Can’t believe it. This place is JUST like the brochure! Everybody’s seen those in the travel agency right? The water couldn’t possibly be that blue, the sky so clear, the sand so white. But it certainly is.

The Maldives are beautiful, calm, hot, sunny, not windy (mostly), relaxing and expensive. The beach is amazing, the pace is so slow it’s practically stopped, and we just love this place.

Overwater bungalows everywhere.

We are staying in a regular bungalow on the beach, but these are cool to look across at.

This particular island has a surf break right on the island as well as four boat trips each day to various other waves. Time to break out all the boards.

It’s a beautiful resort, and the rooftop bar has a great view. Whilst the storm wasn’t in the brochure, it only lasted a short time.

So they surfed at the Kandooma break….

And I saw dolphins passing by….

Or I watched the local fishermen…

The next island is really close as you can see in the photo below. At least they don’t have far to go to work.

Neighbouring Island – very close!

We went on a snorkelling trip to see the turtles. I was a bit dubious about our luck, after missing out on the leopards, but our luck had changed and we saw lots of turtles and heaps of colourful fish.

Harry was our underwater photographer

And then they surfed some more….

When they do boat trips, they travelled on these lovely traditional boats. Sometimes the surfers would bail and join the Kandooma break instead of heading around the island to the jetty.

The waves were good. The boat trips were plenty. We met three other lovely families from Torquay/JanJuc/Bellbrae. We have all gained way too much weight. Tomorrow we start the trip home. Sad to end a fabulous family holiday. I have hundreds more surfing pics, so I might post a dozen or two if I get Wi-Fi in our Singapore transit – or later.

Next trip? Being on holidays is the best inspiration for more holidays. Ideas are currently stretching from exotic surf destinations to Tahiti to South America to Vietnam to……Thanks for coming with us this far. XX

We’ve noticed so many things that are quite different to India here. Same but different. We had anticipated that Sri Lanka would be virtually the same. Not so. The poverty is nothing compared to India. There is greater equality here amongst the classes, unlike India.
People don’t stare at us – or even at much at all. In India, it is normal to see a crowd gathered just to stare at, well, anything and anyone really.

Daily life in the country.

The traffic is different too. Tooting of horns is incessant in India, but here they show great restraint and only toot as they pass. Much more relaxing! Of course, the relentless need to pass other cars, trucks, tuk tuks, motorbikes, bicycles or bullock drawn carts is as strong as ever. And the creation of three lanes of traffic when there should be two, as well as pulling out to overtake (just one toot), remain standard here. It seems the motto is “biggest vehicle wins”.

The country roads are fairly light on for traffic, but Kandy was nuts. There are very few traffic lights to manage the craziness, but it all seems to flow, albeit slowly. Everyone just pushes in, and everyone else just lets them in. You can cross three lanes of traffic by just pushing in. Perhaps it helps that they are only going at a snail’s pace.

The retail style is similar. Countless tiny shops all selling the same range of stuff – a little bit of everything.

English is taught in all schools and most people can speak it quite well. Signage is in English, Sinhalese and now Tamil. Although the English isn’t so prominent on the east coast. They tend to do their own thing there.

Our guide, Praki, says the country is only half corrupt. Bit I think this is a growing world trend…

Prices vary on the tourist scale. Sometimes we stopped for lunch and ate like kings for $3.50, and other times we could spend $50. Wine was expensive, but I always thought it money well spent whenever I found it.

Tipping was essential, despite the 10% already added to your bill. This is in addition to 18% tax. So when you see a price on a menu, you can add 30% to cover the tax, service charge and the tip. It was mostly good value though.

Perhaps we shouldn’t expect Sri Lanka to be “just like” India simply because they are right next door to each other. In fact it is only 32km between the two. There was once a ferry that linked the two coasts, but the terminal was destroyed during the civil war and hasn’t been rebuilt.

I’d love to see some of the northern parts of the country that we didn’t get to. So maybe, after we’ve experienced some other cultures new to us, we might return one day.

