royal Gardens, to the west of the site, beyond the outer moat. We paid $60 for two people and headed over the inner moat (pausing briefly to feel sorry for a stray puppy who was paralysed from the waist down and forced to drag his back legs along the ground - awful, I had to pull Amber away in tears) and through the formal Water Gardens whilst Stanley parked up. We met up with him in the Boulder Gardens and he accompanied us halfway up the hill, to the point where the stone steps started to get steep in the Terraced Gardens. At that point his fitness levels got the better of him and headed back to the car. Amber and I continued onwards and upwards.
Sigiriya rock is the hardened magma plug of a volcano that eroded millennia ago. Nowadays it is a World Heritage Site, but prior to that it was a Buddhist monastery site, complete with sacred caves, natural archways, a mirror wall covered in ancient monastic graffiti and steps carved out of huge boulders.
Perhaps the most famous aspect of climbing Sigiriya rock is the horror it presents for people who suffer from vertigo. Before this trip I had read several stories of the route to the summit, with tales of people taking one look at the spiral staircase attached to the cliff face by what appear to be rather unsubstantial thin metal beams and 'choosing life' instead. I have no love of heights, but thankfully have always been able to conquer my fear by concentrating on other things in the environment (like the steps, not the view down!) and the statistical unlikelihood that I would be the one to plunge to my death when so many other people have survived the ordeal before me. Looking up at the rickety stairs fastened to the cliff face was enough to leave me feeling distinctly weak at the knees, but I dragged my sorry ass up them anyway. Some of the steps were rusting apart, which didn't help! Amber found it all rather entertaining, as she is used to me being the fearless, relaxed one on our holidays. Nothing like the care and support of a loving wife, eh?
Anyway, thanks to my unwillingness to suffer mockery at the hands of my wife, we made it past the terrifying section - which involves two sets of enclosed spiral staircases and an enclosed ledge hundreds of metres above ground which houses ancient frescoes of incredibly well endowed bare-chested women - and carried on up the famous Lion Staircase to reach the top in double quick time.
I am glad we did.
The view was nothing short of spectacular.
I got some great photos, my favourite being one of Amber leaping for joy from the top of a low wall, arms and legs in all directions!
Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, I spotted a male garden lizard in full breeding colour - performing his territorial display for all he was worth - on the top of one of a wall. He was amazingly photogenic and, crawling slowly on my stomach to get ever nearer, I made the most of this opportunity to get some great shots. As luck would have it, we saw another group of these lizards on the way down, so there will be no shortage of photos of this species in my collection.
Having started the climb around 9:30 am, we were reunited with Stanley in the car park at 11:30 am, where I spotted a small group of toque macaques sitting on the roof of a souvenir hut. They are obviously pretty used to human presence and had no problem with me snapping away.
After visiting Sigiriya rock, Stanley took us to an ayurvedic spa where, for just $50, we were treated to two hours of wonderful treatments, which included: a head and shoulder massage, a full body massage, 10 minutes lying in a herbal steam box, 10 minutes in a sauna and a special treatment good for headaches and sinus pain that involved have hot water infused with herbs trickled onto our foreheads from a bowl with a string hanging from it. By the end of it we were both a horribly oily, sweaty herb-infused mess, but a quick shower later left us both feeling refreshed an revitalised. I have no shame in admitting I love a good spa treatment, when it really is good, and this definitely was one of the better treatments I have experienced. Ayurvedic power for the win!
Lunch was a simple-but-scrumptious beef curry, made all the better by the antics of a large troupe of toque macaques playing in the trees around the restaurant. They are a comical looking species, with most adults having centre-parted hair and very stern expressions. Great to watch them leaping between the palm trees, especially one of the females and her tiny baby, which was clinging on to its mother for dear life, upside down, as she hurled herself around the canopy. Got some more great shots. I am so glad I made the decision to buy myself this (Panasonic LUMIX FZ200) camera for this trip, I have been so impressed by all that extra zoom.
