It was on 26th December 2004 that an earthquake in the Indian Ocean led to the catastrophic tsunami that hit the region with the loss of at least 30,000 lives in Sri Lanka alone. As a lifelong railway enthusiast it has always saddened me that this island was the location for the worst railway disaster in world history, directly attributable to the tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004. Today, we were able to visit the site of the disaster and see the lasting memorial to the events of that day.
There is also a museum on the site of the disaster. The museum includesone of the carriages involved which was recovered after the train was swept away.
The train involved was a ‘Matala Express’ service linking Colombo with Galle and Matara. It was, as always, a crowded train and was near the village of Peraliya when it was halted and flooded by the tsunami’s first wave. In the chaos, many passengers, together with some locals, climbed on to the carriage roofs, believing it to be the safest option. This proved to be far from the case as the second wave struck ‘like a wall of water’. The confirmed death toll is put at over 1,700 although more likely to have been 2,000 plus. The ‘wall’ of water that engulfed the train was around the height of the buddha statue which has been erected as a permanent reminder of that devastating day.
Nothing or nobody could have prepared us for what was our most cherished moment, the amazing experience we had in Sri Lanka… The day we will remember with love for the rest of our lives. On driving from the airport on our arrival in Sri Lanka we were full of excitement. We told Suminda our guide, driver and travel companion, how excited we were to be going to what had been described as a family run guest house. It had been recommended to us on another blog which stated that we would be made to feel like one of the family. We explained to Suminda that we thought it would be a great way to start to understand the cultural way Sri Lankans live and we couldn’t wait to meet the family who owned and run this guest house. Suminda did say that although he didn’t know the guest house he had spoken to the owner, in preparation for our arrival, and she hadn’t sounded very Sri Lankan. But nothing really prepared us for being greeted by Brenda and Ron from Kent in the UK who owned the guest house…… they were a lovely couple and the Guest house was equally nice but they certainly weren’t Sri Lankan neither were we about to be submerged into a Sri Lankan family home with all its traditions. Sensing our disappointment Suminda suggested he took us out, the next day, on a canal and lagoon boat trip, instead of us just staying at the guest house as we had planned. We readily agreed. Two days later we were going on a guided tour of the sights of Colombo with Suminda. The day before he had casually asked if we would like to have lunch at his home. We had thought, what a lovely offer and gratefully accepted. His home was just 20 km south of Colombo in a village called Kesbewa within the local government area of Piliyandala. We stopped on the way for Suminda to pick up a cake, it transpired that it was his eldest son, Methika’s 19th birthday. I asked him to also stop at a florist where I got a small bunch of flowers for Disna his wife. On arriving at his home we were greeted by Disna, Methika – the birthday boy, Minuka – the 16 year old second son and Senithi -the youngest 10 year old daughter. We were also introduced to Disna’s parents, Grace and Stanley and Suminda’s mother. We were gifted a superb sculpture of an Asian elephant and a little note book which came in very useful for jotting names of birds down in. We exchanged these gifts with the flowers and a small compact with a magnifying and ordinary mirror- I had bought in England thinking we would gift the guest house owners. We were sat down and given welcome drinks. Then ushered to the table which had a most magnificent spread of curries on it… wow. There were only two place settings at the table but I said we couldn’t possibly eat on our own so Suminda came to join us. We tried all the curries which Disna and Grace had prepared. They were unbelievable… not too spicy hot but tasty spicy… perfect for our taste buds… The two jackfruit curries, one with the sweet flesh and the other with the dry nutty tasting seeds were my favourite along with the dhal, potato curry, chicken curry, bean curry, boiled and fried rice … wow we really didn’t do it justice but it was certainly by far the best curry we had all holiday.
We were absolutely full to over flowing, when Disna brought out the desserts. A huge array of different fruits… the pomegranate seeds were really lovely and we also tried some Buffalo curd.. which I loved and ate several more times during our holiday.
After lunch we all took photos of the family and us with the family.
