So we're finally home after nine weeks traveling through Myanmar, Bhutan and Sri Lanka! It was our longest trip together so far. Each leg was unique, and having Bhutan in the middle varied the climates too.
Myanmar has amazing sights. Bagan is one of the coolest things to see in the world (#2 on my list), in my opinion, topped only by Machu Picchu. Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon made it in at #16, so it was quite the start to our trip. The food on the other hand was disappointing -- it was very heavy, as Burmese like to cook with lots and lots of oil. We were lucky to be able to stay at Macleod Island off the southern tip of Myanmar in the Andaman Sea. This area was previously off-limits to tourists, but now it's possible to visit. It's off the beaten path right now, but that will change quickly. Tourist infrastructure is coming along here -- we used ATMs in all the tourist places, and mid-range accommodation is more readily available around the country (unlike say Jordan, where there's maybe 3 cities with midrange hotels). Wifi was pretty good in almost all the places we stayed at. Cheap domestic flights make it easy to get around -- we either flew or took boats on the Irrawady to get between cities.
Bhutan was exactly how I had pictured it. Tiger's Nest was really cool to see, although I enjoyed even more the five days on the Druk Path trek, and the dzong in Punakha. Having a full-time guide turned out to be not so bad, and in fact is a great way for Bhutan to teach visitors about the history and culture of their country. Out of the three countries we visited this trip, Bhutan is the one you should visit now before it changes. Bhutan has historically followed a "high value low impact" strategy, but the National Council is debating dropping the tariff for international visitors. So I think the low number of tourists, which was one of the main attractions for us, will soon change. There were 68K international tourists in 2014 (up from 38K in 2011), and in addition 65K regional tourists who are exempt from the tariff. fyi if you are thinking of going to Bhutan, you should read the Bhutan Tourism Monitor's annual report, it's really useful for trip planning. In terms of infrastructure, we were able to use ATMs and there was decent wifi at all the hotels. The food was really good, and very spicy (chilies are a main ingredient in some dishes!), but all the restaurants can tone it down for tourists. We got accustomed (a little) to the spiciness and found other food bland afterwards without the chilies.
Sri Lanka has a little bit of everything -- ruins, beaches, diving, colonial towns, trekking, safari. There's lots of boutique hotels, more so in the south. I was very surprised at the ruins -- Polonnaruwa was amazing, up there with other ruins in the world. ATMs and wifi were everywhere.
From a technology standpoint, fast wifi is now so ubiquitous that I was able to upload all my outtakes as we went (average of about 100 pics a day). Another change on this trip was downloadable Google Maps (I know it was possible previously to download maps from 3rd parties, but it's much easier in Google Maps). So now, when we look at the map while walking about, we don't attract the attention of every local as we used to when pulling out the guide book to look at the map.
We started thinking about our next trip on the flight home. It will likely be food-based -- maybe Argentina (there's lots to Argentina that we haven't yet seen). Anyways, I'm sure we'll change our minds about 10 times before we settle on a place. Until then!
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Bangkok, Thailand
We were up at 4am for the 2nd time in a week to catch our transportation, this morning a 7:20am flight from Colombo to Bangkok. It's about an hour drive from downtown Colombo to the airport (twice that during the day with traffic). Heather's foam roller (lost on the train ride here and supposedly found, and to be delivered to the hotel) didn't appear over the four days we spent in Colombo, so it is officially lost.
We had no problems carrying our souvenirs as carry-on on SriLankan Airlines. (Emirates is much stricter so we'll have to figure something out for the flight home to Toronto.) Spent our last rupees on very expensive teas and muffins (equivalent of over $20 USD for two teas and two muffins) while waiting for the gate to open. Our flight was an older plane and the seats weren't that comfortable, but it beat standing up on a train for seven hours.
We were lucky going through immigration at BKK. The line-up is normally about an hour, but it was temporarily overflowed when we arrived so they shunted us to a VIP line-up which only took 15 minutes! We hit a very narrow window with our luck, as the other passengers on our plane were nowhere to be seen when we picked up our luggage from the conveyor.
The taxi to our hotel was also quicker than previous, maybe because it was the middle of the day. We checked in, got our left-luggage (which was now five (!) bags of souvenirs and winter clothes). We had had snacks at the Colombo airport, and then had breakfast on the plane, so we weren't hungry for lunch in Bangkok. Just munched on the apples in the room. Measured the bigger souvenirs using string, so that we could shop for a suitcase that fit.
We were first in the lounge for happy hour at 5:30pm. (Maybe skipping lunch wasn't a great idea?) Grazed on the tapas and had a few drinks. We then threw caution to the wind and had a coffee after 5pm! *gasp* This was an intentional attempt to mess up our sleep to get back on Eastern Standard Time (a 12-hour difference from Bangkok).
We decided to head into the night market to look for a large suitcase, rather than wait until tomorrow. Took the skytrain two stops to the start of the market. There were more stalls than our previous visit prior to Bhutan when it was raining. Wandered through, but didn't see anything else souvenir-wise. Came across a luggage store, and bought the largest suitcase they had, which according to my string measurements would fit everything, for about $30 USD. It will go straight to Goodwill when we get back home, if it survives the trip, and doesn't fold up like a cheap suitcase, haha.
I was still a bit hungry so we went to the italian restaurant in the hotel. The restaurant seating area was closed (it was 10:30pm) but they served us poolside. We split a draft beer and the pizza, and then went to bed, enjoying our last chance to sleep in a bed until we got home.
...
Slept in, thanks to the late coffee keeping us up for part of the night. After breakfast we took the boat to the tourist area, to go to the amulet market near the temples. We had walked quickly through the market on our first time through, but not really looked at it. I was looking for some small trinkets as souvenirs. (Back home, we have an old wooden hotel key holder, with 100 key boxes. We figured we'd buy some small items from each country that we visit together. We're up to 19 now. The amulets would make a nice little souvenir).
There were even more tourists in Bangkok as it's the height of busy season. We were glad we had done our touristing in early December when it was just busy. Had lunch at a ramen place near the docks, and then caught the boat home.
Spent the rest of the afternoon packing our souvenirs in the suitcase we bought at the market the previous night. All of our clothing now became wrapping for fragile souvenirs. All the souvenirs fit in the suitcase, including the large butter tea urn from Bhutan. I was pretty sure the suitcase was within the size limits allowed by Emirates, but was concerned about the weight. In economy we were allowed two pieces each, with a weight restriction on both the total weight, and the individual weight. I thought the big suitcase was over the individual weight.
We celebrated the end of our vacation at the hotel's italian restaurant, trying their four-course degustazion menu. It was really good. Had a espresso to finish off, so that we'd be able to stay awake until our flight left at 2am.
Checked out at 10pm (it was easier to book the room for the night, even though we were leaving at 10pm) and caught a taxi to BKK airport. It normally takes an hour but it was only 30 minutes at night! But we used up the extra time while checking in. The large suitcase was over our weight limit, and it cost $50 USD in overage charges, which took almost 30 minutes for Emirates to process.
It was a long ways home, 7 hours to Dubai, 4 hours layover, and then 14 hours to Toronto. It was rush hour in Toronto, so took the UP Express to downtown and then a taxi home. The total cost was about the same as a taxi straight from Pearson to home, but this way we skipped the rush hour traffic. Home at last!
We had no problems carrying our souvenirs as carry-on on SriLankan Airlines. (Emirates is much stricter so we'll have to figure something out for the flight home to Toronto.) Spent our last rupees on very expensive teas and muffins (equivalent of over $20 USD for two teas and two muffins) while waiting for the gate to open. Our flight was an older plane and the seats weren't that comfortable, but it beat standing up on a train for seven hours.
We were lucky going through immigration at BKK. The line-up is normally about an hour, but it was temporarily overflowed when we arrived so they shunted us to a VIP line-up which only took 15 minutes! We hit a very narrow window with our luck, as the other passengers on our plane were nowhere to be seen when we picked up our luggage from the conveyor.
The taxi to our hotel was also quicker than previous, maybe because it was the middle of the day. We checked in, got our left-luggage (which was now five (!) bags of souvenirs and winter clothes). We had had snacks at the Colombo airport, and then had breakfast on the plane, so we weren't hungry for lunch in Bangkok. Just munched on the apples in the room. Measured the bigger souvenirs using string, so that we could shop for a suitcase that fit.
We were first in the lounge for happy hour at 5:30pm. (Maybe skipping lunch wasn't a great idea?) Grazed on the tapas and had a few drinks. We then threw caution to the wind and had a coffee after 5pm! *gasp* This was an intentional attempt to mess up our sleep to get back on Eastern Standard Time (a 12-hour difference from Bangkok).
We decided to head into the night market to look for a large suitcase, rather than wait until tomorrow. Took the skytrain two stops to the start of the market. There were more stalls than our previous visit prior to Bhutan when it was raining. Wandered through, but didn't see anything else souvenir-wise. Came across a luggage store, and bought the largest suitcase they had, which according to my string measurements would fit everything, for about $30 USD. It will go straight to Goodwill when we get back home, if it survives the trip, and doesn't fold up like a cheap suitcase, haha.
I was still a bit hungry so we went to the italian restaurant in the hotel. The restaurant seating area was closed (it was 10:30pm) but they served us poolside. We split a draft beer and the pizza, and then went to bed, enjoying our last chance to sleep in a bed until we got home.
...
Slept in, thanks to the late coffee keeping us up for part of the night. After breakfast we took the boat to the tourist area, to go to the amulet market near the temples. We had walked quickly through the market on our first time through, but not really looked at it. I was looking for some small trinkets as souvenirs. (Back home, we have an old wooden hotel key holder, with 100 key boxes. We figured we'd buy some small items from each country that we visit together. We're up to 19 now. The amulets would make a nice little souvenir).
There were even more tourists in Bangkok as it's the height of busy season. We were glad we had done our touristing in early December when it was just busy. Had lunch at a ramen place near the docks, and then caught the boat home.
Spent the rest of the afternoon packing our souvenirs in the suitcase we bought at the market the previous night. All of our clothing now became wrapping for fragile souvenirs. All the souvenirs fit in the suitcase, including the large butter tea urn from Bhutan. I was pretty sure the suitcase was within the size limits allowed by Emirates, but was concerned about the weight. In economy we were allowed two pieces each, with a weight restriction on both the total weight, and the individual weight. I thought the big suitcase was over the individual weight.
We celebrated the end of our vacation at the hotel's italian restaurant, trying their four-course degustazion menu. It was really good. Had a espresso to finish off, so that we'd be able to stay awake until our flight left at 2am.
Checked out at 10pm (it was easier to book the room for the night, even though we were leaving at 10pm) and caught a taxi to BKK airport. It normally takes an hour but it was only 30 minutes at night! But we used up the extra time while checking in. The large suitcase was over our weight limit, and it cost $50 USD in overage charges, which took almost 30 minutes for Emirates to process.
It was a long ways home, 7 hours to Dubai, 4 hours layover, and then 14 hours to Toronto. It was rush hour in Toronto, so took the UP Express to downtown and then a taxi home. The total cost was about the same as a taxi straight from Pearson to home, but this way we skipped the rush hour traffic. Home at last!
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Heather woke up feeling a bit under the weather so we had a slower start to the day. On Sundays there's an outdoor art market near the National Museum, so we tuktuk'd over and checked it out. The quality was good, much better than I had expected.
Back in Kamburugamuwa, Heather had really liked the painting that was hung in our room. We asked the hotel owners about it, but all they could remember was that they bought it in an art market in Colombo. The artist had signed the painting but it wasn't really readable.
So by luck we recognized some paintings by the same artist at the Sunday art market! There was just a small sampling on display, so we got the contact info for the artist, to see if they have anything similar to the one Heather liked.
Went to some more souvenir places, and then had a late lunch at Mango, an Indian restaurant near our hotel. It was tasty but a bit heavy.
It was drizzling on our walk home, only the 3rd time it's rained on us on the whole trip over nine weeks! Pretty lucky. We had our umbrellas so we stayed dry.
Had dinner at the hotel again. We were getting deep into the menu and it was getting more average. Didnt have too much to drink as we had an early wake up call at 4am to catch our flight to Bangkok. It did feel like the end of our trip -- the rest is just getting back home to Toronto.