Stanley was keen to get us involved in some more activities to afternoon, suggesting that we go see the wild elephants at Kaudulla National Park, but given that it is expensive to get into the parks and that a paid guide is compulsory, we decided we'd much rather wait until we are in Yala to get our wild elephant fix. We made a short pit stop to grab some bottled water and made our way back to the hotel.
Once back at Vil Uyana I headed out to take a walk up the road outside the hotel in search of more weird and wonderful wildlife, but there was a storm brewing and I didn't get more than half an hour into my walk before the rain started and I had to abort the mission. Amazing how well animals can predict the onset of rain. They had all gone into hiding long before the rain started and all I saw on my walk was a trio of very miserable looking peafowl hunched down on top of a dead tree in preparation for the downpour.
I love swimming in tropical rain, so once I got back to the room I persuaded Amber that we should go and use the hotels lovely freshwater infinity pool and embrace the storm, which we did, although sadly the rain stopped as we left the room. I think the hotel staff thought we were crazy to be going swimming in those conditions, but it was great to be out in the elements with a dramatic backdrop of brooding rainclouds and the occasional flash of lightning. We even got to add another bird to today's list: a greater coucal.
After our swim we got changed and headed out for a pre-dinner drink. Amber had a very strong Black Russian and I had a large bottle of Lion stout (Lion being the local beer brand), both of which left us rather inebriated! We swayed upstairs to dinner and enjoyed a couple of curries and a very quaffable Gewürztraminer, all to the sounds of a somewhat better live musician (compared to last night - he was still no virtuoso!) and his mandolin-like instrument.
Today's additions to the wildlife list are as follows:
- Ceylon jungle fowl
- toque macaque
- woolly-necked stork
- purple heron
- white-rumped munia
- Indian robin
- brown-headed barbet
- little green bee-eater
- greater coucal
- snakehead (Channa punctata) in Sigiriya inner moat
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Colombo to Sigiriya
After sampling some local delicacies at breakfast (curries, dosa and a very random herbal porridge with jaggery), we checked out of the Taj Samudra and met the man who will be our driver and guide for the next few days, Stanley. Seems a nice enough chap and the Nissan Bluebird is plenty spacious.
Stanley has made it clear that it is entirely up to us where we go, which is great, and he has already made some suggestions as to how we might fill our time over the next day or so, all of which sound ideal.
As we drove along the Kandy road, I was amazed to see a whole colony of absolutely colossal fruit bats flying over a stand of palm trees and the surrounding paddy fields - at 9 am! We have seen fruit bats plenty of times in other countries, but these just be the biggest I have ever seen, coming close to being the size of a turkey vulture in flight. Amazing. According to my mammal guide book they were Indian flying foxes (Pterops giganteus), which have an average wingspan of 1.2 m. We actually saw one flying along Galle Face last night as we were eating the kottu.
We just stopped of for some pineapple from one of many stalls lining the road. They are in season right now and very tasty. We were impressed by the knife skills of the seller, who made cutting up a pineapple look like child's play.
Our main plan for today was to visit the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet both present mixed views of this place, but we found it to be nothing short of wonderful. We parked up around 11am, in time to watch the daily bathing session. Stanley bought our tickets for us (2,000 LKR each) and we wandered down to the river where we were greeted by the awe-inspiring sight of around 50 Indian elephants in the water. The herd comprised mostly mothers and their calves, but there were a couple of enormous bulls there two. The youngsters were having the time of their lives rolling around in the water! It was such a privilege to get so close to so many of these magnificent creatures. I imagine it is only possible because they are habituated to humans, as most of the adults will have been brought up by mahouts from a young age as a result of coming to the sanctuary as orphans. Since then the elephants have been breeding on site and the numbers have risen considerably.
After the bathing session, all 45 elephants were paraded down the street, across the road and back into the sanctuary. We followed them in and got to see two incredibly sweet baby elephants, both under a year old. I was also invited to get up close and personal with one 65 year old bull elephant with huge tusks, who had been in the orphanage for many years and was sadly blind in both eyes. It was both terrifying and exhilarating to touch such a large mammal. I kept thinking he might forget I was there and sit on me or something. A brilliant experience.
