Saturday 9th November
After our farewell dinner on our last night in India, we said goodbye to the group, we had become friendly with, and wished them all well in the next stage of their journey, we returned to the hotel to pack and have an early night.
Our airport transport arrived at 8:15, and off we went through the busy street to Delhi’s International Airport. This is where the fun began, we had checked in online with Air India a few days ago, but there was no facility to download or print boarding passes or an e-ticket (a document we only found out about at the airport), security at the airport is tight and they would only allow you into the terminal if you have either an e-ticket or a boarding pass, neither of which we had, therefore, no entry into the terminal. Eventually, I found a document stating, “that printed boarding passes were not available”, this document fortunately had our flight reference number and my name and details, this, after much discussion with the soldiers on the doors, allowed me into the terminal. After being shunted from one end of the terminal to the other, I managed to find an Air India desk where I got the required e-tickets printed, on returning to the doors again, where Jim was being held by the soldiers, to give him his e-ticket, which eventually gained him access. We were then able to check in and get our printed boarding passes which allowed us to pass through immigration and security. It was just as well we arrived early and that our flight was delayed for over an hour.
My advice to anyone flying from Delhi International Airport is to ensure you have obtained all possible documentation before going there.
The 3-hour flight to Colombo was fairly uneventful, we were given a reasonable meal, but there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment. On landing, we both picked up some local currency, localSIM cards for our phones, we were then taken by our transfer driver to the Jetwings Sea Hotel in Negombo, a lovely beachfront hotel, which looked perfect for our needs. Following our problems in getting there, we felt the need for an evening siesta, before a stroll into the town for a look-see and a nice meal in a restaurant called BoHo. A Tuk-Tuk ride back to the hotel finished off an interesting day.
Sunday 10th November
Following a nice and varied hotel breakfast, (I always take delight in seeing the different breakfast offerings in each country I visit), we returned to our room to plan our day. After watching a video about Sri Lanka, we both downloaded Pick Me Sri Lanka, a really good ride-hailing app, which we used to book a Tuk-Tuk to take us to a nearby laundry to drop off our bag wash. A slow stroll through a fairly typical beachside town, with a stop for a nice cooling fruit juice finished off our morning.
The afternoon saw us paddling in the inviting Indian Ocean, then relaxing and reading our books, before we gathered in the lounge for our pre-tour Intrepid meeting.
We were met by Chamodi, our Intrepid tour leader and the rest of the group. This is a mixed group, we have Chris and Robyn, a couple from Queensland and Ken also from Queensland, Alice from Norway, Eileen from San Francisco, plus Nishi and Pawani, who both work for Intrepid’s chat line in Colombo, plus of course there was Jim and I.
Intrepid’s Classic Sri Lanka Tour – Our Route and the Group
After an informative meeting, a few of us visited Lords, a nice restaurant in town for dinner, before returning to the hotel.
Monday 11th November
We had a reasonably early start this morning, where, after meeting Karu, our driver for the trip and his assistant Thusha, we hit the road, wishing to miss the worst of the traffic on the 110km journey to our next destination in Kandy. This road provided us with a view of Sri Lanka’s dramatic scenic contrasts, in just over three hours we went from the warm coastal region to cooler inland hills, we even managed a lone old elephant just wandering alongside us for a while. After stopping at a local supermarket to buy snacks for our train journey tomorrow, we visited a local family named Kolitha and Deepthia, for a homemade Sinhalese meal, the family made us really welcome in their lovely home, and the fresh coconut drinks we most welcome.
From their house, it was a short journey to Kandy, but unfortunately, we arrived as the schools were finishing, resulting in big traffic jams in the city. We reached our accommodation for the next 2 nights, The Thailanka Hotel which perfectly suited our needs. After a short break, we went by bus to visit Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Tooth, a highly decorated Buddhist temple holding Sri Lanka’s most significant relic, a tooth from the Buddha, unfortunately, the relic was locked away so we never got to see it, but it was an interesting visit nonetheless.
The Kandyan Cultural Centre was our next stop. We saw some pretty impressive routines from a troupe of local dancers, which finished with a fire dance and a fire walk. It was all very entertaining. Before returning to the hotel, some of us went to Balani Dosai, a nearby Dosa house in the centre of Kandy for a nice dinner. This was yet again another tiring but enjoyable day, and we were more than happy to reach our rooms for the night.
Tuesday 12th November
We left our hotel this morning for a short bus journey to the railway station to catch our Sri Lankan train adventure from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya, especially after reading that it’s one of the most beautiful in the world, something I would agree with. We powered through the country’s lush green tea plantations, passing local villages, waving at smiley locals, disappearing into mountain tunnels then drifting into cloud forests, reaching altitudes of 6,200 feet. It was just as well that I had fully charged my phone, as almost every part of the journey offered excellent photo opportunities.
