Tag: Asia

Day 18 – 22nd February – Lazy Thursday – Mirissa

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Reception had told us yesterday that breakfast started at 8.30 so it would have been rude to harass them earlier…so we hatched a plan to have a lie-in…….All holiday we’ve been listening out for the sound of Beethoven played out of a loud speaker on the front of a tuk-tuk selling bread…… Yes! honestly! …. We became aware of it while watching Xander Armstrong’s 3 part series on Sri Lanka…. We did hear it once and Suminda stopped the car for John to get a photo but we were coming back late from somewhere and didn’t really appreciate it……..well! The lack of appreciation occurred again today …….we are quite certain that in 1810 when Beethoven was composing “Fur Elise” that he would not of expected it to be blasting out of a bakers delivery tuk-tuk in Sri Lanka in 2024……but there we were rudely awakened by “Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor” directly below our bedroom window at 5.30 am !!!! So much for a lie in.
We eventually went down the 4 flights of stairs for breakfast at about 9.30am. Another lovely breakfast…fresh mixed fruit drink ( we heard the blender) a lovely plate of fruit, toast and jam and we opted out of an egg but had the sausage and bacon ..when it arrived we both said at the same time “ no rude comments” !!

After breakfast we returned to our room, sorted the dirty washing, donned our swim attire and once again descended the escaliers. With the washing deposited with reception ( returned later at a cost of £20) we took up residency on a pair of Sun loungers under a large green parasol and spent the day watching Sri Lankan sea activities…small boats fishing, tour boats toing and froing, young men rod fishing, one even caught a fish and a very old man taking more time smoking and loading bait on his line than fishing. He would totter out to rod fish for a few minutes and scurry back when the waves almost knocked him flying and repeated this several times before wandering off.

We interspersed our “watching the world go by” with several dips in the pool and a light sandwich for lunch. Eventually the early wake up call got the better of us and we decided to return to our air conditioned room for a siesta.


We stayed in the hotel for supper, choosing to have grilled King Prawns, rice and salad. Followed by banana fritters and ice cream for me and John had fruit salad and ice cream. An early night was required as we have a 6.00 am start tomorrow….. what a nice sun drenched day we had .

Day 17 – 21st February – Marissa

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Today we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed after a super supper and a great nights sleep…there’s nothing like listening to the waves breaking on to the beach. We had a slow start to the morning and went for a late breakfast. We were greeted like very welcome customers, smiles and pleasantries were exchanged. Our breakfast started with fresh lime juice….that made our cheeks tingle… followed by fresh fruit salad topped with granola/ muesli and buffalo curd on top, all in what we would describe as a sundae glass. This was followed by breads of all sorts even a twist with chocolate inside and a cheesy topped roll etc, jams and marmalades. A cooked breakfast was then produced, we opted for poached eggs with sausages, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and baked beans…it was all scrumptious. All this while watching surfers chase the waves and occasionally catch and ride one. The manager checked we had slept well and that our breakfast was to our satisfaction, he was a really nice kind man and genuinely wanted to make certain we were happy.

After breakfast we returned to our room and once again packed our bags ready to move to Sea World Botique Hotel. Suminda had told us our room would be ready after 12.00 as that was the checking out time. We took one more look at the fantastic view and headed for reception.

Having paid the drinks bill we bade the staff and manager a fond farewell. It was hard to believe we had only been there for a night, the friendliness of the staff was second to none….a big shout out for Beach & Bliss Mirissa…a very high recommendation if you are planning a trip around Sri Lanka.