Then it was time to sing the ‘Birthday Boy’, Methika , Happy Birthday… we all sang it in English. Methika cut a piece of cake and he took it to his Mother and Father and then to John and the rest of the family to take a bite from the same piece. Disna got him to then cut another piece for John and me to take a bite from. I declined, I now wish I hadn’t as it probably seemed disrespectful, but I did it automatically as I very rarely eat cake as I am diabetic and never have cake after a meal when my blood sugar would already be high…, but afterwards I thought I should have had a mouthful and I hoped I hadn’t caused offence because my refusal certainly wasn’t meant to.
We felt totally and utterly privileged to be part of Methika’s birthday celebration. We said goodbye to a wonderful loving family. I thanked Disna profusely for the wonderful meal and the massive effort they had all gone to In providing it and welcoming us into their home. We felt really honoured. On the way back to the guest house Suminda told us it was the first time his children had ever met any foreigners and the first time foreigners had ever been to his home. We not only felt honoured but also humbled.
This day will live with us forever. The kindness, warmth, effort, love which was bestowed upon us is something we will never forget… THANK YOU SUMINDA.
Having got home from Sr Lanka a few days ago we decide a Top Tips blog would help those thinking of going to Sri Lanka to maximise there enjoyment and not make some of the mistakes we did.
1. Apply for your e-visa, ETA online prior to going. It’s easy and saves you queuing and waiting to do it on arrivals, it’s also cheaper. Make certain you apply for it on the official website so that you are not overcharged. You don’t get a paper ETA but you receive a message saying it’s been granted and it’s automatically attached to your passport number. We did print off the email saying it had been granted but we didn’t need it. We did it through the link on https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/sri-lanka/entry-requirements
2. Once your ETA has been granted the email allows you to fill out an online entry form…..oh how I wish I had done this…when you arrive if you’ve already done this you walk straight through to a set of immigration booths and straight out…those who had done it were out in moments. The rest of us queued to fill in the form online only to find the machines not working, we then queued for a paper form, then queued for a space to fill in one for each of us. Then the final queue was about 100 people going through 3 immigration booths one at a time..it seemed to take forever…all because I couldn’t be bothered to spend 10 minutes filling in the online form prior to arrival.
3. Once you’ve passed through immigration and customs you come into a large hall with Foreign Exchange booths prior to the next section where the guides, drivers etc wait. We strongly recommend you change money here. The Thomas Cook booth offered the best exchange on both US$ and £. Change enough for your trip, because we didn’t see another exchange booth throughout our trip. Ask them for small denominations because they like to give you LKR5000 notes and no porter, tuk-tuk driver or waiter will be able to give you change for LKR5000, so ask for quite a few 100’s and 500’s. Some hotels and shops will change US$. We had to change in a fabric shop in Kandy and didn’t get a great exchange rate. You also need to keep some US$ because some attractions have international visitors entrance fees in $ although I think you can pay in LKR ( Sri Lankan Rupees) ours was all paid as part of our holiday.
4. If you are being met by a guide or driver they will be holding a placard with your name on. PLEASE make certain it’s the right person….we instantly saw a placard with Jackson on it, so we greeted the driver and started going with him, when I asked if he was going to be our driver for the whole trip. He responded that he was just taking us to our hotel in Colombo…..hang on!!!!! Our hotel was in Negombo…..it seemed there were two Jackson’s on the incoming flight…so back we went. We quickly found our guide and driver Suminda, who also had a placard with Jackson on it!! He greeted us with a warm welcome and a garland of orchids each…and yes he was our companion for all of our vacation….phew just missed a catastrophe!!
5. At the back of the arrivals hall are the telecom sales booths. We carry a Huawei router when we travel so that we have portable WiFi . We had been recommended either Dialog or SLT Mobitel. We went for the SLT Mobitel the data SIM card was US$13 for 60gb. This lasted us our entire trip and we WhatsApp every day to UK , surfed the internet and used Facebook, uploaded our blog and photos to Flickr. We usually used our own internet rather than the poor signals we so often had in hotels. Once again it’s easiest to buy it at the airport…they’ll even fit it and check it’s working.
6. Try and go to a supermarket on the way to your accommodation. We really recommend that you purchase an electric plug in mosquito repellent. Not all places have them and they really work…we didn’t just have it on at night we left it on all the time. The other purchase is “Kick” Citronella Spray… a big bottle you can spray on ankles, feet, arms etc…I used it twice a day but you could probably get away with just in the evenings…even my husband used it when he noticed a lot of bites on his legs.
