Back in the desert.

The final week in Mirissa was a bit of a dream. Fighting the waves, walking on the beach, stuffing ourselves with seafood and rotis and enjoying the evening Arak aperitif on the balcony.

I dream of Mirissa!

Our trip from Mirissa to Colombo airport went without a hitch. We left obscenely early because we are both anal about missing flights, so in the end the trip only took 2.75 hours. 

The Sheraton, Bur Dubai - one of my all time faves!

We had a perfectly lovely time in Dubai, sailed smoothly through Dubai airport with only hand luggage, check into the Sheraton in Bur Dubai, have a nap, drink the wine stolen from Emirates, (because it was Ramadan and the bar didn't open until 8pm and I plan ahead!) walk in the 42C heat to Gazebo (Mankhool Rd) restaurant, stuff ourselves with Hyderabadi Biriyani, walk home, sleep and go back to airport!

Richie breaking his fast!

Richie REALLY breaking his fast!

Hyderabadi Biriyani, Gazebo Restaurant, Bur Dubai - right back where we started.

So comes the end of our two months revisiting Sri Lanka. It was a perfect holiday, easy, relaxing and fun. Fortunately we timed our holiday just before the season started. I believe it would be a different holiday, especially in the south, once the European season began. 

Some of the things I've learnt/fallen in love with/plan to adopt:

Chillis - paste, sambol, fried and crumbled on food.

Sri Lankan curry - lighter than Indian curries, completely different spice base, hot but with lingering flavours.

Short Eats - especially the short eat van blasting out really the bad version of Fur Elise and my all time favourite, the renegade, whistling, short eats van.

Arak - not the poisonous methanol, laced crap that's served in Bali but the aged, refined and smooth (bit like me really) drink they serve in Sri Lanka.

Coconut rotis - as cooked at Monis guesthouse. 

The Sri Lankan people in general who were friendly, generous and ever so interested in Richie.

Clay cooking pots - I got them home in one piece - let's see how that pans out (no pun intended).   

The beautiful and often deserted beaches (see note re: tourist season). 

The gentle, warm climate and lack of mozzies.

The ease of transport - want to travel the entire length of the country? no need to book in advance - there is always a car and driver available and/or there is always a local bus.

The value for money - food, drink and accommodation was unbelievable value.

Oh and Richie was rather partial to the odd Lion Beer!

We met and enjoyed a raft of dodgy and delightful characters:

(some names have been changed to protect the innocent).

Charles Mansion at Arugam Bay - ran a very tight ship at Arugam Bay Surf Club - trained his dogs to attack other Sri Lankans and accused French people of not being able to speak English properly!

Adorable Sujata and Roney, our hosts in Kandy. Opened their home and their hearts to us. Introduced us to Arak and taught us how to play Carram.

The manager at Niliveli Coral Bay resort, who tried to seduce Richie with plastic beads and asked him to "try" the bed whilst showing him around the suite!

The Kandy Lake man - lurching around Kandy Lake in a trench coat on a 30C day and promising to show us around, just for his pleasure.

Khan the mad Turk in Kandy, with his raft of cameras, who terrorized waiters and broke Sujatas shower.

Sam the Crow Man at Galle Face Hotel with his tales of woe and his sling shot - that he never fired once. 

Sam, Son of Sam and Sam the useless man - the 'A Team' at Sams Huts in Arugam Bay - who had to be woken up at 9am to serve breakfast and I'm still looking for the vast array of cakes they falsely advertised (never tease a girl with pretend cakes!).

Colombo lying Man - think he's also called Sam- who stopped us on the road to tell us the Dutch Hospital Restuarant complex was in the other direction - "oh and by the way it's closed". Complete strangers stopping you to tell you a few lies - go figure!

The roti man in Arugam Bay who waggled his finger at Richie and insisted Richie was not from Australia because only white people come from Australia!

Raj our driver from Jaffna  - with his extended prayer stops and lie that the entire Galle Highway was closed - must have been a 400 car pile up!

The Colombo Lake Man - who spoke perfect English but couldn't understand our accents.

The grumpy Pommy restaurant owner in Kandy who on the front page of his menu, warned  his customers not to complain on trip advisor and let his massive dogs run riot in the restaurant!

The endless variety of tuk tuk drivers, with all their 'broken' meters and especially the one who was drooling red betel juice and was completely off his trolly!

