Tag: Sri Lanka

Lazy Day At Triton Hotel, Ahungalla, Sri Lanka, 25 March 1995

Lazy day by the pool and sea.

Swam, ping-pong, Cashews.

We did more sea swimming that holiday than usual, for some reason. I think it was a very gentle sea at that beach…or perhaps I was a bit more crazy back then. Janie will have won consistently at ping-pong – she usually does. I remember the cashews around the pool being/seeming especially yummy.

Planned outings with Don and Zila…

Janie might remember this aspect better than me. They were a couple from our trip and the only other couple who went on to the Triton. I think in the end we only did the one trip with them – the next day to see gems etc. I don’t think they were as keen on doing stuff through Sunil/Ramonas as we were – but more on that as the next few days unfold.

…went into village for water and watched cricket…

I can only apologise to my cricket mates but there are no photos of the cricket. I suspect that we went into the village on our errands without cameras – otherwise there’d be photos.

…went to barbecue and fashion show in evening.

I don’t think the fashion show floated my boat much, but Janie took a few snaps

Part Two of our two-part photo album for this Sri Lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below – there are 75 photos therein:

01 Tea pickers in hill country, near Nuwara Eliya SRI_J4 (18)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)

From Nuwara Eliya To Hambantota Via Yala Safari Park, Sri Lanka, 23 March 1995

Nuwara Eliya Colonial Post Office
What Nuwara Eliya really looks like

Left Hill club early to drive (via Nuwara Eliya) through beautiful hill country, to Ella Pass Rest House…

Ella Pass vista
Ella Falls

and on to Tissamaharama for lunch and onto jeeps for safari round Yala National Park – very interesting – saw water buffalo and elephant at close quarters, crocodiles, ibis etc. We even saw a bear (very rare – only 20) but not a leopard (rare – only 25).

Yala scene
Spot the peacock

Got back to Tissamaharama dusty and late – went straight on to Hambantota – Peacock Beach Hotel – washed thoroughly and ate (good meal with limbo dancers!). Early night.

Part Two of our two-part photo album for this Sri Lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below – there are 75 photos therein:

01 Tea pickers in hill country, near Nuwara Eliya SRI_J4 (18)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)

From Kandy To Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, 22 March 1995

Children at play on wy to elephant orphanage

Left for elephant orphanage early morning. Quite enjoyable.

Jo feeding a baby elephant
Bathing elephants
Elephants got quite excited at the thought of their bath – that’s not the elephant’s tail protruding

Back for lunch and then leave Kandy for higher hills – beautiful scenery – stopped at tea Plantation/tea factory on the way .

Near Kandy as we start to ascend
Con plays with the tea
While real tea workers pack the tea

Arrived at Nuwara Eliya Hill Club for colonial atmosphere – jacket and tie dinner, snooker afterwards, latish night.

Looks a bit like the Manchester Tennis And Racquets Club inside
Looks a bit like Noddyland outside
Snookered

Hot water bottle and soft bed – slept badly.

Part One of our two-part photo album for this Sri Lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below – there are 69 photos therein, ending as we leave Kandy:

01 17 March 1995 - Ornate Hindu Temple, ColomboSRI_I1 (16)

Part Two of our two-part photo album for this Sri Lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below – there are 75 photos therein:

01 Tea pickers in hill country, near Nuwara Eliya SRI_J4 (18)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)

A Day In Kandy, Sri Lanka, 21 March 1995

Eye Kandy – Botanical Garden

Day in Kandy – Botanical Gardens in the morning – 50-50 place…

Big Javan tree

…followed by gem factory/shop with hard sell and no sales. Then a ghastly souvenir shop place.

View of Kandy from outside town

After pleasant lunch and relaxation by the pool, trip round Kandy market – very interesting and pleasant…

…then on to temple of the tooth for noisy ceremony…

Temple Of the Tooth

… before returning to Hotel Suisse for dinner and early night.

Part One of our two-part photo album for this Sri lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below there are 69 photos therein:

01 17 March 1995 - Ornate Hindu Temple, ColomboSRI_I1 (16)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)

From Sigiriya To Kandy, Sri Lanka, 20 March 1995

Damsels keeping abreast of the fruit plate

Very early start to Sigiriya Rock – climbed all the way to the top – via the Sigiriya damsels (5th century wall paintings) – so high has a splendid ruined castle.

So high, but look at the crumbling old ruins…and product placement opportunity

Returned to Sigiriya [Village Hotel] for swim, packing and lunch (best meal at Sigiriya) before leaving for Kandy.

I wasn’t going to miss that place, despite them saving the best till last food-wise.

On the way we stopped at a wonderful spice garden where all the edible and medicinal herbs were explained to us.

We had massage and tried spice tea at that herb garden
There we saw a wood carving man using his feet as part of the process

We then stopped at a daft batik factory before going on to Kandy.

We were starting to find these commercial breaks quite tiresome, especially when, as the day went on, the scheduled touring was seemingly more like a short break between these daft commercial visits.

Before dinner we went to a performance of Kandyan dance including firewalkers.

Let’s hope he knew what he was doing

Dinner at Hotel Suisse – better than Sigiriya. Early night.

