Sri Lanka

The West Coast Colombo to Unawatuna

Is it possible to fall in love with a country? If so I am having a love affair with Sri Lanka. The landscapes are amazing, the food is delicious and spiced so delicately and the people couldn’t be kinder or friendlier or more honest and respectful. The smiles you get from everyone are so personal and welcoming. I hope someone from Sri Lanka reads these words and has heard them many times before.

Starting with landing at the airport where I was picked up as promised by my home stay hostess, Dinu, and her three year old son who she had just fetched from swimming lessons. Dinu had a lovely way about her, chatty and friendly and she spoke quite good English which she learned by speaking to her guests. She owns the house on the property beside the hotel which is owned by some Sri Lankans who live in the U.S.. It was so hot and she immediately prepared me a cold fruit juice while her son Yohan and I got acquainted. What a little sweetheart, he speaks English to a degree because Dinu sends him for English lessons. He took me into room to see his homework desk where he was cutting out magazine pictures and gluing them to the corresponding English words. So sweet and cute.

In Dinu’s lovely garden I waited for my friend Heather to arrive from the U.K. and at the appointed time, Dinu and I went to the airport to collect her poor jet-lagged self. Dinu prepared a delicious dinner and then it was off to bed to get up for an early morning car hire to the town of Unawatuna a couple of hours south of Colombo

Unawatuna & Galle

We stayed in a lovely Inn, the Abundia Unawatuna, off the main road and the owner was really enthusiastic and quite funny. Not really caring too much about going to the beach as we had a pool all to ourselves to finish off each day.

In the morning we were off to Galle to see this 13th century fort built by the Portuguese and fortified later by the Dutch. The old walls are still there and you can distinguish the builders by the width of the walls, the wider ones being built by the Dutch.

A trading centre Galle has been preserved and is now a World Heritage Site. A great many of the Dutch style homes have been lovingly restored and the narrow streets are lined with bars, restaurants and shops, mainly jewellery, art and souvenirs. We made a few trips to Galle and one night we returned for a sundowner on a roof top bar, having watched a splendid one from a Dutch wall of the ancient fort.

Other things we checked out over our two nights in Unawatuna were the fishermen on sticks and the actual town and beach of Unawatuna. The fishermen on sticks were quick to let us know that photos were not free and we paid the price and took a few. Turns out they were perched there mainly for photos because the actual fishing season is later in the year. However, it was interesting to learn that the poles are passed down through the generations so that not just anyone can come along and take a perch.

Unawatuna to Tissawara

Another car and driver hired through our hotel in Unawatuna, we headed out to stay on Tissa Lake situated to the nearby Yala National Park. We were greatly surprised by our lovely hotel and were so happy with the view from our balcony and the fact that we had booked three nights here.

First order of business was to check out the pool with its view over Tissa Lake. Finding it quite satisfactory we went about the business of booking a full day Safari in Yala Park.

Our Safari started at 5:00 am and we were up and ready when our driver guide team showed up in their well used truck, the back of which was converted into three towns of seats stolen from old cars and welded securely onto the bed of the truck. A roof to keep out the sun and a hand picked stick to brace up the window at the front and away we went.

Yala Safaris are the most popular in Sri Lanka and produce a traffic jam of jeeps of various size and quality. If you want to go with other folks it is slightly cheaper but we were happy to pay a bit more and just be the two of us.

Throughout the course of the day we say both black faces and red faced macac monkeys and judging by the number of babies the population is quite healthy.

Peacocks by the bucketload and lots of small brilliantly coloured birds lots of them migratory.

There are said to be sloths in the park but like the leopard they alluded us. But we did spot plenty of mongoose and a chameleon, both of which were highlights. Along with snakes: cobra rat, viper and python to name a few. Apparently the cobras favor the tall reddy brown nests of the termite as a locale for home base. Crocodile were present but other than a few lazing on muddy banks in the far in the distance they would appear as along dark bumpy line in the water.

Wild boars were fairly frequent and of course we saw and enjoyed the water buffalo especially their comical raft like behaviour in the water. We saw some babies and in the herd and were told that they are used to the jeeps but would be very dangerous if we were to step down out of the jeep.

Of course my favourite for last- the elephants. There are 250 elephants in Yala and only 10 have tusks so very rare and given the slaughter in other parts of the world, very smart. We saw babies with their mothers and aunties feeding dr the tree tops and the occasional solo male. Only the females herd together with the babies led by a matriarch. The males will leave the herd when they are eight years old to live alone.

We had two breaks in the day, we stopped for breakfast on a Sandy beach used by local fishermen who have built huts and some were busy repairing their nets inside out of the sun. We stuck our toes in the Indian ocean and returned to keep to find our breakfast spread out on a blanket under the trees.

Our second break for lunch was two hours because this is when the animals quit moving about and so must we. We picnicked beside a river and before long we were joined a band of red faced macac. So entertaining to seem them scrapping and cavorting about, leaping and climbing as fast as well…monkeys, some of them looked a little worse for wear and being the red face macaca they can be a little tricky and have been known to to bite people.

We exited the park along with the sun happy with our day and our driver and guide having come to the conclusion they were the real deal on authentic local guides. As much as possible they managed to keep us away from the clusters of other jeeps although it did mean some rough rides on some tracks less frequented.

Tissakajarra

The Ulo Villa hotel was perched right on the edge of Lake Tissa and from ou deck we were constantly entertained by the water buffalo and birds of all sorts. In addition we were parked right beside a local bathing spot on the lake and as soon as school let out swarms of kids came to swim and play and jump off a railing onto the lake. At least until their mothers hailed them into shallower waters and gave their heads a good lather of shampoo and plastic buckets of rinsing. Also the laundromat clothing was pounded and rolled on flat rocks and wring out by the mothers in their long sarongs. After safari’s were done for the day the men drove their trucks into lake to give them a much needed wash down having collected a goodly share of dirt and mud in Yala.