Second destination:
Sri Lanka 30.10. – 02.11.2018
30.10.
We arrived in Colombo around 13h00, we had to fill out again a visa form. So our Visa for Sri Lanka which we had made at home on the internet we couldn’t use, but there was no problem with the immigration. Our backpacks also arrived without any scratches thanks to my cover and the good plastic wrap done at Heathrow.
FThe first thing we have done was changing currency. 1€ is about 200 Sri Lankan rupees. We were said that the exchange rate at the airport was quite good, but it was even worse than in the reception of our Hotel, Marino Beach in Colombo.
For the way to the Hotel, we took the first ride that we were offered, because we were tired. It cost us around 20€, for sure not the cheapest option but nevertheless, it was a funny experience through the traffic chaos of Colombo with our driver. He honked like 60 times in the first couple of minutes.
We got in the middle of a protest march in the City centre, where they protested against the decision of the President Maithripala Sirisena who had appointed the former president and member of parliament Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister on 26 October before formally dismissing the incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, resulting in two concurrent prime ministers. Wickremesinghe and the United National Party viewed the appointment as illegal, and he refused to resign.
So after nearly 2 hours for 35km we arrived at Marino Beach Hotel. The rest of the day we relaxed near the rooftop pool and we got an amazing dinner buffet at the Hotel restaurant.
31.10.
We had a good night’s rest and we went for a fine breakfast on the hotel terrace with a view on the railway with overcrowded trains passing additionally to an amazing sea view.
Afterwards, we went for a walk on the Galle Face Beach where we caught a TukTuk and we made a deal with the driver.
Rajeev agreed that he will show us the most important places in Colombo in less than 3 hours.
The first stop was at the Beira Lake which is a lake in the centre of the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka. The lake is surrounded by many large buildings and businesses. The lake has four main basins, we stopped by the west part where you can explore two small islands. On the first island is the Gangaramaya Park from there we could see the Lotus Tower (the design of this building is inspired by the Lotus flower) and on the smaller one is a lovely Buddhist Temple called Seema Malakaya.
Not far away from the Beira Lake, we made our second stop to visit the famous Gangaramaya Temple. Our TukTuk driver could explain us everything we want to know about the temple and showed us even parts of the temple which were restricted to the public.
Next stop was at the White House of Colombo, it really resembles the real White House but it’s just the Municipal Council. And on the opposite side of the Council is the Viharamahadevi Park (formerly Victoria Park) with the Giant Seated Buddha Statue.
After a short walk through the park, we went for lunch to a local restaurant what was really an amazing experience. We had both fried-rice with chicken and a coke for 880 Rupees in total, so about 4,5€.
Back on the road again our next halt was historical, we took a tour around and in the Independence Memorial Hall. This place commemorates the father of the nation, the first prime minister of independent Ceylon(now Sri Lanka) Don Stephen Senanayake. The Memorial Hall was built to remember the achievement of the independence of Ceylon on 4th February 1948.
Now we went back direction city centre, in this way we were passing the National Museum and the Nelum Pokuna Open Air Theater. The national Museum very beautiful building surrounded by an amazing green area, the museum contains a collection of much importance to Sri Lanka such as the regalia of the country, including the throne and crown of the Kandyan monarchs as well as many other exhibits telling the story of ancient Sri Lanka. The Nelum Pokuna means Lotus Pond, the building’s structure looks like a huge pond. It’s fully equipped performance centre. The theatre consists of two venues for performance, which includes the main auditorium and an open-air theatre. We have noticed on all the advertisement around that it attracts many foreign artists and producers to host their productions at this theatre.
Our last station was again near the Galle Face Beach where we started our tour. We visited the oldest district of Colombo, the Galle Fort, built by the Dutch. So there is the old parliament building, the old Dutch Hospital which they revamped into a shopping precinct. In the old district, there are also many new and very modern buildings, like the World Trade Center of Colombo.
Rajeev drove us back to the Hotel, he was the perfect guide for Colombo. He could answer every question we had and he gave so much information.
Back at the hotel, we relaxed with a couple of beers in the jacuzzi on the roof terrace. We decided to go on a trip to Galle in the South of Sri Lanka the next day, so I wrote our driver from the airport and he could arrange us a driver for the whole day. So we could do the trip easily in one day without getting stressed. But when you visited Sri Lanka for more than just 4 days as we have done it
Further on we went to the Chinese Restaurant which was integrated into our Hotel, but it was also open to the public. We had a tasty Crab and Egg Noodle soup, some Chicken Satay an a few Vegetable Spring Rolls and as the main dish, we got Stir Fry Beef and Kung Pao Chicken.
Before letting the day fade away we checked out the Mall which was in the basement of the tremendous Hotel. “Let’s go to the Mall” 🙂
We went to Bed early to get up easily in the morning for our trip to Galle.
1.11.
Our driver showed up surprisingly at the time we agreed on. So after a good breakfast in the Hotel restaurant, we drove for a while to our first stop.
It was raining the whole morning, so passed Kalutara, where we could see the Kumari Kanda Temple but we didn’t stop to get faster to our next destination.
