“A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on
arriving.” – Lao Tzu
This year I made a New Year’s resolution that I would
travel to at least one new country every year. So bearing in mind my first year
analyst salary and my Vice President like expenses, I zeroed in on Sri Lanka!
Just about a 1.5 hour flight away and a currency that’s weaker than the INR
(hah finally one place!) and plethora of places to visit in a tiny speck, Sri
Lanka beckoned me as the perfect destination to spend the last long weekend of
the Indian summer!
In terms of preparatory logistics, Sri Lanka was has been
one of the easiest and hassle free trips ever! A round trip ticket from
Bangalore to Colombo cost us a little under INR15000 when booked a month in
advance. Applying for the VISA online, I kid you not is easier and faster than
shopping on Amazon! You just need to go on the
site,
fill in your details, pay the fees (around INR 900) and voila! You’ll get a
confirmation email in the next few minutes and you’re set to fly!
Finally, on a rainy Bangalore Thursday night, Shila
(short for Shiladitya, my travel buddy) and I, with our brand new backpacks
filled with all sorts of first-time-backpackers’ paraphernalia, reached the
airport, armed with our online VISA confirmations and the trusted Lonely Planet
(for the Indian Traveller version ?!?!) to embark on our discovery of the
island country and its bounties.
Our flight landed in Colombo at some 4am, and by the time
we came out to pick our luggage from the baggage carousel we almost felt like
we had gone back to Kozhikode (also known as Calicut, a tiny city in Kerala
where we spent two years during our MBA days)! Familiar looking faces, familiar
smelling food, extremely familiar crowds and families and confusion, it was a
welcome treat to be a foreigner and yet not feel like an outsider!
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| Yes that's right..we did ALL of that in 4 days! (and no sleep) |
Day 1: Colombo : Pettah & Fort
Right outside the airport there are several buses waiting
to take you to the central bus stop. We hopped onto one of those for the almost
1 hour long journey to the centre of the city. We had pre-booked two beds in
the City Fort Rest Hostel (near the Old Dutch Hospital), so we headed there to
keep our stuff and start exploring!
Before I even start off with the 4 days, I must mention
about the hospitality, kindness and generosity of the Sri Lankans without whom
our trip would not have been half as enjoyable as it was! We got our first
taste of the hospitality when while wandering on the streets looking for a
place to eat, a kind gentleman took pity on our faces with hunger written all
over and took us to a small eatery that he owned. We were served several short
eats and hot bakes (basically lots of samosa-like things stuffed with potatoes,
eggs, meat etc) and super sweet and milky Sri Lankan tea to wash it down with.
With a full stomach and an ever growing hunger to start
exploring, we headed off to our first destination – the Gangaramaya Temple. The
temple is said to be the most important Buddhist temple in Colombo. The complex
has a museum which houses an eclectic mix of Buddha statues and all kinds of
gifts given by devotees.
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| The Gangaramaya Temple with tons of Buddha statues |
After spending a quiet hour reflecting in the temple we
headed to the National Museum, a couple of blocks away. This premier cultural
institution houses relics from the ancient kingdoms and it is worthwhile to go
early and spend a few good hours soaking up the history!
Finally to give ourselves a short break from the
continuous travel, we took a tuk-tuk to Mount Lavinia, a suburban beach retreat
located a couple of kilometres away. With the famous Sri Lankan Lions beer, and
clear ocean waves crashing almost at your feet, it was just the perfect mid day
break!
We came back for a quick shower to our hostel and went
out again to discover the markets around the Pettah area. If you like bustling
places and with people haggling for lottery tickets, fruits, meat, clothes,
shoes all at the same place, well then yeah the Pettah market is the place to
be! Since we already get that in plentiful doses in India, so we headed to the
Old Dutch Hospital for some peace and quiet. This is basically the quarters of
an old hospital which has now been converted into a commercial complex, housing
quirky shops, fancy cafes and eateries.
And thus we drank some more Sri Lankan beer and prepared
to bid adieu to the (commercial) capital for a while and head towards the rest
of our destinations.
Day 2: Sigiriya
The next day, we managed to pull ourselves out of our
bunk beds at some 4am and trudge along a 15 minute walk to the central bus stand
and catch the next bus that would take us to Sigiriya. With whatever possible
communication we could manage, we got into a rickety local bus to Dambulla from
where we were told to take the next bus to Sigiriya.
The only peculiar thing you’ll notice about Sri Lanka is
that apart from the usual vendors and hawkers, there are plenty of people
selling and buying lottery tickets! It is some sort of craze that the entire
nation is a part of and does not matter how little money you have in your
pockets, you always have enough money to buy a lottery ticket!
Anyway, after a 5 hour long bus ride we finally got
dropped off at the Dambulla bus stop (which like other bus stops in most of Sri
Lanka is just a designated spot on the road that you get off at). After a few
minutes worth of waiting and a quick breakfast of vadais squeezed in, we got
the next bus to Sigiriya, which took us another 1 hour or so to cover.
The moment we got off at Sigiriya and set our eyes for
the first time on the island mountain we knew we would have some amazing
memories to take away! Quickly we became friends with a tuk-tuk driver (which
is surprisingly easy if you’re an Indian, or so it seems), and he took us to a
nearby home stay which would be our mecca for the day. We washed and left for
the climb, which little did we know would test our fitness, grit and courage to
quite an extent!
