[J.] We travelled from Nepal via Thailand to Sri Lanka on Friday, 18 December. After more than 5 weeks of wearing long (India) and warm clothes (Nepal) we were longing for sunny beach weather and I was keen to trade the fleeze and hoodies in for skirts and shirts which were packed away in my luggage since the beginning of our trip.
Arriving in Bangkok, Thailand more then 4 years after our first holiday in Asia was exciting as we saw the airport with such different eyes after having been to so many other countries since. Years ago, we only noticed how different this airport looks compared to european airports; now we were stunned by the sheer size and modern look of it.
We arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka very late that night. The owner of the guesthouse we had booked in advance had been so friendly to pick us up and we were glad after a full travel day to not having to deal with transport or taxi drivers.
It is not allowed to import cigarettes to Sri Lanka, and as my bucket list for this year 2015 still unsuccessfully states "stop smoking", well...I thought, that it might be a great idea to just stop exactly that day. What a failure! - being tired and stressed after queueing up and waiting so many times that day, the first thing I did after stepping out of the airport was asking our driver where I could buy cigarettes. He was walking with us to such a hidden shop directly outside of the dark airport, I would have not guessed it there. Funnily enough, he mentioned that he was glad about this smoking break as he was also craving one and does not smoke at home... I like to think, we went along pretty well for the one day stay at his place... ;)
We moved on south to Hikkaduwa taking the train along the west coast. The train was super crowded and we knew that our train ride was about to last more then 2 hours with obviously no chances to catch a seat or at least sitting on the floor. Uuuurgh... The doors to both side of the train were wide open at least and we were thankful for the fresh brize of air cooling us down. But beside all this, the almost constant view onto the ocean was the bomb and compensated easily for having to stand the whole ride. When we arrived in Hikkaduwa, the train stopped but there was no platform to get off the train. So we waited, believing that the platform would appear after the road the train had to cross. Well, it did not and we made the whole trip down to Galle, about 25km further south. Oh, no!!... the train had simply been too long so that our coach did not stop somewhere with a platform close to it. We had no idea if there would be another train departing that late afternoon back from Gaule to Colombo via Hikkaduwa and the thought of having to spent money on a taxi ride for nothing was not adding to our not-so-great mood. But we were lucky, arriving in Galle we could catch a train back departing only 10 minutes later. By then, the idea was to jump off the train in Hikkaduwa regardless of having a platform or not and I was prepared to even through my bag and myself off a slowly moving train, just wanting to arrive and stop travelling for this day.
Finally after arriving in Hikkaduwa (with the coach stopping next to a platform), we were rewarded with a front beach bungalow and seldom has a beer tasted so good... Cheers!
We spent two absolutely lazy days without doing anything more then spending time at the beach, beach bars, playing frisbee (I so struggled throwing the frisbee straight instead of in all other directions, this classic girl style was worth quite some laughs... oh oh.) and watching the sun set with palm trees, the sound of waves and perfect sand being such a cliché, it almost hurt. The surfing scene and all the other tourists add to a very relaxed vibe, not too crowded, tourists of mixed age and a laid back atmosphere.
The next day, we hired a scooter to explore the coast further south, visiting Galle and Mirissa. Driving on the road is more or less safe; generally, bigger vehicles clearly have the right of way. Although the general driving speed is around 40 to 50 km per hour, buses drive like crazy and it is a good idea to stay as clear of them as you can. We had two instances with us being directly involved, one as a pedestrian and one on the scooter where I thought, this is totally crazy and a seriously dangerous behaviour (buses going at high speed when passing us).
The streets in the fort of Galle are beautiful, with an old colonial style and we were wandering down the alleys for some time and hunting down a breakfast. In Merissa, we stayed only for an afternoon coffee somewhere at the beach and the tourists seemed younger here compared to Hikkaduwa. After one day on the road, my cheeks and chin were slightly covered in black oily dust, which did not even wanted to go properly off after a long swim in the sea. Yikes!
Overall, I so enjoyed the ride along the coast and its beautiful scenery. It seems like new buildings and resorts are being built everywhere but still not giving the impression of an over touristy place. Along the road, there were still signs and ruins caused by the 2004 tsunami, even one modern hotel being built around the facade of a destroyed previous building. And the lonely beaches invite for a break, picnic or just to relax.
We moved our guesthouse on 23 December to a diving centre just up the road. The next days will be dedicated to diving and maybe doing the rescue diver qualification. Sooooo looking forward to it!
[Pics will follow]
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