After the elephants we drove halfway to our hotel and then stopped for a bite to eat by the side of a reservoir. We were serenaded by palm squirrels as we demolished an omelette and yet more amazing curry. As we were eating I spotted a large water monitor swimming through the water. I went down the bank to photograph him as he reached the shore, but he saw me and disappeared under water. Missed my chance.
A few hours later we arrived at the dirt road leading to Vil Uyana, which is to be our home for the next two nights. We have been expecting great things and we have not been disappointed. This place is my idea of heaven: luxurious wooden apartments raised up on stilts and connected by waterways over water and paddy fields. We have a split level apartment complete with plunge pool, balcony over the water, walk-in shower, huge stone bath etc. Amber is in her element. On the way to the entrance, Stanley spotted a green vine snake. I was gutted to miss it, but have resolved to see one at some point. The note in the room and the information boards dotted along the pathways both state that this species and several others are commonly seen here. The signs are good: We went for a late afternoon stroll and saw plenty of snake trails. We even saw a mongoose, which has to be a good sign that there are snakes around!
After our walk around the complex we had a brief dip in the plunge pool, ate our congratulatory cake from the hotel, supped some champagne, and then sat down to write our diaries. Whilst writing this entry on our balcony I have seen a whole bunch of bats foraging, including more flying foxes. I have also been treated to a spectacular chorus of frogs and geckos.
In 15 minutes' time, we are going out to meet the resident naturalist, who will be taking us on a night walk through the forest for a spot of loris watching. I can't wait.
Okay, so we didn't see any grey slender lorises, which was a shame, but on the plus side it meant that we weren't charged for the tour. This despite the fact that we saw plenty of other cool animals including, to my surprise, an otter! Somehow Sri Lanka has the same species of otter that we have in the UK (I know, it makes no sense to me either) and as serendipity would have it, I spotted one swimming in a forest pool. This probably counts as one of the weirdest wildlife moments I've had in recent years, given that I have been involved in otter survey in England and never seen an otter there. We also saw several butterflies, a few sleeping birds (Indian pitta and white-browed bulbul), a Blanford's rat, a couple of toads and (to my joy) a male green tree lizard sleeping on a large leaf. Not a bad haul for an hour spent wandering a forest trail in the dark equipped with red-light head torches. I was impressed with our guide's animal spotting skills, so although we didn't pay the full cost of the tour ($30 each), we still tipped him 2,000 LKR for his time.
It's a nice thing they are doing for the lorises actually. Instead of building more hotel accommodation, the owner has agreed to set aside the area of forest where the lorises are found as a loris conservation area.
The night hike left us ready for dinner, which was well presented if somewhat mediocre in taste - a sort of weird European-Asian fusion. It didn't quite deliver all it promised to, although the cup of tea at the end was excellent. This ambience of the restaurant certainly wasn't helped by the amateur fumblings of their live musician who, as backdrop to our meal, performed an original composition on his sitar that I can only describe as 'tuning up'. In a bid to avoid listening to any more of his epic performance, I am sorely tempted to opt to have dinner delivered to our room tomorrow!
It has been an amazing couple of days for wildlife sightings. Here is the list of everything we could ID:
- Indian elephant
- palm squirrel
- yellow-billed babbler
- Indian roller
- water monitor
- garden lizard
- brahminy kite
- Bengal monitor
- white-breasted water hen
- Indian pitta
- Ceylon swallow
- white browed bulbul
- red-vented bulbul
- Asian paradise flycatcher
- common myna
- yellow-wattled lapwing
- red-wattled lapwing
- Indian peafowl
- black-headed ibis
- grey heron (seen first in Colombo)
- little egret
- cattle egret
- Indian pond heron
- spot-billed pelican
- little cormorant
- Asian openbill
- painted stork (seen in Colombo)
- house crow (seen first in Colombo)
- rock python (seen with snake charmers yesterday and today)
- spectacled cobra (seen with snake charmers yesterday and today)
- purple-rumped sunbird
- green forest lizard
- white throated kingfisher
- pied kingfisher
- spotted dove
- rose-ringed parakeet
- Brooke's house gecko (pictured below)
- otter
- short-nosed fruit bat
- ruddy mongoose
- Blanford's rat
- crested porcupine (family pets at side of Kandy road)
- Indian burrowing frog (Sphaerotheca breviceps)
Stanley has made it clear that it is entirely up to us where we go, which is great, and he has already made some suggestions as to how we might fill our time over the next day or so, all of which sound ideal.