Back in Kamburugamuwa, Heather had really liked the painting that was hung in our room. We asked the hotel owners about it, but all they could remember was that they bought it in an art market in Colombo. The artist had signed the painting but it wasn't really readable.
So by luck we recognized some paintings by the same artist at the Sunday art market! There was just a small sampling on display, so we got the contact info for the artist, to see if they have anything similar to the one Heather liked.
Went to some more souvenir places, and then had a late lunch at Mango, an Indian restaurant near our hotel. It was tasty but a bit heavy.
It was drizzling on our walk home, only the 3rd time it's rained on us on the whole trip over nine weeks! Pretty lucky. We had our umbrellas so we stayed dry.
Had dinner at the hotel again. We were getting deep into the menu and it was getting more average. Didnt have too much to drink as we had an early wake up call at 4am to catch our flight to Bangkok. It did feel like the end of our trip -- the rest is just getting back home to Toronto.
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Colombo, Sri Lanka
We had a quiet Christmas in Colombo. Everything was closed (and it was a Friday so the Muslim shops were mostly closed too). There was no traffic on the roads at all. This worked out for us, as we wanted to spend a day walking about the Colombo Fort area to see all the old colonial architecture.
There's a lot of old buildings in Colombo Fort crumbling away; gentrification is under way and restoring the glory of the buildings. The Fort area is contained and smallish (we walked up and down every street in about two hours) and it's easy to see most of the area developing into a tourist destination like the old town in Galle. While in the Old Dutch Hospital yesterday (a smaller version of the Distillery District in Toronto), we made reservations at the Ministry of Crab a local institution, for lunch on Dec 26.
Walked though the markets in Pettah, saw the largest banana market I've ever seen. We had a hankering for sushi (some of the highest rated restaurants in tripadvisor were Japanese, and Colombo's on the ocean).
The only restaurants open were those in large tourist hotels, so took a tuktuk to Yu Mi in the Taj hotel. The sushi was okay; fresh but a little bland. The Japanese tea was very good, served in a proper teapot and cups. Anyways the sushi hit the spot.
As we were walking home, another couple waved to us from inside the Taj. It took us a few seconds to place the faces - they were also guests at our hotel.
Relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Our room had a great covered porch area with seating and overhead fan. Very nice for reading or having a beer. (The beers had been delivered earlier to our minibar cause Christmas is a dry day by law in Sri Lanka).
Around 15 minutes to sunset, took a tuktuk out to Galle Face Green to watch the sunset. The boardwalk along Galle Face Green is very popular with locals at sunset and it was even busier being a holiday. The sunset was nice. It was just the sun and the ocean but no subject like boats or islands so I didn't post any pics.
Had dinner at the hotel again. It has great ambience and the kitchen is highly rated. We figured we'd have lunches at other places, and then dinners here every day. It's more relaxing not to have to take tuktuks after we'd cleaned up, and the kitchen was very good at our hotel.
...
Ministry of Crab day! We started at the National Museum close to our hotel, which was great. It was more interesting because we'd already seen most of the ruins documented in the museum. We spent about 90 minutes going through.
Took a tuktuk to the Ministry of Crab. Most of the tuktuk drivers we took today remarked about it being the 11th anniversary of the tsunami that killed over 40,000 people in Sri Lanka on Boxing Day 2004. Dec 26 is now National Safety Day, but I'm not sure what that entails.
We arrived early at the restaurant, but were able to get seated. It's quite a production here. We ordered a small chili garlic crab each (600g), garlic butter clams to split as a starter, homemade ginger beers, and freshly baked kade bread.
Got our bibs and ginger beer.
The clams were excellent, perfectly cooked (Heather is very particular about her seafood).
Next came the crabs. Served in the shell, with lots of sauce to dip the kade. Mmm good! (Not as good as the king crab we had in the market in Santiago, but very good). At first we thought we may need to order more clams, but there's plenty of meat on the crabs here and we were stuffed by the end. Heather couldn't even finish hers and I had to help :)
For dessert went to nearby Heladiv Tea, which had excellent tea and dessert, and lousy service.
We were both stuffed. Took a tuktuk down Galle Rd to Barefoot, a local fabric store that Heather had been wanting to check out. Souvenir shopped, and then walked towards the hotel checking out the stores (in particular looking for the Cashew Corporation shop - cashews are a big crop here). Didn't find the cashew place, and ended up walking all the way home, just as well after the big lunch.
We were still full at dinner, so just ordered some smaller items and called it tapas. Also had a few drinks (Heather tried their arrak cocktail, I had some Lion Lagers) as the bar was able to serve today.
There's a lot of old buildings in Colombo Fort crumbling away; gentrification is under way and restoring the glory of the buildings. The Fort area is contained and smallish (we walked up and down every street in about two hours) and it's easy to see most of the area developing into a tourist destination like the old town in Galle. While in the Old Dutch Hospital yesterday (a smaller version of the Distillery District in Toronto), we made reservations at the Ministry of Crab a local institution, for lunch on Dec 26.
Walked though the markets in Pettah, saw the largest banana market I've ever seen. We had a hankering for sushi (some of the highest rated restaurants in tripadvisor were Japanese, and Colombo's on the ocean).
The only restaurants open were those in large tourist hotels, so took a tuktuk to Yu Mi in the Taj hotel. The sushi was okay; fresh but a little bland. The Japanese tea was very good, served in a proper teapot and cups. Anyways the sushi hit the spot.
As we were walking home, another couple waved to us from inside the Taj. It took us a few seconds to place the faces - they were also guests at our hotel.
Relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Our room had a great covered porch area with seating and overhead fan. Very nice for reading or having a beer. (The beers had been delivered earlier to our minibar cause Christmas is a dry day by law in Sri Lanka).
Around 15 minutes to sunset, took a tuktuk out to Galle Face Green to watch the sunset. The boardwalk along Galle Face Green is very popular with locals at sunset and it was even busier being a holiday. The sunset was nice. It was just the sun and the ocean but no subject like boats or islands so I didn't post any pics.
Had dinner at the hotel again. It has great ambience and the kitchen is highly rated. We figured we'd have lunches at other places, and then dinners here every day. It's more relaxing not to have to take tuktuks after we'd cleaned up, and the kitchen was very good at our hotel.
...
Ministry of Crab day! We started at the National Museum close to our hotel, which was great. It was more interesting because we'd already seen most of the ruins documented in the museum. We spent about 90 minutes going through.
Took a tuktuk to the Ministry of Crab. Most of the tuktuk drivers we took today remarked about it being the 11th anniversary of the tsunami that killed over 40,000 people in Sri Lanka on Boxing Day 2004. Dec 26 is now National Safety Day, but I'm not sure what that entails.
We arrived early at the restaurant, but were able to get seated. It's quite a production here. We ordered a small chili garlic crab each (600g), garlic butter clams to split as a starter, homemade ginger beers, and freshly baked kade bread.
Got our bibs and ginger beer.
The clams were excellent, perfectly cooked (Heather is very particular about her seafood).
Next came the crabs. Served in the shell, with lots of sauce to dip the kade. Mmm good! (Not as good as the king crab we had in the market in Santiago, but very good). At first we thought we may need to order more clams, but there's plenty of meat on the crabs here and we were stuffed by the end. Heather couldn't even finish hers and I had to help :)
For dessert went to nearby Heladiv Tea, which had excellent tea and dessert, and lousy service.
We were both stuffed. Took a tuktuk down Galle Rd to Barefoot, a local fabric store that Heather had been wanting to check out. Souvenir shopped, and then walked towards the hotel checking out the stores (in particular looking for the Cashew Corporation shop - cashews are a big crop here). Didn't find the cashew place, and ended up walking all the way home, just as well after the big lunch.
We were still full at dinner, so just ordered some smaller items and called it tapas. Also had a few drinks (Heather tried their arrak cocktail, I had some Lion Lagers) as the bar was able to serve today.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Colombo, Sri Lanka
So here is my 2nd best train ride story ever. (It will be hard to top the story of getting left off the train in Siberia).
We woke up at 4am to catch our 5am train from Anuradhapura to Colombo. That's not nearly as bad as it sounds as we've been in bed by 9pm most nights.
Our tuktuk driver drove us over to the train station at 4:30am. The station was crowded with locals, lined up to buy tickets. It was likely the busiest travel day of the year, a combination of Christmas and Poya, the full moon celebration. Otherwise we would have had no issues getting 1st class tickets and seats.
The platform was crowded, with people staking out their spots on the platform edge. Heather and I discussed our strategy - Heather would jump in first and grab seats, and I would follow with both our packs. I had had some experience boarding crowded trains traveling hard seat with Gerry through China years ago, for Heather it was fairly new.
The train pulled into the station on time. People jumped into the open doorways well before the train stopped. Next thing I knew, Heather had jumped on too. I had to wait another 10 seconds for the train to stop, shuffling down the platform to get on the same car that Heather boarded.
It was madness on the train, as people pushed through in both directions trying to find seats and/or join their family and friends that had grabbed and saved seats.
Unfortunately after getting on the train, Heather had turned left into the 3rd class car instead of right into the 2nd class. By the time she realized (just a few seconds) and turned around it was too late - all the seats were gone.
So we situated ourselves in the middle of the car, with the hope that it would just be crowded at the doorways. At least we had space on the luggage racks for our big packs, plus two bags of souvenirs, and Heather's foam roller (which fit perfectly in a canvas bag that she got at Winners).
We settled in standing up for the scheduled five hours to Colombo. It was okay for the first couple hours. The sun was yet to rise so it was cooler. We had a couple Snickers bars as our breakfast.
I had offlined the full train route in Google Maps (this option just appeared yesterday on the iPhone app). But I couldn't access any satellites through the metal train top, so while we had a map, it was hard to tell where we were. The train station signs weren't visible through the windows as we were standing.
Every 20 minutes or so we stopped at a station and more people boarded. By 8am, the aisles were full, and people started crowding into the space between the seats. The etiquette we observed was that kids were always allowed to go the windows, standing in the floor space in front of seats, the seated passengers becoming their uncle or auntie. If someone gave up their seat (eg to a parent with a baby) then they got dibs on the floor space. The advantage of the floor space in between the seats is that by etiquette that was limited to one adult.
In the aisle proper, it was as many people that could fit. By 9am, it was so crowded I couldn't move my feet to adjust them. It wasn't always possible to reach a handhold for balance, so we just held onto each other.
More people boarded. The rack space was at a premium, and another passenger adjusted our smaller bags to fit theirs. It was a few seats down so we couldn't reach to make sure ours were still secure. It only looked like foam roller might fall - but it was light so wouldn't hurt anyone.
About 20 minutes later we heard half the car gasp. We looked around, and realized that the foam roller had fallen, bounced off someone's head, and right out the open window.
We knew it was just a foam roller and easily replaceable, but the other passengers didn't. They thought a valuable luggage belonging to the westerners had just been lost. Heather had actually debated leaving the roller behind in the hotel, as we were near the end of the trip and it's a nuisance to cart through airports as carry on. So we weren't concerned at all about the loss, it was sort of funny. The only part Heather wanted was the bag, as she hadn't seen anything similar anywhere.
By 10am (the train was running about an hour late) it was so crowded I didn't need hand holds for balance - I was so squished up against the other passengers that there was nowhere to fall over.
There was an excited conversation on the car near where the foam roller had fallen out the window, and then one of the passengers declared, 'they have found your luggage'. The guy asked us to write our address, and then it would be delivered!
We had thought most people would get off the train at Colombo, making it easier to get all our stuff. But most people stayed on the train. Just before Colombo, a couple other passengers who were disembarking told us to get ready and push for the door.
So we pushed and were pushed through the crowd to the door as the train stopped at Colombo. I'm still not clear on how we got off the train with all our stuff. It was almost like we body surfed to the exit, pointing out our luggage on the racks along the way, which other passengers added to the flowing current and they floated beside us until we popped out the door. It was like magic.
There were as many people on the platform waiting to board as were already on the train, including lots of backpackers. I didn't see how they could all fit.
We got our packs together and got a tuktuk to our hotel (Taru Villas Lake Lodge). We had splurged on an upgraded room as it was the last stop on our trip, which looked even better after the train ride.
Had lunch, cleaned up, and then went into Colombo Fort for a couple hours. Most places were closed today (Dec 24) because of Poya, and everything is closed Dec 25 for Christmas.