7. When using a tuk-tuk agree the price before you get in. Try and ascertain the rough price from your hotel or restaurant…but if you can’t ask the price and then the best price which is usually about half the original price.
8. Try and only book Bed & Breakfast. We found half board in some places, gave you no choice or only a choice of two mains and the protein portions were very meagre. In one hotel it was just fried rice with very little tasty additions and a chicken drumstick, the chicken must of died from anorexia!! Having said this the half board at The Beach & Bliss 4* hotel was superb. But if you just book B&B you can choose from the menu or choose to eat at an alternative restaurant.
9. Some UK bank cards don’t seem to work in the ATM machines and we didn’t really find out why. My husbands Santander card worked. It only allowed a maximum of LKR50,000 a day which is approx £135. My NatWest card got declined twice at 2 different locations, I was too afraid to try a 3rd time..we don’t know why. So make certain you have enough cash to see you through ……credit cards aren’t always accepted. The Commercial Bank didn’t charge for ATM transactions. The HNB charged LKR800 about £2.
10. If you plan to do the train journey from Kandy to Ella you need to book in advance 1st Class air conditioned reserved seats are the best….loads say 2nd class reserved seat are good…but people open the windows and it gets very hot…in 1st class you can still walk through the carriages and look out of the open window. Tickets are difficult to get so contact an agent like Jetwing travel well before you go and ask them to get you tickets. There’s no point turning up on the day and expecting to get a reserved seat ticket.
11. If you go to Ella you need to prebook accommodation and a restaurant …it’s very busy….the recommended best restaurant is The White Rabbit…which we had our hotel prebook..when we arrived every table was full and people were being sent away…the food was superb.
12. If you decide to stay at Sea World Botique, Mirissa make certain you state you want a sea-view room. They are divine and the road side are small, noisy and not so great.
13. The food at Beach & Bliss, Mirissa is superb. The restaurant SALT or perhaps it’s SOLT, Mirissa is a real experience…sitting at the waters edge, selecting your own fish having it cooked and served to you under the star….wonderful experience.
14. If you do pay by credit card be warned that they add 3 or 4% for the privilege.
15. If you are attempting to climb either Dambulla Cave temple ( 364 steps) or Sigiriya Rock Fortress(1200steps) you need to do it in the early morning before it gets too hot and crowded.
The alarm rudely awakened us at 6.15 am… the last bits and pieces squeezed into the cases. We had a packed lunch to eat in the car… At 7.00 Suminda arrived and away we sped to the Airport along the expressway which had a toll of LKR 550 about £1.50 local LKR cash only.
9.00am saw us at the airport loading our bags on to a trolly and bidding a very sad farewell to Suminda. He really had been a gem. We soon booked our bags in and very quickly passed through emigration. The departure lounge has some nice duty free shops and a few food outlets. We wandered down to gate 9 with plenty of time to find lots of people already going through. At this point our hand baggage and ourselves were scanned again for the 3rd time and you’re only allowed 100m of liquid. We only had to wait at the gate a short while before our seat numbers were called. Sri Lankan Airlines very sensibly fill from the back. The flight was a few minutes late taking off. Once again the meals and entertainment were good. 11 hours 45 minutes later we landed at Heathrow. We were quite quickly through the immigration e-gates and our baggage soon arrived. We gave Stuart, our driver, a call and 10 minutes later he picked us up…. Even with the road works we were home by 10.00pm……. What a great adventure we had had…. Thank you Sri Lanka you are a beautiful country… Thanks to Rosie Price at Dialaflight. – UK tel no. 0161-841-8179 or rosie.price@dialaflight.co.uk – and to Jetwing Travel for sorting out all the on the ground details of our trip and most of all thank you to Suminda who made our trip exciting and was a good fun travelling companion. His details are Suminda Dissanayake he can be contacted at Suminda711@gmail.com. or what’s app/ phone number is + 94772279050 When we finish the unpacking etc we will post a final blog on Sri Lanka with a few tips to help enhance your holiday. In the meantime thank you to those of you who have followed us.
