2025 BY Sri Lanka

After we retreated from Ella and forsook the south , we went back to Kandy and then Danbulla and then on to the ancient city of Pollonaruwa. The ruins here date back a few thousand years. The ruins are pretty impressive and spread out over about five kilometers. We rented bikes and explored the ruins over one hot morning.  That evening we went on a boat trip on a large man made reservoir. Despite being beside a large town the water is clean . No motorized boats are allowed and the locals ensure no one pollutes this reservoir which has been in operation for a couple of thousand years. It was a treat to swim in this reservoir. There are crocodiles but the locals convinced us the waters were safe. There is a canal that is fed by the reservoir. Every evening the locals come to its shores to bath and wash their clothes. It was very pleasant to bike beside the canal and the locals were very friendly.  Part of the reason I have such good memories of Pollonaruwa is that we're staying ...

After Polonnurawa we were definitely in going home mode. We forsook  public transportation and took a 40 can taxi ride back to Siguriya. Unfortunately we checked into a rather grotty tree house close to Lion Rock. It had no ac and the power was out so we had no fan and we sweltered in this rather unappetizing hut with a great view. Next day we climbed   Pidrangula Rock which was close by and we got great views of the surrounding countryside.  Elephant Pooh. In this country it is a sign of good luck to step in a fresh elephant turd.There are approximately 17000  elephants in this country. Just a couple of days ago seven elephants were  killed and a train derailed. After our two days here we took a four hour taxi ride to Negombo which is on the coast very close to the airport. We have a very nice room overlooking the pool and ocean and have been doing absolutely nothing. I can barely find the energy to pick up m...

Pretty much if you want  a good cup.of coffee you pay the same price as you would in Canada. Say an Americano  5$ can or 1000 rupees.  For the same amount of rupees you could get 5 fruit salads with a scoop of ice cream. Or you could  pay for four people to travel by bus from Kandy to Bundalla, a distance of 70 kilometers. Or you could have vegetable curry and rice for four people. Or you could have a spectacular dosa with three sauces and a cup of milk tea for three people for a thousand rupees. So for this reason I feel guilty every time I have a fancy cup.of coffee. Which is quite often .

I decided to go on a three day guided birding/ trekking tour in the Knuckles Range. It was just us a van , a driver and guide. Our first day we were picked up at our hotel at 0530. We arrived at a decrepit hotel perched above a massive reservoir. We birded off the back porch of this hotel overlooking a relatively nondescript tree. Over the next couple of hours about fifty species of birds either perched in or flew past that tree. The tree was not blooming or fruiting so who knows why it was so popular. After a stop in some rice paddies for some common birds we drove up into the mountains. There we walked up a trail in the Knuckles Park. We got some seriously good birds. From there we went to our camp which turned out to be a comfortable A frame perched on a high mountain ridge. Then we went on an evening hike which took us a few kilometers down the mountain to see a brown fish owl perched over a waterfall. Thankfully we were able to hitch a ride about halfway back up the mountain. At t...

We are on our way through Kandy for the third time. Kandy is in the lower foothills clustered around a small man-made lake. There is a famous temple here which supposedly contains one of Buddha's teeth. It is not on display or available for scientific scrutiny. It is kept under lock and key in a jeweled chest which is occasionally paraded in front of the devoted believers. People line up to look at the room in the temple where it is kept. Of course foreign tourists have to pay a hefty fee to get in the temple. We did and I was underwhelmed. There is a very nice museum of Buddha next door which I found more interesting. Kandy has a serious traffic congestion problem. There are too many cars and not enough roads. The whole town rests in a carbon monoxide fog. The noise is horrible. Despite all that we have a certain fondness for the town. There is a very nice hillside park or should I say "patch of jungle "  within walking distance of our hotel. It is home to many forest bi...

So you are traveling for a long time and then you hear some sentimental western music . The emotions it triggers almost reduce you to tears. It must be a form.of homesickness. Well today we are having an expensive coffee in a pretty fancy coffee shop. There is a piano there and an acoustic guitar. We were treated to some horrible pounding on the piano by a local family. We were just getting ready to leave and a young man that sort of looked like a local, sat down at the piano and without music in front of him started to play a medley of classical and popular piano pieces that lasted about half an hour. We were dumbstruck by his virtuosity. He was simply amazing. Later we went up to thank him since we seemed to be his only audience. Turns out that he is a Peace Corp worker from Connecticut.  He works in a small Tamil village about two hours away by local bus. He is fluent in Tamil as well as music. On his infrequent days off he travels here to play their rather stylish piano.  ...

Trincomalee is a port city on the East coast of Sri Lanka. It is mostly Tamil. It suffered the Civil War as well as the great tsunami. The town seems pretty sleepy and seems to be off the main tourist circuit.  We stayed in a bit of a run down hotel in downtown which had the bonus of being right on the beach. We were warned not to attempt swimming in the ocean. Besides the riptide there were also salt water crocs to worry about.  The town is littered with Hindu temples on every second or third block. Cows meander the main street and spotted deer are munching any greenery . So we just walked around and visited a few key temples.  I had the best haircut of my life here. The barber had very little to work with but he did a masterful job . He spent another half hour working on my mustache, eyebrows ,nose hair and ear bushes. I think he massively over charged me at four dollars but I was happy to pay and tip. ...