Week 18 - The Adventure Continues
- Mar 12, 2018
- 5 min read
Last week’s blog post was written from Kandy, after having just arrived from Ella. This week’s post I am sat back on my bed, in Jaffna looking back on the last few weeks with my parents. I’ve had such a wonderful time with them, and it has been great exploring more of this island I love so dearly. The more you see of a place, I think the firmer the imprint on your heart.
Usually when teams come to Sri Lanka, we arrive in Colombo, and within a couple of days head straight to Jaffna, having very little, or no time at all to explore this country. Even when I was here for three weeks last year it was particularly difficult to spend time exploring as the school timetable took up a lot of my time.
This has been my first real experience of life in Sri Lanka away from Colombo and Jaffna, and I have to say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Spending time with my parents of course was a wonderful bonus too.
Whilst in Ella, not mentioned in my previous post, we tackled the biggest of peaks; Ella Rock. It was a great opportunity to get up high in Ella and survey the area around us. The directions to reach the top of the rock were sparse, and locals attempted to re-direct us (wrongly I might add!), which made I think the adventure a little bit more exciting! We used a great blog post, I happened to find on Pinterest to help us to the top; wandering along the old train tracks, through tea plantations, long grass and up and over boulders. The ascent took around two hours, but was totally worthwhile once the summit was reached! The views were just magnificent, and the feeling of the achievement is something I think can only be felt rather than described. At the top we managed to find a few viewing platforms from the top, and even a hidden cave temple. Now I’ve complete both Ella Rock and Little Adam’s Peak, I definitely think the REAL Adam’s Peak will be a piece of cake (or maybe not…).
We left Ella the following day (Wednesday), and experienced a true Sri Lankan train journey; third class, no air conditioning and disgusting toilets, but a really fun journey. I personally am not a fan of most mode of transports, and usually end up forcing myself to sleep the whole way to keep me from thinking about all the movement. The views from Ella to Kandy, the fresh air forcing itself in through the windows and the floods of other travellers getting on the train made it more exciting than the usual journeys on the train I have experience of here in Sri Lanka. We were able to hang out of the windows and doors, and there were even ‘mobile refreshment stalls’, people who walked between the carriages trying to flog us street food, drinks and fruit. All of which seemed to go down very well by those on our carriage. We met some trainee doctors on their placements in Sri Lanka, a few UK qualified doctors on holiday, full time travellers (some alone, others with friends), as well as other families.
We arrived in Kandy from Ella after 7 hours or so, and then had a relaxing evening getting our bearings for the next day’s adventures! With only two nights in Kandy, we knew we had to spend our only full day in the city wisely and make sure we could fit in as much as we could in the limited time we had. Despite the large amounts to see, we had a lazy start, late breakfast and a casual stroll into the city centre from our hotel. Our first port of call was the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic; a Buddhist Temple which apparently houses a lost tooth of Buddha. We were able to see the golden shrine, which encases the tooth, but the tooth cannot be viewed. It was an interesting morning however to learn a bit more about Buddhism and all they believe. Getting into the temple was not without its difficulties; both Mum and Dad had to return to the hotel to get changed into more appropriate attire. Dad’s shorts were too short, Mum’s top didn’t cover her shoulders enough and her skirt was too short. I enjoyed sitting around Kandy Lake and soaking in the views, sounds and smells whilst I was waiting for them to return.
After visiting the Temple, we enjoyed a walk around Kandy city centre, and then made our way up to the Buddha on the hill, which overlooks the city. On the way up the hill we came across a café which I have wanted to visit for some time: Buono. It supports a UK charity ‘Child Action Lanka’, I heard about through a contact at Vineyard St. Albans, which deals specifically with street children in Kandy and surrounding areas. It was a lovely little place, decorated very nicely, along with information all about the charity. The owner was actually a street child himself who was helped by the scheme.
The trip from Kandy to Sigiriya was relaxed and we were able to stop as and where we wanted as the driver was keen for us to experience and see things on our way up the country. We stopped at a large Hindu temple in Mutale, Dambulla Cave Temples and an herb and spice garden (not my request!), although I did get a few pots of natural creams, and learned new things about some plants, so it wasn’t all bad I guess! We arrived in Sigiriya at our hotel, which overlooked the huge rock, with a wonderful swimming pool, so we all had a late swim and then an early dinner in preparation for our early climb of Sigiriya Rock the next morning.
Leaving the hotel just before 7am, we began our ascent of the Rock, which was very quiet. It seemed most people who attempt the climb head out around 10am, which for us we decided was too late, and most definitely too hot! We met a few other tourists on route, but it meant if we needed to stop we were not holding up queues of people from reaching the summit. We spent around an hour and a half at the top of the rock, looking at the ruins of the King’s Palace that was once there, including a huge bathing pool, a throne and various other interesting rooms. As we began the descent, the numbers of tourists, and locals beginning the climb was astounding, it was a never ending stream of bodies. By 1:30pm, after spending time wandering around the gardens, the museum and chatting to other travellers, we headed back to the hotel, had an afternoon dip in the pool and thoroughly enjoyed our first bit of time to relax the whole trip!
The next morning in Sigiriya, we also had more chance to relax and revisit our real definition of a holiday; being around a pool, reading, sunbathing and listening to music. A couple of hours of this, and then we were picked up by a jeep, to take us on an Elephant Safari organised by our hotel. We had a jeep to ourselves, with the roof down and lots of space to get into a good position to view the elephants when we saw them. The jeep took us to a National Park, where the elephants are free to wander wherever they wish, with natural watering holes and clear tracks the jeeps have to stick to. It was so interesting to watch their behaviour, see how they live together and even witness baby elephants running after their mothers! Alongside the elephants there was the opportunity to see other wildlife, including colourful birds, birds of prey, bees/wasp nests and as our jeep driver told us: “Sri Lankan Cows”.
Tuesday – the day we headed back to Jaffna… more about Jaffna and the adventures with my parents in next week’s post.
Spoiler: it’s an emotional goodbye!
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