Sri Lanka: Ella, Udawalawe, Unawatuna, Galle

Sri Lanka: Ella, Udawalawe, Unawatuna, Galle 

Day 6: Ella to Udawalawe

We had all the good intentions to wake up early and go hiking to either Small Adam’s Peak or to the Ella Rock (which we heard is better even if more tough and harder to find as it starts near a railway track), but somehow it all went downhill. Probably to do with our calves being very very painful after Adam’s peak, or due to our many days of travelling and having to pack everything back every night (I know I know Poor Us and all that). Well, for one reason or the other we opted for a lazy day, had a late breakfast, and a massage at our guest house which, as the name of the place would suggest, definitely left us FeelinGood! Bruce went for the full body massage, and he went first. When I saw him come out, covered in oil and with a dreamy smile I started getting jealous and I went for one too, but only legs and feet. It was pretty painful, but very very good and left us feeling much better. We eventually checked out at 12pm, stopped at the Ravana falls, a beautiful waterfall where locals go to refresh and wash themselves. It was buzzing with people jumping in the water, a very cheerful place.

We then drive towards the centre of Ella and we had lunch with JJ at the famous Cafe Chill, a really chilled indeed cafe that serves Sri Lankan food alongside Western dishes. I had the most delicious coconut smoothie, which made Bruce jealous even if he had a beer! He ate the local mixed curry cooked in a banana leaf, which is a speciality of this restauruant (rated number 1 on Lonely Planet, and Trip Advisor!). Only down side is that it can be pretty slow. But everything here seems to go at a different pace! With full enough stomachs we then started our long drive to the Udawalawe national park, which took three hours. On arrival we spotted the first elephant, which is well known locally and has been named Rambo. We then checked in into our guesthouse called Nature House, another very well rated place, very clean and simple rooms, in the middle of the jungle, and with a great family feel to it. The big boss is a real character.

Before dinner, a huge thunderstorm started, the only noise you could hear for a few hours was the sound of the thick rain landing on leaves, tree branches and finally the wet earth.

Dinner was served at 7pm, a homemade rice and curry. Very delicious, easily one of the best we had.

 

Day 7: Udawalawe to Unawatuna

Another early start to add to the book, but luckily no rain. We set off at 6am sharp, with a 4×4 towards the National Park. It is quite expensive, especially the entrance to the park which is £15 per person. The Jeep was £20 (per vehicle) – total of £25 each which seems high for Asia, but to be fair Sri Lank has been quite expensive compared to expectations! First disappointment was when we realised that our driver, which was also supposed to be our guide, literally had only three words in English: Tree, bird and ok. The cue to buy the tickets for the national park took ages, since there were many cars and only one person at the counter. We entered the park at 7am, finally.

The roads were very rough after the big storm from the previous night, and it really seemed like our driver wanted to have fun with the 4×4 and test it to its limits, by entering all the deepest puddles and holes along the road. Perhaps he thought it would be more fun for us, instead it meant a lot of knocks on the knees and arms.

The most funny moment was when we got stuck in the mud, near a waterhole where many other cars had stopped. The driver started to panic and all the other cars started to look at us as we were keeping them entertained by getting deeper and deeper in the muddy puddle. The noise must have made escape a few animals, and the smoke from the engine was also very annoying. Everyone had a laugh, as it looked like our driver was on his first day of work. A few of the tourists also videoed us, so watch out as we could probably be found on YouTube funny moments.

Amongst a lot of elephants really close to us, screaming and dancing peacocks, water buffalos swimming, crocodiles, we saw a lot of eagles and birds, my personal favourite was the bee eater (the green one below). Brucey’s favourite was the monitor lizard or iguana. Very huge, we spotted it on the tree and on the floor a few times.

We got back at 10:30 and had breakfast, it felt like 4pm already… To all our friends with kids, how do you do it every day? Each day must be feeling like two when you are awake for so many hours!

As we paid our bill, Bruce was very good in his role of money keeper (even if he is terribly slow, and he always seems to stop in the middle of the road to count money in front of the most dodgy looking blokes just to make sure they know we are tourists and that we have money) and he spotted that they overbilled us! They said sorry that it was a mistake, but they were definitely trying to be sneaky.