By law, alcohol isn't served on either Poya or Christmas (amongst other days). Hotels can get around this by stocking your mini bar to order, as long as you drink in your room. Our room had a nice patio and garden area, so that worked for us :)
Had dinner at the hotel (most restaurants were closed), a long ways away from our train ride experience.
We woke up at 4am to catch our 5am train from Anuradhapura to Colombo. That's not nearly as bad as it sounds as we've been in bed by 9pm most nights.
Our tuktuk driver drove us over to the train station at 4:30am. The station was crowded with locals, lined up to buy tickets. It was likely the busiest travel day of the year, a combination of Christmas and Poya, the full moon celebration. Otherwise we would have had no issues getting 1st class tickets and seats.
The platform was crowded, with people staking out their spots on the platform edge. Heather and I discussed our strategy - Heather would jump in first and grab seats, and I would follow with both our packs. I had had some experience boarding crowded trains traveling hard seat with Gerry through China years ago, for Heather it was fairly new.
The train pulled into the station on time. People jumped into the open doorways well before the train stopped. Next thing I knew, Heather had jumped on too. I had to wait another 10 seconds for the train to stop, shuffling down the platform to get on the same car that Heather boarded.
It was madness on the train, as people pushed through in both directions trying to find seats and/or join their family and friends that had grabbed and saved seats.
Unfortunately after getting on the train, Heather had turned left into the 3rd class car instead of right into the 2nd class. By the time she realized (just a few seconds) and turned around it was too late - all the seats were gone.
So we situated ourselves in the middle of the car, with the hope that it would just be crowded at the doorways. At least we had space on the luggage racks for our big packs, plus two bags of souvenirs, and Heather's foam roller (which fit perfectly in a canvas bag that she got at Winners).
We settled in standing up for the scheduled five hours to Colombo. It was okay for the first couple hours. The sun was yet to rise so it was cooler. We had a couple Snickers bars as our breakfast.
I had offlined the full train route in Google Maps (this option just appeared yesterday on the iPhone app). But I couldn't access any satellites through the metal train top, so while we had a map, it was hard to tell where we were. The train station signs weren't visible through the windows as we were standing.
Every 20 minutes or so we stopped at a station and more people boarded. By 8am, the aisles were full, and people started crowding into the space between the seats. The etiquette we observed was that kids were always allowed to go the windows, standing in the floor space in front of seats, the seated passengers becoming their uncle or auntie. If someone gave up their seat (eg to a parent with a baby) then they got dibs on the floor space. The advantage of the floor space in between the seats is that by etiquette that was limited to one adult.
In the aisle proper, it was as many people that could fit. By 9am, it was so crowded I couldn't move my feet to adjust them. It wasn't always possible to reach a handhold for balance, so we just held onto each other.
More people boarded. The rack space was at a premium, and another passenger adjusted our smaller bags to fit theirs. It was a few seats down so we couldn't reach to make sure ours were still secure. It only looked like foam roller might fall - but it was light so wouldn't hurt anyone.
About 20 minutes later we heard half the car gasp. We looked around, and realized that the foam roller had fallen, bounced off someone's head, and right out the open window.
We knew it was just a foam roller and easily replaceable, but the other passengers didn't. They thought a valuable luggage belonging to the westerners had just been lost. Heather had actually debated leaving the roller behind in the hotel, as we were near the end of the trip and it's a nuisance to cart through airports as carry on. So we weren't concerned at all about the loss, it was sort of funny. The only part Heather wanted was the bag, as she hadn't seen anything similar anywhere.
By 10am (the train was running about an hour late) it was so crowded I didn't need hand holds for balance - I was so squished up against the other passengers that there was nowhere to fall over.
There was an excited conversation on the car near where the foam roller had fallen out the window, and then one of the passengers declared, 'they have found your luggage'. The guy asked us to write our address, and then it would be delivered!
We had thought most people would get off the train at Colombo, making it easier to get all our stuff. But most people stayed on the train. Just before Colombo, a couple other passengers who were disembarking told us to get ready and push for the door.
So we pushed and were pushed through the crowd to the door as the train stopped at Colombo. I'm still not clear on how we got off the train with all our stuff. It was almost like we body surfed to the exit, pointing out our luggage on the racks along the way, which other passengers added to the flowing current and they floated beside us until we popped out the door. It was like magic.
There were as many people on the platform waiting to board as were already on the train, including lots of backpackers. I didn't see how they could all fit.
We got our packs together and got a tuktuk to our hotel (Taru Villas Lake Lodge). We had splurged on an upgraded room as it was the last stop on our trip, which looked even better after the train ride.
Had lunch, cleaned up, and then went into Colombo Fort for a couple hours. Most places were closed today (Dec 24) because of Poya, and everything is closed Dec 25 for Christmas.
By law, alcohol isn't served on either Poya or Christmas (amongst other days). Hotels can get around this by stocking your mini bar to order, as long as you drink in your room. Our room had a nice patio and garden area, so that worked for us :)
Had dinner at the hotel (most restaurants were closed), a long ways away from our train ride experience.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Had breakfast at 7:15am to get an early start at Sigiriya. Breakfast included hoppers (crepe-like bread) with coconut and jaggery, very yummy.
Our plan was to go to Sigiriya by tuktuk, return to the hotel to pick up our bags, and then go by car to Anuradhapura.
We booked the same tuktuk driver that we had for Pollanaruwa, as he was excellent. Left the hotel at 8am, arriving at Sigirya just before 8:30am.
Sigiriya is a rocky outcrop rising 200m with vertical walls, with the remains of an ancient civilization at the top. It's one of the things that attracted us to Sri Lanka in the first place.
Sigiriya is also the most-visited tourist site in Sri Lanka, and the guide books all suggest climbing early morning. So of course there were 50 million tourists who all left their hotels around 8am to start the climb.
First was the traffic jam getting into the entrance. Next was the 10 minute line up to buy tickets. Then another 10 minute line up to show the ticket to enter.
So finally we were at the start of the climb! Not so fast. It's a narrow paved path, impossible to pass anyone. Tour guides stop their groups in the middle of the path to give their spiel.
It took us over an hour to get to the top, about 10 minutes of actual walking, and the rest waiting. At the top step, the people in front of us stopped to remark, wow, we're at the top and have a short discussion about the climb. Umm, well maybe you're at the top, and the people behind you are waiting for you to move from the top step.
At the top, there's not much to see in terms of ruins. The best viewpoint is an aerial view that you see if you google Sigiriya, which was likely taken from a plane.
So as you can tell we didn't like the excursion. If you're a historian or archeologist it's pretty cool; unfortunately I'm neither. The climb itself is entirely in the shade, it's just at the top where you're in the sun. So you don't need to do the climb at 8am, although it looked just as busy when we left.
Took the tuktuk back to our hotel, had some tea (cause that's what you do in Sri Lanka), switched over to the car, and drove to Anuradhapura.
Our driver had to call the guesthouse a couple times to find it (we've been keeping the hotel phone numbers handy for a few years now, as all the taxi drivers have cell phones). It was in a quiet residential area, the street circling a park area with a pickup cricket game going on in the middle.
We checked in and then took a tuktuk for lunch. First drove by the train station to get reserved seats for our train to Colombo, but it was sold out.
Ate a late lunch at 2pm at Mango Mango, recommended by the guesthouse. It was okay. We relaxed back at the hotel, got served dinner at 6:30pm, way too close after lunch but we hadn't specified a time and I guess that's when the other guests were eating (they had younger kids). At least they had beer, except limited fridge space and so our 2nd beer was warm.
Made plans for a tuktuk driver to take us around the Anuradhapura ruins tomorrow. I had planned two days to see the ruins based on the Lonely Planet but the guesthouse said it would only take four hours. After dinner read up on the city and surrounding area to figure out what to do with the extra day. There were some temples and short climbs that might have interested us at the start of our trip, but we were out-templed so looked at options to get to Colombo a day early.
...
Woke up at 7am for breakfast. Our Colombo hotel had emailed back and they had a room available for us to arrive a day early, so we booked it.
Breakfast was okay at the guesthouse, except for the tea which tasted like it was from teabags circa 1970. It was disappointing after all the great loose-leaf tea we've been having in Sri Lanka.
We asked our tuktuk driver about going by the train station to check for tickets to Colombo on Dec 24th, but he said it would be sold out. Not only did we hit the Christmas rush, it also coincided with Poya (the full moon celebrations). He recommended we catch the 5am train on Dec 24th, with the general admission 2nd class tickets sold the day-of.
So we were off to see the ruins of Anuradhapura, our last bit of touristing on this trip. (We still have Colombo to see, but that's more about souvenirs).
The ruins were cool, not as varied as Pollanaruwa, but worthwhile to see. The Anuradhapura ruins are active religious sites and so we had to take off our shoes at most of them. (Unlike Pollanaruwa which is an archaeological site, and shoes are okay).
The ruins are scattered about a few km. We stopped at about 15-20 sites, including four large dagobas, which take a few minutes each to walk around. That doesn't sound like much effort, but it is when you're barefoot and walking on stones that have been baking in the sun.
We were lucky at one dagoba to see an enormous fabric being carried into the dagoba, to be wrapped around its circumference.
It was a hot day, and we were glad we took at tuktuk rather than renting bicycles for the day. The roads linking the sites are filled with cars, and it's not as obvious where things are, compared to say Pollanaruwa or Bagan, where it was easier to navigate.
After a week of rice and curry for lunch and dinner, we wanted something different, which in Anuradhapura means Pizza Hut (they also have KFC here but we were also out-chickened). The pizzas were close to a pizza from home. We were embarrassed to ask our tuktuk driver to take us to Pizza Hut but oh well.
Arranged with our driver to by picked up at 4:30am the next day to catch our train. Had dinner (rice and curry, not too bad), did a bit of packing, and went to bed.
Our plan was to go to Sigiriya by tuktuk, return to the hotel to pick up our bags, and then go by car to Anuradhapura.
We booked the same tuktuk driver that we had for Pollanaruwa, as he was excellent. Left the hotel at 8am, arriving at Sigirya just before 8:30am.
Sigiriya is a rocky outcrop rising 200m with vertical walls, with the remains of an ancient civilization at the top. It's one of the things that attracted us to Sri Lanka in the first place.
Sigiriya is also the most-visited tourist site in Sri Lanka, and the guide books all suggest climbing early morning. So of course there were 50 million tourists who all left their hotels around 8am to start the climb.
First was the traffic jam getting into the entrance. Next was the 10 minute line up to buy tickets. Then another 10 minute line up to show the ticket to enter.
So finally we were at the start of the climb! Not so fast. It's a narrow paved path, impossible to pass anyone. Tour guides stop their groups in the middle of the path to give their spiel.
It took us over an hour to get to the top, about 10 minutes of actual walking, and the rest waiting. At the top step, the people in front of us stopped to remark, wow, we're at the top and have a short discussion about the climb. Umm, well maybe you're at the top, and the people behind you are waiting for you to move from the top step.
At the top, there's not much to see in terms of ruins. The best viewpoint is an aerial view that you see if you google Sigiriya, which was likely taken from a plane.
So as you can tell we didn't like the excursion. If you're a historian or archeologist it's pretty cool; unfortunately I'm neither. The climb itself is entirely in the shade, it's just at the top where you're in the sun. So you don't need to do the climb at 8am, although it looked just as busy when we left.
Took the tuktuk back to our hotel, had some tea (cause that's what you do in Sri Lanka), switched over to the car, and drove to Anuradhapura.
Our driver had to call the guesthouse a couple times to find it (we've been keeping the hotel phone numbers handy for a few years now, as all the taxi drivers have cell phones). It was in a quiet residential area, the street circling a park area with a pickup cricket game going on in the middle.
We checked in and then took a tuktuk for lunch. First drove by the train station to get reserved seats for our train to Colombo, but it was sold out.
Ate a late lunch at 2pm at Mango Mango, recommended by the guesthouse. It was okay. We relaxed back at the hotel, got served dinner at 6:30pm, way too close after lunch but we hadn't specified a time and I guess that's when the other guests were eating (they had younger kids). At least they had beer, except limited fridge space and so our 2nd beer was warm.
