The west coastal town of Negombo is known for its fish markets and there are still many "oruvas" (out-rigger canoes) that sail up and down the coast, trolling for prawn. I was able to organized a sail on one for a few hours and enjoyed watching them handle the double bamboo masts holding their dyed-cotton square sails.
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Their two fish markets were also impressive. One was a day market selling mostly smaller dried fish, prawns and squid that were cleaned, salted and dried on the beach. The other was held before sunrise and was mostly tuna, shark, rays and massive marlin all from wooden boats returning from several days offshore with their bounty. Serious bargaining was going on.
Kandy is an important Buddhist city, with a famous 'tooth relic' from Buddha himself, housed in a chamber in one of the country's most important temples. The Kings had a man made lake built in the centre of the city and it remains an oasis of calm in an increasingly bustling city of vehicles and the ubiquitous tuk-tuks. I spent several days just walking around, exploring markets, seeing cultural shows and learning about tea. By chance, and through social media, I hooked up with Rodrigo, a friend whom I had met six years earlier traveling in Mozambique. It was great just chilling and catching up in our guest house on a hill with a beautiful view.
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| Regional dances from Kandy's cultural show |
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| World Buddhism Museum |
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| Che, Bob Marley or Johnny Depp... the most popular stickers on tuk-tuks. |
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| A room with a view |
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| One of several wedding parties that get photos taken in the heart of Kandy |
As the distances are relatively short, I took a train to the northern tip of the island, to the Tamil heartland of Jaffna. Although a war zone just a few years ago, the region is recovering from its wounds and people are striving to return to a normal life. With their rich history and Hindu traditions, it feels more like India here with sari-clad women on bicycles, Hindu temples and sacred cows roaming the streets. There are also much less tourists.
The owner of my guest house told me that during the monsoon season that we were presently in, it usually only rains for a few hours a day. The entire region however was hit with a massive tropical depression from the Bay of Bengal and it rained cats and dogs non stop for four days straight. Roads were like shallow rivers and the fields in the surrounding villages were all under water. When it finally subsided, I rented a scooter and drove a hundred km to several small islands connected by causeways and ferries. Village life in this region revolves around growing rice and fishing in the shallow waters of the Palk Straight, which separates Sri Lanka from India, only 50 km away.
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| Tasty thali with a mango lassi. |
The monsoon season was also in full swing on the north-eastern coast, a less developed region that I had planned on visiting. Having had enough of the rain, I made my way back down the centre of the country, stopping to see some famous buddha carvings in the caves of Dambulla. I continued back to Kandy for a night before taking a famous six hour train ride through the tea plantation highlands to the beaufiful town of Ella. This town is firmly on the tourist map and foreigners on the train outnumbered locals by about two to one. There was a group of about 15 young Chinese tourists in my train car, most of them on their iPhones, playing video games or texting whilst we were passing beautiful mountain passes and villages...
I spent a couple of days in Ella, taking long walks and hikes in the surrounding region. I visited a tea plantation and saw how the entire process is done, from the freshly picked leaves to packaging. I also enjoyed some of the funky bars and restaurants in town catering to foreigners. Although the local food was excellent, the wood fired pizza and a real cappuccino was a welcomed change.
For my last ten days, I was looking forward to some R & R by the sea. It was time to hit the beaches of the southern coast. It was a pleasant, winding three hour bus ride to the town of Tangella. Back in the tropical heat, the first thing I did once I dropped my bag at a guest house was to jump in the huge waves of the warm Indian Ocean. The massive cumulus clouds would build up each afternoon, castles of white that would then turn bright orange and pink as the sun set. There is something magical about the warm wind of the tropics blowing in the palm trees when you walk along the beach and a full moon is rising on the horizon.
One day, I met Jin, a local man who surprised me when he told me he actually lived with his Canadian wife on the Sunshine coast in BC. He would return here, to his hometown every winter for a couple of months. It was cool hanging out with him and some of his friends having a few beers in a thatched hut on the beach. He took me for a paddle in a small outrigger canoe in the mangrove lagoons that stretched for miles inland and parallel to the beach. We stopped at his sisters house along one of the canals and he showed me where the water levels were on the wall when the tsunami hit in 2004. He was here at that time and knew something was up when he saw the tide recede hundreds of metres away in the middle of the afternoon. Unlike many other locals who, he told me, went out on the bare rocks to look for lobster and were later engulfed in the huge waves that followed, Jin immediately headed inland. He had mentioned too that all the dogs (and there are many stray dogs here) had disappeared to the forests half an hour before anything abnormal occurred.
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| Fisherman, Weligama |
I spent a few days at another popular beach town called Mirissa. Here the beach was a perfect crescent and only about 2 km long. The waves were smaller and great for body surfing and regular 'surfies' were also catching waves near the rocks. The many backpackers and guest houses made it feel a bit like Thailand, say 25 years ago. My last few days were spent in the town of Galle, a fort that was constructed by the Dutch. The old town is situated on a peninsula and is within the ramparts of the wall. It was historically a city of trade for spices and other commodities from Ceylon. There are churches, mosques and temples and the architecture spans several centuries and influences. Many of these colonial homes have been converted into boutique hotels, art galleries, shops or cafes. Late afternoon, most locals and tourists would head to the ramparts for the breeze off the ocean and to watch the sunset. Sitting with my legs over the edge of the wall, I watched sea turtles swimming in the surf below.
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