A week in Sri Lanka (is not enough)

Having landed in India yesterday in the middle of a heatwave (45 degrees plus), I can happily refute any allegations that I would rather have been at Wembley to watch Norwich coast into the premiership, in fact I barely even shed a tear..

...mostly because I have no moisture left in my body.

Thankfully our hosts here were perfection itself, and set me up with a big screen tv, gin and tonic and popcorn. For some reason Bec declined to take part in this, and instead spent the evening planning where we can go to escape the heat for a couple of weeks. Lets hope she did a good job...

Wherever we go I'm pretty sure it won't be as frenetic as the last week in Sri Lanka. With so much on offer, and only 6 full days to do it in, we ended up changing place every day. Here's how we got on:

On arrival we were sorely tempted to pick up some of the duty free white goods which welcomed us inside the arrival hall. Sadly the discounted fridge and rice cooker where just a smidge too big for our bags.

Such a busy airport

Having arrived late in the afternoon we stumped up for a taxi to Kandy, where we had a couple of night booked in an old colonial style house up in the hills overlooking the city. After seemingly taking part in a 3 hour bus race to get there (filled with tailgating and blind overtaking all to the background noise of a forcibly held down horn), the peace and quiet of the hills was a refreshing change.

The view from the hotel

Having travelled for 20 hours two days in a row we didn't want to do too much on our first day, so focused on the highlights. First up was the Temple of the Tooth, home to relic of the tooth of Buddha, the possession of which supposedly gives the governance of the country. We were led round by a wonderfully ancient guide who told me three times that he had guided for the Archbishop of Canterbury (Michael Ramsay) as well as Harold Macmillan. Amazingly he was as fast as he was mad, getting round the temple in record time, and frequently telling us to "come on, come on" if we stopped to look at anything. Literally my dream guide.

The temple

Our guide on the left - think of the village elder in Indiana Jones, but with a better haircut

The queues to see the casket containing the tooth. You literally got a second or two to look, before being pushed past

From there we decided some open space was needed, so headed to the botanical gardens via a small park by the lake which turned out to be one of the more surprising date spots apparently. Every bench held a couple sitting next to each other closely (but not too close) while seemingly also managing to ignore each other.

5 minutes after entering we took this picture of some monkeys and left..

This monkey obviously got too close

The botanic gardens on the other hand were practically empty, save for the collection of schoolgirls who wanted to pose for photographs with us. I think this might have been good practice for what to expect in India.

The botanic gardens with additional angry skies

I don't know what this pose is. I wanted Bec to photograph the Fruit Bats above me instead.

 Our final stop of the day was at the Ceylon Tea Museum, a collection of different stories and equipment from the time the first tea plantations were established. It was surprisingly interesting, especially since I thought I'd just be killing time until I got my free cup of tea. Bec was mostly taken by the little giant tea roller, mostly because I think she sees herself as a little giant as well.

Yes, this is a photo of a tea roller. At least pretend to be interested won't you?

I think I will

It really was a nice cup of tea. Apologies for the crazy length of my little finger here. It's quite unsettling.

Anyway, after a hard day's sightseeing I thought it was time to put my feet up. Probably shouldn't have chosen this table to do it on though... Payment was for me to leave a nice review online. I didn't haggle.

I tried to blame Bec obviously

The next day we boarded the train to Nuwara Eliya, a hill town at 2000m which calls itself "Little England". While the similarities aren't immediately obvious the golf course, race course, colonial hotels and high tea at 3pm did give some justice to the name. This feeling was helped by our hotel, which Bec dubbed Fawlty Towers within the first few minutes of being there. In it's time it would have been a wonderful old club and hotel. However 100 years has taken it's toll, and while it's still jacket and ties after 7pm in the billiard and reading room, there is also a sommelier who referred to Bordeaux as "Bordex" before asking a couple for a cigarette and wandering off.

The bordex was very nice though to be fair.

The (very very slow) train through the hills

Obligatory tea plantation photo #1

And #2

Our hotel. Appearances can be deceptive...

High tea. The items at the top there are layered (from bottom to top): cracker, pineapple, mushroom, cream cheese, caviar, tomato. They were beyond foul.

The next morning we were up early to make our way to Horton Plains, a national park area at 2500m which features "World's End" a c.1km vertical drop providing views over southern Sri Lanka providing you get there before 9am, and a view of clouds thereafter. The plains are a beautiful area of moorland with a fantastic 9km walk which takes you through rhododendron, moorland, vertical drops, wildlife and waterfalls.

Obviously that wasn't enough for the Scots who introduced trout to the rivers and turned part of the moorland into potato and vegetable plantations. Sadly though rice was very much still favoured.