So long Sri Lanka, we'll be back, inshallah.

The last week - back at the beach in Mirissa.

The tuk tuk ride from Galle took just over an hour and was very pleasant. Nimal stopped so we could take a couple of pictures of the stick fishermen (who mostly these days pose for pictures for money). 

Stick fisherman, on road from Galle to MIrissa.

Our last hotel in Sri Lanka, The Wadiya Hotel is really nice and a perfect way to chill out before heading home. We are right on the beach again and we have a lovely room on the third floor with a balcony overlooking the ocean. Perfect for our evening Arak tipple. I'm pretty sure the extra bottle we bought Sam is not going to make it home! (sorry Sam). 

Afternoon Arak on our balcony.

Beach side, Wadiya Hotel, Mirissa.

The ocean here is a cross between Arugam Bay (bloody big, ferocious waves) and Nilivali (really long break), so we're really enjoying it. The surf is pretty wild and we feel really beaten up (but in the nicest possible way) at the end of the day. Lots of body boarding happening as well - quite entertaining watching people getting dumped. There is also a very quiet pool of water, around the next bay, about 10 minutes further up the beach, we've swum there a few times - depends on how lazy we are. 

Looking sexy!

Not quite so sexy - that's gotta hurt!

Stop, I command thee!

There are a few cafes along the beach and they all offer pretty much the same menu. Each evening the cafes display their seafood and you can make your selection of crab, prawns and/or a variety of fish. So far we've had a huge tuna ($9) - bargain of the century and last night we had snapper. We ordered extra chilli last night, as we have now gone completely native :-)

Pick me, pick me!

There is supposed to be a rave this weekend. It's currently Sunday morning and some rather vile techno music is pulsating along the beach.  I sure hope it doesn't interfere with our evening arrack balcony tipple!

What techno music?

We're heading home on Thursday. We were going to spend a night in Colombo but we've decided just to go directly from Mirissa to the airport. It only puts an extra 2 hours on the journey anyway and saves one more check in and check out. I'm looking forward to the Sheraton Four Points in Dubai and our Hyderabadi Biryani at Gazebo restaurant. Anyway back to the surf.......

One of the three bays at Mirissa Beach.

Bye bye Mirissa, it was too much fun!

Glorious Galle

After our epic 10 hour drive from Jaffna to Galle, we were very glad to arrive at 8.30pm and be welcomed by the ever beaming Rasika and Rasika (husband and wife) at the For Inn Guesthouse. Our room was on the top floor, with it's own private people watching balcony, up three very steep stairways and with a great sea breeze and a view of the fort and ocean. 

The lovely Fort Inn Guesthouse with Rasika andher brother Nimal.

 

We planned to spend four nights in Galle, which was one more than necessary but we wanted to catch up with our Sri Lankan friend Sanjiva, but he was out of town on business and only available on the last night. 

Our lovely room with roof top balcony.

Breakfast on the Fort Inn Balcony - eggs again?

We had a pleasant few days wandering around the fort. Galle Fort is very impressive, packed to the rafters with tourists and I think it must be European school  holidays 'cos the little blighters were everywhere!

View from Galle Fort wall.

Lots of lovely antique cars - mainly Morrises.

Lighthouse, Galle.

As four days is too long to be in Galle, we took a tuk tuk (10 minutes and 400 rupees) to Unawatuna and spent the day there reminiscing. We caught up with the lovely lady, Ranni who owns the Hot Rock cafe right on the beach and she remembered Richie, from our previous visits (everyone remembers Richie, I'm just chopped liver!). 

With Ranni at Hot Rock Cafe, Unawatuna.

Ranni is doing very well, post tsunami and now also owns a holiday villa in Unawatuna. The Sri Lankan Government had been threatening for years to demolish the parts of many cafes (Ranni's included)  that were built, illegally, close to the ocean. Finally this year they came good with their threat and brought in the bulldozers and literally cut  in half the cafes that were to close to the shoreline. 

What is left of the demolished wall and roof - still standing - sorta!

To be honest it needed to be done as the 

beach was disappearing under the weight of the numerous cafes, however it's a bit worrying that many of the buildings have been left structurally unsound. 

We also visited the Thampapani Hotel and looked at our old room and spoke to some of the staff members, who also remembered us from '04. it brought back lots of Tsunami memories for us, not the happiest but good to revisit and see the place doing well again at last. 