Travelling on toward Colombo, we took the coast road passing through Matara where Praki grew up. He lives in Colombo now though. The route is filled with lovely beach side towns which cater to domestic and, increasingly, to international tourists. Sri Lanka is trying hard to grow this industry now that the civil war is over. Lasting 30 years and finishing in 2009, the war was basically between two ethnic groups – the Tamils (15% of the population) who mainly live in the north-east, and the majority (75%) Singhalese people. The Tamils wanted their own land and governance. They say it’s all over now and everyone is chilled. But I reckon that’s not completely true.

Back to the journey – after the tsunami, the government made a rule that you could not rebuild within 100m of the high tide mark. This has been disregarded by most, and the government randomly chooses some buildings and has them demolished. But not often.

Amidst the post tsunami years and now the post war era, the country is gradually getting itself together. Colombo is like one big construction zone.

Busy times in Colombo

We saw a very scary thing here. When the war was over, Sri Lanka needed to start rebuilding and went looking for money from off shore….IMF, World Bank etc. But China stepped up quickly and dropped by to build some world-class road and freeways, the like of which Sri Lanka had never seen. But then, goes around comes around. The Chinese have now taken a 99 year lease on the Port and on top of that, they have deleted a huge section of the beach from Colombo and are currently building 600 hectares of “new land” using sand they have dredged up from the ocean somewhere. Heaven only knows what this will do to the ocean floor. They are going to create an industrial centre on the new space. But the actual use will most likely be a military holding. A bit like the South China sea. Makes me wonder what they’ll do with the Port of Darwin.

This is a great city. Packed with beautiful buildings from the colonial era, many of them preserved and being used today in their full grandeur, some not. The streets are packed with the usual mix of traffic.

That motor cyclist (above) thinks he can fit between the buses. But then, so does the Tuk Tuk. They do have traffic lights here in Colombo, but they only seem to slow things down.
I love the hustle and bustle of the streets packed with activity. The people here are so genuinely friendly and helpful. We never felt intimidated or wary for our safety.

Colombo street life

Market selling flowers to offer to Buddha

Praki showed us most of the districts in the city along with telling some funny stories. Colombia is a melting pot of religions. Even though it’s predominantly Buddhist, the minority Muslim and Hindu groups mingle fairly happily.

Moslem Mosque jammed between the shops in a city street

There is an intersection where there’s a Buddhist temple, Hindu temple, Muslim mosque and a Catholic church on each of the four corners.

Hindu temple and unfinished Lotus tower

The lotus flower tower in the background of the photo above has been under construction for years now. It is destined to be an icon for the city. If they finish it.
We did a lightning tour round the National Museum which has some pretty good stuff in there. Later we wandered along the esplanade in the evening, past street vendors selling roti and chicken. Oddly, every stall sold the same thing.
We had our last dinner of the trip in a Sri Lankan restaurant in the well restored historic 1600’s building called The Old Dutch Hospital, now converted into restaurants and shops.
Before we headed to the airport to fly to The Maldives, Praki found time for just one more temple. This one (Gangaramaya) belongs to a rather well-known and politically active monk. He also appears to be a hoarder. The centuries old building is packed with an eclectic mix of, well, just about everything….jewellery, china, old cameras, musical instruments, elephants statues, photos….endless.

Typewriters, empty bullet shell, elephant tusks….

We were blessed by a monk too. I have found the Buddhists to be the most peaceful, calm and gentle people. And they love their Buddha…….

We farewelled Praki, a fantastic guide. He knew the answer to every question and then some more. He might have made some answers up, but we couldn’t tell. Good bye to Hamayl, the bag man and door opener, and to Naylanga – our driver.
Next stop – Male airport en route to Kandooma!

In 2004, the devastating Tsunami from the Indian Ocean killed 40,000 Sri Lankans and wiped out countless homes and villages along the southern end of the island. The enormous waves that headed straight for Sri Lanka wrapped themselves around the coast from Colombo in the west to well up the east coast. Over a thousand people lost their lives in a commuter train that was swept away.

As we travelled along the coast from Yala towards Colombo, there are still many signs of the devastation. Some buildings still remain in ruins, while the rest have been built in these last 13 years. The vegetation is quite barren in some places.

