The second part of the Sri Lankan adventure is here. Many of you are interested in the current situation of the locals in Sri Lanka, so you will also find out about that. We enjoyed the holidays in peace, experienced extreme travel on a scooter, took a train ride, saw 2,000 bats in one place or breathtaking sunrises, and we also spent a few nights a bit cold…
Current Situation in Sri Lanka
Last time, a few people criticized me that I didn’t read about the current situation in Sri Lanka at all in the article. I understand, the media only reported on how the anti-government separatists bathed in the presidential palace and rolled in the presidential bed. Of course, that interests everyone and the readership just skyrockets.
Why would they then write that there is a new government here now and that there is plenty of food and gasoline, right? ‘That’s boring, no one cares about that, right?’ But not at all! There is plenty of everything here, the locals are happy to advise and help tourists, of course with a few exceptions. Anyway, if you’re still hesitating whether to fly here or not, buy your tickets and fly. It’s beautiful here, peaceful, and the locals are happy to have every tourist, because they need to get the economy going again. Now back to our travels around Sri Lanka.
Catching up and Enjoying the Holidays in Style
We spent 8 days at the Surf-Trip in the Sea You House, then we moved just a few dozen kilometers to Tangalle, where we stayed for 4 days – this time we chose a hotel with a pool because we wanted to spend the holidays a bit in style.
We were mostly at the hotel or in its immediate vicinity to enjoy a little more peace and quiet. We also needed to fulfill our work obligations. I had to finish the year at Ecomail and help clients in the Christmas peak, Terka then had to deal with her clients… And above all, we had to create content for the collaborations we have, whether it’s the common Huskycz.cz, my Trenýrkárna or Terka’s Natural Protein and Lasatin. You can judge for yourself how we did it. In addition to the classic photography, I also shot drone footage, so I then edited several videos from it.
Only Topless in Sri Lanka
I wear less and less shirt or shirt here… Why? Because I’m tired of constantly sweating and the locals love my tattoos. Here I hear ‘Nice tattoo, bro!’ or something like that about 5 times a day. Overall, we have kind of fallen in the eyes of the locals. They often get up from their chairs and come to look at us, in the worst case even touch us, or they just want to wave and greet us. Sometimes it’s a pleasant attention, sometimes it’s unfortunately too much, but what can you do. When it’s nothing else, it can be managed, but often it’s clear that they want something more than just a greeting, quite often money. So we’ve reached into our wallet a few times and given something to someone – the last time to an old gentleman for about 170 rupees for some medicine or whatever – whether he used it or not, of course, we don’t know.
Tangalle never more
Neither of us was very interested in the stay in Tangalle. If it wasn’t for the hotel with a pool and the Christmas party, I would probably rate it quite badly. And that even though I crashed the drone here for the first time, and for a moment I thought I wouldn’t get it up again.
After taking the photos we needed to publish on December 24th and having a Christmas fish (it was my first time), we found out that there was a party on the beach just a short distance away. To my surprise, it was even full of hip-hop DJs, so we didn’t hesitate and headed to the site. The entrance fee was 1,500 rupees, one drink the same. Well, the total evening was probably around 60,000 rupees, and we walked back to the hotel, which was about 5 km… 😀 At the hotel, we had a swim in the pool at 3am and went to sleep, because the next day we had a move ahead of us.
2,000 Bats in One Place and Safari
On December 25th, we moved from Tangalle to Tissamaharama, where we went on a safari. On the way, we found some accommodation and that was very nice, because the host really tried. After settling in, he took us to the city, where we walked around and ate, and then walked back to the place. In the evening he took us for a tuktuk ride (for free) and showed us the birds that live there, which wasn’t anything special. But then he took us to one place and said, ‘Now focus on those trees,’ of which there were about 10-15 in front of us and they were all covered with bats that were sleeping. Approximately 2,000 bats in one place. We spent about an hour there and watched as the bats alternated with daytime birds on the trees. The way the colors changed from black to white was really unbelievable and the view of the sky where the bats were flying was just great! After about an hour we went back to the accommodation, received buffalo yogurt with honey and fruit, and went to bed, because we had an early alarm clock for the safari.