We headed off with Suminda and as our new hotel room wasn’t ready we went in hot pursuit of a Sri Lankan t-shirt for John. The necessary item was quickly purchased …just another to add to the hundreds he already has…either we’ll have to stop travelling or we’ll have to buy another wardrobe!!!!
We arrived at Sea World Botique and our room was ready….but what a disappointment it was to learn it was on the 2nd floor….4 flights of stairs up….we had been promised by dialaflight and Jetwing Travel, only last week, that we would have a 1st floor room….not only this but the room was not sea facing in fact it overlooked the very close busy noisy road outside with all its beeping and honking from mopeds, lorrys, cars, buses, tuk-tuks etc…. I hadn’t requested Sea facing because I had incorrectly presumed they would all be and I certainly hadn’t expected a main road literally on the doorstep. The room was what in the UK we would be call bijou, a very small double or as my father would say ‘A Kylie Minogue room’…everything there, in the right place but in tiny compact proportions….So….no sound of the waves for us….such a huge disappointment but tired of arguments and tired of wasting our holiday time waiting for responses and actions to put things right which should never have gone wrong…I struggled up the 4 flights we put on our swimwear and descended the pesky stairs to enjoy a cooling dip whilst looking out at an azure blue sea with white foaming waves rolling in…followed by several hours and another dip on the sun lounger whilst still soaking up the view……The climb back up stairs to our room didn’t seem as bad after a sun soaked snooze and an overload of the wonderful view.

We got ready for supper and went downstairs. The food in the restaurant is supposed to be very good according to the reviews…..alas foiled again….the cook is off sick, so they’re not serving any food……….this is really turning out to be an episode from ‘Fawlty Towers’ !!! ….We will not be defeated !!! …so we hailed a tuk-tuk and went about a kilometre along the main road into town to a beach restaurant called ‘Salt’ although the sign looked more like ‘Solt’ …we were shown to a table just up from the waters edge on the sand…such a lovely spot…the whole beach was littered with different restaurants and tables and lights. Having been given our seats we were then taken to a table covered in fish. Our waiter suggested a large fish which he said was endemic to Sri Lanka…it looked like a white Mullet, obviously locally caught. We had it filleted and grilled and served with a few potato wedges and salad…it was divine…a really great experience.

It was quite an expensive meal by Sri Lankan standards with the fish costing about £20 and the other bits £10 but it was certainly worth it. We had asked our tuk-tuk driver to come back and pick us up …it’s amazing what a 25 pence tip will do….and he dutifully did and unlike other tuk-tuks, we’ve experienced he carefully returned us to the hotel, gaining him another 25 pence tip !!! An earliest night was required due to a very busy day of sunbathing and swimming tomorrow.

Day 13- 17th February 2024 – Full Day Safari Yala Block 1

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We had decided to go in to Yala main entrance, block 1, a little later than the opening at 6.00am because the queues would be twice as bad as they had been the previous afternoon, and we prefer not to be in a long convoy of safari vehicles all eating each others dust. So we left Tringa Villas at 7.00am armed with a packed breakfast of cheese and tomato sandwiches and fresh fruit. This time “Speedy Gonzales” picked us up from our hotel. He had also provided the lunch for the day.
It was much better and quieter entering the park after “rush hour” and we didn’t start racing around for some time. The roads in the park are not good at all, many partially washed away by the recent heavy rains, lots of really waterlogged roads with thick mud requiring 4×4 driving….but Speedy navigated them well even though he sometimes had little regard for his fellow passengers and we rocked and rolled, bumped and bruised ourselves as he occasionally tossed us around. Unfortunately he seemed to think that if we had seen a type of bird or mammal the previous day we wouldn’t want to stop and watch it again…he soon learnt the error of his ways…..Once again we had several near misses of seeing leopard or bear, but lovely sightings of many other creatures both big and small, a jackal took us by surprise on the way into the park…the good start got better and better. The scenery was magnificent with a clear view of the infamous “Elephant Rock”.

The park has some fairly strict rules, in the fact that if you are doing a whole day Safari you must stop between 12 noon and 2pm so the drivers can rest in the heat of the day. They also don’t let visitors in the park between these hours…morning Safari’s must be out by 12 and afternoon safari’s can’t enter before 2 pm. So at 12.00 we arrived at a newly built visitors centre on the coast of The Indian Ocean. It was amazing to know that there was no land in front of us until you reach the Antarctic. The visitors centre is built on the remains of an old guest house. This got destroyed in the 2004 Tsunami. Unfortunately the 12 Japanese who were staying there also lost their lives. We had never really heard of it affecting Sri Lanka because the focus was on Indonesia and Thailand. In Sri Lanka over 30,000 people died, almost a million were displaced and around 150,000 people lost their main source of livelihood. The new centre, where we stopped for our rather scrumpy lunch of chicken curry, dhal, potato curry and beans provides some seating and a washroom block.

