The drive down was long, however, Madu kindly took us through Anuradapura, the Ancient City we had previously missed, & showed us a couple of sites. Starving, & with Franco desperate to sample local food, we pulled into a tiny roadside restaurant in the middle of nowhere & took a seat around one of two tables. Before any time at all, a huge variety of local fare was laid before us & we got stuck in. The food was delicious, authentic & a bargain. Franco was over the moon! We hopped back in the van & before we knew it after a tiny bit of shut-eye, we reached Colombo.
The next three days in Colombo involved not much more than cycling around every day to exchange rupees for the USD we needed in Africa. Feeling more relaxed & kind of enjoying the city the second time around, we headed off for one more night in the Airport suburb of Katunayake. Later working out this was a waste of time as you can just get a transfer straight from Colombo. Too much rice and spice had me vomiting and cramping for days so come mid night on the 16th May I was ready to jump in one last tuk tuk and head for the airport.
We boarded the plane just shy of 4am and indeed did we feel ready to fly! It was only a short 4 hour flight to Sharjah which we were originally meant to transit just for one hour, however I received an email earlier that week extending in to a 24 hour transit. So at the time we accordingly changed all of our Nairobi plans with our tour; 'absolute Africa' and arranged to have them go out of their way to pick us up directly from the airport on the first day of our 52day Safari.
We arrived to the transit desk only to be told our flight was to leave in an hour?!?! There was not enough time nor Internet to change our plans for Africa again, so they decided to let us stay as previously stated in the email. Then they changed their minds again and told us we had to leave on that flight even though our luggage had tomorrow's flight tags. Obviously overwhelmed, 4 hours sleep and a funny tummy I did all I could do... I cried. A lot. And without any further delays we were back to being booked on the next days flight, with a transit airport hotel and 6 meal vouchers! We definitely paid in emotional stress but I was glad to find some sort of compensation.
Spending our first two meal vouchers (which were only valid at one cafe), brekkie was a canteen style tray with juice, water and a sloppy plate of scrambled eggs and sausage. Bloated and belly-full we checked into our transit hotel which was literally inside the duty free shopping area.. It was bizarre that just a flight of stairs could take you down to a peaceful dark room with no windows, resembling a gentleman's club and smelling of a hospital we climbed into bed and fell asleep.
Waking just after 2pm we set out to see the sites of the small airport, which consisted of changing some more monies over to USD, and smelling and spraying just about every perfume in duty-free and Victoria's secret. Cashing in on our next (lunch) meal vouchers we we played up another sloppy meal of salty slow cooked beef and dry chicken covered in tomato paste, I was just cheering that it wasn't rice!
After hours of cards and chess in our dark little cove, Sean decided to take me out for dinner.. It cost him our last two (dinner) meal vouchers for the exact meal we had for lunch! We sneakily took some duty free beers home and pondered over why hadn't we just purchased a big bottle of spirits earlier!? Lack of fresh air, and a bit boozy we hit the hay just before mid night!
Rather conveniently our gate was about a 10 minute stroll from our hotel room, however the flight has already changed from 7:30am to 9am hence me writing this now. Here's hoping that we do depart in half an hour to meet our bags and the bus in Nairobi at 1pm ready for our AFRICAAAAA SAFARI!!!! Let's Fingers crossed! Let's get primitive!
SUNMING UP SRI LANKA
Highlights;
-Number #1 Dewmini Rotti Shop (Merissa)
-Exploring hidden beaches by cheap scooter rental
-Ocean Reach (Merissa accom, only $20 a night for a clean nice room)
-Talalla beach (South of Merissa) stunning
-snorkelling with reef sharks and beautiful fish in the east (from Nelaveli or uppuveli)
-the blue lagoon north of Nelaveli, Banyan Beach
-fresh king coconuts from the side of the road for $0.50
-helgas folly (the weird wacky and brilliant hotel in Kandy)
-Ella; tea plantations, little Adams Peak, secret waterfalls and a chill vibe
-lion & anchor beer; only $3.00 for a big one
-the beautiful friends we have made along the way; Franco, James, Gemma, Nan, Teeny and Thom
- Thin & crispy pizzas at Dream Café in Ella
-the vast beautiful and lush landscapes the island has to offer, from rain forests to paradise beaches.
- Homegrown rice & curry (before we got sick of eating the stuff)
- Siva cafe in Nilaveli & their cheap meals
- Hanging out at BED hostel made Colombo bearable, Wednesday night pub trivia was great and bike rental
- HANSA coffee! Thank god for their real coffee.
- Qatar famous pancakes by the lovely lady @ Jungle View
- Pidurangula; amazing, panoramic views, with absolutely no crowds
- The turtles around the shores of Hikkaduwa
Lowlights
-the street dogs, the poor frail and extremely timid pups just wait for the locals to kick them or throw something at them, it broke my heart
-hikkatrain hostel in Hikkaduwa. Small, cramped & one dirty bathroom
-local buses.. As cheap as they are I'm not sure if it pays off when you are surrounded by men touching and sweating on you
-the tuk tuk drivers... Most were rude and out to rip us off (thankgod for google maps)
-I would say that one in every five people we met tried to rip us off or lie to us
-the litter; a pristine beach or riding through the beautiful forest on a train.. It's lined with plastic and garbage, what's worse is when you see them throw it there.
-the food.. yes we ate some amazing curries and rottis, but when your belly rejects so much rice and spice you turn to the only other option; horrible western food.. 3 weeks and I have had the worst cramps for a good week of it
-coffee was pretty awful and grainy everywhere but HANSA
-we booked an airport hotel the night before we flew out instead of continuing at bed Colombo; big waste of money as anywhere in Colombo can just transfer you anyways, and instead we were stuck at a hotel well away from anything with bad food 'green view hotel' and we paid about $40 for it!
- Dinesh Kumara: the worst driver of them all.
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