Month: January 2017

To get from Galle to Columbo there are three choices. The Express train leaves Galle for Columbo at 10.55 from the station close to the cricket ground. The train takes two and a half hours to Columbo, then we would have to a get another train to Negombo followed by a tuk tuk to the hotel.

The second choice is to get a bus to Colombo which takes three hours, then a train and tuk tuk.

So we choose the easiest and most expensive route, we got a taxi all the way. I rang up a Galle taxi company and they quoted me 8.000 rupees, a thousand less than the price from our hotel.

So the taxi picked us up at 9.30, and headed up the very quiet Southern Expressway. It’s Sri Lanka’s only motorway from Matara to Colombo. We came off it in the Colombo suburbs, then the driver go a bit lost. He confessed that he’d never driven to Negombo before, and didn’t have a map. They have Muppets in Sri Lanka as well. We are experienced travellers, so I had the map saved on my iPad, and we helped him to find our destination with that.

We arrived at Villa Hundira at about 1pm, the driver didn’t get a tip, in fact we should have got a discount for finding the route for him! 

The hotel is several beautiful buildings on the edge of the Negombo Lagoon, and is the best hotel I have EVER stayed in! Our room is about thirty feet long by twenty wide, and has waxed, polished concrete floors with rugs and heavy wooden furniture. There are two huge windows so it’s very light, and looks over a creek on one side, and a swimming pool on the other.

Lunch was (another) magnificent rice and curry; I had pork and Julie had fish. Then we waddled over to one of the swimming pools and collapsed on a sun bed and looked out over the lagoon. Hundred of crows flew low over us on their way to roost, and a water monitor swam across the lagoon.Julie found this place on Booking.com, and I had a look on Expedia and found a better price, £45 a night. I suppose they need to fill the rooms and sometimes let them our cheaply.

So now I’m slumped on a very comfy sofa watching the Fast and the Furious  on the satellite TV. God it’s going to be a shock to the system going back to London in the winter.

I enjoy an egg hopper as much as the next man, especially with some dhal and vegetable curry. But my digestive system is not robust enough to have them for breakfast every day. This morning they were a delicious alternative to toast, but it’s back to a non-spicy breakfast tomorrow I think.

Today was a re-run of yesterday, we got a tuk tuk to Unawatuna beach and did sweet FA for a few hours. I want keep my perfect peachy complexion, so I don’t go out in the sunshine for too long. The tuk tuk disgorged us on the road at the back of a restaurant, and within seconds we had found a comfortable shaded  wooden plinth with a thatched roof and cushions to lie on.  Some folk spend hours out in the sunshine, but by the time they are fifty they will look like Dot Cotton, and the men as well!

One of the pleasures of the beach is watching other people, all sorts of shapes and sizes in swim suites. Some views are much more pleasurable than others, but I will leave that image to your own vivid imagination.  Most of the beach is lined with restaurants with an inside dining area, and then a much larger outside dining area with shaded tables and and chairs and the aforementioned covered lounging platforms. I can’t think of a proper name for such an item, but since it’s a cross been a bed and a sofa, I’ll call it a Bofa. You heard it here first folks, next  year they will be selling bofas in IKEA
After a few hours we got bored with lying on the bofa, and even the bitching about passers by got a bit repetitive , “look at the size of her arse in a bikini”, “why is a grown man wearing a crocheted beany hat, what a prat”, and so on. We went back to Galle and had a nice cup of chai in a rooftop cafe with blue furniture and aphorisms painted on the wall.

 

Currently I’m lying in a hammock on the roof of the Muhsin Villa next to Julie who is also in a yellow stripy hammock.  She has just let off an enormous squelchy fart and said “pardon me” loudly, not realising that some other people had quietly joined us on the roof.  Both our hammocks are now shaking while we laugh as quietly as we can.

This morning we packed our stuff again in a well practised manner to move to the Muhsin Villa, on Lighthouse Street. I picked up my tee shirt off a rack and there was a huge cockroach attached to it. Julie was showering, so I quietly bundled it in the shirt and took it outside. I saw a rat in the street yesterday, but I didn’t tell Julie at all, she would have freaked!

You don’t have to to stand on a cold street corner and  hang around ages to hail a taxi in Sri Lanka. Tuk tuks are everywhere, like the wind blows and rivers flow. You just step out onto the street and within a minute a tuk tuk driver will be asking if you want a ride.This morning we took a very stylish tuk tuk with white leatherette upholstery and twisted chrome guard rails that separated us from the driver. He was a nice guy who chatted about cricket and how Galle gets invaded by thousands of English cricket fans when they play at the ground just outside the Fort. Both English and local fans like to gather on the walls of the Fort to watch the games.

