I arrived in Colombo airport after a very long journey. Lombok to Jakarta, 8 hour wait, Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, 8 hour wait (and a very uncomfortable nap on a bench) and finally Kuala Lumpur to Colombo. As I got off the plane my mouth naturally formed a large smile, it instantly reminded me of the time I had first landed in Mumbai two years ago, people bustling around, beautiful saris and other smiling faces and I practically skipped through arrivals and straight up to a money exchange counter with my pile of Indonesian notes at the ready, which I had sensibly transferred to Jess' card as my cards had been stolen. However, my smile and happy disposition was very quickly squashed when the man behind the counter, who stood on a raised platform and loomed over me, told me 'no, mam, we don't except indonesian money. No one buys them.' And then 'Sorry.' in a very unapologetic voice. I frantically tried to explain my situation, this was the only money I had until Hannah arrived in a week, but it was 'impossible' they assured me. I am sure if anyone had been watching me at that time they would have seen all the colour drain from my face as I slumped onto my backpack, my head in my hands. The worst thing, as with most situations like this, is that I had been so close to changing my rupiah at Kuala Lumpur airport but there had been a big queue and I knew that I needed to get some shut-eye. I sat next to the exchange booth for a while, trying to figure out what the hell I could do. I asked a few backpackers that came past if they wanted to buy indonesian rupiah and, even if they were going to Indonesia, they quickly rejected me. I assume they must have thought I was trying to scam them, but they could have been more sympathetic in their rejections. I had $10 with me, and so after getting myself together, I exchanged that and went to find a bus that would take me to my hostel, from there I could work out something out, surely!
As I sat on the typically south Asian bus, Sri Lankan music blaring and absolutely no leg room, it was as if an angelic glow (triumphant trumpet music and all) came from inside my bag as I remembered I had packed £100 with me before I had left the UK 'just in case'. I jumped off the bus back into the airport to the exchange booth who had pretty much seen me have a mental breakdown a few minutes before, and slammed my pounds down in front of them. Phew. Another lesson, teaching me that everything works out in the end!
I arrived at Colombo Beach Hostel after two buses and a great journey through Colombo, a busy but surprisedly clean and well-maintained city compared to a lot of the cities I have seen so far. I instantly felt comfortable here (despite the constant staring, which, to be fair, was a lot less extreme than Mumbai) and happy to be back in a south Asian country. In the hostel I flopped onto my bunkbed and talked with two Californian girls, who had to sit through my whole story of monetary woe (sorry). I went to the supermarket down the road, which was pretty exciting in itself, I hadn't been inside a supermarket since Australia! I was completely drained by the whole fiasco and so had an early night to recuperate.
The next day didn't really prove much less stressful. I needed to visit the indian consulate to get my Indian visa sorted. I hopped on a bus which dropped me off in the middle of nowhere when I had asked to be dropped by the Indian embassy, got onto another bus which finally delievered me to the embassy. When I got inside, after all the security checks, I was told that I needed to go to anothe office on the ither side of the city. I jumped into another tuk tuk, driven by a very nice local guy, which took me to that office. The woman at reception looked through my form and underlined things that needed to be changed so I had to rush over the road to somewhere with a computer to make those changes. Then, I had to fill out another form and photocopy my passport and Sri Lankan visa stamp. Finally I got into the waiting room, and my number was called. The stern looking woman looked through all my forms, every-so-often looking up at me, sweaty and hoepfully. Everything seemed to be in check. Then the subject of money was bought up. On reflection, I was a fool to think that I could as for a favour in one of the most buracratic locations on earth, a visa office, but I tried my luck anyway. 'So, long story short, I only have a little bit of money until my friend arrives with my card in a few days. Is there anyway I could pay you when I come to collect my visa?' You have my passport, so I will definitely pay...' I said, kind of pathetically, when I had planned to be confident and assertive. 'No Mam, we don't take your passport now, you have to come back in a week to give us your passport, then the day after that you pick up the visa. You must pay now.' No amount of pleading, or logic would budge the woman from her position. I left the office absolutely crestfallen, and once again completely shattered. The only thing I took solice in was the fact that transport was so cheap that I hadn't wasted too much money on the whole expedition.
When I got back to the hostel thankfully there was a group of people on the rooftop social area and I relaxed with them for a while, trying to put my unsuccessful day behind me. Relaxing turned to drinking, when It was just me and Emily, a girl from Devon, left and she revealed that she had bought a bottle of Pimms at duty free. We bought some fruit from the supermarket (although, they ahd no strawberries for some reason!) and even found a cheap jug, if you're going to do Pimms, you might as well do it right. We were gradually joined by some more people, Alex (UK), Alex (GER), a couple whose names escape me (UK and NZ) and Els, from the UK, who was teaching in Singapore, who joined us quite late and who we convinced should come out with us even though she had only landed that day. We ended up going to a rooftop bar with the most expensive drinks I have seen for a very very long time. In order to soften the blow to our pockets we dared Emily and Alex to jump into the rooftop pool. As soon as they had jumped in, the rest of us grabbed their clothes and made a run for it, down in the lift and into the lobby area of the luxury hotel. We waited for them to appear in from the lift and giggled like school kids, but, to our disappointment, they had managed to get some towels! We went to the beach to see if there were any other bars but wverything was shut so we went back to sleep.