The first few minutes is just walking around the fort
gardens and enjoying the hilarious signboards that pock mark the area.
Examples: we saw a sign board saying “Do Not Walk on the Grass” plonked right
in a middle of an area of land that was dug up and strewn with hay! We saw
another sign which said “Do Not Swim in the Water, Beware of Crocodiles”,
definitely would have made sense if the moat had enough water!
Anyway, we marched on and started climbing and gasping to
breathe every few steps! The first point of attraction is the Mirror Wall and
the spiral staircase dangling mid-air that you need to climb to reach this
wall. While climbing the stairs you can see some of the supposedly more than
500 frescoes than adorn the western face of the fort. The Mirror Wall when
built more than 1600 years ago was apparently polished so highly that the king
could see his reflection in it!
We climbed further to finally reach the bottom of the
fort, the entrance flanked by a lion’s paws. There used to be a sculpted lion’s
head on top as well, however that collapsed many years ago. Just standing
there, so many feet above the ground and at the feet of a lion was an immensely
humbling experience. It turns out, we
had reached right in the middle of a wasp-attack (yes, that apparently happens
and is very common), so we had to put on these space-suit like well, suits
which cover you head to toe, in that sweltering heat and climb up multiple
flights of rickety stairs till you reach the fort on top. May have been an
easier climb had my glasses not fogged up with every 5 steps! But then once you
reach on top, the panoramic view makes you forget all the breathlessness you
had to endure!
Finally we came down (which was again a jaunting task for
our old knees!) and headed to the Sigiriya Museum. The museum, which is
superbly maintained, contains all tit-bits of information about the ancient
city and of course it makes more logical sense to actually visit the museum
before you climb, to fully appreciate the history you’ll be in the midst of!
We spent the last few hours of the day being pampered by
our hostess at the home stay and watching the sun set behind the spectacular
Sigiriya mountain.
Day 3: Trincomalee
The next day we took another really early morning bus and
headed to the Eastern province of Trincomalee, known for its pristine beaches,
coral reefs, colourful ocean life and a multitude of water activities. Once you
reach Trinco, you need to take another bus (or tuk-tuk if you may please) and
head to Nelavelli. From Nelavelli you take a ferry to reach the Pigeon Island
and that’s where all the action happens! We managed to sync up with a couple
(from Turkey – United States – France – Portugal) and shared the costs of
spending the day at Pigeon Island. Since I am hydrophobic I pretty much spent
the entire time there lying on the beach and soaking up the sun, but the others
went snorkeling and even saw baby sharks!
Shila and I came back to the mainland to look for food
and as luck would have it, we got invited by one of the locals to have food at
their home! So we ate our hearts’ full of some amazing Sri Lankan fare and
headed back to Trino from where we were supposed to travel through the night to
Nuwara Eliya for our last leg of the trip.
Day 4: Nuwara Eliya
We roamed all day in Trincomalee and the beaches thinking
that we could happily catch an overnight bus to Nuwara Eliya. We felt so proud
of our impeccable planning! Turned out, that there are no such buses that
operate! Hah! So much so for our planning!
So we went for the next best option, took a 5 hour bus
ride to Kandy, from where we were supposed to take a bus to Nuwara Eliya. At
some time past midnight, the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere
(that’s how bus stops are remember), while it started drizzling and we have to
look for a tin shed for shelter and the bus driver very matter-of-factly said:
“Just take the next bus in that direction’ while pointing towards somewhere in
the darkness! So we stood there, in the rain with stray dogs for company,
hoping for our knight in shining armour on four wheels!
And our knight did arrive, only 40 minutes later, but
very happily took us on board to Nuwara Eliya!
Finally we arrived at some 4am (yeah 4am was our “lucky
time” through the trip), and found a small hotel to bunk for an hour and then
headed for our trek in Horton’s Plains.
Horton’s Plains in itself is almost a 1.5 hour long drive
away and once there, it’s another 9km trek that takes around 2 hours to cover.
The plains are said to be remnants of the ancient forests and are covered by
wild grasslands, dotted with waterfalls and lakes. Just when we started our
trek we came face to face with a huge Sambhar deer, who clearly did not give us
a second look while we kept standing there and staring at its magnificence. We moved further on and again we saw a small
bunch of deers prancing across the path.
The trek loops through the gurgling Baker’s Falls and
comes to a sudden end at the World’s End. It is said that on clear days, you
can almost see till the ocean from there! Though we were not that lucky, but lucky
enough to not have clouds obscure most of the view. We walked the rest of the
loop to finish our 9km trek in less than 2 hours on empty stomachs and less
than 1 hour of sleep! *so proud*
We spent the rest of the day in the enchanting little
town, buying souvenirs for families back home, walking to the lake and spending
time there watching horses graze and hitchhiking to the neighbouring tea estate
at Labookelie and getting a tour of the tea factory.
And even before we knew, it was time to board our last bus journey back to Colombo and bid adieu to this wonderful country. 4 days of no sleep, crazy bus rides, generous strangers and magnificent views, Sri Lanka did not disappoint us as a back-packer's paradise!