As we drove along the Kandy road, I was amazed to see a whole colony of absolutely colossal fruit bats flying over a stand of palm trees and the surrounding paddy fields - at 9 am! We have seen fruit bats plenty of times in other countries, but these just be the biggest I have ever seen, coming close to being the size of a turkey vulture in flight. Amazing. According to my mammal guide book they were Indian flying foxes (Pterops giganteus), which have an average wingspan of 1.2 m. We actually saw one flying along Galle Face last night as we were eating the kottu.
We just stopped of for some pineapple from one of many stalls lining the road. They are in season right now and very tasty. We were impressed by the knife skills of the seller, who made cutting up a pineapple look like child's play.
Our main plan for today was to visit the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet both present mixed views of this place, but we found it to be nothing short of wonderful. We parked up around 11am, in time to watch the daily bathing session. Stanley bought our tickets for us (2,000 LKR each) and we wandered down to the river where we were greeted by the awe-inspiring sight of around 50 Indian elephants in the water. The herd comprised mostly mothers and their calves, but there were a couple of enormous bulls there two. The youngsters were having the time of their lives rolling around in the water! It was such a privilege to get so close to so many of these magnificent creatures. I imagine it is only possible because they are habituated to humans, as most of the adults will have been brought up by mahouts from a young age as a result of coming to the sanctuary as orphans. Since then the elephants have been breeding on site and the numbers have risen considerably.
After the bathing session, all 45 elephants were paraded down the street, across the road and back into the sanctuary. We followed them in and got to see two incredibly sweet baby elephants, both under a year old. I was also invited to get up close and personal with one 65 year old bull elephant with huge tusks, who had been in the orphanage for many years and was sadly blind in both eyes. It was both terrifying and exhilarating to touch such a large mammal. I kept thinking he might forget I was there and sit on me or something. A brilliant experience.
After the elephants we drove halfway to our hotel and then stopped for a bite to eat by the side of a reservoir. We were serenaded by palm squirrels as we demolished an omelette and yet more amazing curry. As we were eating I spotted a large water monitor swimming through the water. I went down the bank to photograph him as he reached the shore, but he saw me and disappeared under water. Missed my chance.
A few hours later we arrived at the dirt road leading to Vil Uyana, which is to be our home for the next two nights. We have been expecting great things and we have not been disappointed. This place is my idea of heaven: luxurious wooden apartments raised up on stilts and connected by waterways over water and paddy fields. We have a split level apartment complete with plunge pool, balcony over the water, walk-in shower, huge stone bath etc. Amber is in her element. On the way to the entrance, Stanley spotted a green vine snake. I was gutted to miss it, but have resolved to see one at some point. The note in the room and the information boards dotted along the pathways both state that this species and several others are commonly seen here. The signs are good: We went for a late afternoon stroll and saw plenty of snake trails. We even saw a mongoose, which has to be a good sign that there are snakes around!
After our walk around the complex we had a brief dip in the plunge pool, ate our congratulatory cake from the hotel, supped some champagne, and then sat down to write our diaries. Whilst writing this entry on our balcony I have seen a whole bunch of bats foraging, including more flying foxes. I have also been treated to a spectacular chorus of frogs and geckos.
In 15 minutes' time, we are going out to meet the resident naturalist, who will be taking us on a night walk through the forest for a spot of loris watching. I can't wait.
