Sri Lanka
02/06/2017 / Sri Lanka , Travel
Hiking to Lipton's Seat, Sri Lanka
There are so many walks and hikes in Sri Lanka from Adam's Peak to the world's end. On my three week trip around Sri Lanka I only managed to do one. Lipton's Seat. We stayed in the town of Haputale for our walk. I wouldn't call it a hike as such, it's not too tough and a lot of it is fairly flat.
21/03/2017 / Sri Lanka , Travel
Kandy | Sri Lanka
We arrived in Kandy on a bus from Matale. We hadn't booked any accommodation so set to work finding somewhere to stay when we got there. We'd looked online but a lot of places were booked up or very pricy because it was the Esala Perahera. In hindsight maybe we should have booked in advance. We found a tuk tuk and asked the driver if he knew any guest houses. He said he did so took us to the first one. We looked around and the price was very high, again because of the Esala Perahera, we tried to negotiate but they wouldn't budge. I don't mind paying higher prices but the quality of the room was not reflected in the high price in any way. We moved onto another guest house and it was the same problem. We asked the driver to drop us off in town and we'd found our own accommodation but he kept insisting we see 'just one more!'.
He eventually dropped us off but demanded triple the price we'd negotiated because we hadn't picked any of the accommodation he'd shown us even though we'd asked him after the second one to drop us off. After the stress of trying to find somewhere to stay our next task was to try and find somewhere with wifi to conduct our own search.
We found a bar / coffee shop so sat down to have a coffee and get some (very bad) wifi. Using the wifi we managed to find a hostel with beds available. We headed to the hostel, dropped off our bags and headed into town. The hostel was around a half an hour walk from the main city. The walk was very hilly but thankfully was downhill on the way to the city, we usually got a tuk tuk home because the hill was so steep!
I have to say I never really got my head around the logistics of the city. What I mean by this is I usually had no idea where I was going. I'm usually quite good at getting my head around a new place, I start to recognise landmarks and work out how to get around. However, with Kandy, we could never quite get the route into town right. We ended up walking to the train station both times which was the opposite to where we actually wanted to go! It does feel much larger than anywhere else I visited in Sri Lanka (apart from the capital, Colombo).
What to see in Kandy
The Esala Perahera
This is one of the most important Buddhist festivals in Sri Lanka. The tooth that is held in the Temple of the Tooth is carried through the city in the procession. Being able to see this depends on what time of year you will be visiting Kandy. The festival takes place from the end of July until the first week of August. If you're in Sri Lanka in this time then it's worth checking out. I can't tell you exact dates as they vary slightly from year to year but I'm sure a quick google will tell you the 2017 dates.
If you do visit, get a spot early! The procession starts around 7 pm but the city will get packed a lot earlier, it will start getting very difficult to get around due to roads being blocked off, trying to get from one side of the street to the other is extremely hard in certain areas. There are plenty of places to watch the procession but they will fill up quickly. We looked for a place to watch around 5.30 and a lot of areas were already full.
Ensure you sit somewhere that the procession actually passes. We initially sat down in a space but were told that the procession didn't actually come past us, it came close but not past. There were lots of other people sitting in this area so I'm not sure if they knew. We quickly moved on. We ended up sitting right by the end of the procession. We sat 'front row' on the street but as the procession went on it was clear this was not the best position.
TIP: Don't sit near the end of the procession, most of the dancers had stopped by this point so we missed out on seeing a lot.
You can buy seats in restaurants or shops to view the procession from. We found these pricy. They varied from around 25 to 35 pounds, most were just a small chair in a shop front, others were more fancy.
There are plenty of markets in Kandy to explore. I can definitely say that we spent a bit too much time exploring them. Many of the outside ones are like the usual ones you find. Set up for tourists selling traveller favourites such as elephant pants and knock off brand clothing. However, we found an inside market which seemed to be very much the same as the outside ones until a man invited us up to the top floor. This actually sounds incredibly creepy when I write it but it wasn't as creepy as it sounds. We assumed he was just going to take us to another floor of the same stands but we followed anyway as we could easily turn around if they were. However, the top floor was a bit of a goldmine. We seemed to be the only tourists up there. The stalls were a complete jumble of clothes. It was like one big charity shop.