 

He took us a few miles east to Unawatuna, a very popular beach resort. The name makes me think of Una Paloma Blanca, an old song from the seventies. It is similar to Mirissa, but bigger and busier,  with more hotels and restaurants.  Dear reader, you would like it here, the sky is blue, the sea is like a warm bath and cold beers can be brought to your table in the shade. The only minor fly in the ointment are the hawkers on the beach flogging bed spreads and wooden elephants. I settled in the shade and listened to a podcast of a Ted Talk by Dan Bricklin, the guy who wrote VisiCalc and invented the electronic spreadsheet. His invention gave me a good living, I spent ten years teaching people how to use Lotus 123 and then Excel. That paid my mortgage and shoes for my kids when they need a new pair every three months!

Back in Galle this evening I looked up the restaurants in Galle Fort on Tripadviser and  found a place called Chambers. It is close by on Church Street, and serves Moroccan food. It was one of the best meals we have eaten on this holiday, lovely oily hummus with hot flatbread followed by the best chicken and prune tagine. A great end to the day.

When I woke up this morning in the Old New Dutch House in Middle Steet it was rain. Then it started raining heavily, and then torrentially, as it does in the tropics. Inside our room the atmosphere was a bit thick. Not only was the usual smells that accumulate over night, but also the damp from our laundry that was drying in the room. I didn’t want to pay the silly prices for hotel laundry, so we washed our smalls in shampoo in the basin, wrung them out and hung them to dry. The fan was going all night to provide an internal breeze. Our clothes were sort-of clean, and we had more money to spend on rice and curry!

The walls of Galle were built by the Dutch, and are tall, broad and very substantial. The British got them because the Netherlands were part of Napoleons territories, and the British thrashed Napoleon at Waterloo. Galle Fort is on a peninsula, and the walls go all the way round it. The Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has lots of lovely old buildings. Many are now shops, restaurants or hotels, and derelict buildings are being restored. The streets are relatively quiet, and have more tourists than local people, it reminded me of an Asian Dubrovnik.

We ate lunch at the Lucky Fort Cafe and had another enormous rice and curry meal. I ate some novel curries including beetroot, pineapple, mango, tapioca and palm heart. I shall be shitting for England at about 8.30 tomorrow morning. After lunch we walked through the gate and  into Galle new town, a typical Sri Lankan town. A street hustler tried to persuade me to go to buy some spices and tea. I explained to him that because I live in West London I can probably buy spices for less than he does, and Tesco sells a huge variety of excellent tea which is approved by chimps.

Throughout Sri Lanka I have seen posters for Nippolac, which is either:

A) Japanese paint, or

B) a breast feeding aid

You decide.

As it was getting dark we fancied a drink, yer know, a proper drink. But we found ourselves near the mosque, and no booze to be found in that quarter of town. So we went into a trendy bar  called the Gullible Tourits and paid too much for small drinks and bad service. What they need is a proper boozer selling London Pride, the Chinese tourists would love it!

So farewell Peacock Wings guest house, you were really average. The ants running up the walls were  quite annoying, But when I squashed a moth by accident, the ants did conveniently take it away. A whole gang of tiny beasts gathered around and took the dead moth away to feed their babies. The place was quiet, but lacked comfort and charm. Alex Polizzi would have enjoyed making the place more appealing.  The landlady’s mother who brought breakfast didn’t manage to smile once at five breakfasts. Maybe she always wanted to be an undertaker and just got as far as the gloomy face. But it did have a nice view of the sea from the breakfast room on the roof, plus squirrels, monkeys, ants and mozzies. I put some sting cream on Julie’s legs this morning and counted at least twenty five red bites.

For breakfast we had space hoppers again, but no fruit for the first time since we have been in Sri Lanka. 

I am pretty good at cramming everything into my small wheelie bag and rucksack,  I wear my trainers and pack my flip flops, because they go nice and flat.

 We walked over the road just in time to catch a 350 bus to Galle. It stopped for about five seconds, just long enough to get into the bus. Jesus they go fast! They barrel along at about forty, beeping loudly the make sure all other traffic gets out of the way. The tuk tuk drivers are fearless, and have to steer clear of the charging buses. I haven’t seen any accidents yet, but I expect to. We passed through Weligama and Midigama, and saw some stilt fishermen perched on the cross pieces of stilts that are stood in the surf. They fish with rod and line, I don’t know how successful they are. It’s much easier just to buy fish fingers from Lidl.

Galle was a Portuguese trading fort then it was Dutch, who built huge walls around their settlement. We are staying at the confusingly names New Old Dutch House in Middle Street inside the Fort. For lunch I had my favourite Sri Lankan meal, rice and curry. It was a belter today, consisting of:

• Rice, a big bowl
• Fish curry, a small portion of tuna in a thin hot sauce
• Geeens curry, something like spinach or cabbage
• Jack fruit , tastes a bit like aubergine but  is starchy like potato
• Tomato and red onion salad
• Dhal
• Green bean curry

It cost about £4, the price of couple of naan bread at home.

