Meet Me Halfway - Backpacking in Sri Lanka Part 1
Finally, our long awaited trip with mon amour is here!
After about 3 hours flight, we reached Colombo airport at 11 pm. The plan is to wait till the sunrise as there is nothing much to do here in Colombo in the wee hours. We knew we had to wait as well as our friends, Siham and Matthias from Paris will be reaching about 4 am. With absolutely nothing to do or eat, It is no wonder that there is many tourist and backpackers were sleeping on the floor in the airport. John Green said it is the best thing to do. I make use of time of my time preparing a little gift for Siham and Matthias. Celebrating our many trips together since 2009.
It says, "Meet me halfway" (not literally as it took them more than 1 day including transit to get here from Paris! hehe)
After about 3 hours flight, we reached Colombo airport at 11 pm. The plan is to wait till the sunrise as there is nothing much to do here in Colombo in the wee hours. We knew we had to wait as well as our friends, Siham and Matthias from Paris will be reaching about 4 am. With absolutely nothing to do or eat, It is no wonder that there is many tourist and backpackers were sleeping on the floor in the airport. John Green said it is the best thing to do. I make use of time of my time preparing a little gift for Siham and Matthias. Celebrating our many trips together since 2009.
It says, "Meet me halfway" (not literally as it took them more than 1 day including transit to get here from Paris! hehe)
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DAY 1
After more than 24 hours of no sleep and 8 hours of waiting in the airport, we ended up at the Negombo Fish Market at 6 am in the most brutal and shocking way (literally). We are in another world. Welcome to Sri Lanka.
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Earlier on before our trip, we managed to book a nice place for our stay. Washed up, put on fresh new clothes and we are ready to explore Negombo Town. Today, we decided to have a fancy big seafood dinner! Well, because we deserve it!
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DAY 2
The next day, we are ready to roll to another city, Kandy! We took a tuk tuk (sounds catchy...tookatuktuk lol), to the train station, and the train guy said that we need to take a train to another station and then transfer to another scheduled train. To think that we have absolutely no time to go to the toilet and have our breakfast, we decided to take a bus to Kandy from the next Station. Complicated but nevermind. It took us about 3-4 hours to get to Kandy.
Let me warn you, it was only 2 days here and we realised that we have to be mentally and physically prepared on this trip. We were well-prepared before coming on this trip, but to experience it is, another story. The bus or train ride wasn't an easy one. And the toilet.... arrgh. Anyway, more on that later.
Let me warn you, it was only 2 days here and we realised that we have to be mentally and physically prepared on this trip. We were well-prepared before coming on this trip, but to experience it is, another story. The bus or train ride wasn't an easy one. And the toilet.... arrgh. Anyway, more on that later.
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DAY 3
Today, we went to a very touristic tour around Kandy City. We called it the "tourist trap". We were convinced by a tuk tuk driver to go to 8 main attraction in Kandy for 1000lkr each (about RM 28 or SGD 9). It is of course, very cheap considering our currency, but for Sri Lanka standard, it is actually very expensive. And we ended up going to only abt 4 places and a very touristic one. So we felt cheated in a way, it is kind of the same feeling when we went to Thailand, you know... where the tuktuk will stop over at shops before your destination just for you to see and experience (as they say) and they ended up forcing us to buy something (in a very persuasive way).
Anyway, we went to a tea factory, batik factory and gems museum. Despite this bad vibe that we get, i actually really enjoyed the herbal garden where we went for an educational tour on different types of herbs and it's use and benefits.
Anyway, we went to a tea factory, batik factory and gems museum. Despite this bad vibe that we get, i actually really enjoyed the herbal garden where we went for an educational tour on different types of herbs and it's use and benefits.
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Later that evening, we walked to Kandy Lake to experience the Buddist Festival, Esala Perahera. This celebration is to honour the Sacred Tooth Relic. We decided to came in early so we can have better seats in the front row.
Mr was wearing short pants, so we had to buy a sarong for him to cover up. He looks really cute in this, me thinks! hehe
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Lucky we brought along our ponchos as it started to rain, and it rain the whole evening!
We also had a bit of time before the show started, so of course, girls being girls, we took many funny shots using my new S8Plus which I just discovered can take many cool shots!
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The boys were quite irritated with us girls, so we did this just to cheer them up!
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Day 4
Our plan was to go down South and Sigiriya wasn't part of our plan as it is in the North. As we heard many good things about Sigiriya, we decided to stay another night in Kandy and go for a day trip to Sirigiya. Oh yes, another 6 hours bus ride both way to visit the ancient Lion's Rock, the single most dramatic sight in Sri Lanka. Another shaky and sardine ride.
We heard that it will take us about 3-4 hours to climb up and but in fact, it actually took us about just an hour to reach the top, and mind you, we are not pro hikers or very physically fit. Breathtaking view but... this is not the place you want to have digestive problem. Too much curry, maybe. Sorry to cut this story short... It's not the best experience I had in my life. Anyway, let's move on.
We heard that it will take us about 3-4 hours to climb up and but in fact, it actually took us about just an hour to reach the top, and mind you, we are not pro hikers or very physically fit. Breathtaking view but... this is not the place you want to have digestive problem. Too much curry, maybe. Sorry to cut this story short... It's not the best experience I had in my life. Anyway, let's move on.
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