Sri Lanka
Having spent over two months in Asia a few years ago, I thought I knew what to expect from Sri Lanka. However, arriving into what can only be described as a 'Calm India,' my expectations were dashed into the wind. Sri Lanka felt like it was on a different scale compared to other Asian countries I'd visited. It certainly took us a while to get back into the swing of travelling as we both felt a little out of practice. It's been three years since I was last in this crazy continent and it's surprising how quickly you lose touch with the backpacking way of life. Like any hobby, you need to practice your skills regularly in order to retain them, and it felt like we'd lost a few of those skills that become second nature when you're travelling.
We arrived not really having any kind of plan, which is the way we've both always travelled. However, when your time is limited to only two weeks per country, it would have made more sense for us to have a rough itinerary of places we'd like to visit beforehand. We literally arrived and had no idea where in Sri Lanka we wanted to go and we spent a lot of the first few days trying to come up with a plan. In hindsight we would have researched a little more into what we wanted to do so as to save a little time (and money!) on planning.
Once we settled in though, we soon realised that this is one amazing country and whilst I've never been to India I can get some sort of idea of what it must be like there. Sri Lanka seems to be a great way to ease yourself in to a country like India, which I imagine must be crazy, but uniquely wonderful.
We started our two weeks off with a visit to the beach in Negombo, which was only a short taxi ride away from the airport. We knew we'd be back in the capital, Colombo at the end of our time in Sri Lanka so we decided not to spend any time there at the beginning. After a busy and stressful couple of months back home, we both agreed we needed some beach and relaxation time where we could detox and de-stress. We arrived to glorious 30 degree sunshine and so, soon after dumping our backpacks, we headed straight down to the beach to enjoy it. October is still considered to be low season, where the rains haven't quite finished but the dry season hasn't quite started. We were immediately impressed then, by the amazing weather and the fact that the beach was deserted. Coming in low season certainly seemed to be the way forward. The only other people on the beach were local families, splashing in the warm sea, enjoying the late afternoon sun after a hot day at work and school. We both rather liked sitting there watching the local people enjoy their peaceful beach time.
After months of planning and getting ready for our adventure, it felt surreal to finally be in Sri Lanka together. To travel is one thing, but to travel and see the world with the person you love by your side is another thing altogether and I felt very lucky to be on this journey with Rich. I'll let you know what I think about that after we've spent two months living in each other's pockets!
Finally we agreed to go north to Sigiriya. I'd seen online that it looked amazing and we felt that we wanted to head north so that we could go to the paths less travelled on the north east of the country. However, when we got to Sigiriya we soon realised that the thing we went there for, Lion Rock, would cost £30 each to climb. We were outraged and being on a budget, we just couldn't justify paying that much to climb up a rock, as amazing as it might be. We were recommended by our home stay host to climb up the smaller rock, Pidurangala Rock instead, which was a fraction of the cost and you could even see Lion Rock from the top, so it was actually better. We did do this as recommended and it was very pretty indeed watching the sunrise at the top.
It was a unique experience to stay in a local's home as I'd never done this before. Rich booked it without even realising and I was very nervous at first as I was terrified something would go wrong, that we'd get our stuff stolen or that we'd end up putting ourselves in harm's way. I needn't have worried though as the stay was lovely and it gave us an insight into the lives of the local people. They'd given up their bedroom so that guests could come and stay and the whole family subsequently lived in one room. It was very humbling and quite interesting to see Sri Lanka from a local's point of view. They also cooked us an AMAZING lunch when we first got there and though I soon came to realise I was not a fan of Sri Lankan food, this particular meal was incredible. Home cooked Sri Lankan curry was the way forward; anything in a restaurant just didn't seem the same after that and I just couldn't really stomach it.
As I said we went to Sigiriya to begin our journey north and to see some of the northern beaches, however that was not to be. We felt like we'd wasted time going to Sigiriya because we didn't do the thing we went there for in the first place and then we decided we didn't have time to head north after all. We got ripped off by our home stay host and we felt as though we were wasting valuable time and money. We'd only been in Sri Lanka a few days but we felt as though we weren't getting anywhere and that we weren't seeing anything. As I said, we were just not in the swing of things and we just felt very disappointed by what we'd achieved so far, or rather the lack of what we'd achieved. We knew the hill country would be amazing so we decided to head down south again and even though we felt like we'd wasted time going to Sigiriya, it was still an experience, still beautiful and ultimately still part of our trip, so it was all worth it in terms of making memories and seeing different parts of the country.