Made plans for a tuktuk driver to take us around the Anuradhapura ruins tomorrow. I had planned two days to see the ruins based on the Lonely Planet but the guesthouse said it would only take four hours. After dinner read up on the city and surrounding area to figure out what to do with the extra day. There were some temples and short climbs that might have interested us at the start of our trip, but we were out-templed so looked at options to get to Colombo a day early.
...
Woke up at 7am for breakfast. Our Colombo hotel had emailed back and they had a room available for us to arrive a day early, so we booked it.
Breakfast was okay at the guesthouse, except for the tea which tasted like it was from teabags circa 1970. It was disappointing after all the great loose-leaf tea we've been having in Sri Lanka.
We asked our tuktuk driver about going by the train station to check for tickets to Colombo on Dec 24th, but he said it would be sold out. Not only did we hit the Christmas rush, it also coincided with Poya (the full moon celebrations). He recommended we catch the 5am train on Dec 24th, with the general admission 2nd class tickets sold the day-of.
So we were off to see the ruins of Anuradhapura, our last bit of touristing on this trip. (We still have Colombo to see, but that's more about souvenirs).
The ruins were cool, not as varied as Pollanaruwa, but worthwhile to see. The Anuradhapura ruins are active religious sites and so we had to take off our shoes at most of them. (Unlike Pollanaruwa which is an archaeological site, and shoes are okay).
The ruins are scattered about a few km. We stopped at about 15-20 sites, including four large dagobas, which take a few minutes each to walk around. That doesn't sound like much effort, but it is when you're barefoot and walking on stones that have been baking in the sun.
We were lucky at one dagoba to see an enormous fabric being carried into the dagoba, to be wrapped around its circumference.
It was a hot day, and we were glad we took at tuktuk rather than renting bicycles for the day. The roads linking the sites are filled with cars, and it's not as obvious where things are, compared to say Pollanaruwa or Bagan, where it was easier to navigate.
After a week of rice and curry for lunch and dinner, we wanted something different, which in Anuradhapura means Pizza Hut (they also have KFC here but we were also out-chickened). The pizzas were close to a pizza from home. We were embarrassed to ask our tuktuk driver to take us to Pizza Hut but oh well.
Arranged with our driver to by picked up at 4:30am the next day to catch our train. Had dinner (rice and curry, not too bad), did a bit of packing, and went to bed.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Habarana, Sri Lanka
We had french toast with treacle for breakfast, a nice break from eggs and toast. Our B&B in Kandy varied the breakfast every day, which was also nice.
We had arranged for a driver to take us from Kandy to Habarana, stopping en route at Dambulla to see the rock caves.
The drive to Dambulla was straight, which was better for Heather's carsickness after the winding roads in Hill Country around Kandy. We stopped for some quick pics at a Hindu temple in Matale, just before Dambulla,which was on the road so we didn't have to make a detour to visit.
The parking lot at the cave temples was large, but not too many cars / buses yet, which boded well. Paid our $15 USD each, and climbed up 166m on a wide staircase where it was easy to pass the slower people.
Just before the cave entrance we removed our shoes (it's a religious site) and left them with the shoe check stand. (The shoe check is primarily for tourists - locals just leave their shoes on the pathside.)
There are five caves, all beside each other on a stretch of rock face. They were all very impressive, filled with large Buddhas over the centuries. Cave II was the largest and most spectacular. This is what I had pictured the caves in Pindaya (in Myanmar) to look like. The Dambulla caves were well worth the visit.
It was only a 30 minute drive from the caves to Habarana. It's not a very big town - more like a junction town that has sprawled out due to its central location to ruins and national parks / safaris.
We stayed at Mutu Village, which our driver had to stop for directions to find. It's down a small road in the forest (as are most places in Habarana). We switched to an upgraded room in the newer wing, which was on the upper floor with a big balcony. Monkeys and squirrels roamed about the trees and roof of the hotel. Mangoes and papaya were in season and were literally falling from the trees. Seriously, it was a concern not to have one fall on your head walking from our room to the dining area.
So as you can imagine it was a great place to relax for the remainder of the day. We only had two errands, quickly completed: go out for lunch, and buy beer. The hotel folks suggested we have the tuktuk driver stop for us to pick up water and beer, which we could store in our mini fridge, and have with dinner.
Dinner was small (the norm in Sri Lanka). The beers were excellent - the freshest we've had in Sri Lanka. Our tuktuk driver had insisted on stopping at different places to buy water and beer - it looks like he knows his stuff :)
...
Breakfast at Mutu Village our first day was a local breakfast, but it did include hoppers (a rice flour and coconut milk crepe-like bread) and omelette, which we ate.
We left the hotel at 8:30am with our tuktuk driver to start our touristing of Pollanaruwa. It was about an hour by tuktuk to the ticket office. Our driver was great at explaining how to avoid the would-be guides and touts, and exactly where to go and what to see.
Tickets were $25 USD each, but well worth it as we found out.
The ruins are spread out over a few km, and follow an easy south-to-north path. The ruins start of in the south with relatively minor ruins, and get progressively more impressive as you head north. I had no idea, even with the research I had done booking the trip, that the ruins in Pollanaruwa were so great. They rank up there with the top ruin collections in the world, not in the top tier with Angkor Wat or Bagan, but definitely in the next tier, with say Jerash. They're really cool.
Anyways, five hours later I was duly impressed. We had lunch at a tourist place overlooking a rice field, and then back to the hotel, exhausted from the day of touring in the heat. Heather was so tired she managed to fall asleep in the back of the tuktuk.
Dinner was good, and we finished our beers and went to bed.
We had arranged for a driver to take us from Kandy to Habarana, stopping en route at Dambulla to see the rock caves.
The drive to Dambulla was straight, which was better for Heather's carsickness after the winding roads in Hill Country around Kandy. We stopped for some quick pics at a Hindu temple in Matale, just before Dambulla,which was on the road so we didn't have to make a detour to visit.
The parking lot at the cave temples was large, but not too many cars / buses yet, which boded well. Paid our $15 USD each, and climbed up 166m on a wide staircase where it was easy to pass the slower people.
Just before the cave entrance we removed our shoes (it's a religious site) and left them with the shoe check stand. (The shoe check is primarily for tourists - locals just leave their shoes on the pathside.)
There are five caves, all beside each other on a stretch of rock face. They were all very impressive, filled with large Buddhas over the centuries. Cave II was the largest and most spectacular. This is what I had pictured the caves in Pindaya (in Myanmar) to look like. The Dambulla caves were well worth the visit.
It was only a 30 minute drive from the caves to Habarana. It's not a very big town - more like a junction town that has sprawled out due to its central location to ruins and national parks / safaris.
We stayed at Mutu Village, which our driver had to stop for directions to find. It's down a small road in the forest (as are most places in Habarana). We switched to an upgraded room in the newer wing, which was on the upper floor with a big balcony. Monkeys and squirrels roamed about the trees and roof of the hotel. Mangoes and papaya were in season and were literally falling from the trees. Seriously, it was a concern not to have one fall on your head walking from our room to the dining area.
So as you can imagine it was a great place to relax for the remainder of the day. We only had two errands, quickly completed: go out for lunch, and buy beer. The hotel folks suggested we have the tuktuk driver stop for us to pick up water and beer, which we could store in our mini fridge, and have with dinner.
Dinner was small (the norm in Sri Lanka). The beers were excellent - the freshest we've had in Sri Lanka. Our tuktuk driver had insisted on stopping at different places to buy water and beer - it looks like he knows his stuff :)
...
Breakfast at Mutu Village our first day was a local breakfast, but it did include hoppers (a rice flour and coconut milk crepe-like bread) and omelette, which we ate.
We left the hotel at 8:30am with our tuktuk driver to start our touristing of Pollanaruwa. It was about an hour by tuktuk to the ticket office. Our driver was great at explaining how to avoid the would-be guides and touts, and exactly where to go and what to see.
Tickets were $25 USD each, but well worth it as we found out.
The ruins are spread out over a few km, and follow an easy south-to-north path. The ruins start of in the south with relatively minor ruins, and get progressively more impressive as you head north. I had no idea, even with the research I had done booking the trip, that the ruins in Pollanaruwa were so great. They rank up there with the top ruin collections in the world, not in the top tier with Angkor Wat or Bagan, but definitely in the next tier, with say Jerash. They're really cool.
Anyways, five hours later I was duly impressed. We had lunch at a tourist place overlooking a rice field, and then back to the hotel, exhausted from the day of touring in the heat. Heather was so tired she managed to fall asleep in the back of the tuktuk.
Dinner was good, and we finished our beers and went to bed.
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Kandy, Sri Lanka
We had a day full of sitting in a car today, driving out to Nuwara Eliya, through beautiful scenery of tea plantations in Hill Country.
We had the same private driver (that drove us here from the south) pick us up around 8am. It was about a 90 minute drive to Glenloch Tea Factory, the tea plantation that our B&B had recommended. Got the standard tourist tour, which was similar to what we saw in Malaysia, except there was more production going on. There weren't any tea leaf pickers on the estate so had the driver stop along the rest of the way whenever I saw some pickers.
The hill country was beautiful to drive through. I suppose the train ride is equally great.
It rained on-and-off after we visited the tea plantation, but we were in the car so it didn't matter. Stopped briefly in Nuwara Eliya, and at a Bhuddist temple that was closed between puja, otherwise a rather sedentary day.
We had dinner at the B&B. Went up (the house was on a hillside, with the entrance at the top level, and the other floors descending below into the valley) for a drink around 7pm. Patrick was pouring Johnnie Walker Black Label scotch, "cause it was Christmas".
Dinner was excellent, Sri Lankan, with rice and curry and vegetable dishes. Best was the dessert, curds and treacle, but this was the kind of curd you'd get from an organic curd specialty store. And treacle is always good. Mmm.
We had the same private driver (that drove us here from the south) pick us up around 8am. It was about a 90 minute drive to Glenloch Tea Factory, the tea plantation that our B&B had recommended. Got the standard tourist tour, which was similar to what we saw in Malaysia, except there was more production going on. There weren't any tea leaf pickers on the estate so had the driver stop along the rest of the way whenever I saw some pickers.
The hill country was beautiful to drive through. I suppose the train ride is equally great.
It rained on-and-off after we visited the tea plantation, but we were in the car so it didn't matter. Stopped briefly in Nuwara Eliya, and at a Bhuddist temple that was closed between puja, otherwise a rather sedentary day.
We had dinner at the B&B. Went up (the house was on a hillside, with the entrance at the top level, and the other floors descending below into the valley) for a drink around 7pm. Patrick was pouring Johnnie Walker Black Label scotch, "cause it was Christmas".
Dinner was excellent, Sri Lankan, with rice and curry and vegetable dishes. Best was the dessert, curds and treacle, but this was the kind of curd you'd get from an organic curd specialty store. And treacle is always good. Mmm.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Kandy, Sri Lanka
We took a private driver from Kamburugamuwa to Kandy, our longest travel day of the Sri Lanka trip. The folks at the Imagine Villa said normally people would break the journey into two, going by train via Ella. The train ride from Ella towards Kandy is supposed to be really scenic.
Anyways I had booked our hotels back in June (as it's busy season now), and the LP had said it was a seven hour train ride from Matara to Kandy, which sounded okay. What the LP didn't mention is that there's two ways to go, the scenic (long) way, or the fast way going back through Colombo. I thought it was seven hours for the scenic route.
We didn't fancy seven hours in 2nd class going back through Colombo, so instead booked the private driver. The fast route by car takes the new (finished in 2013) highway, and about five hours. We booked the driver though the Kandy B&B cause they quoted us a much cheaper rate.
We arrived in Kandy around 12:30pm. Heather said that over our trips, we've now visited Sucre, Salt and Kandy.
We stayed at Hantana Range View, a B&B run by an older couple that reminded me of some of my parents' friends. It had a great view overlooking Kandy.
We had the obligatory tea, which was excellent. Patrick had worked in the tea industry for 45 years, with Patrick and his wife Francis living in estate houses on the tea plantations. A long way to say, they knew their tea. They favoured BOP from a particular estate (I forget which one), served very properly from a white ceramic tea pot, at just the perfect temperature and steepness (degree of steep? steepidity?)
We hadn't had lunch, and also hadn't counted on having the afternoon free (we had been told the drive could take all day). So took a tuktuk into the centre of town, and found a restaurant for lunch, Midland Cafe. Turns out this is place rates highly on tripadvisor, we stumbled across it. Had the rice and curry, which was good, and inexpensive.