It was great as a lot of the clothes were the sort you'd find in some quirky vintage store except without the high prices! We got a bit too carried away. We had to look through a lot of bad clothes to find the gems but it was great. I have to say I enjoyed escaping sightseeing for the afternoon. We came away with way too many clothes and had to buy a bag to carry them all in. Not a good move but I do wear a lot of the clothes I purchased so I guess it worked out well.
I think the market we went to was the central market but I'm not completely sure. I didn't take too much notice of my surroundings and we always ended up getting a bit lost on our walk into the centre!
The Lake
This is one thing we didn't get chance to see (probably thanks to our mad shopping afternoon). We did however, see some of the lake whilst walking around the centre of Kandy. I think you can hire boats to go out onto the lake or just walk around it.
The Temple of the Tooth
This is, maybe, the most important temple in Sri Lanka. It's also one of the main reasons for visiting Kandy. We went very early before our train to Nawalapitiya (where we'd treated ourselves to a night at a cute hotel in a tea plantation). We were supposed to go the previous day but we got carried away shopping in the markets. Long story short we got very excited over cheap clothes and bought way too many. I greatly regretted this when I had to carry all these new clothes in my rucksack!
When we went the Temple of the Tooth closed earlier than usual for the Esala Perahera festival. We had seen this on our first night but did not want to see it again so planned on going to the temple in the later afternoon. However, we couldn't so ended up having a very early start. I guess it was karma for going shopping instead of being cultural!
The entrance fee to the temple is higher than most of the others we visited but it is the most important one and this reflects in the price. You have to hand over your shoes before you enter. There are people offering to give you guided tour but we declined, we were in a hurry and didn't want to spend extra money and not be able to fully appreciate a tour.
The temple was already quite busy when we got there and we were there pretty early in order to fit it in before our train. There are various other buildings in the complex some are included in the ticket but many of the museums have a separate fee.
The entrance fee to the temple is higher than most of the others we visited but it is the most important one and this reflects in the price. You have to hand over your shoes before you enter. There are people offering to give you guided tour but we declined, we were in a hurry and didn't want to spend extra money and not be able to fully appreciate a tour.
The temple was already quite busy when we got there and we were there pretty early in order to fit it in before our train. There are various other buildings in the complex some are included in the ticket but many of the museums have a separate fee.
Summary
- Bus from Matale to Kandy: 40 rupees (less than an hour)
- Easy train access from Kandy train station to traveller favourite such as Ella.
- Can also get the bus from Dambulla, slightly longer and costs more but still very cheap.
- Entry to the Temple of the Tooth: 1000 rupees
- Go to the Temple of the Tooth early as it can get very crowded inside!
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04/03/2017 / Sri Lanka , Travel
Ultimate Guide to planning a trip to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was never really on my travel bucket list. I didn't even think about visiting it until one of my university friends travelled there for a psychology placement. I looked at her pictures and thought to myself how amazing the country looked but then we went back to university and Sri Lanka just became another country I wanted to visit. Fast forward to April 2016 when my other university friend Kate, and I were planning our summer travels. We had initially planned to do a road trip through Australia but were becoming less keen on the idea. Partly because we didn't think a two person road trip would be that fun. This in turn led to us brain storming ideas, Kate was keen on South America but we were thinking about visiting Mexico on a separate trip so I said I would rather go somewhere in Asia. The trouble was Kate had done a lot of it.
06/02/2017 / Sri Lanka , Travel
Yala National Park
Yala National Park is the second largest and most visited national park in Sri Lanka. I did quite a lot of research on the different national parks in Sri Lanka to see which one was the best to visit. I actually decided against Yala National Park and favoured Minneraya. However, due to our route and after some further research we finally chose Yala.