Andre’s First Time on a Scooter
Then we moved to Ella, where we again wanted to rest a bit, explore the surroundings and prepare for Šrí Padu. We wanted to see Lipton Seat and Diyaluma Falls here, but in the end we also climbed Little Adam’s Peak and drove around the area on a scooter. We saw the Nine Arch Bridge, some waterfalls and so on. We rented the scooter specifically for Lipton Seat and the waterfalls, so that we could do it ourselves – well, it wasn’t a good idea.
Again, we were up before 5am to see the sunrise from Lipton Seat and have breakfast there. We almost managed that, the journey was quite demanding, but certainly not as demanding as we thought at the time. At Lipton Seat, we had a great black tea, which Mr. Lipton himself first produced, and a great breakfast. Then we got on the scooter and decided to move on to the waterfalls. It was only then that we realized what a road to hell it was. Well, judge for yourself, this road according to Google Maps was supposed to take about an hour and a half and we did it in about 3… Who would have expected that on a road scooter in this terrain, right?
Cold in Sri Lanka
From Ella we moved by train to Ohiya, where we were to spend only one night (thank goodness) and see Horton Plains and the end of the world. The train was an experience again, this time without delay, but the views from this train are worth it, and the locals who behave as if the train had just started running here… After arriving in Ohiya, we decided to walk to the agreed accommodation, about 1.6 km. In the end, a taxi driver approached us and asked if we had accommodation there, that he was our transport, so he loaded our huge suitcases and we drove almost 2 km downhill. Good thing he showed up. 😅
After arriving at the accommodation, where we were supposed to just sleep and work, we found that we both had no signal and the accommodation had no Wi-Fi. And Booking claimed they had it… So we went for a walk, came back and around 5 o’clock we went to bed and watched Harry Potter. Terka was lying in sweatpants, a jacket and socks under a blanket and she was still cold. The evening was in a similar vein, we were both dressed, we already had 2 blankets and we were still cold. After surviving the night in total darkness, we got up at 5:00 in the morning and had a pick-up arranged for 5:30 to Horton Plains, so that we could again catch the sunrise.
10,000 Steps, 300 People and Sunrise
We packed our things and set off by train again to Nallathanniya, or rather to Hatton, where the train was going – the journey was terrible again, but fortunately without major delays. The Czech Railways could learn a thing or two here. After arriving in Hatton, we went to eat in the center and buy some drinks and food. Then we wanted to take a taxi to Nallathanniya, but neither Uber nor PickMe worked here as they had everywhere else… So we took some driver who was standing by the road with a tuktuk, who drove us to the accommodation under Sri Pada. We checked in, went for a walk in the tea plantation.
Then we listened to the tour that awaits us and when we should probably set off. The normal route up takes about 3 hours, so the owner told us to set off after 2am to catch the sunrise. We didn’t want that, so we got up at 3:00 and were on the road at 3:30 – and it’s a good thing we did. We climbed up in about 2 hours and watched the sunrise with another maybe 300 people from Adam’s Peak. We listened to their prayers and went back down. After 9am we were back at the hotel and already enjoying breakfast after 10,000 steps. During breakfast, I also found that our accommodation didn’t quite fit, and since we had seen a nice lake on the way here, where we both liked it, I said we’d spend one night there on the way to Nuwara Eliya. We almost didn’t make it to the water and again slept in a place where it was as cold as in Russia.
We finally made it to the water, took some photos, I flew the drone and we just waited for the driver from the day before to take us to Nuwara Eliya.
Now we are in Nuwara Eliya in a 5* hotel, finishing this article and watching the squirrels running around the garden. We will continue next time. Should we give one or two more articles?