There was a sweet shop across the street, so we treated ourselves to some burfi, (an Indian sweet), and a "Lipton tea". Unlike Myanmar, where a Lipton tea meant a black tea, in this place it was sort of a Nespresso for tea, with instant chai-in-a-cup.
Well fed and on a sugar high, we walked around a bit of downtown, scouting out the sites to see the next day. Also stopped into a couple souvenir shops.
The B&B had lent us a cell phone, so that we could call the tuktuk driver to pick us up. Cleaned up back at the hotel, and then went back into town for dinner. Kandy is mostly a dry town, with only tourist hotel restaurants serving alcohol, so we went to the Royal Hotel for dinner. We found out later that the hotel had once been owned by Patrick's grandfather, and only recently purchased and restored. We felt transported back to a colonial era. The food was okay. The staff were very eager, but had no clue. Anyways, we were there for the atmosphere which was great.
...
We had breakfast at the B&B (i suppose otherwise it would just be a B), and then took a tuktuk into town. Visited the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. They have three periods a day where the relic is open for viewing (and prayers and offerings) called puja. We timed our visit for the 9:30am puja.
There was a large lineup of devotees already there. We joined the throngs, squeezing into queue and shuffling past the relic. You don't actually see the tooth (it's inside multiple caskets), but it's more about the experience of seeing all the devotees.
Next was the World Buddhism Museum. It's part of the temple complex, and so it's the first time I've visited a museum barefoot.
The museum was excellent. It showed the evolution of Buddhism through the world, and had exhibits from many countries. We were surprised by how many we had already seen, although our reasons were for the ruins. The museum was very extensive, we spent almost two hours there.
Had lunch at the Olde Empire Cafe, which was targeted at tourists, which suited us fine as we wanted the use a clean washroom.
We then took a tuktuk to the botanical gardens. It was pricey to enter ($11 each vs 50 cents for locals) (a lot of sites in Sri Lanka are priced much higher for tourist). We've seen a lot of botanical gardens recently - in Myanmar, Singapore, and now here. There was some cool stuff, the best was the cannonball tree. It was a nice refreshing walk around.
Just as we were leaving the gardens, it started to rain. Got a random tuktuk, except we didn't have an address or phone number. I knew the way by sight, but the driver took a different main road. Aargh. Also we had the rain covers on the tuktuk so we had very little visibility. Ended up back in the centre, so decided to walk back from there as we knew the way.
It was now pouring, and our little fold-up umbrellas kept our head and shoulders dry, but that's about it. We were soaked by the time we reached the B&B, but we had to launder our clothes anyways so it didn't matter. The only thing was our shoes were soaked too. I had my big hiking shoes and Heather had her flats, so we had shoes we could wear for dinner.
We tried another place for dinner, Senani, recommended by Frances. It was overlooking the lake and temple, and we got the last railing-front table. The wait staff here was much better. We were still full from lunch, so just split the deviled cashews (which were excellent) and the chicken biryani. We arranged a pickup time with the hotel tuktuk so we had no issues getting back home :)
Anyways I had booked our hotels back in June (as it's busy season now), and the LP had said it was a seven hour train ride from Matara to Kandy, which sounded okay. What the LP didn't mention is that there's two ways to go, the scenic (long) way, or the fast way going back through Colombo. I thought it was seven hours for the scenic route.
We didn't fancy seven hours in 2nd class going back through Colombo, so instead booked the private driver. The fast route by car takes the new (finished in 2013) highway, and about five hours. We booked the driver though the Kandy B&B cause they quoted us a much cheaper rate.
We arrived in Kandy around 12:30pm. Heather said that over our trips, we've now visited Sucre, Salt and Kandy.
We stayed at Hantana Range View, a B&B run by an older couple that reminded me of some of my parents' friends. It had a great view overlooking Kandy.
We had the obligatory tea, which was excellent. Patrick had worked in the tea industry for 45 years, with Patrick and his wife Francis living in estate houses on the tea plantations. A long way to say, they knew their tea. They favoured BOP from a particular estate (I forget which one), served very properly from a white ceramic tea pot, at just the perfect temperature and steepness (degree of steep? steepidity?)
We hadn't had lunch, and also hadn't counted on having the afternoon free (we had been told the drive could take all day). So took a tuktuk into the centre of town, and found a restaurant for lunch, Midland Cafe. Turns out this is place rates highly on tripadvisor, we stumbled across it. Had the rice and curry, which was good, and inexpensive.
There was a sweet shop across the street, so we treated ourselves to some burfi, (an Indian sweet), and a "Lipton tea". Unlike Myanmar, where a Lipton tea meant a black tea, in this place it was sort of a Nespresso for tea, with instant chai-in-a-cup.
Well fed and on a sugar high, we walked around a bit of downtown, scouting out the sites to see the next day. Also stopped into a couple souvenir shops.
The B&B had lent us a cell phone, so that we could call the tuktuk driver to pick us up. Cleaned up back at the hotel, and then went back into town for dinner. Kandy is mostly a dry town, with only tourist hotel restaurants serving alcohol, so we went to the Royal Hotel for dinner. We found out later that the hotel had once been owned by Patrick's grandfather, and only recently purchased and restored. We felt transported back to a colonial era. The food was okay. The staff were very eager, but had no clue. Anyways, we were there for the atmosphere which was great.
...
We had breakfast at the B&B (i suppose otherwise it would just be a B), and then took a tuktuk into town. Visited the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. They have three periods a day where the relic is open for viewing (and prayers and offerings) called puja. We timed our visit for the 9:30am puja.
There was a large lineup of devotees already there. We joined the throngs, squeezing into queue and shuffling past the relic. You don't actually see the tooth (it's inside multiple caskets), but it's more about the experience of seeing all the devotees.
Next was the World Buddhism Museum. It's part of the temple complex, and so it's the first time I've visited a museum barefoot.
The museum was excellent. It showed the evolution of Buddhism through the world, and had exhibits from many countries. We were surprised by how many we had already seen, although our reasons were for the ruins. The museum was very extensive, we spent almost two hours there.
Had lunch at the Olde Empire Cafe, which was targeted at tourists, which suited us fine as we wanted the use a clean washroom.
We then took a tuktuk to the botanical gardens. It was pricey to enter ($11 each vs 50 cents for locals) (a lot of sites in Sri Lanka are priced much higher for tourist). We've seen a lot of botanical gardens recently - in Myanmar, Singapore, and now here. There was some cool stuff, the best was the cannonball tree. It was a nice refreshing walk around.
Just as we were leaving the gardens, it started to rain. Got a random tuktuk, except we didn't have an address or phone number. I knew the way by sight, but the driver took a different main road. Aargh. Also we had the rain covers on the tuktuk so we had very little visibility. Ended up back in the centre, so decided to walk back from there as we knew the way.
It was now pouring, and our little fold-up umbrellas kept our head and shoulders dry, but that's about it. We were soaked by the time we reached the B&B, but we had to launder our clothes anyways so it didn't matter. The only thing was our shoes were soaked too. I had my big hiking shoes and Heather had her flats, so we had shoes we could wear for dinner.
We tried another place for dinner, Senani, recommended by Frances. It was overlooking the lake and temple, and we got the last railing-front table. The wait staff here was much better. We were still full from lunch, so just split the deviled cashews (which were excellent) and the chicken biryani. We arranged a pickup time with the hotel tuktuk so we had no issues getting back home :)
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Kamburugamuwa, Sri Lanka
I had booked with Scuba Diving Weligama to go diving today, but the weather was really stormy when I woke up, so I called to cancel. The dive itself would have been fine, but I didn't like the idea of being in dive boat in the choppy seas. Plus there had been thunder and lightning all night, and forecast to continue through the morning. Heather said the thunder was shaking the ground; I slept right through it.
It was cooler in the morning with the heavy cloud cover, a nice break from the heat. We had breakfast on the porch as usual, and then read our books for a bit.
Around 11am we started to get antsy and decided to get a tuktuk to go into town for a couple hours.
First we went back to Mirissa for lunch. I had chicken roti, Heather tried the kotu, which is roti chopped up with vegetables and other fillings. The rotis were made to order, and really fresh.
Next to the east of our hotel to Matara. It's a transportation hub for the region and there was way more traffic. There's a couple small forts to see, and we just wanted to walk around the town a bit.
The forts were okay, one was really small, the other was under renovations. But we stumbled across the local food market which we really enjoyed.
Walked across the pedestrian bridge to see the temple on a small island, but didn't want to take our shoes off and get our feet dirty, so just looked at it from the outside.
Met up with our tuktuk driver at the temple as planned, and went back to the hotel. Matara was a nice little excursion to while away the day. Jumped in the pool to cool down.
We chatted with the owners while having a sundowner. They offered us a drink on the house so both of us had the daiquiris that Heather liked the other day :)
For dinner we had the fish special. I can't remember the type of fish, except that neither of us had had it before. It was okay. Dessert was a repeat of our first day, and very tasty as usual.
It was cooler in the morning with the heavy cloud cover, a nice break from the heat. We had breakfast on the porch as usual, and then read our books for a bit.
Around 11am we started to get antsy and decided to get a tuktuk to go into town for a couple hours.
First we went back to Mirissa for lunch. I had chicken roti, Heather tried the kotu, which is roti chopped up with vegetables and other fillings. The rotis were made to order, and really fresh.
Next to the east of our hotel to Matara. It's a transportation hub for the region and there was way more traffic. There's a couple small forts to see, and we just wanted to walk around the town a bit.
The forts were okay, one was really small, the other was under renovations. But we stumbled across the local food market which we really enjoyed.
Walked across the pedestrian bridge to see the temple on a small island, but didn't want to take our shoes off and get our feet dirty, so just looked at it from the outside.
Met up with our tuktuk driver at the temple as planned, and went back to the hotel. Matara was a nice little excursion to while away the day. Jumped in the pool to cool down.
We chatted with the owners while having a sundowner. They offered us a drink on the house so both of us had the daiquiris that Heather liked the other day :)
For dinner we had the fish special. I can't remember the type of fish, except that neither of us had had it before. It was okay. Dessert was a repeat of our first day, and very tasty as usual.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Kamburugamuwa, Sri Lanka
We were up early to be ready for the tuktuk that was picking us up at 6:15am for the whale watching excursion.
It was a quick 15 minute drive to Mirissa harbour. We zipped through the fishing boats unloading their catches, and selling the fish on the docks. It looked pretty cool, but we had bigger fish to fry (haha).
We paid our $60 each and boarded the whale watching boat. It was about 50% full, with a steady stream of tourists arriving by tuktuk. The boat had a covered upper deck, where we grabbed two seats. Staff came by with tea and ginger cookies for everyone, and also Gravol for those who wanted it.
By the time we left at 7am, the top deck was rather crowded. It was hard to keep an eye on the horizon with all the tourists standing at the railing. Fortunately the sea was pretty calm.
We headed straight south for at least an hour. No blue whales, but there were a few dolphins that most of the other tourists rushed to one side of the boat to get a glimpse, obviously not understanding the physics of a floating boat. It was going to be a long excursion...
The blue whales are hit-and-miss in the Indian Ocean and we had a miss day. After a few hours of puttering about looking for blue whales, we finally headed back to land.
On the way back, we had the misfortune of spotting some right whales. That meant another hour of circling around, with most of the tourists doing their inadvertent best to tip the boat. Heather and I just wanted to get back to ashore, and go for lunch.
Finally around 2pm, we got back to the harbour. We both agreed it was one of the least enjoyable excursions ever.
Our tuktuk driver took us back to our hotel, where we had a late breakfast. (The hotel does breakfasts made-to-order, and serve you breakfast after a whale watching excursion, no matter how late you get back). It was a plentiful breakfast, although about average taste: fruit platter, eggs, assorted breads, yoghurt (not plain :( ), cheeses. It was also the first place that didn't have loose leaf tea.
Booked the fish special for dinner, and then relaxed around the hotel. It's one of the few places where the wifi doesn't reach the room, so we had to hang out in the common areas to surf.
For the sundowner, Heather tried the hotel specialty, a cocktail based on arrak, a local distilled alcohol from coconut. It was excellent. I stuck to my beer.
The fish special was also really good, pan-fried barracuda in a penne pasta with lemongrass sauce. Mmm good. Dessert was amazing, a molten chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream.
