Sri Lanka has been the wildest country we’ve visited thus far. This is because of all the dangerous animals we saw and because of all the vaccines and medication we needed to take before the trip! To be safe, we got our hepatitis A and B vaccine, the Thyroid vaccine, the Japanese Encephalitis, and then we had to take Malaria medication before, during and right after our trip.
This trip was also different than all of our other SE Asia trips because we decided not to backpack through the country. We had done our research and had read by most travelers that the most efficient way to get around Sri Lanka if you only have a short period of time is by hiring a driver. We luckily found an affordable and highly recommended travel agent who helped us create our ideal itinerary. He also found us a driver who agreed to take us around the island for the entire 9 days that we were there and promised to be flexible with the schedule in case we wanted to change plans around or sites to see. Doing this made the trip extremely easy going, a learning experience and stress free. We were able to become really close with our driver (who spoke English very well) and this enabled us to learn a lot about the Sri Lankan culture. Our driver was also very kind and generous. He brought us to tons of wonderful restaurants, pointed out wild animals that he spotted or famous spots that we passed by. He would stop and get us fruit, fresh coconuts and he even asked his friend to give us a dish of his home-made wild buffalo curd dessert (which is famous in Sri Lanka). He definitely made our trip more convenient, relaxing and unique. We even did an ayurweda spa treatment/massage for our 1 yr anniversary gift (we had saved money for this in our piggy throughout the year/ it also covered some special seafood dinners and souvenirs) I don’t think we would have found the places we had gone to and seen as much as we did if it weren’t for him.
Here are the places we saw:
Aragam Bay is a great surfing area and good for backpackers/ great beach and huge waves
Ancient city of Sigiriya- The king's palace
An herb and spice garden
Lil England area and the tea plantations near Ella and Nuwara Eliya
The stilt fisherman
Yalla National Park (to see leopards)
Horton's Plains National Park to see "The World's End"
Kandy city- where we saw a big festival
The first place that we went to was Aragam Bay. This is the probably the only real backpacking area on the island. There are tons of guest houses, western restaurants on the beach, and it’s “the spot” for surfing. The waves are huge and the area is known for having world surfing competitions. For this reason, we made sure to put this in our itinerary. The only problem was that Aragam Bay was very isolated from the rest of the UNESCO sites and popular attractions on the island. Our travel agent encouraged us to make the long drive the first day to reach our farthest spot. After traveling for about 10 hrs in a few different airplanes, it was quite a challenge to me to make the day drive out to Aragam Bay. It was supposed to only take about 4 hours but because our driver was not used to the route and since a road was closed, the drive ended up being more like 10 hrs!!! We did stop for food once (had some delicious curry and avocado juice) but boy was that a lot of sitting for me. I felt like an anxious kid. Oh and we saw some monkeys on the side of the road and an elephant off in the distance during the drive. That made it more exciting. Oh and I forgot to mention that in the pictures you also see a university student. He is the son of the travel agent. He joined along for the week with the driver to get some experience in his father’s business that he will be joining. The funny thing was that his father said that he would be our tour guide, yet he spoke literally no English! He was very kind though and opened the car door for me and also smiled a lot. You have to give him credit for that, but absolutely no English! Haha That made it hard to communicate with him.
The traveling was worth it though in the end (as it always ends up being). The very next morning, we had a wonderful Sri Lankan breakfast and then spent the entire day relaxing at the beach. I enjoyed watching the waves, all the crabs on the beach hiding in their holes, and Keith practicing his surfing skills. One funny thing that I have to mention about the culture was a funny situation at breakfast. The few Sri Lankan men that served our breakfast continued to stand right next to our table the entire time we ate it. I think it is supposed to be them showing that if we need ANYTHING, they will help us. Haha It felt very awkward for us to have them watching us as we ate and not getting a chance to be alone. However, we took it as an opportunity to learn about their culture. We just smiled and asked them about cricket…which is the top sport of the country. Anywhere you see a TV a game will be on (airport, restaurant, hotel, you name it). Keith and I really couldn’t understand the rules of the game no matter how many times we watched it, but to me, cricket looks very similar to baseball.
After a very relaxing day at the beach, along with some delicious seafood for dinner, the next morning we packed our bags and our driver took us to our next destination: Polonnaruva Ancient Ruins. Along with the travel package that we purchased came a personal guide for each site that we visited, which was nice. Our guide for the ancient ruins of Polonnaruva was very kind and intelligent, but I’m not going to lie, he spoke very quickly and was a little difficult for me to understand, although keith seemed to understand everything very clearly. Haha I must just be bad at hearing others’ accents.
This area is a Unesco World Heritage Site and dates back to the 10th century when the Indian Chola Dynasty ruled the island. Here we saw the remains of the second capital of Sri Lanka. However, some of the buildings we saw were from the 12th century, when King Parakramabahu took over leadership. The highlights that we saw were the Royal Palace of Parakramabahu and Gal Vihara, which is a group large Buddha-statues all built together using the same stone.
During our visit here, it was very hot so we stopped and had a coconut drink as well as a limeade (made from the woman in the picture). We also saw many monkeys and a few cows during our visit around the ruins. To end our 2nd day of our trip, we walked from our hotel to a spa center. There Keith and I spent our piggy bank “1 yr anniversary money” that we had been saving to have a 1 ½ hr couple’s ayurweda spa treatment/massage. It was absolutely incredible! For $60, we had an aloe facial treatment, an hr massage with oil all over our bodies, a sauna room and sauna bed experience (very hot rooms with leaves and flowers all over), and then a meditation massage (where water was dripped onto your forehead). The whole experience was like nothing I had done before. It was very relaxing…the perfect way to end the night!
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