The mountains in a minibus

If we thought a 4 hour journey in a tin box with no seat was epic.  We now had a 8 hour journey down south to  Galle in a minibus.  Tourists seriously underestimate the journey times within SL.  The route was only 170 miles but was going to take the whole day. 

  However our lovely driver did break up the drive with a few stops, one including St Clairs Waterfalls, Adams Peak (one of the higest points in SL) and the very spot where they filmed Bridge over the River Kwai.  Of course whilst here we had a pot of tea.

Nuwara Eliya. Any chance of a brew ?

Our train tickets to Nuwara Eliya (Middle England) cost 120 rupees, so about 69p for a 4 hour journey which took us  into the mountains, central SL - so as you can imagine we didn't have high hopes for the journey!  As expected no seat and certainly no buffet cart!  Didn't even try the loo.  We stopped at many stations on route and each time we pulled away it was as if the driver was doing his best to pull the front end compleely away from the carriages. The locals seem to find this quite amusing ! Boarding and ilighting the train in SL never takes very long as if there is a door, it is never closed (like the windows).  Each time we went through a tunnel everyone would scream at the top of their lungs as if they were on ghost train at the fair.

We arrived at The Grand hotel in Newara Eliya which was 2000 ft above sea level.  They call it Middle England. Within the villae there is a race course and golf course, all very bristish (although our caddies don't wear skirts).  It even smells like Britain, must have been the rain!  The first night we event wore our long sleeves!!  The hotel was lovely and had a billiards room and a bar with a open fire.  Felt like a ski lodge, very strange. 

The mountains are home to many tea plantations that SL export all round the world.  We drank the odd pot or two here!!   We did a tour of one of the factories, Mackwoods in Labookellie. 
http://www.mackwoodstea.com/aboutus.asp  

They have been producing tea for some 160 years. Not a bad drop we
thought. Bee gee we've drunk some tea over the last few weeks...

Some tea facts: 75 % of the pickings turns to water.  Only 2 leaves and a bud are hand plucked from the tea bush, this is the first stage of making tea.  Most bushes last 100 years although they have started cloning which reduced the life of the bush to 60 years but has an increased yeld - typical.

We must........

......Stop eating curry for breakfast. As although very nice it does feel a little odd.

Kandy - post The Esala Perahera

Again another slower day planed sorted our train tickets for heading south, its going to be a bit like British Rail, seat not guaranteed!


Gotta go, SL v India just came on in the lounge….

Kandy - The Esala Perahera

So today is the first day of the Esala Perahera, a 10-day festival honoring the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha, the whole town is buzzing. We bumped into Denzil our tooth relic guide and he could fix us up with some good seats, for rupees of course. I must point out at this stage that the health and safety aspect of the festival was up there with the bull run we went to in Quarante, France – totally non existent, but equally very exciting and great fun.

To get an idea of the scale of Perahera madness, think St Paul’s Carnival, Ottery St Mary flaming barrels and the bull run in Quarante all rolled into one wth a load of elephants and flames thrown in the mix you’re kinda close.

Kandy - Botanical Gardens

Quieter day today, with a stroll round the Botanical Gardens, and our final day with our fixer. The gardens were lovely, very peaceful in the middle of a crazy busy city. Sat and had tea overlooking the lawns.

We moved hotel today due to the Perahera (big festival). Our new home is the highest hotel in Kandy, The Swiss Residence. Great views and no traffic noise!

Kandy - Sacred Temple of the Tooth Relic + Elephant Orphanage

Wow that was some lunch!
Once settled into the hotel our fixer suggested we check out the local community hall for some for some tradional sri lankan dancing. It was great, but we couldn’t work out were all the tourists had come from because up till now we seemed to be the only Europeans around town.

That evening a lovely Sri Lankan family seemed to adopt us over dinner and help with tips and info. Mum, Dad and daughter were a constant help over the next 3 days. Dad, Major General Lalin Fernando, retired, gave us his card and asked us to get in touch at any time if we needed any help whilst in SL. He was a fascinating guy, had been to school with Lord Mountbatten's son!