...
We were up even earlier the next morning, at 5:10am so that we could get to Mirissa harbour in time to see the fishing boats come in. We had driven through the fish market yesterday on the way to the whale watching excursion, which turned out to be the best part of the excursion, so decided to get up early just to see it on its own.
Dawn was just starting to break when we arrived at Mirissa harbour. There was a 50 cents entrance fee (we didn't have to pay that yesterday cause we were just passing through).
It was pretty cool to wander about taking pictures, mostly just trying not to get in the way. The fishermen were helpful when we asked about the type of fish. At first they didn't understand the question, but if we just pointed and said "tuna?" they'd tell us the actual name. The biggest were the yellow fin tuna, which we recognized by the yellow fin (oddly enough). There was no smell at all of fish - it was fresh from the ocean. Buyers and sellers bartered and selected their fish, weighed and then sometimes carted away in wheelbarrows, depending on how much they bought.
Around 7am we headed back to the hotel, and had our breakfast. We then walked down the beach to a point about a km away, before it got too hot outside. The south coast of Sri Lanka is favoured by surfers, as there was constant pounding of large waves. We had a friendly dog follow us the whole way, just like trekking in Bhutan.
Somehow it was already 11ish and so we had lunch. It was sandwiches and fries again, not very exciting. With the great dinners, we had hoped for better lunches, but oh well.
Napped / read / daydreamed away the afternoon. Had some drinks at sundown - Heather tried another cocktail, a coconut daiquiri, which was one of the better daiquiris she's had. My beer was also good. This hotel didn't have coolies so they poured out a glass, and then kept the bottle in fridge until I was ready for the 2nd half.
We had the grilled seafood platter again, which our resident seafood expert (Heather) said wasn't quite as fresh as the first time we had it. It was still pretty good though. Dessert was a pineapple slice inside a banana fritter, topped with vanilla ice cream. Mmm good yet again. There were more mosquitos out tonight so we called it a night early.
It was a quick 15 minute drive to Mirissa harbour. We zipped through the fishing boats unloading their catches, and selling the fish on the docks. It looked pretty cool, but we had bigger fish to fry (haha).
We paid our $60 each and boarded the whale watching boat. It was about 50% full, with a steady stream of tourists arriving by tuktuk. The boat had a covered upper deck, where we grabbed two seats. Staff came by with tea and ginger cookies for everyone, and also Gravol for those who wanted it.
By the time we left at 7am, the top deck was rather crowded. It was hard to keep an eye on the horizon with all the tourists standing at the railing. Fortunately the sea was pretty calm.
We headed straight south for at least an hour. No blue whales, but there were a few dolphins that most of the other tourists rushed to one side of the boat to get a glimpse, obviously not understanding the physics of a floating boat. It was going to be a long excursion...
The blue whales are hit-and-miss in the Indian Ocean and we had a miss day. After a few hours of puttering about looking for blue whales, we finally headed back to land.
On the way back, we had the misfortune of spotting some right whales. That meant another hour of circling around, with most of the tourists doing their inadvertent best to tip the boat. Heather and I just wanted to get back to ashore, and go for lunch.
Finally around 2pm, we got back to the harbour. We both agreed it was one of the least enjoyable excursions ever.
Our tuktuk driver took us back to our hotel, where we had a late breakfast. (The hotel does breakfasts made-to-order, and serve you breakfast after a whale watching excursion, no matter how late you get back). It was a plentiful breakfast, although about average taste: fruit platter, eggs, assorted breads, yoghurt (not plain :( ), cheeses. It was also the first place that didn't have loose leaf tea.
Booked the fish special for dinner, and then relaxed around the hotel. It's one of the few places where the wifi doesn't reach the room, so we had to hang out in the common areas to surf.
For the sundowner, Heather tried the hotel specialty, a cocktail based on arrak, a local distilled alcohol from coconut. It was excellent. I stuck to my beer.
The fish special was also really good, pan-fried barracuda in a penne pasta with lemongrass sauce. Mmm good. Dessert was amazing, a molten chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream.
...
We were up even earlier the next morning, at 5:10am so that we could get to Mirissa harbour in time to see the fishing boats come in. We had driven through the fish market yesterday on the way to the whale watching excursion, which turned out to be the best part of the excursion, so decided to get up early just to see it on its own.
Dawn was just starting to break when we arrived at Mirissa harbour. There was a 50 cents entrance fee (we didn't have to pay that yesterday cause we were just passing through).
It was pretty cool to wander about taking pictures, mostly just trying not to get in the way. The fishermen were helpful when we asked about the type of fish. At first they didn't understand the question, but if we just pointed and said "tuna?" they'd tell us the actual name. The biggest were the yellow fin tuna, which we recognized by the yellow fin (oddly enough). There was no smell at all of fish - it was fresh from the ocean. Buyers and sellers bartered and selected their fish, weighed and then sometimes carted away in wheelbarrows, depending on how much they bought.
Around 7am we headed back to the hotel, and had our breakfast. We then walked down the beach to a point about a km away, before it got too hot outside. The south coast of Sri Lanka is favoured by surfers, as there was constant pounding of large waves. We had a friendly dog follow us the whole way, just like trekking in Bhutan.
Somehow it was already 11ish and so we had lunch. It was sandwiches and fries again, not very exciting. With the great dinners, we had hoped for better lunches, but oh well.
Napped / read / daydreamed away the afternoon. Had some drinks at sundown - Heather tried another cocktail, a coconut daiquiri, which was one of the better daiquiris she's had. My beer was also good. This hotel didn't have coolies so they poured out a glass, and then kept the bottle in fridge until I was ready for the 2nd half.
We had the grilled seafood platter again, which our resident seafood expert (Heather) said wasn't quite as fresh as the first time we had it. It was still pretty good though. Dessert was a pineapple slice inside a banana fritter, topped with vanilla ice cream. Mmm good yet again. There were more mosquitos out tonight so we called it a night early.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Kamburugamuwa, Sri Lanka
After breakfast, we had some sightseeing and souvenir shopping to do in Galle before getting to Kamburugamuwa. We also needed to get cash but the power was out in the Old Town so the ATM's didn't work.
We asked our hotel about the costs for a private driver, in the meantime we went to see the Main Gate and Moon Bastion of the Fort Walls. Unfortunately the clock tower was under scaffolding, as it's the common subject of pics of the fort.
We could see the train station just outside the walls, just a few minutes away, so walked over to check out the Sunday schedule. There was a train at 11am and 2pm. Maybe we could get our shopping done and catch the 11am?
First we hit the ATMs (power was good in the new town). We walked back and bought the souvenirs we had our eyes on - an acrylic-on-wood painting, and some incense oil. The power had just come back on in the old town so we could pay by credit card.
We also got the contact info for our favourite item we saw. It's enormous wooden fan blades from an old tea factory. They were used in the drying process, and are about 9' tall. They were pretty expensive and would have to be be shipped home. Definitely not a carry-on item! (I don't even know if I could lift it at all!)
It was 10:15am so we rushed to pack up and check out of the hotel, and took a tuktuk to the train station (we could have walked but we had our packs and it was only $1.50), with plenty of time to spare, enough to track down the station master and figure out how many stops we had to go (4 stops).
The train arrived on time, and was only half-full so we were able to get seats together. I tracked our progress on the cached Google Maps map, so even without knowing it was 4 stops, it was easy to see when to get off the train.
There was a (single) tuktuk driver at the station who asked Rs 150 ($1.50) to take us to our hotel (Imagine Hotel), so we piled in. Turns out our hotel is very close to the train station, and it probably took longer to get in and out of the tuktuk with our big packs, than the actual drive. Oh well.
Heather had found the hotel on tripadvisor, it was away from the bulk of hotels in Mirissa, with a long stretch of open beach. We checked in, freshened up, and had a quick lunch, which wasn't that special.
Walked down the street in Kamburugamuwa to buy some water, as well as to see whatever else was around. Not much. We'd have to head into Mirissa or Matara (10 minutes / $4 by tuktuk) if we wanted to go out. However this wasn't a problem as we had planned to mostly relax at the hotel, catch up on reading by the ocean, and have dinners at the hotel.
Walked down the beach a bit, it was really hot in the sun. The sunset was nice, although not as spectacular as Kawthoung in Myanmar.
We arranged for a whale watching excursion for the next day. Blue whales migrate around this part of the coast.
Dinner was excellent. We had pre-ordered the grilled seafood platter, and everything was fresh and grilled perfectly. Had shrimp, lobster, crab, squid, plus two kinds of fish, served with garlic rice, salad, and a butter sauce for dipping. Mmm good. We ate outside on the porch, with the ocean waves crashing just beyond. It was very nice.
We asked our hotel about the costs for a private driver, in the meantime we went to see the Main Gate and Moon Bastion of the Fort Walls. Unfortunately the clock tower was under scaffolding, as it's the common subject of pics of the fort.
We could see the train station just outside the walls, just a few minutes away, so walked over to check out the Sunday schedule. There was a train at 11am and 2pm. Maybe we could get our shopping done and catch the 11am?
First we hit the ATMs (power was good in the new town). We walked back and bought the souvenirs we had our eyes on - an acrylic-on-wood painting, and some incense oil. The power had just come back on in the old town so we could pay by credit card.
We also got the contact info for our favourite item we saw. It's enormous wooden fan blades from an old tea factory. They were used in the drying process, and are about 9' tall. They were pretty expensive and would have to be be shipped home. Definitely not a carry-on item! (I don't even know if I could lift it at all!)
It was 10:15am so we rushed to pack up and check out of the hotel, and took a tuktuk to the train station (we could have walked but we had our packs and it was only $1.50), with plenty of time to spare, enough to track down the station master and figure out how many stops we had to go (4 stops).
The train arrived on time, and was only half-full so we were able to get seats together. I tracked our progress on the cached Google Maps map, so even without knowing it was 4 stops, it was easy to see when to get off the train.
There was a (single) tuktuk driver at the station who asked Rs 150 ($1.50) to take us to our hotel (Imagine Hotel), so we piled in. Turns out our hotel is very close to the train station, and it probably took longer to get in and out of the tuktuk with our big packs, than the actual drive. Oh well.
Heather had found the hotel on tripadvisor, it was away from the bulk of hotels in Mirissa, with a long stretch of open beach. We checked in, freshened up, and had a quick lunch, which wasn't that special.
Walked down the street in Kamburugamuwa to buy some water, as well as to see whatever else was around. Not much. We'd have to head into Mirissa or Matara (10 minutes / $4 by tuktuk) if we wanted to go out. However this wasn't a problem as we had planned to mostly relax at the hotel, catch up on reading by the ocean, and have dinners at the hotel.
Walked down the beach a bit, it was really hot in the sun. The sunset was nice, although not as spectacular as Kawthoung in Myanmar.
We arranged for a whale watching excursion for the next day. Blue whales migrate around this part of the coast.
Dinner was excellent. We had pre-ordered the grilled seafood platter, and everything was fresh and grilled perfectly. Had shrimp, lobster, crab, squid, plus two kinds of fish, served with garlic rice, salad, and a butter sauce for dipping. Mmm good. We ate outside on the porch, with the ocean waves crashing just beyond. It was very nice.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Galle, Sri Lanka
Our hotel in Colombo (Taru Villas - Lake Lodge) looked very cool - made mostly from brushed concrete and cool art on display. Functional too, except that there weren't any extra outlets in the room to recharge our devices.
Breakfast was good, served by a very proper waiter, who flicked our napkins into our laps, and then handed us the menus, opening to the breakfast page in a single motion, just like in the movies.
We were taking the train to Galle, and even though there's 10 trains a day, there were none between 10am to 2pm. So we had some time to kill until 2pm.
Took a bajaj (tuktuk) to the train station a couple hours early cause we figured it would be more interesting people watching there than sitting in the hotel.
Bought our tickets at counter #4 - it was only $1.60 each for the two-hour train ride in 2nd class. Presented our tickets to enter the station, and walked up and down the stairs to platform 5. It was one of the few times this trip that we've actually unzipped the backpack straps of our packs; mostly we've been using them in suitcase mode.
After Bhutan, the 30C+ and high humidity felt very hot to us. Grabbed some seats, and then I walked around the station taking pictures. There weren't any food options inside, so I wandered outside the station and bought some rice and lentils take-out (served in a plastic bag) from a busy restaurant. It was slightly spicy and hit the spot.
