Finally back to blogging after our 2 week holiday in Sri Lanka! It was a lovely country with beautiful beaches, cheap food, and some of the friendliest people I've encountered among my travels.
Before heading to Sri Lanka we stopped in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2 hours away by plane) because we couldn't book a direct flight from HCMC to Sri Lanka on Air Asia. KL is a cool city which John and I have visited before on our travels years ago. We arrived in the evening so we only had time for a quick visit to the Petronas Towers and ate a super cheap meal (Indian + Malaysian food) in Chinatown, where we were staying. Malaysia is so multicultural! It's like a fusion of China + India all rolled into one.
The flight from KL to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, was around 3.5 hours. When we arrived in Colombo it was sunny and hot (just like HCMC)! We just ended up walking along the main road towards the city centre, and had dinner at the Dutch Hospital. Yes, you read that correctly. We asked our tuk-tuk driver to take us to a place with good restaurants and he said "here is the Dutch Hospital" and we were like "no, we want restaurants" and he seemed to be agitated and kept saying "yes, the Dutch Hospital" ... turns out, the Dutch Hospital is a restored hospital which is now basically a courtyard full of trendy restaurants. Cool!
From Colombo we took a train to Kandy the next day. The train cost less than $2 and was 3.5 hours. Kandy was a peaceful town centred around a large lake. We saw a cultural show there (music, dancing, fire-breathing and walking on hot coals!) which was ok, but not as exciting as I thought it would be. A good way to pass the time, and for $5 for an hour, why not? There was a famous "Temple of the Tooth" there, said to contain a tooth of Buddha. We didn't feel like paying the entry fee and we've seen lots of temples before, so we decided to skip it. We heard later from some nice Dutch travellers we met that it wasn't that great. I guess when you've seen so many temples, they all start to get boring and look the same. I hate feeling like that, but I can't help it!
The following day was spent taking a glorious (for real) train ride to Ella, over 6 hours away. The train twisted up into the hill country, with beautiful views of tea plantations and palm trees. Not bad at all! Ella was a small but touristy town with stunning scenery. I would recommend anyone travelling to Sri Lanka to check it out!
In Ella we did a hike to "Little Adam's Peak" which was around 45 minutes each way. We tried to hike up the larger Ella Rock but got lost and took the wrong road which led down to a waterfall instead. It's probably good that we didn't hike Ella Rock because I actually hate hiking. I hate climbing uphill, but of course I enjoy it when I'm at the top to see the view. Little Adam's Peak gave us a great view of the area, and even though we didn't hike up Ella Rock we had a sweet view of it! Sidenote: the original, big Adam's Peak is located in central Sri Lanka and is believed by many to be the place where Adam first set food on earth after being cast out of heaven. It is also known to Buddhists as Sri Pada (Sacred Footprint, left by Buddha as he walked toward paradise). Ella was one of the best places we visited in Sri Lanka. With scenery like this, who wouldn't like it?
Before heading to Sri Lanka we stopped in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2 hours away by plane) because we couldn't book a direct flight from HCMC to Sri Lanka on Air Asia. KL is a cool city which John and I have visited before on our travels years ago. We arrived in the evening so we only had time for a quick visit to the Petronas Towers and ate a super cheap meal (Indian + Malaysian food) in Chinatown, where we were staying. Malaysia is so multicultural! It's like a fusion of China + India all rolled into one.
The flight from KL to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, was around 3.5 hours. When we arrived in Colombo it was sunny and hot (just like HCMC)! We just ended up walking along the main road towards the city centre, and had dinner at the Dutch Hospital. Yes, you read that correctly. We asked our tuk-tuk driver to take us to a place with good restaurants and he said "here is the Dutch Hospital" and we were like "no, we want restaurants" and he seemed to be agitated and kept saying "yes, the Dutch Hospital" ... turns out, the Dutch Hospital is a restored hospital which is now basically a courtyard full of trendy restaurants. Cool!
From Colombo we took a train to Kandy the next day. The train cost less than $2 and was 3.5 hours. Kandy was a peaceful town centred around a large lake. We saw a cultural show there (music, dancing, fire-breathing and walking on hot coals!) which was ok, but not as exciting as I thought it would be. A good way to pass the time, and for $5 for an hour, why not? There was a famous "Temple of the Tooth" there, said to contain a tooth of Buddha. We didn't feel like paying the entry fee and we've seen lots of temples before, so we decided to skip it. We heard later from some nice Dutch travellers we met that it wasn't that great. I guess when you've seen so many temples, they all start to get boring and look the same. I hate feeling like that, but I can't help it!
The following day was spent taking a glorious (for real) train ride to Ella, over 6 hours away. The train twisted up into the hill country, with beautiful views of tea plantations and palm trees. Not bad at all! Ella was a small but touristy town with stunning scenery. I would recommend anyone travelling to Sri Lanka to check it out!
In Ella we did a hike to "Little Adam's Peak" which was around 45 minutes each way. We tried to hike up the larger Ella Rock but got lost and took the wrong road which led down to a waterfall instead. It's probably good that we didn't hike Ella Rock because I actually hate hiking. I hate climbing uphill, but of course I enjoy it when I'm at the top to see the view. Little Adam's Peak gave us a great view of the area, and even though we didn't hike up Ella Rock we had a sweet view of it! Sidenote: the original, big Adam's Peak is located in central Sri Lanka and is believed by many to be the place where Adam first set food on earth after being cast out of heaven. It is also known to Buddhists as Sri Pada (Sacred Footprint, left by Buddha as he walked toward paradise). Ella was one of the best places we visited in Sri Lanka. With scenery like this, who wouldn't like it?
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