When planning my trip to Sri Lanka I'd imagined lots of 5 am starts. But this wasn't actually the case. In fact, my trip to Yala National Park was probably the earliest I'd been up the whole trip, apart from my visit to the Taj Mahal of course! I'm the first to admit that I'm not a morning person, I don't try and pretend I am. I like my sleep. A lot. But when my alarm went off I got out of bed rather easily. This may have had something to do with the fact that I had a double bed to myself and we'd treated ourselves to a nice hotel (with aircon!) rather than the usual hostel or guest house.
It wasn't long until we started seeing other jeeps. I can only describe the pitch black drive in the jeep as the wacky races (remember that TV show?!). Or should I say what I imagine the wacky races to be like in real life. The jeeps went so quick! We kept overtaking ones and then they would overtake us again. They'd be sharp turns in the road that we'd shoot around. If I wasn't awake already I definitely was after this drive. I decided to sit back and try not to think about the fact that our driver was overtaking other jeeps at an incredible spend in the pitch black. All the drivers seemed to be in one big race. And I guess in a sense we were.
The race was to get to the ticket area for the park. Once we got there we parked up and our driver collected our money. After about five minutes we were off again, this time heading to the actual entrance. This is why the journey had turned into wacky races. Everyone wants to be as near to the front of the queue as possible. We got there about 15 minutes before the park opened and were already about ten jeeps back. The queue behind us quickly increased too.
When the park opened the jeeps lined up sped in, while most followed the same route some began to split off and head down other dirt tracks. Our driver seemed to be pretty good at knowing where to go. He was on his walkie talkie a lot. I think a lot of the drivers talk to one another and tell each other any animals they spot.
We started to see animals quite quickly. We saw peacocks, a fox, some crocodiles. All were quite far away but I had my zoom lens on my camera so was able to use that to take pictures/ use as binoculars. In hindsight, I should of worn my glasses as I did struggle to see things sometimes.
We headed off to a quieter area of the park, our driver then got a message saying that there may be leopards. This was the main reason we chose Yala so we really hoped we could see one. We first went to the area they were spotted but there was no sightings. Then we moved to another area where there were already some jeeps. We parked up and waited. We were there for about a good ten to fifteen minutes. That's part of the safari though, you need to wait and see if the animals appear. It's not something that can happen instantly. They're wild animals so you may go and not see any. We very nearly left to go to another area of the park when one of the other jeeps motioned that there was a leopard.
It then turned a bit chaotic. The jeeps all shot forward, trying to get nearer to the area. At this point there was about five jeeps. It took me forever to spot the leopard. Mostly because I wasn't wearing my glasses. Kate kept pointing to where it was and I just couldn't spot it. But then I did! We were incredibly lucky as another leopard appeared and the a youngster! Our driver said this was quite rare.
It must have been because our driver seemed more excited than us! He took my camera and took some photos for me which were really good! Then even more jeeps arrived, there were about 50 people in various jeeps leaning out trying to get a look at the leopards. It was quite bizarre. By this point we were quite far back meaning jeeps were blocking our view, however, they couldn't move as there was no where to go. There was a child in the front jeep just casually eating his food and not even paying attention to the leopards right beside him!
After getting some pictures and watching the leopards play we headed off. Just in time because more jeeps were coming to the area. Our driver proudly told every other jeep we passed about our sighting. After the excitement of the leopards we didn't see many more animals. I was really hoping for some elephants but seeing the leopards definitely made up for this. We saw some warthogs and some beautiful birds.
We left the park around 8.30 am, got a picture by the sign and were dropped back at our hotel. We were initially planning on moving on that day but had decided to book one more night in the hotel because the pool was so nice! It was the first 'luxury' accommodation we'd stayed in and it was great to relax and catch up on some reading. My room also had a bath, I don't have one at home so I took advantage of this. I think I may write a post about the hotel because it was so nice!