We tried to figure out the difference between 2nd and 3rd class (so we knew which car to get on). But we couldn't tell. We should have just bought the 3rd class tickets for 20 cents :) There was no 1st class otherwise we would have booked that :)
Our train arrived in Colombo on time, and then we pushed our way onto the train, everyone for themselves. There was no hope of getting seats - all were already taken - we just wanted to get a suitable standing area.
Got lucky that we ended up under a working ceiling fan. The ride started off squished, but got better as people emptied out the further we got from Colombo. We actually got seats about half way through the ride! It was a cool way to see life in Sri Lanka, both on and off the train.
Our stop, Galle, was fairly obvious as most of the remaining tourists disembarked. We got a bajaj to our hotel (Fortaleza) in Old Galle, where they were expecting us and greeted us by our first names as we walked in. (It's a small boutique hotel with only 4 rooms, but still!). Because I'd booked back in June, I was able to reserve the Library room, supposedly the best of the rooms. It was great, with a big circular window letting in lots of light. The hotel was a spice warehouse in the 1600's and had lots of character.
Our hotel was also listed as one of the places to eat in Galle, so we cleaned up and went downstairs for dinner. Had a Lion Lager (625ml, 4.8%, but in a coolie so it stayed cold), Heather had a white wine. For dinner I had a seared tuna main, Heather tried the pan fried mahi mahi. Both were excellent. While we're on the coast we're taking advantage of all the fresh seafood. Sri Lanka looks to be more of a foodie trip than the other two legs, if our first dinner is any indication! Their chocolate brownie dessert was awesome.
After dinner we took a short walk down the street, as we'd been in Sri Lanka for a day and not done anything outside of transport and hotels, and I was getting antsy. Wandered into a hip clothing store / art gallery / bar, a place way too cool to be allowing the likes of us to enter. It was very surreal, with huge art on the walls, which seemed to have no end. The music was great too. We had had a few drinks at our hotel with dinner, and didn't have much rupees on us, so just went back to the hotel before they called bouncers to oust us (just kidding, the staff were very nice to us, Lenny Kravitz-lookalikes them all).
...
Woke up ready to tourist after a few days on the road getting from Paro to Galle. The old town of Galle is pretty small - there's just a handful of streets, surrounded by a wall and then the ocean, so you can't get lost even if you tried.
We first walked around the perimeter, and then wandered around, stopping in at the small boutique stores. The old town is a UNESCO something, very pretty.
Picked a place for lunch based on their interesting fish options. It was tasty, but not too much food.
We were still adjusting to heat, so went back to our hotel room for a couple hours to cool down, before heading back out to walk the ramparts at sunset (it's the thing to do here). It was nice, but not as photogenic as I had hoped. Lots of wires and garbage and construction and other non-picturesque stuff seemed to always be in the frame.
Had dinner at the hotel again, the decision driven by a combination of the great meal from last night, an approaching storm, and laziness. It was good, but not quite as great as the previous night. Tried the local dessert of curds with treacle, very sweet and yummy.
Breakfast was good, served by a very proper waiter, who flicked our napkins into our laps, and then handed us the menus, opening to the breakfast page in a single motion, just like in the movies.
We were taking the train to Galle, and even though there's 10 trains a day, there were none between 10am to 2pm. So we had some time to kill until 2pm.
Took a bajaj (tuktuk) to the train station a couple hours early cause we figured it would be more interesting people watching there than sitting in the hotel.
Bought our tickets at counter #4 - it was only $1.60 each for the two-hour train ride in 2nd class. Presented our tickets to enter the station, and walked up and down the stairs to platform 5. It was one of the few times this trip that we've actually unzipped the backpack straps of our packs; mostly we've been using them in suitcase mode.
After Bhutan, the 30C+ and high humidity felt very hot to us. Grabbed some seats, and then I walked around the station taking pictures. There weren't any food options inside, so I wandered outside the station and bought some rice and lentils take-out (served in a plastic bag) from a busy restaurant. It was slightly spicy and hit the spot.
We tried to figure out the difference between 2nd and 3rd class (so we knew which car to get on). But we couldn't tell. We should have just bought the 3rd class tickets for 20 cents :) There was no 1st class otherwise we would have booked that :)
Our train arrived in Colombo on time, and then we pushed our way onto the train, everyone for themselves. There was no hope of getting seats - all were already taken - we just wanted to get a suitable standing area.
Got lucky that we ended up under a working ceiling fan. The ride started off squished, but got better as people emptied out the further we got from Colombo. We actually got seats about half way through the ride! It was a cool way to see life in Sri Lanka, both on and off the train.
Our stop, Galle, was fairly obvious as most of the remaining tourists disembarked. We got a bajaj to our hotel (Fortaleza) in Old Galle, where they were expecting us and greeted us by our first names as we walked in. (It's a small boutique hotel with only 4 rooms, but still!). Because I'd booked back in June, I was able to reserve the Library room, supposedly the best of the rooms. It was great, with a big circular window letting in lots of light. The hotel was a spice warehouse in the 1600's and had lots of character.
Our hotel was also listed as one of the places to eat in Galle, so we cleaned up and went downstairs for dinner. Had a Lion Lager (625ml, 4.8%, but in a coolie so it stayed cold), Heather had a white wine. For dinner I had a seared tuna main, Heather tried the pan fried mahi mahi. Both were excellent. While we're on the coast we're taking advantage of all the fresh seafood. Sri Lanka looks to be more of a foodie trip than the other two legs, if our first dinner is any indication! Their chocolate brownie dessert was awesome.
After dinner we took a short walk down the street, as we'd been in Sri Lanka for a day and not done anything outside of transport and hotels, and I was getting antsy. Wandered into a hip clothing store / art gallery / bar, a place way too cool to be allowing the likes of us to enter. It was very surreal, with huge art on the walls, which seemed to have no end. The music was great too. We had had a few drinks at our hotel with dinner, and didn't have much rupees on us, so just went back to the hotel before they called bouncers to oust us (just kidding, the staff were very nice to us, Lenny Kravitz-lookalikes them all).
...
Woke up ready to tourist after a few days on the road getting from Paro to Galle. The old town of Galle is pretty small - there's just a handful of streets, surrounded by a wall and then the ocean, so you can't get lost even if you tried.
We first walked around the perimeter, and then wandered around, stopping in at the small boutique stores. The old town is a UNESCO something, very pretty.
Picked a place for lunch based on their interesting fish options. It was tasty, but not too much food.
We were still adjusting to heat, so went back to our hotel room for a couple hours to cool down, before heading back out to walk the ramparts at sunset (it's the thing to do here). It was nice, but not as photogenic as I had hoped. Lots of wires and garbage and construction and other non-picturesque stuff seemed to always be in the frame.
Had dinner at the hotel again, the decision driven by a combination of the great meal from last night, an approaching storm, and laziness. It was good, but not quite as great as the previous night. Tried the local dessert of curds with treacle, very sweet and yummy.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Colombo, Sri Lanka
We had a couple travel days to get from Paro to Colombo via Bangkok. We could have booked connecting flights in Bangkok (and avoided the drive in and out of the city), but the idea was to drop off souvenirs and winter stuff at the Bangkok hotel so that we didn't have to haul them across multiple flights and around Sri Lanka.
Our flight from Paro to Bangkok wasn't until 2pm so we had a relaxing morning. We actually slept in for the first time on the Bhutan leg of our trip, waking up around 8:30am. Breakfast was okay; we asked for porridge which turned out to be rice porridge (I suppose more common). I had just a little to be polite as I'm not a big fan. The hotel was empty except for us and other couple, it sort of reminded us of the salt hotel in Uyuni.
Yeshey and Hasta picked us up at 10:45am for lunch in Paro. They had gifts and a nice written postcard for each of us! We drove to the restaurant; however the chef had had an emergency and so Yeshey made a couple quick calls and we went to another restaurant, that we had eaten at previously. It was great - our last chance for chili cheese and other Bhutan specialties. We used the opportunity to give them tips for making our trip so great, this time properly in envelopes (we had picked some up at the paper factory). (On the trek, we didn't learn about the envelopes until we were trekking, and so gave the crew tips in makeshift envelopes made from napkins).
Yeshey was also able to have us checked in ahead of time, so we had prime seats up front on the right side, the best for viewing the Himalayans on our flight.
We said our good-byes to Yeshey and Hasta after 13 days and checked into our flight. Security didn't mind about water bottles through the scanners, which was good cause then we didn't have to buy water at the gate. Exiting immigration was very straightforward, just a few flips through the passport, a stamp and we were through.
We also had no issue with some very large souvenirs we took as carry-on.
The flight left the gate on time. We flew through a different city in India (not Kolkata as on the way here) I forget the name. We had a nice view of the sunset on the 2nd hop.
We touched down in Bangkok about 8pm. It didn't take too long through immigration once we changed to the faster lineup (about 20 minutes). Our luggage was already on the conveyor belt by the time we got through! Getting a taxi was easy enough, just a five minute lineup. However we then hit traffic on the way into downtown, taking us over an hour.
Lots of 'Sabadee, welcome back' as we checked into the Eastin Grand Sathorn. We were upgraded to a fancy suite with a huge bathroom cause we were returning guests. We also got a late check-out of 4pm, as our flight to Colombo didn't depart until 9pm the next day.
It was getting late, almost 10pm after we washed up, so we just headed to the lobby bar for a couple drinks and 'tapas'. The tapas were more a marketing thing as it was just a regular menu. Had some breaded squid and chicken satays, which tasted a bit bland after all the chilies we had become accustomed to in Bhutan :) We chatted about our favourite moments of our just-completed Bhutan trip, and then crashed, quite late for us on this trip.
...
Slept in again, and went for breakfast around 9am. It was a lazy morning, as we didn't have much to do except catch up on emails, blog, and go to the 7-Eleven for some toiletries.
Re-packed our backpacks and the left-luggage, which had now grown to five pieces. After the Sri Lanka leg, we'll buy a big suitcase in the market in Bangkok to take everything back home.
It was hot and muggy out (34C) in Bangkok, which after the cool clear air of Bhutan, felt especially warm. We didn't have any get-up-and-go so went to the hotel restaurant for lunch (Luce), which turned out to have excellent Italian food (the chef was Italian too).
We finished our packing, checked out, and went to the lounge to hang out until it was time to leave for the airport. The helpful concierge suggested we check-in online for our flight cause then we could leave later for the airport, and catch the start of happy hour at the hotel (with what's called here as 'free flow' drinks).
The drive to the airport took half the time because it's a public holiday today. Our flight was delayed 30 minutes, but all the extra time was eaten up by the line-ups to exit immigration.
The Sri Lankan Airlines plane was new and very comfortable. It even had in-flight entertainment, which we weren't expecting. Luckily we both watched short movies, cause they collected the headphones with an hour still left in the flight.
It was pretty quick through immigration and luggage collection, less than 20 minutes. We had arranged with the hotel (Taru Villas - Lake Lodge) for airport pickup cause of the late arrival (almost midnight). Our driver was waiting with a nice "Eric D'Souza" sign. Got cash from the ATM (all large bills, $50 CAD equivalent) and we were on our way. The airport is in a neighboring city, 45 minutes from Colombo downtown; but it was quick due to the time of day. The hotel was expecting us (I had emailed about our late check-in). It was almost 1:30am by the time we went to bed, excited about this last leg of our trip.
Our flight from Paro to Bangkok wasn't until 2pm so we had a relaxing morning. We actually slept in for the first time on the Bhutan leg of our trip, waking up around 8:30am. Breakfast was okay; we asked for porridge which turned out to be rice porridge (I suppose more common). I had just a little to be polite as I'm not a big fan. The hotel was empty except for us and other couple, it sort of reminded us of the salt hotel in Uyuni.
Yeshey and Hasta picked us up at 10:45am for lunch in Paro. They had gifts and a nice written postcard for each of us! We drove to the restaurant; however the chef had had an emergency and so Yeshey made a couple quick calls and we went to another restaurant, that we had eaten at previously. It was great - our last chance for chili cheese and other Bhutan specialties. We used the opportunity to give them tips for making our trip so great, this time properly in envelopes (we had picked some up at the paper factory). (On the trek, we didn't learn about the envelopes until we were trekking, and so gave the crew tips in makeshift envelopes made from napkins).
