Sri Lanka officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in the northern Indian ocean off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India the Northwest and the Maldives to the south west.
Sri Lanka has been called "The tear drop of India" because of its shape and location and is known as "The Pearl of the Indian Ocean" because of its natural beauty. It is also known as "The nation of smiling people".The island contains tropical forests diverse landscapes with high biodiversity.
(Map of Sri Lanka)
I boarded a flight from Manchester via Emirates which is probably the best airline I have flew with because everything is free, as soon as me and my travel buddy Chris found out that alcohol was also free we decided to drink as much as we could in seven hours .. And to also ask for two each at a time so we could arrive in Sri Lanka stocked up. We then realised that we would be getting a transfer from Dubai and that it was a really strict country, so Chris doubled checked with the cabin crew if we could take our bottles through customs she replied.. "Are you kidding me, of course not they will question you where you got them and you will get into trouble" so we decided to just drink them, arriving in Abu Dhabi trying to act sober was so funny. All I wanted to do was to smell the Dubai air but I couldn't leave the airport. Chris was hungry so we stopped at a restaurant at the airport got some drinks and Chris wanted burger but only had a £20 note he gave it to the lady and received change 4 silver coins with lamps on (that defiantly wasn't right)
The next flight wasn't so fun, it was only a short connecting flight , and it was really warm and crammed and to make things worse we had also left England in the morning arrived in Dubai at night and then was flying into morning in Sri Lanka so it was a really confusing body clock nightmare.
Moving on, arriving in Sri Lanka was so exciting because we had no idea at all about where was was going, I think it was the excitement of the unknown that made us choose to visit. All we had was the address of our guest house,we decided to ask the little tourist information desk how to get to Mount Lavinia, they told us we could get a free shuttle bus from the airport but we didn't actually quite know where about the bus would stop -haha! Meanwhile we stepped out of the airport the air was so humid, sweat was pouring from every place I've never felt anything so surreal in my life. We boarded the bus with are huge heavy backpacks, our eyes were like suction holes taking everything in all at once and taking photos which were all blurred because the bus was driving that fast. About 30 minute later we arrived at what looked like a bus station (which was the last stop) we got off confused in the middle of Sri Lanka , we was then confronted by a man in a red minibus full of locals asking where we was going so we said mount Lavinia he said "yes yes yes yes" and literally grabbed our bags and threw them on the bus. There was no say in the matter so we just got on but one thing I thought we should ask would be price ??? So we did but no one would listen so Chris repeatedly said "listen to me, somebody listen", "how much" "we are English" the driver replied 400 rupees, which is about (£4.40) but at the time we was a little unsure of the whole situation , so we both just shouted "STOP THE BUS" -haha! They stopped and let us out in another random part of Sri Lanka there was chickens and cows freely walking along the road sides and families living in huts selling fruit. We seen a tuk tuk driver and asked him would he be able to take us and he said yes for 1500 rupees (£15) we just agreed as it felt it was the safest thing to do at this point. After 5 minutes of trying to fit both of our backpacks into the tiniest space I have ever seen we started the journey. The driver was lovely he was late 20s and kept laughing because we was screaming due to his driving techniques, driving in and out in front of wagons and EVERYONE loves to beep their horns- half the time for no reason .
To be honest I was in total shock of the sights I was seeing, I honestly couldn't believe this was part of our world, before this I had only been opened to holidays that are being marketed to my age group. I honestly hated it , it was dirty, smelly and poor. I just felt so out of my comfort zone. This tuk tuk ride was about a 2 hour drive and during this journey we was even discussing the possibility about cutting our stay short because it was so shocking at first. The tuk tuk driver couldn't talk much English but he told us that he didn't know where the guest house exactly was so he needed to ask a friend for directions so we stopped off on a main road with a million eyes staring at us because we was westerners. Chris jumped out to get us some drinks, he came back with cold bottles of Fanta which cost about ( 5p) it was the best 5p we have ever spent, a nice refreshing Fanta in the back of a tuk tuk in the middle of Sri Lanka.
Pineapple jam
( just arrived, fresh English skin)
(Crossing the tracks)
Mount Lavinia beach- view of Colombo (capital)
Finally two hours later we arrived at our guest house, sore bums and bruises from being bashed around tuk tuck style, it cost us (£15) for a two hour journey and I think he ripped us off .(baring in mind how much would you think a taxi in England would cost for a two hour journey). That just proves money isn't worth a thing, we probably made his week with that. :)! ..
We stayed In a place called "Dammika home" which we payed (£6) for 2 nights B&B:
19. (21/7) Sangamitta avenue
Off Sri dharmapala road
Mount Lavinia
I am so thankful I stayed there it was a big eye opener to my self as a person, however it looked like it hadn't had a wash in about 10 years, the floor was so dirty even though there was a mop.. I wasn't sure whether it was our job to do that??. The bathroom was shabby ( put it this way I had to shower in my shoes) and then make a trail of plastic bags or whatever I could find to get to the bed without touching the floor, (see photos)
Dammika was the man who owned the hotel , he was very intrigued about us , he asked us many questions and when he served us our breakfast he would stand over us and watch us eat (awkward but amazing memory's) he made his own drink which we guessed was water and sugar (covered in ants) he asked us to try , we felt so bad because he was literally standing over us we just sort of glanced at each other and hoped for the best and drank it(it wasn't that nice) However he had some really nice Jam, pineapple Sri Lankan Jam (see photos) that was really tasty. We found out that Dammika was a local "celebrity" in his area he was president of radio society of Sri Lanka. He had also been an electrical officer in Merchant Navy and he studied in London, thirty years ago.
We found out from Dammika that there was a beach just down the road, I asked him would it be ok if I was to wear a bikini to go into the water and a jumpsuit showing my arms and legs (I didn't want to offend any locals) he said "no , you will be ok yes" . We headed down to the beach and crossed train tracks (see photos) Chris jumped into the sea while I just took photos and sat down with our bags when suddenly I felt a presence suddenly out of nowhere 3 men had surrounded me and remained to just stare at me. I was really intimated by them and also the language barrier stopped me from saying "what the hell are you doing" I was pulling faces to Chris without them noticing. "Helllpppppppp meeeee" I lip synced ,Chris was like oh shit ..and done a bay watch run with a jolly smile and said , "You alright" ? And the men just moved away.
(That thought me never to show my skin again in public).
(That thought me never to show my skin again in public).
(Chris)
View of tracks
This was the view from outside our guesthouse - this was empty-such a shame
We began to get tired because of our jet lag and the heat so we decided to head back, shower contact our families and chill out, we found our selves just making video diaries, trying to Skype and playing cards until we passed out, we both had our fair share of crazy nightmares where we would shout out in our sleep, not sure weather this was down to the heat or are strange locations, Chris would wake up shouting "what the fuck" , and I would say "Omg there is a women in the room". So funny. Meanwhile we woke really hungry about 2 in the morning , however we was not sure if it was safe to venture out in the night. Chris was the brave one but didn't want him to go alone so we both walked to the main road to find a take Away (it was totally safe and everything was still open) we found a food place that did take away curry, which literally came in a bag (imagine trying to get the curry out) but it was so tasty and really cheap, so we headed back and attempted to get used to the spice and try and change our body clocks.
Me on the left - Searching for food late at night (big food sign)
Until next time,
"To travel is to take a journey into yourself"
-Danny Kaye
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