Thampapani Hotel, Unawatuna, still looking good.

Back in Galle we enjoyed a couple of good meals in the Fort, most notably, Mamas Roof Top cafe. It's no longer a roof top restaurant as they had to move premises, but the food was gorgeous and very good value.

 

Deco on 44 - example of lovely art deco buildings in Galle.

We also enjoyed afternoon drinks and dinner at the beautiful 1930's art deco hotel Deco on 44. Lovely atmosphere and good food although more expensive than other places.

Our final night in Galle, we caught up with Sanjiva , who used to be the general Manager at The Alila Manggis hotel in Candi Dasa, Bali, that we had stayed in a few times. He took us for dinner at another hotel he used to manage, The Lighthouse which is owner by the Jetwing Group. Yet another fabulous property right on the ocean. We had a really pleasant evening, lots of laughs. He is now managing another brand new Jetwing property in Yala nation park that opens up end of the year.

Street scene, Galle Fort.

We arranged with the Tuk tuk driver, Nimal, who drove us to Unawatuna to take us to Mirissa. He was the brother of Rasika and as Galle Fort is such a small place, they knew all of their neighbour's.

 

Richie Richardson will the Galle Police Force.

When Richie first introduced himself, he explained that his name was Richie, like Richie Richardson, the former West Indies cricket captain because that's the quickest way to explain anything in this cricket obsessed country. 

Still impersonating Richie Richardson.

Nimal thought it would be jolly funny to tell his neighbour's at the police station (!!!!!!) that he had Richie Richardson staying at the Guesthouse - and they bought it hook, line and sinker! On the day we were leaving half the police station queued up and insisted on having their picture taken with Richie. I'm glad we won't be there when they find out he's an impostor! 

So happy to be photographed with Richie ( Richardson)!

So this bring us to the last leg of our Sri Lanka revisited tour. We are spending the final week in Mirissa, back at the beach, slobbing out before we head home.

Just a few days in Jaffna

So the bus journey from Trinco to Jaffna wasn't too bad, all in all! As it was a semi luxury (!) bus the air conditioning consisted of the open window, so I was washing brown dust out of my earholes for days afterwards!

Dreaming of EK business class!

We spent four nights in Jaffna at the Greengrass hotel, which appears to have been designed by some weird, drug crazed, Disney freak! However, our room was quite comfortable and as there were only a few places in Jaffna that served alcohol, we were delighted to find a bottle shop in the hotel, so we could top up on a bottle of Arrack for our evening tipple on our balcony.

The Disney inspired Greengrass Hotel.

Perhaps the rails are there incase you enjoy the onsite liquor shop too much.

Even the food at Greengrass has an unusual artistic bent!

We spent our first day wondering around the sites of Jaffna and by 2pm had pretty much seen them all! 

The fort was pretty fabulous. It is being currently being renovated - a project which looks like taking several years to complete. The original fort was built of sea stone (or coral as its otherwise known). Unfortunately coral is being used in the rebuild!! Bit of an environmental disaster but it looks fabulous! There were also some great trees growing through the walls - a touch of Ankor Watt.

The Fort, Jaffna.

Coral bricks!

I finally purchased the clay cooking pots that I'd been coveting since I'd seen Sujata back in Kandy cooking with them. I found them in the Jaffna market and they set me back a whopping $3. Sadly one of the lids has already broken so I despair about getting them all the way back to Perth in one piece. Jaffna market was a colourful place but apart from my lovely pots there wasn't much of interest.

Fruit and veg, Jaffna Market.

Directly behind out hotel was an abandoned rail way station. Apparently it was closed down 39 years ago, when the troubles started. It was a derelict and fantastically atmospheric - could have been a movie set.

Jaffna's abandoned train station.

Waiting for the 1020 from Colombo, it's 39 years late!

 We spent an interesting morning at Keerimalai Spa, which is a sacred site about 40 minutes north of Jaffna. The men's and women's bath sections are separate. The men's is, of course, the bigger and better of the two. Richie had a fun time frolicking with the boys whilst getting a bit of spiritual healing. I attempted the women's baths but found it full of very friendly, very old, ladies doing their washing and giving their feet a good clean. Being the princess that I am, I declined their kind invitation to join them and spent my time relaxing in the shade with about 400 over excited school children.