The old Fort area has quiet streets, and is full of good restaurants and shops selling up market souvenirs. I bought a little wooden tuk tuk from a hawker on the ramparts. I paid nine hundred rupees for it, having knocked him down from four thousand. I probably paid at least twice what it’s worth, but I was happy with my deal.

We passed a restaurant on the way back to our hotel which advertised a very appealing offer for dinner. Ten curries for nine hundred and fifty rupee and enough food for two people.

We ate a different kind of Sri Lankan breakfast today, hoppers of a new type! They looked like bowl-shaped pancakes, some with eggs cooked in them, and some without. I don’t think they were as good as string hoppers with dhal and chutney, but they made a change.

 

The guide book described a temple on a hill with good views, so we set off to find it. We did find a hill, but no temple or views, but delightful birds with tropical songs. There are lots of jungle noises here, the little squirrels that run up the trees are very vocal! After climbing the hill we saw a sign for Secret Beach, so we followed that. A path took us along the side of a long wall which went down to the sea. We then had to clamber over rocks to find the Secret Beach. It is a stunning little bay with a small beach and a cafe amongst the trees. There were several small children paddling in the water and it looks idyllic. 

With sarongs spread on the sand  we settled down to read, I have just started Dissolution from CJ Sansom, a very good Tudor who-done-it. Then the water beckoned, so I went into the warm sea. I’m glad I put my goggles on, not only was there some colourful small fish, but also plenty of sea urchins! I got spiked by some of those nasty little buggers in Yugoslavia in 1975, and I don’t want to do it again. Another visitor was picking spikes out of his feet, and a lady next us got stung by a large wasp. Julie had some anti sting cream in her bag, which helped ease her discomfort. Then Julie got bitten by a big ant, which stuck its jaws in an wouldn’t let go! I had to pull it quite hard to remove the creature.

After lunch (calamari and chips) I found a very comfortable hammock slung between trees and had a snooze, you can’t do that in Twickenham.

Some the Secret Beach is very lovely, but also the most venomous place we have visited! On our way out we followed some other tourists, and took a much easier route back to the main beach. I passed a tuk tuk selling bread, they are all over Sri Lanka and play the same tune, Fleur de Lys. Either that or the same bloke has been following me around for three weeks.

Lazy Monday afternoon got no time to worry, close my eyes and drift away”The sea is warm and the sand is soft, this is a much better place to be than… most places. Well at least for a few days until I get bored.

Mirissa is a sandy beach backed by the main road from Matara to Galle which is lined with accommodation of various grades. We are in the Peacock Wing, at the budget end of the scale. Our bed here is built of concrete, with a very comfortable mattress on top, so Is the bedside “table”. I suppose it ain’t gonna break! Our logic for staying here is that if we spend less on the room, we have more to spend on delicious consumables. The Jamaican Mule cocktail I drank last night was particularly good, with plenty of rum in it.

By the Peace Bar there is a natural swimming pool which is protected from the surf by a reef. It is lovely to wallow in, and Julie actually took a dip! I enjoyed a bit of body surfing further down the beach. Just beyond the Peace Bar is a stretch of very good surf where the serious surfers gather. Two lady surfers were being photographed by several camera operator on the beach and in the water. I think they were probably professional surfers modelling swim wear, they were very good at riding those waves!

We have decided to stay a couple more days in Mirissa, it’s the sort of place that you can easily while away a few days.

Sri Lanka is a lovely place, but it is spoiled by all the litter that lines the roads. Plastic bottles, bags, coconut husks, waste food, cans – all sort of small rubbish that gets tossed aside. It’s a great pity because there is so much natural beauty that is tainted by casual disregard. Another minus point is the lack of street lights and footpaths. Walking down the road at night you have to keep in to the edge of the road, watching for buses charging along at forty miles an hour, and making sure you don’t step in a drain. Local cyclists calmly go down the road at night without lights on their bikes, with tuk tuks overtaking them and big trucks coming the other way. It isn’t all tropical paradise here.

After breakfast we walked out of Mirissa down Udupila Road. The first quarter mile is lined with guest houses and small shops selling fruit, vegetables and fish. Then the paddy fields begin, vivid green and punctuated by white egrets hunting for morsels to eat. The fields and surrounding woodland are alive with life and noises. A big kingfisher sits on telephone wires, and isn’t the least perturbed by our noisy presence. In the distance monkeys feed in the trees, and peacocks call loudly across the paddy. A small thrush-sized bid hops on a branch, but it is bright yellow and black. In a dirty river a reptile several feet long swims slowly. I wasn’t sure if it was a small crocodile or a big monitor, but it turns out to be a turtle of some sort.

