Month: September 2019

We flew out of Negombo on Sri Lankan Airlines, a new low in airline comfort. Leg room had been reduced for Maximum Hobbit Capacity ™, meaning that even sitting as upright as you possibly could, anyone over 5’10” would have their knees jammed against the seat in front of them for the entirety of the…

Today, we checked out of Sigiriya and drove back to Negombo, ready for our flight to the Maldives tomorrow. As we were driving, we agreed that a massage would be nice right about now. So, after a quick google search, we booked into a place which promised a 75 minute, full body massage for the…

Our second day in the Sigiriya area. I had planned on climbing nearby Pidurangala, another monolith. But it turned out to be a day of more rain. Having done Sigiriya Rock yesterday, and knowing how many of the steps were metal, I figured climbing in the wet was probably not the best idea. So we…

We had made plans to climb the 250 meter tall Sigiriya Rock (or Lion Rock, as it’s also known) today. Like World’s End a week before, the conventional wisdom says get there early to avoid both the crowds and the heat/humidity. We were inside the park just after the gates opened at 6:30, and had…

Having checked the Photographer’s Ephemeris for a decent spot to set up for some sunrise magic, I got up early and headed out. Sadly, distant cloud sitting right on the horizon conspired against me again. I did grab one wide angle shot of the clouds, but… meh. An hour or two later, after breakfast, we…

We had our breakfast in the rooftop restaurant at our hotel. It was from here that I shot a picture of another Buddha statue; this one across town, on a hillside and illuminated in the morning sun, with dark clouds way off in the background. Once we’d checked out, we were on the road north…

Today, we were sightseeing around Kandy. This included a visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, and looking for somewhere to watch the Perahera Festival parade in the evening. Locals were starting to line the streets from mid-morning, even though that meant sitting/standing for up to 10 hours in the rain, waiting for…

Monday 12th August We were all up early and on the road by 5:30. Everything we had read about the walk to World’s End said “Be there EARLY”. World’s End is a lookout on the edge of an 800 metre precipice. And apparently, it has a habit of only clearing briefly in the morning, before…

Sunday 11th August After breakfast, we started the walk to Little Adam’s Peak, which was only about 1km from our Air B’n’B. Cath stopped at one minor lookout point, about 2/3 of the way to the main peak, while I continued on. When I got there, I managed to get a Welsh couple who were…

Saturday 10th August Dinesh also provided us with some handy tips for the remainder of our travels. One of which was to avoid the elephant orphanage at Kandy, where the elephants are kept longer than necessary, as tourist attractions. He suggested instead that on our way north to Ella, we take a slight detour, to…

Friday 9th August Today, we were booked in with Dinesh (Mowgli Safaris), a 3rd generation 17 year veteran safari guide in Yala National Park. We had booked a full day safari, as several Trip Advisor reviews had made mention of the fact that a full day safari gives you a much better chance at seeing…

Not a lot of shooting happened today. This was our longest driving day of the trip. About 180 km, which doesn’t sound like much by Australian standards, but that equated to about 5 hours of Tetris-on-wheels, and most of that in the rain. We arrived at our resort, EKHO Tissa, and took an early night,…

Wednesday 7th August Today, we ventured down to the fish market in a nearby village to see the fisherman returning with their catches, and to observe the haggling that goes on between fishermen and (presumably) restaurateurs. We then took a tour of a tea plantation. This was conducted by a very knowledgeable bloke, who told…

Tuesday 6th August We left Colombo for the drive south to Galle. Once there, we wandered around the old Dutch quarter, where amongst other things, I came across an elderly craftsman who makes and sells toy boats. We also found the snake charmer who dances with a cobra, and will, for a fee, let you…

Monday 5th August One of the sites many blogs will tell you to visit in Colombo is the Red Mosque. Although I had survived my first day of driving in Colombo the previous day, we decided to park the car somewhere in the city, then catch tuk-tuks wherever we needed to go. We got dropped…

Sunday 4th August We landed at Bandaranaike International Airport around 23:30 local time on Saturday night, some 26 hours after waking up in Gosford. Our hire car company ferried us to their depot, got us in our car, and off we headed for our nearby accommodation. Sunday morning, we hit the road for Colombo itself,…