Okay, so we didn't see any grey slender lorises, which was a shame, but on the plus side it meant that we weren't charged for the tour. This despite the fact that we saw plenty of other cool animals including, to my surprise, an otter! Somehow Sri Lanka has the same species of otter that we have in the UK (I know, it makes no sense to me either) and as serendipity would have it, I spotted one swimming in a forest pool. This probably counts as one of the weirdest wildlife moments I've had in recent years, given that I have been involved in otter survey in England and never seen an otter there. We also saw several butterflies, a few sleeping birds (Indian pitta and white-browed bulbul), a Blanford's rat, a couple of toads and (to my joy) a male green tree lizard sleeping on a large leaf. Not a bad haul for an hour spent wandering a forest trail in the dark equipped with red-light head torches. I was impressed with our guide's animal spotting skills, so although we didn't pay the full cost of the tour ($30 each), we still tipped him 2,000 LKR for his time.
It's a nice thing they are doing for the lorises actually. Instead of building more hotel accommodation, the owner has agreed to set aside the area of forest where the lorises are found as a loris conservation area.
The night hike left us ready for dinner, which was well presented if somewhat mediocre in taste - a sort of weird European-Asian fusion. It didn't quite deliver all it promised to, although the cup of tea at the end was excellent. This ambience of the restaurant certainly wasn't helped by the amateur fumblings of their live musician who, as backdrop to our meal, performed an original composition on his sitar that I can only describe as 'tuning up'. In a bid to avoid listening to any more of his epic performance, I am sorely tempted to opt to have dinner delivered to our room tomorrow!
It has been an amazing couple of days for wildlife sightings. Here is the list of everything we could ID:
- Indian elephant
- palm squirrel
- yellow-billed babbler
- Indian roller
- water monitor
- garden lizard
- brahminy kite
- Bengal monitor
- white-breasted water hen
- Indian pitta
- Ceylon swallow
- white browed bulbul
- red-vented bulbul
- Asian paradise flycatcher
- common myna
- yellow-wattled lapwing
- red-wattled lapwing
- Indian peafowl
- black-headed ibis
- grey heron (seen first in Colombo)
- little egret
- cattle egret
- Indian pond heron
- spot-billed pelican
- little cormorant
- Asian openbill
- painted stork (seen in Colombo)
- house crow (seen first in Colombo)
- rock python (seen with snake charmers yesterday and today)
- spectacled cobra (seen with snake charmers yesterday and today)
- purple-rumped sunbird
- green forest lizard
- white throated kingfisher
- pied kingfisher
- spotted dove
- rose-ringed parakeet
- Brooke's house gecko (pictured below)
- otter
- short-nosed fruit bat
- ruddy mongoose
- Blanford's rat
- crested porcupine (family pets at side of Kandy road)
- Indian burrowing frog (Sphaerotheca breviceps)
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
London to Colombo
Day one of our honeymoon has been something of a resounding success in my book!
As usual we left the house an hour later than planned, which meant that after messing around with Purple Parking we arrived at the Sri Lankan airlines check-in desk an hour and a half later than we would have liked. Our plan been to arrive nice and early to maximise our chances of getting an upgrade as a result of being on our honeymoon - we even dressed more smartly than usual! Sadly by the time we got to check-in, business class was full and there was only one emergency exit seat left. Needless to say, it wasn't quite the result we were hoping for, but the guy on the desk was incredibly nice about it all and offered to put us on the waiting list for the emergency exit seats on the off chance that someone didn't show up.
We put our failed upgrade out of our minds and headed into Departures, where we spent a few hours eating at Garfunkels and perusing the Duty Free shopping. Things started looking up from this point onwards. Firstly, Amber bought me an absolutely beautiful wristwatch from Watches of Switzerland as an early Christmas gift. Then when we got to our gate to board, the same guy from the check-in desk stated us and told us he had managed to upgrade our seats to the emergency exit seats! Result! All that extra leg room!
