A taste of Malaysia

Stilt fisherman Sri Lanka

So many of our fellow travellers had mentioned, raved actually, about their trip to Sri Lanka that we decided on the spur of the moment to book a month long trip to the small island nation off the southern most tip of India in the Indian ocean.

Reading about Sri Lanka we quickly realized that we knew next to nothing about it.  It has a recorded history of over 4500 years and settlements that long predate the Egyptian pyramids.  For instance Sigiryia, or Lion Rock, is a gigantic rock 600 feet high located in the middle of the jungle. Sigiryia was once the capital of Sri Lanka, where the king`s palace was on top of the rock. You can actually see ruins of the palace there.  The king built the palace on the rock to avoid retribution after murdering his father and brother to usurp the throne.

Eager to begin our journey we boarded Sri Lankan airways from Bangkok for the four hour flight and were very impressed with the level of service and the quality of the inflight meals.  Suffice it to say this was likely the best meal we have ever had on an airline.  We landed in the capital Colombo and began our tour of the island from there.

We started our tour of Sri Lanka in the capital city of Colombo.  We took a small hotel room in the beach town of Mount Livinia on the outskirts as our headquarters and ventured from there by tuktuk to explore the city.  One of the main differences between Sri Lanka and the Asian countries we've visited is that the Sri Lankans feel free to enjoy the beach and the ocean as much as any tourist.

Young boys playing cricket on the beach.

At the far end of the beach is the famous and fabulous Mount Livinia hotel where we enjoyed a splendid evening of good food and even better arrack the local and excellent brandy. 

Sitting by the pool enjoying a liquid refreshment.  Crows are a big problem here and they employ two full time crow hunters with slingshots to keep them at bay.  Stone the crows.

My friend the doorman and I.

Colombo had some interesting architecture.  This is the centre for the performing arts.

A world renown Hindu temple.  They make you take your shoes off as you enter the compound but don't warn you that the tarmac is blistering hot!!!

Two old travellers at the independence monument 

From Mount Livinia we took the local train down the coast to Galle, the scene of an old Dutch fort that is a fascinating relic of colonialism.  But here we've got a long story to tell. For two weeks starting in Cambodia my foot had begun to get infected and very, very, sore.  The pain was driving me wild but I tried pain killers, bandages, soaking it in brine, corn pads etc. but it just got worse.  Finally I went to the Hemas hospital in Galle to have it looked at.  They took one look made a quick phone call, and half an hour later a surgeon was operating on my foot.  He drained the infection to find another infection underneath.  Cutting into that he found what he called a foreign object which he managed to remove. He thinks it was a spine from a sea urchin.  After sewing me back up he gave me a prescription for antibiotics and pain medication.  We had to pay cash for the entire operation and medicine.  It came to a whopping $30.00 dollars.  The relief was immediate and now, two weeks later it is better then new.  Yeah Sri Lanka.

Sorry for the photo but here's my infected foot.

The fort in Galle

This is all inside the walls of the old fort.

The streets of the fort are lined with shops.  This is a beautiful restaurant with a lovely courtyard garden.

Next stop we made our way to the beach town of Merissa.  

Believe it or not I'm in the centre of that breaking wave where Dianne was wisely content to stay close to the shore and take pictures

We took a path we thought was a shortcut to the beach along a small meandering river. 

We saw this giant water monitor lizard, a crocodile, troops of monkeys, wild peacocks

and a variety of other exotic birds we could not identify. 

My favourite was the double-breasted bed thrashers we saw at the beach.

From Merissa we moved on to Tangalle, another beach town where we had a lovely small

hotel, called the Wavy Ocean. 

We bribed our way passed the security guard at the gate and meandered through the 

fishing harbour admiring the boats and discussing seaworthiness with the fishermen.

Moving on from Merissa we wended our way by local bus to Tissa to take a safari through Yalla National Park. 

We didn't realize the buffalo were even in the water until they slowly started to emerge.

A cold libation after a long hot day on safari.

Two weeks of our one month stay have passed and we've fallen in love with this beautiful country and it's amazing people.  They are especially excited when they hear we're from Canada as every Sri Lankan has a friend or relative who emigrated and sends rave reports about the wonderful welcomes from people in the true north.  Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with it`s stunning nature and beaches, wildlife, delicious food, and last but not least the relaxed laid back lifestyle.   It's become our new favorite country in Asia.