We headed to The Sacred Temple of the Tooth Relic – an important shrine for Buddhists as it holds the tooth relic of Lord Buddha. Hooked up with a guide, Denzil, who showed us around. The temple was bombed in 1998 by Temal Tigers. Again shoes off and shoulders covered. We would have really struggled to figure everything out in this deeply religious temple without his help.

Next stop was the Millennium Elephant Orphanage, busy day or what! We bathed (with a coconut husk), rode (hanging on for dear life!) and fed (for the cost of a few rupees of course) these amazing huge but gentle giants (although during our ride a guy told us there were about 150 deaths per year due to elephant rampages). Each elephant has a ‘mahout’, his trainer who sticks with the same elephant for life until they pass down to their son. Our elephant was called Poojah and was 24 years old and was the first to be born in captivity.

Kandy

Our hotel in Negumbo sorted us out with a fixer, a local guy called Thusara, to take us onwards to Kandy. It seems that this is pretty common within SL as although its not a particular big country but it just simply takes an age to get around.

And OMG if we thought Negumbo was busy, Kandy is utterly crazy!  Many road users - elephants, tuk tuk, leyland truck circa 1960, moped with a family of 4 on, the odd cow and of course then there are the buses - everyone gives way to these as they are the biggest and brightest.  The journey can't have been more than 100km but took 4 hours.

Thusara has booked us into a hotel, The Eden Garden, from here we made our way to Sigiriya and climbed this 5th century rock fortress that was built by King kashyapa in 477 - 495 AD, it rises 656 ft out of the jungle below, some view at the top and of course a couple of ozzies discussing cricket (Dambulla the next town was hosting the NZ v Sri Lanka match the following day).

Got chatting in the bar that night with Richard, a Geophysicist (oil) from Huston, boy could he talk, but so funny.  He gave us some travel tips as he had travelled the world (first class) care of some large oil giant.  Didn't think at this point that it was a good moment to mention my views on post peak oil!

Following day was a trip to the Golden Budda and the sacred caves that were occupied in the 2nd century by buddhists monks.  Like most places we have visited, shoes are a no no as are Fe's shoulders.  One of the monks, shaved head and dressed in orange and dedicated his life to buddhism didn't seem to want to give up his blackberry!

Moving on, enroute to Kandy we stopped at a Herbal Garden.  Here they grew everything like pepper, cloves, cinnamon, pineapple, tumeric, sandlewood and jak fruit (largest fruit in the world but might google that and see).  Was good to see all these things that are in our spice draw growing in their natural way and like soooo organic you know.

Our second hotel that Thusara fixed was in Kandy by the lake, The Suiss, very nice and very colonial.  Used by Lord Mountbatten.

Right we off for a spot of lunch. More to follow eh...

Cheers drive........

Ere, today we hired "a drive" as fellow road users, be it Tuk-Tuk, Austin Cambridge, Leyland bus pre 1960, the odd elephant, motorbike or three coming up the inside. So you could say it's a little hairy out there !

Negombo, Sri Lanka

After an early start followed by a fish curry breakfast 4 odd hours later we fly into the Emerald isle, Sri Lanka.  the flight is one that will stick with us for a long while.  At one point there were more people standing than sitting.  the main cause seemed to be filling out the standing emigration form that needed completing prior to landing.  We got the feeling that only a handful of passengers could complete the such a form and 2 of those passengers were me and Doris.

Then appeared the duty free trolley, now I know the Brits are champion at queuing but these fellas pitched up pretty high as 15/20 formed a queue in the central isle, then the haggling started for 'best price' of course.  We could only guess that their time in the emirates as been at dry as our was.

Then we land and the whole routine of standing up starts all over, way before the stewards even think about the seltbelt signs switching off.  Happy days like these hey!

For the last few days we have been chillin the breeze within Negombo, enjoying the local curry.