Summary
- You can organise a tour through most hotels, however, ours told us that we'd get a cheaper price finding a driver ourselves.
- Most accommodation for Yala is located in the town of Tissa or nearby. If you choose to stay in a hotel it will most likely be located just outside. You can get a tuk tuk to the main town for around 200 rupees.
Sophie
18/01/2017 / Polonnaruwa , Sri Lanka , Travel
Polonnaruwa | Sri Lanka
Polonnaruwa was our second stop on our three week adventure around Sri Lanka. The town is home to the ruins of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa which are apparently the second capital of Sri Lanka. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site. There is also the ancient city of Anuradhapura but we could only visit one on our trip and decided to go to Polonnaruwa.
After spending a day in Colombo we got a train up north to the ancient city. Our train left Colombo at around 7 pm and arrived at around 2.15 in the morning. It took longer than expected which caused problems about accommodation. We had booked accommodation for that night imagining we'd arrive at 1pm at the latest. We did tell the guest house owner that we would be arriving late but things didn't quite work out.
We got a tuk tuk from the station to our guest house. Thankfully, there were tuk tuks outside the station. They were charging quite an expensive price but it was 2 in the morning. He quoted us 550 rupees which we accepted because we wanted our beds.
We got to our guest house and the place had a massive gate that was locked up for the night. Our tuk tuk driver knocked on the gate and called over it. He even tried to jump over to get the owner to let us in. We then got him to phone the guest house. We saw him put the number in so we're pretty sure he called the guesthouse rather than pretending to. We were there for a good 15 minutes. Our tuk tuk driver then told us that his brother owned a guesthouse so we could stay there for the night. At this point we were thankful as we were stranded.
Turned out his brothers guesthouse was right next door! That's why I say I'm not sure whether he phoned our original guest house. We thought he might just be trying to get us to stay at his. But he did shout and knock so he was either very good at pretending to help or actually was.
So we ended up next door being shown a room. We opted for no air con as it was a lot more pricy. That's something we found in Sri Lanka; the price of non air con compared to air con was quite a big difference compared to the difference in India.
Day One
The idea of getting up early and heading to the ruins after getting to bed way after 3 am was not particularly pleasant. Instead, we decided we'd explore other parts of the town and do the ruins early the following day. For ease we ate lunch at our guesthouse. It was while we were eating our lunch that the owner of the guesthouse we'd originally booked poked his head over the fence and started shouting at our host. He wanted us to go round and talk to him. He demanded we pay him money. Because our booking had been made on booking.com he had lost out by us not staying. However, we refused to pay since it was not our fault that we were no longer staying at his. He told us he had been awake and no one had called. However, considering how loud we had knocked this seemed slightly suspicious. We left his guesthouse and headed back to ours where he continued to poke his head over the fence and yell.
Not long after we decided to escape and go for a wander. We began to walk towards the town, heading for the lake. This was around a ten minute walk from our guesthouse. The lake was quite large so we decided we wouldn't walk the whole way. Instead, we walked along one side and then down a small street where the locals came to bath and back round to our guest house.
If you're in Polonnaruwa for more than a day then the lake area is worth checking out. I think there's a museum and restaurant but we didn't stop at either. There were plenty of monkeys around the lake and also a lot of dead bats. We saw them hanging on the phone wires and wondered why one earth they were just chilling in the open in the middle of the day. It wasn't until we got back to the hostel and I googled bats that we discovered that all the bats we had seen were in fact dead. They go to hang from the wires and end up getting electrocuted! The poor things! Apparently it happens quite a lot. So that was probably the most morbid discovery of trip.
