Sri Lanka - The Pearl of Indian Ocean

If someone ever asks me which is my favourite beach destination, it would be Maldives & Sri Lanka. Both the places have clean & blue beaches. While Maldives has only beaches, Sri Lanka has something for everyone.

1)     Sigiriya, Pidurangala, Ella & Adam’s peak - Trekking & Hiking activities.

2)     Minneriya national park & Hurulu Eco Park – Elephant lovers.

3)     Trinicomalee & Mirissa – Whale Watching.

4)     Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Adam’s Peak – Natural facets of beauty (hilly places).

5)     Dambulla, Kandy – Buddha temples.

6)   Kitugala, Hikkaduwa, Weligama, Arugam Bay – Various water sports & activities like snorkelling, scuba diving etc

Above mentioned list are just few examples. And most importantly the people of Sri Lanka. You will fall in love with the country because of the hospitality & welcome you experience from there. And ladies out there who want to travel alone, this is the best place. Nobody will stare at you for what you wear or how you look. Instead, they would love and be ready to help you anytime, anywhere.

This was the first holiday since covid 19 which had many ‘firsts’ for me. So, everything was new to me & I was full of anxieties as well as excitements. Getting out into the crowd, boarding a public transport like a flight, taxi etc. That’s when I realised, I have never been to the new terminal of Cochin International Airport. Even though there were many ‘firsts’, this was my second visit to Sri Lanka. Our last visit to Sri Lanka was in 2018. Then, we had promised to return back. It took 4 years to keep our promise.

This visit was paid when we started reading/hearing about Sri Lanka crisis. Hence, we were getting calls from our relatives & friends whoever got to know we were about to travel. But the moment we landed in the airport; we were relieved. The airport was flooded with tourists, mostly Europeans. Since, we had applied for e-visa before travel, it took hardly 2-3 minutes to finish the immigration formalities. After which, we headed to Galle. During our last visit, we chose to be backpackers and depended fully on public transport. But this time, due to covid & prevailing economic crisis, we chose to hire a taxi which would take us to all the places as per self-prepared itinerary.

Day 1         Bandaranaike Airport (CMB) -> Galle            153 KMS                2 hr 13 min

After 2 hours of drive, we finally reached Galle around 2 PM. We were exhausted by the time we reached Galle. The climate was sultry either. Still, we chose to have a light lunch somewhere outside. And that’s how we ended up at Galle Fort Hotel which was near to our place of stay. After our late lunch, we roamed around checking out the place and returned back to our resort due to scorching sun. In the evening we again walked around the fort and had dinner at A minute by Tuk Tuk.  

Day 2 & Day 3

We covered the entire large fort walking part by part. This busy Fort is set on a peninsula within the walled remains of a fortress first developed by the Portuguese in the 1500s and later adapted by the Dutch and British. The fort is enormous and is built around 130 acres. It takes almost an hour to walk around the fort along the fort walls.

We even visited the National Maritime Museum & went to Mirissa for a whale watching session where we got to see numerous happy dolphins, the huge sea turtles & a whale shark. The best time to spot whales is during November to April and the duration is for 3-5 hours which starts at 7.00 AM. Our resort recommended Raja & the Whales for responsible whale watching. The maritime museum is open on all days except on public holidays from 8.00 AM to 5.00 PM.

 Day 4                                      Galle -> Yala                         167 KMS                 2 hr 52 min

We started off for our next destination after our breakfast. We just relaxed at our resort after succulent lunch. The resort itself seemed like a bird sanctuary as we could hear numerous chirping sounds and spot quite large number of species. The place is really good for bird watchers.

Day 5                                                         Yala National Park     

We woke up early morning at around 4.30 and got ready for our adventurous safari at Yala National Park. It is the most visited and second largest national park in Sri Lanka, the border of which is Indian Ocean which makes it more exciting. It has one of the highest leopard densities in the world. This national park had a huge impact of Tsunami in 2004. Other fauna includes elephants, buffaloes, deer, crocodile, storks, peacocks etc.

We had opted for a full day safari. In the morning we spotted a few herds of elephants, buffaloes, deer and 2 leopards which were a bit far and moved into the forest very quick because of the sound of jeeps. We waited there on the opposite side of the waterbody for quite long time thinking it would return to quench its thirst. But after sometime we left from there and roamed around the park spotting elephant herds, different storks, mongoose, bright coloured peacocks & various types of birds. By then it was time for lunch. We were not allowed to park anywhere inside the sanctuary. We had to move out from the thick forest and park our jeeps near the coast (This is one of the boundaries of the Yala National Park and this area was badly affected during 2004 Tsunami) where there were some tribal inhabitants who purely depended on fishing & hunting for their livelihood. There were 4 other jeeps as well which had people who opted for full day safari. We had carried some fruits, snack bars, milkshakes & juices which we had and after that we hopped off our jeep & walked along the beach. After a break of 2 hours, we proceeded for the remaining session. In an hour we were back to the forest. By then there were other jeeps which carried people who had opted for noon safari alone. 