Keerimalai Spa, north of Jaffna.

Gill and school kids watching Richie in Keerimalia Spa.

And so completes our tour of Jaffna highlights! We spent a day hanging out at the 'pool' at the Greengrass, an evening drinking beer with some fellow Aussies and met an interesting fellow who had spent many years of his childhood in London before being sent back to Sri Lanka when his refugee status was denied. He was delighted to meet Richard and spent lots of time regaling him with his tales of woe. Poor chap, he just couldn't fit into Jaffna life, however, I suspect he might not have fitted in anywhere. 

Strong military and police presence, street scene Jaffna.

Tree roundabout, street scene, Jaffna.

We had planned to catch a bus back to Vavuniya, overnight there, catch a train to Colombo at 6am, spend a few hours in Colombo and then catch the 2pm train to Galle. As we were having breakfast, we discussed our plans and thought "sod that for a bowl of monkeys" - hired a car and a driver and 40 minutes later we were on the road the Galle - $200 poorer but with a day up our sleeves.

Temple, Jaffna.

The drive went well, apart from two stops for prayers - that lasted 30 minutes each and one dinner stop for another 40 minutes! The driver was driving at about 40k's an hour - a bit faster than a quick run, until we reached Colombo - then he turned into Aryton Senna! He had agreed to take the new highway from Colombo to Galle - which cuts about 2 hours off the journey. However, he proceeded to drive down the Galle Coast Road. Richie very irately asked him what the hell he was doing and he told us the highway was closed, there was a big accident, it wasn't safe - just pick an excuse. 

Finally he gave into Richards' wrath and turned too the highway. Surprisingly there was no accident, the road was open, beautiful and had no traffic. We will never know why he didn't want to take the highway! Needless to say he didn't get a tip.  The entire journey from Jaffna, at the very northern tip of Sri Lanka to Galle, at pretty much the most southern tip took 11 hours - it probably could be reasonably done 9 hours - if you took your chances and omitted the prayer stops!

The $200 bus we took from Jaffna to Galle.

The $2 bus we should have taken from Jaffna to Galle (via Vavuniya and Colombo).

The journey gave us some small insight into what it's like travelling with a driver. We have met and seen a lot of people who hire a driver and car for their entire journey in Sri Lanka. Whilst it is no doubt convenient, it would be a royal pain - you would either be arguing and second guessing your driver all the time or your holiday would be whatever the driver decided he wanted it to be! No matter how nice they seem - they usually have an agenda and roads are mysteriously closed, towns are suddenly twice the distance away there is always an interesting little gem shop just around the corner!

Last comment - very few restaurant options in Jaffna, Mangos thali is a good one.

and Cosy North Indian is another.

Trincomalee and lovely Nilevali

We caught up with our German newly wed friends,Sasha and Laura again, at the Coral Bay Hotel in Nilaveli Beach. They welcomed us with a tasty lunch they had brought in from Trinco. We spent one last pleasant evening with them over dinner, it was a lovely evening until Laura woke us at 2am, really worried because Sasha was throwing up. However, all was well in the morning and we bid them a sad final farewell. What a lovely couple!

Lovely Laura and Sasha at Coral Bay, Nilaveli Beach.

The  Coral Bay Hotel was a great place to stay. I have to go out on a limb and say Nilaveli was the best beach the Ajayi's have ever holidayed at. Big statement 'cos we've been to a lot of beaches. The water was really clear - you could see your toes and little, silver fish swimming by. 

Pool and beach - Coral Bay Resort,Nilaveli Beach!

The sea was only waist deep for quite a long way and then was only neck high! The surf was just a gentle roll. I expect it would be a surfers' nightmare but for us it was paradise. Add to that a gentle breeze, no mosquitoes and very, very few people - beach heaven. Just to make it even better, the hotel had a pool, which we used to wash off the sea water.

Richie and I have never spent so much time in the ocean. We had a swim every morning before breaky, instead of a shower (I always thought soap was over rated anyway).

Heaven, I'm in heaven!

The only down side to Coral Bay hotel was the food. It ranged from awful to lame - depending on what you ordered, and not cheap by SL standards either. The even bigger crime was that they ran out of beer!! 