My photographs don’t do the journey justice, however, the route can be seen in this short Youtube video. https://youtu.be/F3qsECQoqeg
Once we got off the train we visited the Aralya Green City Food Court for lunch, we were asked to make our choice beforehand from a menu showing the options photographically whilst on the train, the food differed slightly from the photographs shown, but was very good indeed. The Damro Labookellie Tea Centre and Tea Garden was our next stop, despite it being shrouded in mist and me not being a tea lover, I really enjoyed our experience here. The tour guide spoke perfect English and was really informative on the tea-making process. The tour was really interesting, and the other members of the group enjoyed the tea they sampled at the end of the tour, with many buying packs to take home as souvenirs.
Tours over, we started the descent back to Kandy, this certainly was a long and winding road, Robyn, one of our group, who suffers from travel sickness found it extremely difficult, many of us thought that the journey could have been split by having a comfort beak half way. We returned to the Thilanka hotel for our evening meal and a drink in the bar before bedtime.
Wednesday 13th November
Leaving the Thilanka hotel behind we went into Kandy city, a centre for the Sri Lankan gems industry, to visit the Prasanna Gem Centre, which gave us a very detailed and informative presentation about the many precious and semi-precious stones from around the world, we were then taken into their extensive showroom where we were offered jewellery for sale.
Our next stop, further along the road was to Gunatilake Batiks, where we were shown the technique of wax masking areas before natural dyes were applied. Much of this work was stunning, again we were offered products from sale after the demonstration. Next door to the Batik Centre was the Oak Ray woodcarving centre. Here we were shown the different types of carvings they did and the many different woods they used, the quality and intricacies they produced were of a very high standard. The showroom we were then taken to was quite something else, carved elephants as far as the eye could see, plus many stunning pieces of furniture.
Our final stop of the day was at the Dambulla Cave Temple. After climbing a set of steep stairs, we emerged at an area with magnificent views. There is an Incredible series of caves with frescoes and wood and stone statues of Buddha. This was a visit not to be missed.
Our accommodation for the next couple of days was the Oak Ray, Habanara Elephant Lake Hotel in Dambulla, a name I kept getting mixed up with Dimbulla a small town I visited, in Victoria Australia, earlier this year.
Thursday 14th November
05:30 start to visit Sigiriya (Lion Rock), which is an ancient rock fortress located near the town of Dambulla. It is a site of historical and archaeological significance that is dominated by a massive column of granite approximately 180 m (590 ft) high
According to the ancient Sri Lankan legend, this area was a large forest, then after storms and landslides it became a hill and was selected by King Kashyapa for his new capital. He built his palace on top of this rock and decorated its sides with colourful frescoes. On a small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock he built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion. The name of this place is derived from this structure; Siṃhagiri, the Lion Rock.
The capital and the royal palace were abandoned after the king’s death. It was used as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century. today Sigiriya is a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site. It is one of the best-preserved examples of ancient urban planning.
Getting to the top was quite a strenuous and arduous climb, with over 1,200 steps, despite being a strenuous hike, it was an incredible experience that I would recommend to anyone! The site is open daily from 7am to 5:30pm. We went early in the morning to try to avoid the heat and the crowds, and thankfully the expected rain stayed off for our visit. Personally, I felt extremely proud that I managed to complete the climb.
For lunch today we visited Nishshanka and Pradeepika, another Sinhalese family in their home, where the mother of the house provided us with a cookery course on how to prepare a Dahl curry and a coconut sambol, this was very informative as she highlighted the use of the various spices, all grown in the family garden. After the demonstration, we enjoyed a delightful lunch of the results, plus other dishes she had prepared earlier.
Following our early start, we returned to the hotel for some relaxation time, after a quick shower we headed to the pool to chill out and to gather our strength for our evening adventure. One of the highlights and one of the reasons we booked this trip was the jeep safari through Minnerriya National Park to see Sri Lankan wildlife in its natural habitat, during our 3-hour trip we spotted Jackals, Deer, many colourful birds and of course, elephants. Once we had navigated the winding forest tracks, we emerged at the lakeside to encounter herds and herds of elephants just going about their business in family groups, feeding, drinking and swimming across the river. It was a wonderful experience, never to be forgotten, we are so glad we came.
As you can imagine, we took rather a lot of photographs during our time there, here is a short slideshow video showing some of them.
A quick stop in a local diner for some provincial Sri Lankan food as recommended by our girls was another thing to remember, then all to soon it was time to return to the hotel at the end of a very special day in Sri Lanka.
Friday 15th November
We were all delighted to have a fairly late start this morning, leaving the Elephant Lake hotel at 10:00 am for our journey to the sacred city of Anuradhapura. A nice break in the journey was a stop at a roadside stall selling fresh fruit, and various other objects. Chamodi took great delight in letting us sample the wares, it was so refreshing.