We then started to make our way to the seaside after a few days by the mountains. The journey was very swirly and I had quite bad car sickness. On the way there though, I got cheered up when we stopped to save a turtle in a turtle sanctuary! So cute. They write the date in which the turtles come to lay their eggs, and when the turtles come out they keep them and feed them for few weeks until they are big and strong enough to be released in the sea. When you go and visit they let you release a turtle in the sea…

Bruce’s one which he called Tommy was as slow and witless as he is, and got blasted back by the waves a few times before he finally made it. Mine, which I called Free Willie (not a typo) immediately went for it, and I could see her a few times in the sea coming to the surface to get a few good breaths in. Good luck little thingies, I hope you both survive!

We arrived at our accommodation called Villa Gaetano, and couldn’t wait to settle in as we finally had 4 days in a row in the same place after 2 weeks of one nighters! We were welcomed by the lovely owners Melanie and Krisna which are all smiles, with a lovely pineapple welcome drink and we were in heaven when we saw our room. Nice, clean and big, with aircon, and a comfy bed. Oh and fast wifi which is fundamental to backup our photos!

It was time to say goodbye to our great driver JJ, as he had a new group starting on the following day.

We then got a tuktuk to the beach (since our place is quite hidden in the mangrove jungle) and after being mega indecisive, we finally made up our mind for one of the many seafood places by Unawatuna beach. We treated ourselves with a couple of JUMBO prawns and of course a lot of other seafood.

On the way back our tuk tuk got lost, and the driver was so grumpy that I thought he would kill us.

It was dark, and driving down little country isolated lanes when we got lost made me nervous!

He was mainly grumpy because he was trying to sell us everything (boat cruises etc) but we weren’t having it. After a few panics and steep roads we got home safely, phew!

Day 8: Unawatuna beaches 

We had a late breakfast, and were ready for a nice and relaxing beach day. We opted for Jungle beach which is smaller than Unawatuna beach, but apparently much quieter and good for snorkeling. But we got warned that it was full moon day and everyone was on holiday, the 22^nd of each month buddhists celebrate the day in which Buddha was born. Near Jungle beach we visited the Japanese Peace Pagoda, and the temple which was full of people bringing flowers. A nice old lady helped me put a Sarong to cover my legs and enter the temple, which was very simple with white walls and white floors, but the altar was of course all gold, buddhas and little statues of shining gold. On the way out a monk approached us and offered us some sugary colourful sweets before getting his hands together in sign of respect. We replied the same and ate our sweets.

During the walk down the beach we could hear a lot of noise and drums, and singing. The beach was full of locals having a big party for full moon day. Some were playing volleyball, some were jumping in the water, others just eating a lot of food that they brought from home, others playing different types of bongos and drums. It was interesting to witness one of their sacred days and their party attitude definitely came out. Even if it collided a bit with our will to chill! We went snorkeling as well but it was nothing special.

In the afternoon we opted for a late lunch and more beach by Unawatuna beach. We got sun lounges which to our delight were free of charge! We spent the rest of the afternoon there, had a sunset beer, and then a nice dinner at King Fisher restaurant.

Day 9: Unawatuna and Galle 

Bruce set up an alarm early, at 6am, to go fishing with the father of Melanie, the owner of our guest house. He was meant to buy a small rod, that we could then carry around during the travels and which would have been my worst nightmare. But in the end it all fell through, which meant I got a grumpy Bruce back at 6am, shortly after he left with a smile at the thinking of fishing.

After breakfast, Krisna brought us on the tuktuk for a quick look around the Mangrove jungle, which was nice but pretty quiet and not many animals.

We then went to Unawatuna beach in the morning instead, but he couldn’t get the will to fish out of him, so he went from 10am to 1pm on a local fishing boat. I had a nice and chilled morning, finally some silence for myself without Brucey always talking 🙂 by the beach, reading my book (I am trying to read one book per country but I am still one country behind and I am now reading The Power Of One, set in South Africa. I will end up reading the Sri Lanka book when we are already in Thailand but I guess it’s a good way of letting the cultures sink in). I’ll leave it to him to tell you his stories from the fishing trip.