In all honesty the rest of the day was spent chilling and looking in the local supermarket. We went out again for dinner. The guesthouse offered a buffet dinner, however, Kate is vegetarian and there wasn't much on offer for the price. We only wandered the same way we'd gone in the afternoon to the lake and struggled to find food. We eventually found a shop which seemed to double up as a cafe. I had my first egg hopper of the trip, while Kate had her first Kottu. These are both traditional Sri Lankan dishes. I'm afraid I have no pictures but you can give them a google. A hopper is a bit like a pancake but in a bowl shape with the egg cooked within the bowl. Kottu is chopped up roti with vegetables and egg. My descriptions probably don't paint the best picture but both were pretty yummy and cheap. My hopper was around 41p, I wouldn't class it as a proper meal as it's not that filling but for that price you could even get two or three if you were still peckish.
Day Two
On our second day in Polonnaruwa we hit the ruins. We got up early but not as early as we would have liked and headed to the ruins. We rented bikes from our guest house and rode to the ruins which were around a 15 minute ride away. There are a number of ways to get to and around the ruins. We'd opted for bikes as they seemed to be the cheapest option. Technically, walking would be the cheapest but I would not recommend this and don't think anyone actually walks around the ruins because there is a lot to see and it is quite spaced out in some areas. Some come in tour groups so have a mini bus or coach, others seemed to have a private car and some hired a tuk tuk. I can't tell you how much a private car would be but someone from my guesthouse was quoted 1500 rupees (just under £8) to hire a tuk tuk for three hours which I think would be plenty of time to see the ruins.
If you've come to Polonnarawu on a day trip then a tuk tuk would probably be the best way to get around unless you're already part of a tour group as this will save you time and not break the bank. I'm sure you can hire bikes from somewhere even if you're there for a day trip but again I can't advise on where you could rent them from because we were staying there for a couple of nights.
One thing I can advise you on, however, is where to buy your ticket. We made the mistake of riding to the entrance and having to go back down the street to buy our tickets. The tickets for the ruins must be bought at the museum and not at the entrance. The tickets are checked here but you cannot purchase them here. We assumed we could and this meant we wasted time. The museum is located further up the street, near the lake. It's best to google map it beforehand. I'm not sure if this was just the case for the entrance we used or if there even are other entrances but it's something you should be aware of if you're planning a visit.
Once we purchased our tickets we headed in, the signs lead us first to the bathing pool and royal palace. Because we got to the ruins a little later than planned around 9.30/10 am it was already starting to get busy. There were a couple of tour groups. However, once we headed towards the other ruins it became quieter as the ruins became more spaced out. I would recommend going earlier than we went to avoid the build up of crowds and to avoid the heat!
It got hot! I'm not great with heat (and yet I seem to go to lots of hot countries) so the heat definitely affected my experience of the ruins. I spent less time taking in the ruins and more time trying to find shade, I found a tree eventually and shared the shade with a stray dog.
There are people selling souvenirs around the ruins. I normally avoid these but they had some really nice buddha statues which were very cheap. However, I didn't end up buying one as we still had three weeks of our trip left and didn't fancy carrying one around especially as it would probably get broken.
There are also areas where you can buy drinks and fresh coconuts. My friend Kate ended up having a very strange orange juice. The orange was green but she thought she'd give it a go anyway. Let's just say green orange juice does not taste the same as normal orange juice.
In some areas you must show your ticket again for it to be stamped. When entering some of the ruins you must cover up. I wore a midi skirt and vest top but took a scarf with me to cover my shoulders when necessary. This meant that I could stay cool when riding around the ruins but still go into/ walk around those that required covering up. You also have to remove your shoes in certain areas so wearing some that are easy to take on and off is recommended.
We spent around three hours at the ruins, I would have stayed longer but the heat got to me. I'd say 3-4 hours is probably the best amount of time but if you had a car or tuk tuk you could probably see it all in two hours if you were short on time.
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A breakdown
- We paid 300 rupees (£1.64) for a bike (with basket) for the day from our guest house. Most guest houses should have bikes to rent
- Entrance to the ruins is 3550 (£19.43)
- Tickets are purchased at the museum NOT the entrance to the ruins
- Bus to Dambulla costs 100 rupees (55p!) for the local bus. There is no air con but the windows are open so there is a breeze. This journey takes around 2 hours.
Sophie
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