When we boarded the plane, we mentioned to one of the stewards it was our honeymoon and he brought us two glasses of champagne and a small bottle of champagne for our first night in Sri Lanka! Suddenly our day was improving. And that was before they brought us extra strong gin and tonics and the two shots of kahlua!
Can't fault Sri Lankan airlines. The staff were easily among the friendliest airline staff we have ever met, always smiling. One of the younger stewards was sat in front of us for take off and landing and he gave us some great tips on how to get the most out of of our holiday.
The flight was 10 hours and 10 minutes and very smooth indeed. We both slept a bit, watched a couple of films (Dark Shadows and What to Expect When You're Expecting) and arrived remarkably awake.
Sri Lanka is 30 degrees and wonderfully humid. Perfect.
Immigration was straightforward and before we knew it we had met up with our Kuoni rep and were heading to Colombo in a minibus. The transfer took us an hour, whereupon we arrived at our first port of call, the Taj Samudra. Here we had some more good fortune. The hotel upgraded us to a suite. We have three big rooms all to ourselves with a balcony view over the Galle Face beach. Okay, so the hotel is a little run down and the rooms are hardly opulent luxury, but the location is perfect. Plus we have a shower each!
One much-needed shower later, we struck out to the sea front with the aim of walking along the beach. Before we even hit the beach we were accosted by some chap in smart trousers and shirt who claimed that we knew him from our hotel reception (neither of us was particularly convinced!) and told us we ought to go to the Gangaramaya to check out the Buddhist temple. I had read about the temple in a blog prior to coming over to Sri Lanka, so I figured we had nothing to lose by taking his advice. He of course offered to accompany us, at which point the seasoned traveller instinct we both have started ringing alarm bells...we could see that at some point this was going to cost us. On the other hand, we had no guide for the temple, nor any real idea how far away it was. Our man got us into our first Sri Lankan tuk tuk, sorted our tickets, gave us a remarkably detailed tour of the whole place and brought us back to the beach. He clearly had an arrangement with the tuk tuk driver, who demanded 3000 rupees for his efforts! In the end we paid him 1000 rupees...a fiver. Yes it was probably more than it was worth, but given we only have the one afternoon in Colombo, I reckon we did incredibly well to fit in a tuk tuk ride, one of the nicer temples and a guided tour to boot without having to lift a finger.
After we left our two crooked guides, we sat and watched a group of snake charmers, some of whom had baby monkeys, which they were putting to good use in extracting money from tourists. The cobras were beautiful to see, but I am sure they had had their fangs removed, as I watched one of them strike its owner very hard with absolutely no result. Sad for the snakes, but they made for some nice photos.
We walked along the sea front as the sun set, taking in all the food stalls, joggers, strollers, kite flyers and sweet couples sitting side by side looking out at the ocean. Despite all the plane food, we realised we were both amazingly hungry. Thankfully we were in the right place for food! We went to Nana Toina Fast Food stall to eat a plate of the local delicacy 'kottu', which is fried strips of roti with vegetables, spices, chilli and your choice of meat (I went for cuttlefish). Super friendly service and absolutely delicious. An experience not to be missed!
It was dark when we left the fast food stall. We headed back to the room to sort out our luggage and open the complimentary bottle of red wine they gave us. Then we headed down to the bar for a couple of insanely cheap cocktails and yet more wonderful service in the hotel bar. We got yet more gifts as a result of mentioning the honeymoon: a postcard wishing us a happy honeymoon and a demon head fridge magnet! I definitely like Sri Lankan hospitality already!
Bring on tomorrow!
As usual we left the house an hour later than planned, which meant that after messing around with Purple Parking we arrived at the Sri Lankan airlines check-in desk an hour and a half later than we would have liked. Our plan been to arrive nice and early to maximise our chances of getting an upgrade as a result of being on our honeymoon - we even dressed more smartly than usual! Sadly by the time we got to check-in, business class was full and there was only one emergency exit seat left. Needless to say, it wasn't quite the result we were hoping for, but the guy on the desk was incredibly nice about it all and offered to put us on the waiting list for the emergency exit seats on the off chance that someone didn't show up.