You can see why the Scots settled so well here

Although the sun did come out occassionally

The view out from World's End

And the view down..

This was as close as Bec would get...

Excuse my accountant style trekking shirt

From Horton Plains we headed through the hills to Ella, another hill town with tea plantations and numerous hiking routes. Apparently it's a nice place to spend a couple of days, but I thought 3 hours worked pretty well.

The view out from Ella

 After lunch we continued to Udawalawe, a national park just south of the central hills which is famous for its elephant population. We stayed at a small house just outside the park which was run by a wonderfully crazy owner who wanted to make every moment as good as possible. Something which became a theme throughout the country. (In Kandy I was given another plate of food to eat purely because they didn't think I'd eaten enough).

The next morning we headed to the park for a 3 hour safari:

The park's reservoir with the hill country in the distance (Horton Plains is on the second set of hills you can see)

The aforementioned elephants

And some more

Ok last one. And its levitating which is cool.

The thick bush was big enough to hide elephants

And leopards...

Ok, one last elephant

After the safari we headed to Rekawa Beach to pass the afternoon getting far far too hot. Well that's true for me at least. I was sweating like, well like an Englishman in the sun I guess. The beach is generally empty during the day, but fills up at night with turtles heading out of the sea to lay their eggs.

Daytime

Nightime...

The next day saw us head to Galle (via a remarkably uncomfortable 3 hour tuk-tuk ride), our final destination before heading back to the airport. Once again we were welcomed by another wonderfully insane hotel owner, who repeatedly met us while shirtless, before apologising for 5 minutes for being shirtless. It wasn't a good look.

On the bus into town we finally remembered to take a photo of the omnipresent Budda's with electric lights look which could be found everywhere. Probably safer than using candles I guess, especially in a bus.. No idea what the inflatable football is doing.

Probably just excited about the Norwich game, much like this guy who we saw walking around the fort. Not the traditional strip but I could totally get behind it

Darren Kenton never was the same after he left

The fort itself was well worth a visit, with the clash of architectural styles and quiet city area all enclosed within the walls. Also it had an excellent ice cream shop and hammock wine bar, both of which gave me the opportunity to get out of the sun and 80% humidity...

The northern wall of the fort, with Gall cricket ground to the left

Of course the high humidity did lead to rain once in a while, and when it came, it came hard. Still this guy had it pretty much figured out:

When the rains came we took advantage of it in our own ways. While I studied the India travel book, planning the upcoming month, Bec studied a very nice 2013 french Sauvignon Blanc.

Apparently both needed a second and third look...

...much like Sri Lanka really. One week simply wasn't enough, despite packing as much as we could. Still, along with the wonderful food, brilliant hospitality, varied wildlife and climates all packed into such a small country, we definitely have a reason to come back...


For now though the goal is to fit in as much as possible into a month in India without literally cooking.

Oh, and to change our flight out from Mumbai to a day earlier as Bec's visa seems to run out the day before our current departure date. Should I tell her?

Until next time,
Rob&Bec

But I don't want to leave

12 hours of trikes, vans, ferries, buses and a taxi later and we're sitting in Manila wondering quite why we need to be setting alarms for 5am. While having to head to Sri Lanka is hardly a burden (I believe others may have it worse), it is difficult to be leaving the Philippines already, and I'm pretty sure we'll be back someday to do all the things we couldn't this time around.

The last two weeks in particular have been just sheer unadulterated fun (traveling around aside), particularly because Norwich have just beaten Ipswich and now I have to work out if I can trick Bec into thinking I've gone to the shops, while secretly flying home for the final. I'll be back before she knows I've even gone.

Right?

First up was El Nido, a small ramshackle town stuck between the sea and some imposing limestone cliffs. The reason anyone makes the fairly tedious journey to get there is for the Halong Bay style rock formations which rise up in the sea just offshore. It's a beautiful place, but could do with a few less boats, and a lot less fat man in budgie smugglers.

Coming into El Nido

Heading into one of the lagoons

Our lunch spot. S'alright.

Just realised none of these really show how many boats there were. Just imagine another 30 lined up to the left of this shot.

While the island tours were enjoyable, the temptation to climb to the top of the (much less crowded) hill overlooking El Nido proved greater. After all, apparently you just needed to be a "good hiker", and while I try to be modest, I would hope we both qualify for this. Now I don't know about you, but I wouldn't call vertical climbs "hiking". In fact I tend to prefer the term "climbing". I especially liked the knife edge tightrope part up near the top. Bec, ever fond of precipitous drops, has just about stopped shaking... Still the view from the top made it worthwhile. Even if it was 35 degrees and 60% humidity. You can see how much fun I found it three photos down. Bec obviously made relatively light work of it (vertigo and numerous bruises and scrapes aside). Still, even she was overshadowed by the guide who did it in flip-flops, until one broke so he went barefoot. Just ridiculous.