The hill country more than made up for the fact that we were a little disappointed at the beginning of the trip. The train journey from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya was absolutely stunning. Tea plantations stretched out for miles and the view from the train was just breathtaking. The train is definitely the best way to travel around in Sri Lanka; it was very cheap and surprisingly comfortable. The locals seemed to rotate with others when they felt they'd been sitting down for too long and soon gave up their seat for someone else. Numerous times on the trains, a local would give up his seat for me. I think it's easy to think that trains in Asian countries would just be chaotic, but actually we were rather impressed with them, even the times we paid for a third class ticket.
We spent around a week in the hill country, in Nuwara Eliya and Ella. Ella had to be one of our favourite places in Sri Lanka, as it was a very pretty little place that seemed to have a charm about it. We walked up to the top of Little Adam's Peak while we were there, which was apparently a lot easier than its big brother, Adam's Peak, a mountain not for the fainthearted. Whilst it would have been an experience to climb Adam's Peak, we'd read that even well-practiced hikers often suffered with painful knees on the way down and I'm not sure my knees would have coped with it.
Little Adam's Peak was more than enough for me and the views at the top were lovely.
We also visited Nine Arches Bridge, which was so pretty. It was a good experience to walk on the railway tracks, even though technically we were not meant to.
The second week was spent exploring the southern beach towns; Tangalle, Mirissa, Galle and Colombo. We travelled by bus in between most of these places and as with the trains, the whole experience was very pleasant. The buses seemed reliable and again very cheap. We spent the most amount of time in Mirissa, which we both agreed was our favourite place of all in Sri Lanka. Whilst the main street of the town wasn't much to shout about, the beach was just beautiful and idyllic. There were a few beach bars and restaurants right on the sand and it was a very pleasant experience drinking out of coconuts and enjoying a cocktail or two as the surf lapped the shore. We'd not spent much time drinking alcohol on the trip so it felt nice to have a cheeky few beverages.
It may have taken us a while to get back into travelling mode, but once we got into the swing of things, we realised how much we'd missed it all. Sri Lanka was an unusual country for backpacking and whilst it was beautiful and we had a memorable time, I wouldn't necessarily say it's somewhere I'd rush to go back. Personally I had an amazing time, purely because Rich and I were travelling together for the first time and it's wonderful to make such incredible memories with the person you love, but I know it wasn't a favourite destination of Rich's. We felt like Sri Lanka was more of a holiday destination for couples and families rather than fellow backpackers.
We didn't really meet any other travellers, except on one of our last nights when we went into a little restaurant and a couple said we could join them at their table when there was nowhere else for us to sit. We got chatting and had a great evening with them but they were the only people we actually met and got talking to. Everyone else seemed not to want to interact with others and that's why it felt like a holiday or honeymoon destination, where people want to keep themselves to themselves. That's absolutely fine, but it's not what Rich and I were looking for on this trip. It was great to start our trip off with a holiday and stay in guesthouses and just spent quality time together but we did feel as though we were ready to start staying in dorm rooms and meeting like-minded people. The local people, however were so friendly and welcoming. We got ripped off by a few, but I think that's to be expected in these countries. On the most part, the locals were very chatty and wanted to know more about us.
Sri Lanka was a beautiful country and I would certainly recommend going there for a two or three week holiday. You can pack so much in, travelling is easy and cheap and it's absolutely beautiful and so diverse. You can see wonderful beaches, crazy cities, stunning tea plantations, hills and mountains and national parks full of wildlife. We especially loved the fact that wherever we went we were greeted with tea. And not just any tea, the best proper Ceylon tea that doesn't even need milk. I've never drank so much tea in my life and that's saying something for me!
It was an incredible two weeks to start off our travelling adventures, but we feel so ready to move on to the next country, Myanmar. We feel as though we've slowly adapted to the backpacker lifestyle now and we can't wait for what's ahead.