Once we reached this sacred city which was established around a cutting from the ‘tree of enlightenment’, the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Tree is a historical sacred bo tree, located in the Mahamewuna Garden. The Buddha’s fig tree, brought there in the 3rd century B.C. by Sanghamitta, the founder of an order of Buddhist nuns. Anuradhapura was the first Ceylonese capital which flourished for many years. The city was abandoned after an invasion in 993. Hidden away in dense jungle for many years, the splendid site, with its palaces, monasteries and monuments, is now home to many Buddhist temples and stupas, many we visited on our tour of the city, starting with the Bo tree temple. Rather than showing too many of the photographs taken during our visit, I have added a link to a YouTube video showing the significant sites we visited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAeVXUihzMw
The temples were very busy during our visit as it was a Full Moon holiday, known as Poya, something that would affect us later as we discovered when we checked in to our hotel, the Heritage Hotel. The hotel was very nice with a lovely inviting pool, and after a fairly long and tiring day, we were all looking forward to sitting around the pool socialising with a few drinks, only to discover that due to the holiday, they could not serve alcohol in public. Respecting local customs, we returned to our room and had a couple of beers delivered.
Saturday 16th November
An 8:00 a.m. start this morning for our final journey to Colombo. The journey, which took around 4 hours, was broken with a few stops along the way, one memorable one was for some nice coffee and cake at Cafe Amaki, in Chamodi’s home town of Kurunegala.
Once we reached Colombo, it felt a wee bit strange to visit a food court in a busy shopping mall for lunch, it was odd to see all the multinational food chains in one place. After a tour of the main sights of Colombo and a stroll through the market area, we visited an arts and crafts complex for a browse before going to our hotel, the Sofia Colombo. The hotel, which only opened in February, was a pretty special place, so clean, bright, and modern compared to many we had encountered during our trip, the shower certainly was voted to be the best by far.
In the evening, we, as a group, took Tuk Tuk rides through the city to visit to the Ceylon Curry Club for our tour-end meal, which was pretty special. As we have experienced before, it is sad at this point to say goodbye and make promises to keep in touch, with those we have met along the way, however it has to be done and it was indeed sad to say goodbye to Chamodi, our tour leader, she, as a young woman, is one of only 2 women Intrepid tour leaders, had a slightly different style of leading, more caring and understanding of our needs, she is indeed a role model for future female tour leaders.
A quick Tuk Tuk ride back to the hotel and a nightcap in the rooftop bar watching the sunset, finished off yet another great day in Sri Lanka.
Sunday 17th November
After a lovely breakfast, we were picked up around 9:30 for the 1-hour drive up the coast to return to the Jetwing Sea Hotel in Negombo. It was so nice to be back here again, following a cooling wood apple welcome drink, we unpacked a little then booked a pick me Tuk Tuk ride to take us back along the road to the Star Laundry to drop off our dirties. Once back in town, we did some souvenir hunting before stopping off for a refreshing beer in Lords, it was great fun drinking it whilst dangling our feet in their foot spa.
On returning to the hotel we chilled by the pool, catching up on our many puzzles and reading material, it was so good to just relax and do nothing at all. We decided to stay in the hotel for dinner eating locally caught seafood, having a beer and watching Sri Lanka play New Zealand at cricket just like the locals. It was a brilliant day and just what we needed after busy and hectic tours.
Monday 18th November
We had the luxury of a long lie this morning, no early morning departure, no transfer to airport or another hotel, just a leisurely morning breakfast, (I loved the little egg hoppers they have for breakfast) we even had the luxury of spending an hour watching the local fishermen in Negombo lagoon drawing in their net. From what we could see it wasn’t such a large catch, there were many dropped shoulders at the size of it. From what I could gather, the locals feel that the catches have been reduced since the MV X-Press Pearl cargo ship caught fire in 2021, 18 km off the west coast of Sri Lanka and spilt over 1680 tons of plastic nurdles, they feel that it has affected the fish in the ara. It was interesting watching the teams of ladies, apparently paid by the local government, sifting the sand on the beach to remove thousands of nurdles. I have included a video of the activities of the day.
The rest of the morning was spent dipping into the pool, lounging on the beach, resting, chatting with the local beach traders, and just chilling out. In the afternoon we drifted into town for a coffee and cake break before a fun Tuk-Tuk ride back to the hotel for a little siesta.
We had a nice surprise in the morning when we discovered that Chris and Robyn had decided to follow our example and finish their holiday in Negombo as the hotels in Colombo were not suitable for their needs. It was so nice to see them again.
A lovely chill-out afternoon by the pool followed by dinner in Lord’s, a local restaurant finished off another glorious day.
Tuesday 19th November
Going home day today. After breakfast we returned to our room to finish packing then spent the rest of the day until our departure time relaxing in the hotel.
After saying goodbye to Chris and Robyn, it was time to leave for the airport. When it was departure time, we discovered that our flight to Dubai wasn’t a direct flight, we had a 2 hour stopover in Male in the Maldives on the way, this added a bit of interest to the journey. The remainder of the journey home went smoothly and we returned to a chilly Glasgow on time and was picked up by Dan and whisked home.
Overall, it was a great holiday. We went to interesting places, visited loads of temples, and saw marvelous sights, all with nice people we met along the way. This trip was inspired by a wish to see elephants in their natural environment, we did this and much more on a special day in Sri Lanka, and this brought memories which will never be forgotten by me and especially by my friend and travelling buddy Jim. I’m sure the time we spent on the jeep safari through Minnerriya National Park will be one of his highlights.
I would like to thank Jim, Chamodi and the rest of our fellow travellers from making it all so wonderful.
Jim's travels 