The waves were really crashing in during the night. They woke me a couple of times and I could not only hear their force but also felt as if I could feel it. Finally back to sleep and didn’t hear John get up and join the sun lounger saving brigade…oh! we are hypocritical!!! But sometimes if you can’t beat them you have to join them. I woke about 8.00 am, John was sitting up editing photos and uploading to our 2Jsworldofadventure Flickr account which you can find at https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldwildlife/
He once again took on the task of making coffee…unfortunately the plug socket which worked yesterday no longer wanted to do its duty…having tried all plug sockets we decided we would wait a bit and see if the electricity strengthened…after all during the night several, lights in the bedroom, which had never worked, decided to flash on and off several times….sure enough half an hour later the kettle started to boil…yeah coffee time…
We headed off to breakfast at 9.00 am and our friendly Floor Manager, told us he was The Food and Beverage Manager…the FBM …he has a great sense of humour…he added “ But I do everything else as well”, which actually he does. He also has a great memory and from day one he remembered we both have black coffee no sugar, no milk, fruit, pancakes and toast, no eggs or omelettes. Having finished with the breakfast ritual, we retired exhausted to the sun lounger, John had earlier reserved….even though some one had already nicked one of the parasols, we still managed to get some shade.
The waves weren’t quite as big as on previous days so quite a few from several hotels were in the sea…The waves were still too rough for us to venture in, so we had several pool swims instead and enjoyed watching others braver than ourselves.
Having had a doze we both looked out across the sand to the sea and said in unison “Mad dogs and Englishmen, go out in the midday sun” ….sure enough it was midday and a jogger who could of been English went past us on the sand..Really!! In this heat !!! …time for the cool solace of our room. We went down for lunch and occupied our usual table. The FBM came for a chat..
Having eaten, the chef came out of the kitchen to ask what we wanted for supper as he was about to go and buy fresh fish…after a brief discussion he said he’d get me some tuna….i love it straight from the sea….and John fancied jumbo prawns again…..That sorted we took up residency on our sun beds again. I was pleased when the 2 couples of Russians who had arrived yesterday decided to go into town….One of the men was loud and his tone was always brash…. it interrupted my peaceful ideal world. We had a swim and a long chat with a family who had been there for two weeks. They were Ukrainian, but the day before war broke out they had gone to Moldova to carry on to Romania for a holiday with their 2 children, they have been living in Moldova ever since. It was interesting talking to them and learning about their views.
We spent a little more time sunning and beach watching.
As the heat of the searing sun began to disappear we returned to our room and virtually packed our bags. Tomorrow Suminda will be collecting us for our transfer to the airport.
Our friendly FBM came to say goodbye as he was taking his daughter to Colombo. We gave a tip big enough to make him smile and thanked him for his kind service.
We went for supper at around 7.30. Our chosen meals were soon served….I am afraid my tuna became a bit insignificant and I turned into a green eyed monster when I saw Johns…
I am certain we would have called them lobsters!!! John was kind enough to give me a mouthful…yuuuummmmmy!! The elderly Indian and English couples who we had been chatting to for a couple of days ( the 2 men met at Oxford University probably 50/55 years ago and have been friends ever since) had ordered baked Red Snapper it looked devine and the chef carved and deboned it at the table. What a lovely meal. We thanked the chef profusely.
With the FBM on leave it meant the Manager had to stay late. Some guests arrived around 7.30 ish accompanied by, we can only presume, the owner. Suddenly everything was singing and dancing…the water-feature wall was switched on, the shallow end of the pool it seems is a jacuzzi, all frothy and foaming..wow… I asked the manager why in 4 days of staying we hadn’t experienced this…no answer..I said perhaps we just weren’t VIP enough…he looked embarrassed and said “ no, no, not at all”…..but that’s what it felt like….the hotel had been full at the weekend and even then it wasn’t shown off at its full potential, but when the owners friends arrive that’s a different story…what a shame……when we got back to our room the bathroom leak which had been fixed was no longer fixed and a steady drip began to soak through the 4 towels we piled up …
Having said that…the FBM and the Chef were superb and the waiter lads were very professional, it’s just a shame that some of the facilities are hidden and only aired for the very most important guests. However we retired to bed happy with our great meal and our last few sun drenched days.
2 J's World of Adventure 