The next day Emily, thankfully, agreed to me sending her some money and getting it out for me in indonesian rupee so that we could re-attempt my Indian visa application. We got to the office and I paid and agreed that I would come back to give my passport at the end of my Sri Lankan trip when I am back in Colombo to catch my flight. We then found a great little restaurant full of locals, where we got a huge portion of rice and curry and popadoms for about £1! Success!
That evening we went down to the beach for a beer and to watch the sunset and met some more backpackers at the hostel; Ben (CANADA), Al&Rory (UK) and Alex from the night before. We decided to retry the local nightlife and found a bar claiming to be a 'karaoke bar' but, to our disappointment, had no karaoke whatsoever. We danced the night away and spent too much money on alcohol again (the prices were higher than in London!).
Originally I had thought about staying in Colombo until Hannah arrived but I was persuaded to soend a couple of days down the coast in a place called Unawatuna. Els had moved down there the day before and had told me and Emily that she had found a great hostel. We managed to get a lift down with some friends of the guy who ran the hostel (called Unawatuna Hostel) and when we arrived there we immediately felt at home. The walls inside the house were covered in felt tip messages from previous backpackers and it had such a relaxed atmosphere. The guy who owned it had packed up his life in Colombo and bought the house a year before and said he had never once regretted it!
Els was there, along with two guys, Carl and Pascal from Sweden and Germany. As it was low season, we were the only people staying there but that didn't stop us form having fun. We chilled at the hostel that day and then had a great little house party in the evening, including a water fight, some embarassing dancing and getting to write our own messgaes on the wall, after ordering a tasty pizza from the local Pizza Hut (woops). The following day we all felt surprisingly good and ventured down to the beach for a relaxing day of sunbathing and swimming. Emily, Els and I were feeling particularly creative and ended up building a ship out of driftwood, coral, shells and a washed up rum bottle. When we had finished and sat back to take in our masterpiece people kept walking up to it and taking photos which made us feel just how Damien Hurst must feel.
That evening Banchy (the guy who owns the hostel) organised a beach BBQ for us and some young ex pats who lived nearby. We spent the evening eating a lot of food and sitting in our little boat under the stars, which was lovely.
It was time to say goodbye to Unawatuna Hostel the next afternoon and also a goodbye to Els, Pascal, Emily and Carl (although the later two I would be seeing again).
They all caught a bus to Marissa, another beach town along the coast, and I caught a bus all the way back to Colombo. I ended up on the wrong bus which took four hours instead of one and so when I arrived back in Colombo I was starving! The man at the Colombo Beach Hostel reception was really welcoming once again but all I could think about was food so I went to the supermarket and got some passionfruit, raisin bread, instant noodles and bananas so see me through. I went to bed pretty early that night, excited to be reunited with Hannah the next day!
I woke up voluntarily early and ate some raisin bread, anxiously awaiting Hannahs arrival, which wouldn't be until the afternoon. I made her a welcome sign which even had glitter on it and then tried to kill some time online. At around 3pm I heard the door opening and rushed to the door to see Hannah, looking happy but understandably knackered! It was another one of those surreal moments when it feels like you have never been apart! We were in Sri Lanka together!! We chilled in the room, met a lovely woman called Jane, who was also staying in our room and then decided to go and see the sunset on the beach and grab some dinner. Down on the beach the sky had turned the most incredible colours and we bumped into Jane, a couple and a guy who were also staying in our hostel. We all went to a local, very busy, take-out place and ordering 'kouti' (sp) a Sri Lankan dish made with chopped up fried roti, onion, carrot, corriander, tomato and various seasoning and took it back to the hostel where we stayed up for a while chatting and laughing, a great evening to start Hannahs 10 month adventure!
Mine and Hannahs true trip started the next day when we boarded a train from Mount Lavinia to Galle. The train reminded me of India, with not enough seats and open doors. The journey itself took us along the coast and past many makeshift houses built on the side of the train track, which offered a real taste of the country and how different it is from home.