After roaming here and there and spotting some birds & other wildlife, our driver got a call on his phone. After that call, we reached a place where we saw numerous jeeps parked along and people were looking for something through their binoculars & cameras. Someone had spotted a leopard taking rest on a tree which was very far. After 10-15 minutes, even we got to see through our binoculars. But I was not sure of whether I spotted the right one or I was just imagining. I just saw its tail. We even took photos of the same. (But later after arriving to India, I transferred and checked the photos. One could see a leopard, when the photo was zoomed enough). May be because of the sounds from the vehicles & people howling, it woke up from its sleep and jumped off the tree. Again, all the jeeps were on & blocked all the paths of the leopard thinking, it would cross the same anytime. This continued for half an hour and then slowly jeeps started to leave one by one as they had lost the hope of sighting it. Even we had lost the hope. But since we had 2 more hours of our safari, our driver suggested that, we could wait if in case the leopard crossed our path. And the wait finally turned out to be fruitful one, after half an hour. We both were busy clicking some random pictures of birds, trees that suddenly a huge peacock flew from the forest and landed on the muddy path few meters away from our jeep. And suddenly Dileep spotted a dog like creature coming out from the thick bushes. And that was "THE MOMENT". 

Finally, we saw a leopard just few yards away. We followed it at a safe distance and it was walking away slowly in style as though, nobody was around. It was a moment of mixture of emotions – anxiety, fear, excitement and many more. We felt as though it appeared only for us. We hardly got 5-10 minutes while it again walked into the forest.

After waiting for couple of minutes more, we decided to go back to resort. The purpose for which we had come to the sanctuary was accomplished. On our way back we saw a huge crocodile lying in the sun with its mouth wide open.  We reached back to our resort in 1.5 hours. After getting fresh and an early dinner, we were off to sleep as we were very tired.

Day 6                                   Yala ->Kandy                   219 KMS                       5 hr 26 min    

After breakfast, we left for our next destination, Kandy. On the way, we stopped at Ravana Falls and then at Ella for lunch. We stopped at Damro Labookellie Tea Lounge for a short break. Ella, Ravana Falls & Damro Tea were on our way to Kandy. So, we didn’t want to take any deviation. It was around evening when we reached Kandy. There was heavy traffic & it was raining as well.

Day 7                                  

Next day we went to Tooth Kandy Temple which we couldn’t go during our last visit as it was Pereira. It was raining. So, after temple, we chose to remain indoors.

Day 8                           Kandy - > Dambulla                     69.4 KMS                   1 hr 50 min    

After breakfast, we started for Dambulla. We reached Dambulla around noon. After lunch, we headed to Rock Cave Temple & Pidurangala. Both the places require a little bit of climbing & walking.

Dambulla cave temple or Rock cave temple is the largest & best-preserved cave temple in Sri Lanka. Major attractions are spread over five caves, which contain statues and paintings. These paintings and statues are related to Gautama Buddha and his life. Please note that whenever you visit pilgrim centres in Sri Lanka you have to cover your knees and shoulders which is applicable to men & women equally. It takes you around 1-2 hour to climb up & down and explore the caves. 

Pidurangala is a massive rock formation from volcanic activity located few kilometres from Sigriya. It is steeply sloped towards the tip of the rock. It is strenuous to climb Pidurangala than Sigriya. But its worth climbing, if you are physically fit. It takes you around 2 hours. There are stone steps at the beginning. Once you reach the top, you can view Sigriya. The best time to climb is either early morning or late evening. The climb can be divided into two parts. First part consists of steep irregular stone steps and reachable by reasonably fit people. After that, there is a long beautiful statue of recumbent Buddha made of brick.

The second part has no clearly defined paths or stairs. There are places where you have to clamber up steep boulders and sometimes creep. After both the activities back-to-back, we were very tired and were done for the day. So decided to go back to our resort and take rest and call it a day.

Day 9       

   

After breakfast, we were off to Sigriya. We decided to reach the top very early, because it is difficult to climb as you will be moving in the direction of the Sun. This is a world heritage site open all days from 6.30 AM to 7.00 PM. Sigiriya or Sinhagiri is an ancient rock fortress. According to them, the area was a large forest which after storms & landslides became a hill and was selected by King Kashyapa for his new capital. His palace was on the top and its sides were decorated with colorful frescoes. On a small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock he built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion. Thus, the name Sinhagiri or Sigriya.

On the way back from top of the boulder, you will come across Mirror Wall. This wall is made of brick masonry and covered in highly polished white plaster which is scribbled with some verses. It is called so because it was highly polished that the king could see himself whilst walking alongside. Hiking up takes 45 min to 1 hour each way. After lunch, we proceeded to Hurulu Eco Park, Habarana.

There are three parks in proximity namely Kaudula, Minneriya and Hurulu and the herds of elephants will be migrating between them subject to availability of water. We were lucky enough to see nearly 25 elephants most of which were in groups of 3 each. The elephants varied from small to big. But we could see protective mom, when there were baby elephants. We spent around 3 hours in the park watching the elephants munching the grass and taking bath in the muddy water. One of the elephants came so close to our jeep that I could touch it. It was so busy eating that, it didn’t notice our jeep alongside. And we were so lucky that, we came across another wild elephant that happened to cross our road while we were on our way back to our resort.

Day 10                          

We decided to stay back at the resort and take rest. We spent whole day sleeping all the time other than waking up for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Bath.

Day 11                      Dambulla -> Negombo                  134 KMS               2 hr 58 min    

After breakfast, we headed to Colombo and decided to stay near Airport. Our flights were in the early morning the next day.

Day 12

Back to Cochin

Note : Sri Lankan cuisine is very similar to Kerala cuisine.

Click here for photos from Hurulu Eco Park & Yala National Park.