We put our failed upgrade out of our minds and headed into Departures, where we spent a few hours eating at Garfunkels and perusing the Duty Free shopping. Things started looking up from this point onwards. Firstly, Amber bought me an absolutely beautiful wristwatch from Watches of Switzerland as an early Christmas gift. Then when we got to our gate to board, the same guy from the check-in desk stated us and told us he had managed to upgrade our seats to the emergency exit seats! Result! All that extra leg room!
When we boarded the plane, we mentioned to one of the stewards it was our honeymoon and he brought us two glasses of champagne and a small bottle of champagne for our first night in Sri Lanka! Suddenly our day was improving. And that was before they brought us extra strong gin and tonics and the two shots of kahlua!
Can't fault Sri Lankan airlines. The staff were easily among the friendliest airline staff we have ever met, always smiling. One of the younger stewards was sat in front of us for take off and landing and he gave us some great tips on how to get the most out of of our holiday.
The flight was 10 hours and 10 minutes and very smooth indeed. We both slept a bit, watched a couple of films (Dark Shadows and What to Expect When You're Expecting) and arrived remarkably awake.
Sri Lanka is 30 degrees and wonderfully humid. Perfect.
Immigration was straightforward and before we knew it we had met up with our Kuoni rep and were heading to Colombo in a minibus. The transfer took us an hour, whereupon we arrived at our first port of call, the Taj Samudra. Here we had some more good fortune. The hotel upgraded us to a suite. We have three big rooms all to ourselves with a balcony view over the Galle Face beach. Okay, so the hotel is a little run down and the rooms are hardly opulent luxury, but the location is perfect. Plus we have a shower each!
One much-needed shower later, we struck out to the sea front with the aim of walking along the beach. Before we even hit the beach we were accosted by some chap in smart trousers and shirt who claimed that we knew him from our hotel reception (neither of us was particularly convinced!) and told us we ought to go to the Gangaramaya to check out the Buddhist temple. I had read about the temple in a blog prior to coming over to Sri Lanka, so I figured we had nothing to lose by taking his advice. He of course offered to accompany us, at which point the seasoned traveller instinct we both have started ringing alarm bells...we could see that at some point this was going to cost us. On the other hand, we had no guide for the temple, nor any real idea how far away it was. Our man got us into our first Sri Lankan tuk tuk, sorted our tickets, gave us a remarkably detailed tour of the whole place and brought us back to the beach. He clearly had an arrangement with the tuk tuk driver, who demanded 3000 rupees for his efforts! In the end we paid him 1000 rupees...a fiver. Yes it was probably more than it was worth, but given we only have the one afternoon in Colombo, I reckon we did incredibly well to fit in a tuk tuk ride, one of the nicer temples and a guided tour to boot without having to lift a finger.
After we left our two crooked guides, we sat and watched a group of snake charmers, some of whom had baby monkeys, which they were putting to good use in extracting money from tourists. The cobras were beautiful to see, but I am sure they had had their fangs removed, as I watched one of them strike its owner very hard with absolutely no result. Sad for the snakes, but they made for some nice photos.
We walked along the sea front as the sun set, taking in all the food stalls, joggers, strollers, kite flyers and sweet couples sitting side by side looking out at the ocean. Despite all the plane food, we realised we were both amazingly hungry. Thankfully we were in the right place for food! We went to Nana Toina Fast Food stall to eat a plate of the local delicacy 'kottu', which is fried strips of roti with vegetables, spices, chilli and your choice of meat (I went for cuttlefish). Super friendly service and absolutely delicious. An experience not to be missed!
It was dark when we left the fast food stall. We headed back to the room to sort out our luggage and open the complimentary bottle of red wine they gave us. Then we headed down to the bar for a couple of insanely cheap cocktails and yet more wonderful service in the hotel bar. We got yet more gifts as a result of mentioning the honeymoon: a postcard wishing us a happy honeymoon and a demon head fridge magnet! I definitely like Sri Lankan hospitality already!
Bring on tomorrow!
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