One of the many enjoyable "hiking" points on the way up

The view from the top

Look how happy I am

Pretending to smile

After a quiet final day (more food poisoning) the time had come to catch the 8 hour banka ride to Coron, where we were to catch another 8 hour bangka over to San Jose in Mindoro. The first journey was unbelievably calm, and surprisingly enjoyable. My particular highlight occurred when the ten Filipinos on the boat turned out to be part of some church group, and spent a good 5 hours of the journey trying to preach to anyone who would listen (see below). One particularly devout fellow found a captured audience in three Swedish girls who were too polite to tell him to go away. At which point a French Arab decided to get involved, leading to a GCSE level theological discussion that made secretly falling overboard quite a tempting option. On the plus side there was a dog which looked like a leopard. Which was nice.

The boat. Think we got 26 people in...

LEOPARD DOG! Seriously look at the little guy. Best dog ever.

A faster boat and a pair of waterskis and we could've had a great time

I love the contrast in faces. Pretty sure she was trying to remember the English for the less polite version of "sod off"

With one day to kill in Coron we headed up the small hill which overlooks the town. (Old story but I sat at the top dying in a small patch of shade while Bec took photos). The island you can see below had two lakes we were going to visit, until Bec got slightly ill. As a result she decided to have a manicure and pedicure instead. I have no evidence that she was even slightly ill, so could well have been duped at this point.

Anyway it left me at a loose end in a town with minimal attractions, so I thought I'd just sit in and use the wifi. One foot massage and a pedicure later and apparently my feet have never looked better...

I just hope most of you are looking at the photos and not acutally reading at this point.

At least I got my own back by making her stay in a £4/night homestay which included the lovely free service of a cockroach which will fly in through the hole in the wall and straight into the ceiling fan, whereupon it would then explode all over the bed...and bec...

The view from above the town

An attempt to make the place look pretty

Our next boat journey was set to be even more interesting than the last, for two reasons. One, the 8-10 hour journey was across open water, instead of weaving through islands. And two, the boat looked like it had been put together by an amateur airfix enthusiast:

Hopefully you can tell how crap this boat is

Anyway, finding our way to the deck we settled in for the trip, and absolutely adhered to the sign below. Well, as much as anyone else did:

Look how comfy it is!

The woman next to Bec threw up most of the way over which made it doubly fun. Still it saved us 12 extra hours of travel compared to the alternative route, so for that I'm eternally grateful. The fact there was a Polish model traveling with us is neither here nor there...

The reason for these slightly overly long boat journeys was to get to Mindoro, the launching off point for Apo Reef, one of the Philippines top dive sites. After a day walking around the surrounding countryside:

Said countryside

And feeding a monkey:

Despite two months traveling she's still the same Bec you know and love

We finally headed off on a boat journey we were actually looking forward to. Apo Reef is apparently the second biggest atoll in the world, with a beautiful little island forming the focus point. The diving there lived up to its billing, and once again I got Bec to go diving with sharks. The two days spent on the boat were worth every penny, and once the currents got up some of the sites were fantastic:

Apo Island

The view from the lighthouse in the photo above. You can see the rest of the atoll in the middle right of the pic.

Looking the other way over a small lagoon

Bec navigating the sturdy walkway to said lagoon

One of those new hover tankers

Bec not being eaten by a shark

One of the many drop offs in the reef, with fish everywhere

Looking down on another drop-off. No sharks yet.

Bec supermanning it. Still not eaten.

There is a shark here. Somewhere in the middle I think.

More fish. Less sharks.

I made some short videos too which hopefully will work:

Sadly you can't hear it in the above video. But whenever we aw a turtle it was always accompanied by a muffled scream of "TURTLE!!!" from my diminutive diving companion. Strangely said turtle usually then turned and (very slowly) scarpered.

Barraccuda. Once again, apologies for my go pro making everything seem miles away.

Two idiots in a shipwreck

Two idiots in a selfie

In the time it's taken me to get this all uploaded, we've managed to make our way to Kuala Lumpur, and our flight to Columbo is about to start boarding, so I'm going to end it here. To summarise the Philippines: full of surprises, lovely people, pleasantly cheap, full of long journeys, and Bec learnt to dive without getting eaten.

Lets hope Sri Lanka is as successful...

Rob&Bec
xx