Coral Bay Resort

However, the boys serving us were very sweet and the coffee was good. We got around the food problem by being inventive - we went to Trinco for a big lunch one day, and bought short eats home for the following nights dinner; we ate next door at the White Sands on one night (okay) and had a big lunch at Uppuveli Beach on another day. A big bottle of Arrak got us by, in place of beer. 

Our journey from Nilaveli to Trinco was eventful. The cost of a tuk tuk is about 800 rupees ($7), so we decided to catch the local bus, which was 50 rupees (0.50). 

What a handsome driver!

We met a Sri Lankan lady and her baby at the bus stop and asked her if she was waiting for the bus and how much did it cost. She didn't speak English and as we are sooooo fluent in Tamil, she scratched the bus fare into the sand. 

We waited a while for the bus and after a while a tuk tuk came along. The driver had his 4 year old son, along for the ride, in the back of the tuk. The driver had a quick discussion with the Sri Lankan lady and said he'd take us all into Trinco for 250 rupees. As often is with travel, we had no idea what was going on but we piled into the tuk tuk, the woman, her baby, me, Rich and the drivers' son, for the 30 minute ride into Trinco. It was a tight squeeze but we both felt like locals!

Trincomalee

 

Graveyard, Trincomalee.

Our visit to Trinco was short and productive. We visited the bus station and found out the bus to Jaffna departs every day at 1130am, cost 450 rupees and takes 6 hours. You can't pre-book, just turn up on the day. By comparison car and driver was going to cost about $180 or 19 000 rupees and still take about 5 hours. So we are catching the bus, but to be honest, it's also for the experience and to show ourselves we still can (we're not completely soft and middle aged yet).

Shiva, Gokana Temple.

The Dutch Fort, Trincomalee.

After the bus station, we visited the Gokana temple and the big statue of Shiva, at the Fort. Very interesting, but I wasn't to keen on having to take off my shoes - the ground was bloody roasting! The endless parade of schools children found Richie fascinating. I think I might rename him Q.F. - quite fascinating!

Q.F. at Gokana Temple.

We had lunch at Anna Pooram, a little vegetarian restaurant next to the temple. Apparently, any restaurant located near a temple, is only allowed to serve vegetarian meals. This is where we stocked up on short eats (stuffed rotis, fried chick pea things and funny sweet things). 

Salubrious drinking den, Trincomalee.

Last stop was the liquor shop for our big bottle of medicinal Arrack (thanks to Roney introducing us to the good stuff when we were in Kandy).

Our visit to Uppuveli beach was a pleasant interlude. Our first stop was Chaaya Blu Resort. Very pretty, very resort like and popular with expat Sri Lankans. If we had seen Uppuveli beach first I think we would have stayed there instead of Nilaveli, as it was livelier and had more eating and drinking options.

Chaaya Blu resort, Uppuveli Beach.

 

Uppuveli beach is a bit more scenic because it is a bay and it's also closer to Trinco. However, the water wasn't as clear as Nilaveli (sea weed and a few rocks, no big deal) it was quite busy and it didn't have the lost island, dream like quality of Nilaveli. 

Uppuveli Beach, Trincomalee.

We also spent a lot of time watching the wild life. You know you're really chilled out when you spent 40 minutes watching a chameleon change colour and another 30 minutes discussing it! 

Watching the wild life.

Beach strolling wildlife. 

Surfing wildife.

Chillin' wildlife.

Oh we also had a few afternoon storms - which we enjoyed whilst having coffee, cake and Arrak on our verandah, overlooking the ocean/beach.

More tea Vicar?

It's a hard life.

So we finally bid farewell to the Coral Bay Hotel, and the manager who had a crush on Richard. He'd tried to woo him with gifts of plastic beads, but my beloved is not that cheaply bought! He told Richard, he didn't like his white beard 'cos it made him look like an old man - but so far Richie has shown no signs of shaving!

He'd previously had a crush on Sasha, but if you can't be with the one you Iove................ (Laura said when he asked for a picture of them both - he'd tell people this was his German boyfriend and his boyfriends' sister!).

And now we are on the dusty road to Jaffna. We booked an extra seat so we could spread out a bit but the bus isn't really over crowded. They did pick up a lot of people for short rides through Trinco but they seem to have all left us now we reached the middle of nowhere! Only an hour into the ride so far and all seems well - lets see how the next 6 hours go!

On the road again!

The semi luxury bus to Jaffna, via Vavuniya, Vavuniya, Vavuniya!