We stopped at a memorial, of which there are many, for the lives that were lost. In the picture below you can see a sculpture that shows the height of the four waves that hit the coast. In the background is the slab foundation of a guest house where over 20 people perished.

Tsunami memorial

This was in the Yala National Park. Nature is amazing. When the waves hit, all the wildlife had moved inland, and were safe.

We’ve had a great time enjoying the variety of things to see and do in Sri Lanka, but have been looking forward to our visit to Yala National Park and Nature Reserve – a lot! It’s 1200 square kilometres in the south of the island, and mainly dry woodland, scattered with brackish lagoons. The big drawcard here is the leopards. There are thought to about 40 of these beautiful, elusive cats in the area of the park that we will visit and it’s considered one of the best places in the world to see a leopard in the wild. As well as about 300 elephants, they have 200 species of birds, water buffalo, spotted deer, wild boars (not a big attraction for us), crocodiles, mongoose, monkey and the very rare shaggy coated sloth bear.
We stayed at the gorgeous Cinnamon Wild Resort which has a long driveway at the entry skirting a lake with painted stork, water buffalo, pelicans and crocodiles. As we slowly passed the lake we were greeted by two crocs mating. As you do when the tourists go by. The pool (not the lake) was a great place to be in the 38 degree heat after the 6 hour drive from Arugam Bay.
Our hopes were high as we headed off at 5.30am for our safari. There are dozens of companies using hundreds of converted jeeps to trawl the dirt road in the park looking for wildlife. At least we are not here in the peak of the season. Praki says it gets a little bit crazy then.

Our first encounter was with this lovely creature…….

There were many groups of spotted deer. We saw one pair having an antler fight, making a racket with the click clacking.

Unfortunately, if you see deer, there are probably no leopards around. Not a good sign for us.
We came across some amazing birds. Our guide, Praki, knows all about the wild life here. He’s like a walking encyclopaedia.

Adjuvant

Chestnut Headed Bee Eater

Peacock

There were plenty of peacocks wandering about, but none that showed off their tail.
We saw this wood pecker (below) tapping his head off on this tree to make a nest.

Next up – the Hornbill. Such a weird looking bird!

Hornbill

There were crocs in most of the water holes, hanging out harmoniously with water buffalo and birds. Clearly not hungry while we were watching.

A little one.

A medium one.

A big one.

Still no leopard.
The kingfishers were easy to spot with their stunning blue colour. When they fly you can see they are red breasted (left) and the one on the right is white breasted.

And some other birdlife…

I’ve read that sometimes the elephants are hard to find here in Yala. Luckily this wasn’t the case for us. We saw this huge male, about 30 years old, pop out of the bush, no indicator, and lob in front of us. So we followed him down a track…..

…..all the way to the lake where he cooled himself off with a few sprays of water.

Cooling off.

We loved watching him.
And still no leopard.
But……we came across another couple of vehicles stopped ahead of us with cameras pointed to the scrubby bush on the left. As we reached them, we saw a mother Shaggy Coated Sloth Bear and two cubs – one riding on her back and one following behind. Here’s the best photo we got below. It all happened so fast.

Shaggy Coated Sloth Bears

The safari jeep driver was excited, Praki was excited, and we were really, very lucky to see these bears. Smiles all over the Landrover!
On the way out of the Reserve, we found a group of elephants sheltering in the shade in the heat of the afternoon.

Adult and three young elephants

See the baby hiding out the back?

It’s a female with three young ones. She must be babysitting for other mums. The smallest baby is only a couple of months old, and the other two less than a year old.
As we rolled back into the resort we could watch the evening antics of the residents in the lake while rehydrating…with a gin and tonic of course.

Evening animals

We had a great day, and even though we never saw a leopard I think we scored one better with the Sloth Bear family…….you see: glass half full. I think Praki felt sorry for us! He has been to this wildlife reserve over 70 times and seen the leopards about 36 times (I think he keeps count). He kindly shared the photos below with us. Our leopard day will have to wait.