Part One of our two-part photo album for this Sri lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below there are 69 photos therein:

01 17 March 1995 - Ornate Hindu Temple, ColomboSRI_I1 (16)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)

Polonnaruwa And Dambulla, Sri Lanka, 19 March 1995

Early start. Morning trip to Polonnaruwa – really bumpy ride – second oldest capital (11th/12th century).

On the way to the main site, we stopped at this place, apparently the Hindu Temple of Penis & Vulva. There was no sign there saying “thanks for coming”, sadly.

[Polonnaruwa] ruins in slightly better repair than Anuradhapura – several temples to see plus more dagobas (stupas).

No, those two are not the Buddha images; that’s Ged & Daisy

Also Gal Vihara – Buddha images.

Back to Sigiriya Village for mediocre lunch then on optional tour to Dambulla.

Climb up to cave temples – wonderful old (15th century?) Cave paintings and Buddha images – well worth the trip. My feet were attacked by killer ants as we left.

Were the locals laughing at my ant-induced discomfort, my sartorial inelegance, or both?

Yes, goodness knows where those biter ants came from, but as I came out of the cave temples entrance all of a sudden my feet were covered with ants – it felt like hundreds of needles being pressed into my feet. I think I made a bestial roar and started running around and shaking my feet to try to remove the ants. For some reason, this seemed to amuse the local tourists no end. My feet went red briefly and then returned to normal within just a few minutes, as if nothing had happened.

Back to Sigiriya [Village Hotel] for mediocre dinner and early-ish night.

Perceptive readers might have noticed that I was not overly impressed by that hotel, especially in the matter of the grub. Our other beef with the hotel was the paper-thinness of the walls. Although we were in “cottages”, the rooms were semi-detached halves of cottages.

Indeed, the thing that probably put us off group touring for good after this holiday was the vocal double-entendres at breakfast the next morning from our nosy neighbours, who left us and the rest of the group in no doubt that you could hear anything and everything from the next room.

We were one of only two younger couples in that Sri Lanka group (there was also only a handful of younger travelers when we toured China in 1993). We decided after this Sri Lanka trip that we didn’t want to be the unwitting entertainment for frustrated older couples any more.

Part One of our two-part photo album for this Sri lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below there are 69 photos therein:

01 17 March 1995 - Ornate Hindu Temple, ColomboSRI_I1 (16)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)

Anuradhapura And On To Sigiriya Village Hotel, Sri Lanka, 18 March 1995

Is nothing sacred?

So there we were, on a Kuoni tour around Sri Lanka.

Lucky us, in 1995, we were able to go as far north as the ancient city of Anuradhapura -it was often out of bounds for tourists in those troubled first few decades of Sri Lanka’s independence.

Long drive out to Anuradhapura, stopping at Kurunegala Rest House for rest and Miridiya Hotel for lunch – not bad.

Kurunegala Rest House scenic view

Then round ancient city – Most of which severely ruins.

Sacred Botree temple highlight – 2000 year old tree – sapling of Buddha’s enlightenment tree.

Yon Sacred Bo Tree

Drove round park – many stupas (dagobas).

In A Bit Of A Stupa

Drove on to Sigiriya Village Hotel – food mediocre – early night (even earlier start tomorrow).

Part One of our two-part photo album for this Sri lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below there are 69 photos therein:

01 17 March 1995 - Ornate Hindu Temple, ColomboSRI_I1 (16)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)

Preamble To Our Trip And Travel To Sri Lanka, Arriving In Colombo, 16 & 17 March 1995

I have very few relics from this two-week holiday in Sri Lanka, apart from my trusty (though quite pithy) journal notes and quite a lot of photos, only the highlights from which have been put into an album.

No itinerary, for example, although I do have a contact list…

…and I can pretty much reconstruct the itinerary from my journal notes. It was a Kuoni tour. We had successfully used Kuoni for our previous far flung adventure, to China, Hong Kong and Bali:

This Sri Lanka trip was to be the last time we did one of these guided tour in a group things. We got a little frustrated with the regimented nature of the tour…

…and the difficulty/inability to really get to see places and meet local people on our own terms. Some of that sense of frustration will emerge from my verbatim transcription of my (at the time of writing, in early 2020) 25 years ago journal.

We must have left London reasonably early on 16th to arrive in Colombo early on 17th.

Arrive at Columbo only 40 minutes late – despite early two hour delay at Heathrow Terminal Four due to power cut.

Get to hotel early morning – everyone travel weary – therefore slept until afternoon.

Took optional tour round Columbo.

Not a very interesting city – saw municipal buildings, old colonial buildings etc.

Galle Face Hotel

Our guide, Barney, took us to the Galle Face Hotel at end of tour. He helped us to find recommended Seafood/fish restaurant where we tried hoppers, gambas, seer fish curry and Barney’s recommended tuna dish, ambul thiyal. Very good meal.

Early night for early start tomorrow

All That Fishy Food

We weren’t staying at the Galle Face Hotel – it seems we were staying at the Lanka Oberoi Hotel (latterly known as the Cinnamon Grand). We just went for a butchers at the Galle Face.

Part One of our two-part photo album for this Sri lanka trip can be viewed through the flickr link below there are 69 photos therein:

01 17 March 1995 - Ornate Hindu Temple, ColomboSRI_I1 (16)

Real gluttons for photo punishment can see raw scans of all 430 photos we took unedited and unlabelled here:

SRI_J4 (10)