After haggling with the beach blagger Dilip (who was hobbling due to a dog bite on his foot) , we agreed a price for the fishing and I hopped on the back his motorbike to get to the boat. He then nipped home to get a rod and some squid for bait. First stop was Jungle beach – we saw a monitor lizard on the jungle path, and then a flying fish and crabs by the rocks. I scrambled down onto slippery rocks, lashed by waves and was sure I was gonna fall in/make a tit of myself. First cast, and an early bite but then nothing. Started reeling in to check the bait but the hook was stuck on rocks. Then some snorklers approached the line, we were shouting at them to warn them and eventually just in time they realised and they helped to unhook the line and luckily I didn’t hook them. We decided this wasn’t the best spot so back to the boat. We headed out to sea and I realised the waves were pretty big and the boat wasn’t. It was a rough ride and I started wondering if this was a great idea. We joined some other boats and tied a rope between them, but the boat was still rocking up to 60 degrees each way which made fishing a tad tricky. Not many bites but eventually a firm bite and we are in! Reeled it in and it was a small Parrotfish (I think?!) sharp teeth and spines on his back. Naturally neither of us wanted to unhook it – so we stared at each other for a bit. Eventually the local fisherman Ray tried and got a spine/spike in his hand – oops. I then helped him and together we unhooked it. The waves were now bigger and I was starting to get a bit nervous/was fucking terrified so suggested we head back. We then saw a turtle right next to the boat – bonus. Back on dry land and I was hugely relieved!

After the trip we had possibly one of the worst lunches in a shack by the beach, and then went for a quick shower back home before heading to Galle.

The Galle fort is quite pretty, one of the few things that survived the tsunami, (together with the sticks that the local fishermen use apparently, as our French friend Geoffroy from the B&B told us). Even more pretty are the views you get over the sea from strolling along the fort, and the beautiful sunset into the sea waves.

After the sunset, most people end up in the main road, filled with gems shops and nice restaurants.

We couldn’t be decisive enough on whether or not to buy one of the famous Sri Lankan gems but we ended up not and we had some food at the Fort Printers restaurant instead, where we had a very tasty tuna steak and a lobster curry to share. Before finding our tuktuk home, we witnessed a beautiful yellow full moon reflecting on the dark black sea. Another great end to another great day.

Day 10 Unawatuna and Galle 

Had a bit of a lie in, and then made our way to jungle beach. We realised that there are actually two beaches as part of jungle, one called White Jungle beach which was actually much better than the first one. We spend an amazing chilled morning there, and had lunch by the sea. There was a mum dog with two super cute puppies, that we noticed by the beach. During lunch Brucey leaned to take a look at the cute puppies and he fell of his chair on the sand making the rest of the restaurant burst into tears with laughter. He was on the floor and wasn’t moving and I was too busy laughing, so a big Russian woman came to the rescue and gave him a hand to stand back up. Once he was up she simply said: “You stop eating!” which again made everyone start laughing again.

In the afternoon we went back to the main jungle beach through a rocky pathway, and then went snorkling again in an area that was recommended by the fisherman that Brucey met yesterday. It was much better than the first time we went, and we saw some very cool fishes including Angel fish, Tetras, Groupers, some very bright blue small ones, some yellow ones, and big shoals of fishes swimming with us by the coral.

We did the same as the day before, and went back to Galle after a shower. Another pretty sunset, and this time a nice gem for Matiti too – a small star sapphire (I suggested to Bruce to wait and save money for the big rock one day, but he said this is a practice one – oh well I couldn’t say no twice) and then had the best value meal ever at Lucky Fort (number 1 on trip advisor and for very good reasons) 10 little curries for two people for £4.50 ! Very yummy, especially the beetroot curry and the pineapple one. On the way back in our guesthouse we met Geoffroy, a very interesting French guy that lives in Austria and works for Redbull and looks after the extreme sports projects… sounds like a very cool job! Last day in Sri Lanka tomorrow before we head to Thailand.

Day 11 – Beach and back to Colombo

Last day here – so just chilling on the beach and then heading to Colombo via Galle to pick up Mati’s gem/ring from jewellers.