In Bentota, we stopped for our first planned activity. We arrived at Malu Banna, which is a very famous spot to do water sports in Sri Lanka. The shop is located on a very narrow road, but it’s directly on the river which accesses the Indian Ocean after a few 100 meters. They offer all the water activities that you can imagine, but we couldn’t benefit from this opportunity because of the bad weather we don’t to do any and even the owner of the centre recommended us to come back another time to enjoy more. For us, it will be not possible, but I would really recommend this place when you are in this area.
On the opposite side of the narrow road, there was on a wood artist. He had so many amazing wood sculptures and also the famous wood masks from Sri Lanka.
On the way to the Madu River, we stopped at two different places. First was a lovely and small organic garden, where we were showed all the different plants and the use of each particular plant. So many lotions and medication could be produced with just these plants without any chemicals like it’s usually done. In the end, we even got a good back massage with some special relaxing oils.
The second place we were driven was a turtle rescue camp. The full name of it was Victor Hasselblad Sea Turtle Research & Conservation Center in Kosgoda. Here we got like all the information possible of all the sea turtles existing. They rescue turtles that are hurt and had no chance to survive in nature. But the main goal is to hatch the eggs and let the turtle baby reach the sea without getting eaten straight away. So the population can rise again. The owner who guided us around was also very proud that he could show us 3 Albino turtles that are very rare.
After this two amazing occasions, we arrived at Madu River. The boathouse our driver took us was really touristic, but we decided to do the boat tour here because I had read that the whole riverbed with all the different islands was very interesting and beautiful. After negotiating with the proprietor of the boathouse we could get a deal very cheap deal and we got our own boat without 25 Chinese tourists who arrived on a bus just minutes after us. We got the company of a small monkey on the boat. Our boater brought us along low bridges, past prawn traps, we went through three mangrove tunnels. Arrived at the first small island, called the cinnamon island where a lady showed us how they harvest and prepare cinnamon. She presented us all the different products that are possible to fabricate out of cinnamon. We witnessed how cinnamon bark was removed from the stem and how a simple rope was made by hand from coconut husk and how coconut leaves were weaved into a roofing sheet.
Further on we passed a very small temple just built on a few rocks reaching out of the water and many fish farms where people could get a foot massage by red tilapia fishes. They would nibble at their toes. We also saw the famous temple Kothduwa Rajamaha Viharaya. On the way back we passed the boathouse where we could see the enormous river mouth accessing the Indian Ocean, a very beautiful scenery.
After our boat’s tour, we didn’t want to have lunch at this touristic place, so I asked the driver to go somewhere local. He drove us to a small and very local restaurant in a modest village.
The last destination before Galle and after lunch was Hikkaduwa Beach. This is a hotspot for beach tourism with a few modern hotels in the first row along the beach. But it was a dazzling beach and surroundings. We didn’t go swimming here by reason of the tip of the driver to go swimming after exploring Galle Fort on the Jungle Beach.
We arrived at Galle Fort and we visit first the old Lighthouse on the border of the Fort. We could walk around the fortification wall of the Fort until reaching the clock tower. The Galle Fort was built in 1588 by the Portuguese and it was fortified by the Dutch afterwards. The Fort, also known as the Dutch Fort or the “Ramparts of Galle”, withstood the heavy Boxing Day tsunami which damaged part of coastal area Galle town. It has been since restored. The Sri Lankan government and many Dutch people who still own some of the properties inside the Fort are looking at making this one of the modern wonders of the world. The heritage value of the fort has been recognized by the UNESCO.
After this wonderful visitation, the drive took us not like promised to the Jungle beach but to the nearby Unawatuna Beach which was also a magnificent bay. We went swimming immediately, it was the first time I was in the Indian Ocean.
We drank a few beers at a beach bar before leaving and going back to Colombo, but this time we took the highway so it was just a 2 hours ride.
Drained of the whole adventurous and awesome day we went for a quick dinner and then we got our clothes to the laundry of the hotel. We allowed us this luxury aware of, that we will do it the next whole year on our own in laundromats. The service was very keen and affordable.
I started packing my backpack before our last night in this comfortable bed.
2.11.
We slept late and we finished packing our stuff after we got our clothes back from laundry service. We arranged a late check-out with the Hotel because our flight to Singapore via Kuala Lumpur is at 00h10.
We had lunch at our Restaurant in the Hotel and we relaxed the whole afternoon at the poolside on the rooftop with some cocktails before getting ready for our ride to the airport. The weather changed, it started to rain like crazy.
We were glad that we had fixed our taxi at 20h because the traffic in Colombo is always bad but on Friday afternoons and evenings it is horrible. Everyone tries to get out of the big city. All the worker are on the way home to their families. So we were stuck in traffic, just to reach the highway was so frustrating.
We had still enough time left that we could check-in gently. We got super quick luggage transit stickers on our backpacks because we had just a 1 hour and 45 minutes stopover in Kuala Lumpur. We grabbed something to eat before boarding, mmmh Sri Lankan Burger King.
Our flight with Malindo Air left on time, the duration was 3 hours and 50 minutes. We landed in Kuala Lumpur on 3rd November at 6h30.
When you want to read more about our experience in Singapore, click here.