We were extremely lucky to get a seat during the journey and seemed to get to Galle in no time. Once in Galle, and after fighting our way through the many tuk tuk drivers competing for our business, we found a bus which could take us where we wanted to go, a place called Welligama. Carl and Emily were there already and it seemed like a good idea to go and meet them there. The bus was another cultural experience but both me and Hannah sat there with a smile on our faces for the entire journey (except when the bus stopped completely and we were all ushered onto another, already full, bus, forced to stand right at the front, next to the open doorway whilst the bus driver drove like a formula one driver dodging tuk tuks and mopeds. But then, even that was pretty fun).
We got to our accomodation in Welligama, a quaint little guesthouse called Rajas Guest Home where we were given a beautiful room for about £4 each per night! Hannah and I walked down to the beach and met Emily and Carl briefly at a restaurant before they went off surfing. We stopped at the restaurant and had an absolutely delcious vegetable curry, rice and poppadoms. The portions here are absolutely huge and, although we tried, we couldn't possibly finish all the food on our table. We walked down to the beach, where crashing waves met orange sand and you can find lots of surf hire stalls manned by cool looking Sri Lankan surfers with sun bleached hair. We sat on some sun chairs and gossiped for a while and were treated, once again, to an amazing sunset sky of purple, orange, pink and blue.
We ate dinner with Carl and Emily in a local food place, but were too late to have anything other than Kouti, which was not as good as the night before.
On the 14th, after sleeping through our alarm and having a huge breakfast, we walked to the beach and hired a surfboard each for an hour. We decided not to fork out for a lesson and to see how we did ourselves. I can imagine how surfing can be really enjoyable and addictive once tou know how to do it, and I did get a taste of that, but attempting to learn how to surf is bloody hard work! Being hit round the face repetitively by huge waves and struggling to get out deep enough against the current just to maybe catch and wave and even less likely to stand up on the board is tough. After an hour and managing to stand up a grand total of three times I was really tired and felt completely beaten and bruised. I think next time I might take that lesson. We went back to hostel to get cleaned up and then went earlier to the local fool spot in order to get a bigger variety of food. Carl and Emily had the classic rice and curry, but Hannah and I (the less spice tolerant travellers) opted for egg roti and milk tea (YUM!). We returned to the hostel and a local guy there introduced us to a none of us understood.
Which you play a bit like pool but by flicking a counter at other counters in order to get them into the holes in each corner of the board. To begin with, we played with energy and genuine interest, but as none of us really had any skill, the game went on and on until nobody really cared which team one but cared more about the game ending.
Raja, the owner of the guesthouse, then invited us over to drink Arak (the very strong local rum) and sing Sri Lankan songs with him, his friends and a young German couple also staying at the guesthouse. We ended up sitting around the table listening to Raja sing and joining in by clapping, whistling, clicking or drumming a beat long with him. The whole table got involved and Hannah even got up and danced with one of the local guys for a while (which, by the look on his face, made his day).
It was time to move on again the next day, to a town called Tangalle, which I had seen in the Lonely Planet during my stop off at Jakarta airport. The bus took a couple of hours and when we reached the town it didnt take us long to find a very cheap room right on the beach (about £2.20 each!). The waves at this beach were amazing, huge curling rolls of water crashing so close to the shore and making the most amazing noise. We had fresh grilled fish and chips on the beach and then went for a wander into the town to find some ice-creams. We found a childrens park and as we walked past it one of the young boys playing on the see-saw shouted 'Hello foreigners!' which made us all laugh as we waved back at him. It was really nice to be in a place which felt like a normal town and not somewhere which has been manufactured for the sake of tourists. The beachfront was touristy, but the town itself was bustling and homely. We walked along the beach a bit more and then sat at our hotel and watched the sky, once again, give us an incredible light show. There was even a rainbow jetting out from one of the golden clouds over the sea. Sri Lanka must have the most beautiful skies in the world (well, from what I have seen anyway...)
That evening we went to a restaurant we had seen when we were walking to find a hotel and ordered curry and rice (again). We played cards (which the owner of the restaurant went out and bought us especially) while we waited and then waited a bit more. Our patience was really being tested and then the food came out and we realised it was completely worth the wait! Oh, it was delicious! There was a fried aubergine dish (my favourite), a great daal, a green bean and coconut milk curry, a potato curry and a shredded coconut spicy thing along with a generous helping of rice and some amazing crispy golden poppadoms. I am saliva-ing just thinking about it!
It rained a lot over night and the following morning, well ai guess thats what you risk when you come in rainy season, and so we just relaxed in the morning before getting, guess what, rice and curry at a local place in the town (called swastika hotel...) and jumping aboard and crazily busy bus in order to get to Uda Walawe, where there is a large national park and.... ELEPHANTS!
...but you'll have to read my next post to hear about those (oh, I'm such a tease!) Absolutely loving Sri Lanka so far, it seems that this country attracts a really great breed of backpacker and there is still so much to see!
Thanks for reading!
Emma x