We dutifully waited our two hours watching a fair few drivers sleeping, and enjoying conversations with Suminda before we set off on our afternoon “rallying in the jungle”!!!! However, it was a fruitful afternoon. Lots of vehicles were hanging around a certain area because a bear had been seen on previous days in the area. We were very fortunate to suddenly spot a baby bear …before we had managed to take many photos our driver was shouting to the other drivers as to his find…we then had trouble jostling for a decent position to see the mama bear who was deeper in the jungle. The shouting and yelling between drivers was unreal, there were over 30 vehicles all trying to see the bears, who actually seemed to take no notice of the furore they were causing amongst the jeep fraternity. We soon tired of this unethical, unnatural situation, but not before taking a good few shots, and moved on….our next commotion was a huge bull elephant, who had taken to attacking vehicles if he could smell fruit, walking down the road. We very quickly put all our bags in the front cab and shut the windows. The driver was obviously scared of this notoriously angry fruit lover and put his foot down speeding past until he was at a distance of safety.

It had been an eventful day and we returned back to the hotel, hot, sweaty, dusty but contented.
Our evening meal was Kottu a sort of chopped bread with vegetables in spices with chopped chicken and egg…however this one arrived with the fried egg laid across the top rather than chopped into it. I had asked the cook not to make it too dry so he served it with some rather tasteless dhal. We had loved this dish in Kandy but this was one of the most unsavoury meals we had, had during our time in Sri Lanka. Dry and tasteless we ended up leaving more than we had eaten. With such a limiting menu of only 3 fixed meals and Kottu we were a little at a loss for choice….not even a Sri Lankan curry on offer…or in fact any curry…We once again ended up going to bed a bit on the hungry side.

Day 11 – 15th February 2024 – The train from Kandy to Ella.

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We started the journey in high spirits, after all we were about to embark on one of the most scenic train journeys in the world.
We said a fond farewell to the staff at The Elegant hotel, a place we would certainly recommend, and Suminda took us to the Railway Station in Kandy. We were there at 8.15am ready and waiting for the 8.30 train.
We had tickets booked in first class and we were carriage 1B seat 41 & 42.
On arrival at the station the platforms were busy with lots of tourist all doing the same as us.
At 8.30 a train pulled in….fortunately Suminda prevented us jumping aboard as it turned out to be the one prior to ours which was running late. A lot of the platform emptied on to this train and it looked al1 ready to depart when the green light turned back to red. It appeared that our train was now coming in on platform 3 instead of platform 1 and as it’s a single track line it had to come in before the now very late one could go out. Anyway we changed platforms and at around 9.00 am we boarded our train. Our reserved seats were at the front of the carriage and had a nice little table, reclining seats and loads of legroom…we would be comfortable enough for the next 7/8 hours.


We finally departed at 9.15am. The first hour was spent rattling through the suburbs of Kandy. On leaving this large town behind we began to encounter spectacular scenery. The next few hours were spent very pleasantly looking at mountainside tiers of tea plantations, formidable waterfalls, flat rice ‘ paddy’ fields, vegetable plantations and much more. It really was fantastically scenic as the train meandered hugging the side of the mountains. On our journey we stopped at nearly 30 stations only a few people got on and off until we got to Hatton when a few more joined us and a few departed. At Nanu-oya a lot of people anlighted and even more embarked. The area is popular for visits to its tea plantations and its old colonial buildings.