We met a chap on the beach, a local called Fernando who said he would take us on a tour of the area.  We walked along the beach, north of Negombo, which was affected by the tsunami.  Along the beach front there were many piles of bricks that would have been houses.  Our hotel lost its restaurant, pool and reception area.  Just off the beachfront many people live in township style housing, with no running water, just a standpipe in the road that is only on 2 hours per day and no toilet - Apparently Fernando stated that they use the sea. He also commented that within 10 years the local government are looking to remove all residents from such appalling conditions. We walked further inland and passed a church that was under renovation, having a new tin roof! 
We moved onto the fish market which was amazing (so was the smell!) a sight we never would have seen as lone tourists.  Through the gutting area.  Ladies then covered the fish in salt and placed in drums in the sun for a few days.

Large sheets lay in the sun with thousands of different types of fish drying in the sun for up to 4 days. 

Nothing is wasted, the bones are ground down and sold for animal feed.  All done under pretty hard conditions, mega fly problem!  But really fascinating to a couple of outsiders.  Then onto the fish market, but a remarkably no smell.  Every fish you could think off was being sold for best price.  Locals and traders all haggling for the best fish at the best price.  Then we hit Negumbo high street, now this was busy.  Everything and anything could be bought here from car parts to flipflops.  As for heat increased we jumped in a tuk-tuk to head back to the hotel feeling rather humbled. 

Tomorrow we move onto Kandy, for some inland action.

Abu Dhabi (UAE)

Known as the laid back brother of Dubai, although being the capital.  Bus ride to AD event free, 2 hour (air con'd) journey for just 4 quid.  Second hotel was more 'downtown' than the last.  Very busy spot.  In the land of oil we have found taxis are nice and cheap. 
We headed out to the  Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque for a free 10am tour.  All ladies to don the burqa before going inside, gents ok in trousers.  Shoes off all the way.  A beautiful building, very understated with plenty of gold, crystals and the worlds largest carpet weighing in at only 35 tonnes.  Hard to believe that the local composting plant had more recognition on the map than the mosque itself (5th largest in the world).  With Ramadan coming up it was all hands to the pump with polishing the gold.

This weekend, especially Friday all were out in force given it was the last weekend prior to Ramadan.  The streets were packed and the beaches were full with families having fun.  A nice change to a land where nobody seems to kick back and relax.

Dinner at the Marina Mall Tower as recommended, was at the top of the tower in the revolving restaurant.   We had once course in one rotation.  Great views even if a bit creaky (must be the heat). One course/rotation was all our budget could stretch to.  We skipped coffees and headed for the elevator, trouble is, it had moved!

Opted for a bit of glam on our last day and went for afternoon tea at the Emirates Palace (7* hotel).  Collar and skirt was the order of the day, even if a little creased (the true traveller look).  Cucumber sandwiches and scones with Devonshire cream! 

Miss
F - Blagging a day in a 7* hotel!
D - Cheap taxis

Won't miss
F - Call for prayer at 4.30 am
D - No PDA allowed!

Dubai (UAE)

And so our journey begins, our first destination a stopover in Dubai (UAE) where we have done a lot of relaxing.  The first thing to hit us was the heat!  46c by day and dropping to a chilly 40c by night.  Given such heat we headed for the Dubai Creek and had a ride on a Abra (a traditional Arabian boat), always cooler on the water.  Wondered through old Dubai souk, avoided any spending as our rucksacks are already bulging.

Our next cooling event, the Palm Jumeirah Atlantis Hotel waterpark.  A 90ft slide, known as the leap of faith - this certainly was a lycra tester!  The water was slightly chilled which was a nice relief (not even the cold tap runs cold in the Emirates).  A cheeky stay at the Atlantis Hotel is a mere 10k a night.
On our final day in Dubai we spent it in the desert.  Dune bashing.  Travel sickness tester or what!  Crazy mad Arab at the wheel of a 4x4 (sick bag handed out before we even started).  This lead to an oasis, desert camp where we bbq'd, rode camels and attempted some belly dancing.

Miss
F - Sheikhs driving ridiculously expensive cars very fast!
D - Sheikhs get up!  There is something mystical about the whole look

Not miss
F - The heat
D - The noise generated by the cooling of the Emirates. Mass segregation.