We returned to the beach, because it’s the main attraction here (apart from whale spotting). Watching people on the beach and playing in th surf is a very relaxing way to spend time. I have also been reading another sci fi book, the Medusa Chronicle by Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds on the Kindle  app on my iPad. It’s not a great way to read on the beach because the bright sunlight makes it hard to read the screen. But it is very convenient, I have several books I can chose from.  I can also listen to podcasts that I download when I get good wifi. I forgot my headphones so have to listen with the iPad speaker next to my ear. It looks daft, but it works.

I went for a swim around some rock with my goggles on, but only saw a few striped fish, nothing very interesting. But I did eat a big steak of Sail Fish at lunch. The Sail Fish is the Ferrari of the oceans, it is almost a shame to eat it. But it had already been caught, and I wouldn’t want it to go to waste.

There are plenty of dogs in Sri Lanka, and I haven’t seen anyone walking a dog o a lead. Most appear to be feral, but they are all friendly. I don’t know much about dogs, they mostly look like Homer Simpson’s dog, Santa’s Little Helper.

I have just been for another swim, some of the breakers are really big, it’s like bing tumbled around in a washing machine . Probably  30 degree delicates wash.

Last night was a hot one, the fan was whizzing around all night to move the warm air about. At 5.45 am the alarm on my phone went off to wake us up to got whale watching. Mirissa is close to the migration route of several whale species, so the whale watching tours are a big draw to the town.A tuk tuk delivered us to our boat, which we boarded at 6.10, we were the first on board. Gradually the boat filled up with other whale watchers on two levels, and set off at 7.20. The seats were a size more suited to children, and we all wore buoyancy aids. About a dozen other boats emerged from the harbour to travel out to close by the shipping lane to find cetaceans.

There was lots of excitement when we saw a group of small dolphins curving over the waves. A few times we saw a spout from the blow hole of a whale, and the whole armada of spotting boats charged in that direction. We briefly saw the back and fin of a whale (a Blue, according to a crew member), but no more than that. After a few hours at sea we returned to the harbour, disappointed but sanguine.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

We ate lunch at the cheap and cheerful Rotty Hut on Galle Road, and then went down to the lovely long curved beach. The weather was a bit overcast, but it wasn’t a problem. At the far end of the beach we found the Peace Bar, and settled in. The surf literally washes the front of the bar, and a hundred metres out to sea surfers test their skills on the waves. They have an excellent choice of old classic tunes (Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Brothers) and chill out music. Sitting with a beer watching the surfers is a great way to relax. We got there at about 4pm and as I write at 7 I’m still here. There has been helluva thunderstorm, so we just had to stay and have more beers. Now it’s Happy Hour, and it would just be rude to go.

This is our only full day in Ella, and we weren’t sure what to do. There is a hike to the top of Ella Rock, the peak which is across Ella Gap from Little Adams Peak. Researching on travel blogs it says you have to walk several kilometres down the railway line from Ella station and then head cross country on an unmarked path. Everyone either took a guide or found a friendly farmer along the way to guide them. Then there was also a slight problem with leeches, yuk! So we decided to go up Little Adams Peak again, and hope that the air was clearer than yesterday giving us a better view.

The walk was just as beautiful as yesterday, and every visitor to Ella was on the way up or down. But it isn’t crowded like Sigirya, and what’s more it’s free! At the top the view was the same as yesterday, murky in the distance, but still the best view we have seen in Sri Lanka. 

On the way down we diverted slightly to a resort called 93 Acres. It’s is made of of bungalows on a ridge in a tea plantation, with great views of the hills. The cafe is very rustic chic, and the decking is made from recycled old bits of wood, it looks good but is quite uneven. We ordered ginger beer and iced ginger tea, and soaked in the luxury of the place. If you ever take the same walk, you must visit 93 Acres and mix with the rich folk. I know they are rich folk, because it has its own helipad.

Descending back into Ella we went Chill Cafe for lunch, which is a very cool place and very popular. It has lovely wooden furniture, and was packed with travellers drinking beer. Because I don’t want to get too fat, I’m saving my beer ration for tonight, and we had water with our very fine rice and curry. The veg curries are sooo good, and included snake gourd, beetroot and jack fruit.Jackfruit are big knobbly fruits that grow on short stalks out of the trunks of trees, each one must weigh several kilos. The curried flesh looks like a piece of tuna, but tastes vaguely like artichoke.

After lunch I bought some Lemon Puff biscuits for pudding, they are heavenly. We got tea at the guest house, read our books and scoffed biscuits, what more could you want?