We got to Ella about 4.15 pm, about an hour late. Suminda had been patiently waiting for us for about 4 hours as the trip in the car is so much quicker…but the train is a real ‘ must do’, something not to miss as it really shows the real beauty of this country. Suminda took us to the bottom of a hill and called our hotel ( perhaps I should put that in inverted commas with a few exclamation marks and a lot of laughing faces). The hotel sent a tuk-tuk down to take us up as the road was too narrow for a car. We pilled an overnight bag and a few bits into the tuk-tuk and up we went. It was very steep and after about 100m the tuk-tuk turned a sharp right and told me to get out saying “next bit one, by one”. So out I got and found myself standing in the middle of nowhere all on my own. What seemed like an eternity later it appeared again and told me to get in….after a very steep climb it pulled off on to what could only be described as the flat roof of an unfinished building. In the middle of this flat roof was a very faded sign saying Eminence Shires Hotel…. I looked around absolutely no sign of John or a hotel….beginning to panic I asked “where is the hotel?” And the driver pointed to a set of metal steps not quite as steep as a step ladder at the side of the roof leading down. As I went over to have a look John appeared at the bottom. There were 3 rooms with full length glass windows and a door, a small patio with two chairs and a table outside each door. The couple on the patio next to ours had been on the train sitting behind us. We were greeted with a welcome drink, shown our room and the “receptionist”!! Booked us a table at his recommended restaurant The White Rabbit. The view from the patio was superb, we could see a beautiful waterfall and the railway line.

At 7.30 a Tuk-tuk came and took us both down to the restaurant. The White Rabbit, it transpired, is a much sort after restaurant for the backpacking fraternity who frequent Ella. I had a Sri Lanka vegetable curry with chicken. This consisted of bean, beetroot, dhal, cabbage, okra, banana flower and carrot curry’s around a mound of rice and chicken curry in a bowl…it was divine, the best I had had so far. John had Coconut curry prawns with coconut sambal and toasted wedges of bread ..it was all very tasty…I didn’t notice until John mentioned it, that we were the oldest in the place by about 40 years!!!.

We returned to our room by tuk-tuk, the first one we hailed failed to make it up the first 100m’s after some discussion we managed to find another one to take us, once again doing the last bit one by one.
What an amazing day we had had, full of so many surprising adventures. There are lots of nice places to stay in Ella and even though The Eminence Shires was only £29 for the night B&B I don’t think we would stay there again…our preference would be somewhere in the town where you don’t risk life and limb hurtling down a 1 in 3 hillside in a tuk-tuk!

Day 10 – 14th February 2024 Kandy.

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We woke after a good nights sleep and went for breakfast…a feast fit for the King….after which we needed a lie down!!! With fresh laundry and a lovely ambience the Hotel Elegant was certainly relaxing. Although we have to admit on going for a swim we hadn’t expected the water to be quite so cold!!

At 3pm Suminda collect us and we drove through Kandy to The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. The temple is built near the ancient royal palace. The left canine tooth of Buddha is enshrined here and it is this that draws thousand of local and foreign devotees and tourists. A lot of flower sellers outside of the Temple do a roaring trade as locals make gifts of flowers to Buddha. This artefact serves as a significant symbol of Sinhalese identity and pride. Annually in August during the Esia Perahera procession the relic casket is paraded through the streets atop a male elephant. The 10 day festival is one of the largest Buddhist festivals in the world. The rest of the time the relic casket can not be viewed, it is kept in a chamber hidden securely behind closed doors.

The site contains a museum portraying the history of the tooth. There is also the building where the Kandyan Convention was signed in 1815 with the British Government. The last king of Kandy, Sri Vikrama Ragasinha was so disliked that the people were pleased when he was deposed and the British took over the ruling of the Island.

On our way out we passed some beautiful murals of the Esia Perahera procession and the buildings looked even more majestic from another angle.

On retrieving our shoes we walked a short distance to a theatre to watch a cultural show of music, singing, dancing, fire dancing and acrobatics. It was very entertaining.

As if this wasn’t enough we then went into Kandy and met a lady who took us around 3 different street “cafes” for us to try 6 different Sri Lankan street food dishes. They were all very tasty, although a little too much egg in virtually everything for my liking…..we did however get to try battered mushrooms which were my favourites….we swilled it down with some ginger beer….Finally back to the hotel with full to overflowing tummies.