Yeshey was also able to have us checked in ahead of time, so we had prime seats up front on the right side, the best for viewing the Himalayans on our flight.
We said our good-byes to Yeshey and Hasta after 13 days and checked into our flight. Security didn't mind about water bottles through the scanners, which was good cause then we didn't have to buy water at the gate. Exiting immigration was very straightforward, just a few flips through the passport, a stamp and we were through.
We also had no issue with some very large souvenirs we took as carry-on.
The flight left the gate on time. We flew through a different city in India (not Kolkata as on the way here) I forget the name. We had a nice view of the sunset on the 2nd hop.
We touched down in Bangkok about 8pm. It didn't take too long through immigration once we changed to the faster lineup (about 20 minutes). Our luggage was already on the conveyor belt by the time we got through! Getting a taxi was easy enough, just a five minute lineup. However we then hit traffic on the way into downtown, taking us over an hour.
Lots of 'Sabadee, welcome back' as we checked into the Eastin Grand Sathorn. We were upgraded to a fancy suite with a huge bathroom cause we were returning guests. We also got a late check-out of 4pm, as our flight to Colombo didn't depart until 9pm the next day.
It was getting late, almost 10pm after we washed up, so we just headed to the lobby bar for a couple drinks and 'tapas'. The tapas were more a marketing thing as it was just a regular menu. Had some breaded squid and chicken satays, which tasted a bit bland after all the chilies we had become accustomed to in Bhutan :) We chatted about our favourite moments of our just-completed Bhutan trip, and then crashed, quite late for us on this trip.
...
Slept in again, and went for breakfast around 9am. It was a lazy morning, as we didn't have much to do except catch up on emails, blog, and go to the 7-Eleven for some toiletries.
Re-packed our backpacks and the left-luggage, which had now grown to five pieces. After the Sri Lanka leg, we'll buy a big suitcase in the market in Bangkok to take everything back home.
It was hot and muggy out (34C) in Bangkok, which after the cool clear air of Bhutan, felt especially warm. We didn't have any get-up-and-go so went to the hotel restaurant for lunch (Luce), which turned out to have excellent Italian food (the chef was Italian too).
We finished our packing, checked out, and went to the lounge to hang out until it was time to leave for the airport. The helpful concierge suggested we check-in online for our flight cause then we could leave later for the airport, and catch the start of happy hour at the hotel (with what's called here as 'free flow' drinks).
The drive to the airport took half the time because it's a public holiday today. Our flight was delayed 30 minutes, but all the extra time was eaten up by the line-ups to exit immigration.
The Sri Lankan Airlines plane was new and very comfortable. It even had in-flight entertainment, which we weren't expecting. Luckily we both watched short movies, cause they collected the headphones with an hour still left in the flight.
It was pretty quick through immigration and luggage collection, less than 20 minutes. We had arranged with the hotel (Taru Villas - Lake Lodge) for airport pickup cause of the late arrival (almost midnight). Our driver was waiting with a nice "Eric D'Souza" sign. Got cash from the ATM (all large bills, $50 CAD equivalent) and we were on our way. The airport is in a neighboring city, 45 minutes from Colombo downtown; but it was quick due to the time of day. The hotel was expecting us (I had emailed about our late check-in). It was almost 1:30am by the time we went to bed, excited about this last leg of our trip.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Paro, Bhutan
We had a traditional breakfast at the farmhouse in Haa. While I love eating local foods wherever we travel, for some reason I've never been able to adapt to a non-western breakfast. But we were at a homestay where it was about the culture, so we gave it a go.
Our hosts had been up very early to prepare a local delicacy, dumplings made with buckwheat flour and filled with minced vegetables. Normally they're served only on special occasions in Bhutan.
The full breakfast included red rice, chilies, a chicken curry, vegetables, and the dumplings, as well as butter tea. It was very good, although I would have enjoyed it more as a lunch :) maybe one day I'll get over my provincial breakfast tastes.
There's not too much to see in Haa, the main tourist attraction are the homestays. Yeshey went to boarding school 15 years ago in Haa, so we walked about town and he pointed out the changes and a bit of the history of the main street.
We also visited two temples. The first one was okay; the second one was amazing because we were fortunate to finally see a ritual in progress. I suspected we might be in luck as we approached the temple, as I saw lots of crocs (the footwear of choice for most monks) outside the door.
The monks sat in opposing rows, with the front rows beating on large drums. A couple monks off to the side blew on low-pitched horns. A monk near the front had thick cymbals. Seated rather sternly at the front was an older head monk. The monks read through their readings in unison, while complex rhythms beat out on the percussion instruments. Yeshey said they studied for over six years before being able to participate in the ritual.
It was very cool to listen to, especially as we were the only tourists. However after about 10 minutes we felt like we were a distraction especially to the younger monks, and that we were imposing by staying much longer, so we left.
We drove back through the 3988m pass, and then descended almost 1800m to Paro. We had lunch, and then got down to the serious business of souvenir shopping.
We had a few things on our list (scripture cards read by monks, cymbals, a large mandala (circular Buddhist painting), masks, and antique butter tea churner). Unfortunately a lot of the items were very pricy - I think there's been a lot of tourists with money to spend in the past, and the vendors have adjusted their prices accordingly. For example older masks were almost $1,000, and mandalas 2'x3' and medium quality were $500.
We did find an antique butter tea churner which was the least likely item I thought we'd find. I guess the low demand for these kept the prices down too. The store did a great job packing it - it's over 40" tall, about 8" diameter. I think we'll be able to take it as carry-on back to Bangkok on DrukAir, but getting it home on Emirates will be trickier.
By 3pm I had reached my shopping limit, and so had Heather. We drove to the Raven's Nest Resort, an upgrade for our last night in Bhutan. You can see Tiger's Nest from the hotel, which sounded way cooler when I booked the place. It's newly opened and they're still figuring things out. Our room was nice, but had oddities like the shower door opening to the side of the bathtub.
Dinner was okay, I had to ask for chillies on the side as their was no spice in the food. The chef made up a Bhutanese-inspired dessert for us, yak cheese in a heated butter-sugar sauce. Yummy, but probably not the healthiest :)
I was concerned that they might not serve beer as Tuesdays are the "National Dry Day"; but they make exceptions in tourists hotels. So we were able to have a Druk Superior Lager to celebrate our fun trip on Bhutan.
Our hosts had been up very early to prepare a local delicacy, dumplings made with buckwheat flour and filled with minced vegetables. Normally they're served only on special occasions in Bhutan.
The full breakfast included red rice, chilies, a chicken curry, vegetables, and the dumplings, as well as butter tea. It was very good, although I would have enjoyed it more as a lunch :) maybe one day I'll get over my provincial breakfast tastes.
There's not too much to see in Haa, the main tourist attraction are the homestays. Yeshey went to boarding school 15 years ago in Haa, so we walked about town and he pointed out the changes and a bit of the history of the main street.
We also visited two temples. The first one was okay; the second one was amazing because we were fortunate to finally see a ritual in progress. I suspected we might be in luck as we approached the temple, as I saw lots of crocs (the footwear of choice for most monks) outside the door.
The monks sat in opposing rows, with the front rows beating on large drums. A couple monks off to the side blew on low-pitched horns. A monk near the front had thick cymbals. Seated rather sternly at the front was an older head monk. The monks read through their readings in unison, while complex rhythms beat out on the percussion instruments. Yeshey said they studied for over six years before being able to participate in the ritual.
It was very cool to listen to, especially as we were the only tourists. However after about 10 minutes we felt like we were a distraction especially to the younger monks, and that we were imposing by staying much longer, so we left.
We drove back through the 3988m pass, and then descended almost 1800m to Paro. We had lunch, and then got down to the serious business of souvenir shopping.
We had a few things on our list (scripture cards read by monks, cymbals, a large mandala (circular Buddhist painting), masks, and antique butter tea churner). Unfortunately a lot of the items were very pricy - I think there's been a lot of tourists with money to spend in the past, and the vendors have adjusted their prices accordingly. For example older masks were almost $1,000, and mandalas 2'x3' and medium quality were $500.
We did find an antique butter tea churner which was the least likely item I thought we'd find. I guess the low demand for these kept the prices down too. The store did a great job packing it - it's over 40" tall, about 8" diameter. I think we'll be able to take it as carry-on back to Bangkok on DrukAir, but getting it home on Emirates will be trickier.
By 3pm I had reached my shopping limit, and so had Heather. We drove to the Raven's Nest Resort, an upgrade for our last night in Bhutan. You can see Tiger's Nest from the hotel, which sounded way cooler when I booked the place. It's newly opened and they're still figuring things out. Our room was nice, but had oddities like the shower door opening to the side of the bathtub.
Dinner was okay, I had to ask for chillies on the side as their was no spice in the food. The chef made up a Bhutanese-inspired dessert for us, yak cheese in a heated butter-sugar sauce. Yummy, but probably not the healthiest :)
I was concerned that they might not serve beer as Tuesdays are the "National Dry Day"; but they make exceptions in tourists hotels. So we were able to have a Druk Superior Lager to celebrate our fun trip on Bhutan.
Monday, December 07, 2015
Haa, Bhutan
We had another early start at 8am for the 7+ hour drive from Punakha to Haa. We retraced our route from Punakha back to Thimpu, and then to Paro. We had walked from Paro to Thimpu so the views were new to us.
Approaching Paro, we stopped at one of the two original iron bridges left in Bhutan. Back in the 15th century, one of the monks had a vision to build bridges across the rivers. Until then, Bhutan was fractured, separated by the rivers. The monk built many bridges of which only two survive.
We walked across, which was dizzying as the bridge swayed over the running water below. It was also rather rickety. There was a newer bridge that we walked back across. Both bridges were covered with prayer flags.
We had lunch in Paro, and then continued on to Haa. The road passes through Chele La at 3988m, the highest drivable road in Bhutan. It's impassable during the winter months due to snow.
The road down to Haa was recently repaved (very recently - the paving equipment was still on the side of the road) and so it was a much quicker drive than Hasta had thought.
Haa Valley had only recently opened up to tourists. Before that it was off-limits. There's not much to do there - in fact most tourists visit as a long day trip from Paro. It's also possible to do homestays, which is what we did.
We arrived in Haa around 3:30pm. Our hosts had a large farmhouse that was over 200 years old. It allowed us to see inside a typical Bhutanese home.
The centre of action is the kitchen - that's where the wood stove is. There's no chairs - we sat on cushions around the wood stove, had some tea and snacks (roasted rice, popcorn (!), and a deep fried snack we had tried in the Thimpu market). We chatted a bit with our host, with Yeshey doing the translating.
We had another hot stone bath, this one was very relaxing. We watched the process again - red hot stones are taken from the fire, dunked in a bucket to clean off the ash, and then into the bath. They had two baths, which had separators for the stones. They also added some herbs in a larger version of a pot pourri bag. One of the stones exploded on the dunking, which caused a brief moment of excitement, luckily no one was hurt. They had a nice setup where they could add stones from the outside, while Heather and I were inside the bathhouse. We were toasty warm after the bath. It really heats up your core.
Dinner was served in the traditional manner, around the wood stove, with us seated on the cushions. It was excellent, in particular the beef was really tender. They also made one of the better butter teas we've had. It's also typical to eat with your hands; but we stuck with cutlery.
After dinner we had some arra, and then headed to bed around 8:30pm. The sleeping arrangements were also typical - mattresses on the ground, with plenty of blankets. We were warm, but sleeping on the floor still gives us the willies.
Approaching Paro, we stopped at one of the two original iron bridges left in Bhutan. Back in the 15th century, one of the monks had a vision to build bridges across the rivers. Until then, Bhutan was fractured, separated by the rivers. The monk built many bridges of which only two survive.
We walked across, which was dizzying as the bridge swayed over the running water below. It was also rather rickety. There was a newer bridge that we walked back across. Both bridges were covered with prayer flags.
We had lunch in Paro, and then continued on to Haa. The road passes through Chele La at 3988m, the highest drivable road in Bhutan. It's impassable during the winter months due to snow.
The road down to Haa was recently repaved (very recently - the paving equipment was still on the side of the road) and so it was a much quicker drive than Hasta had thought.
Haa Valley had only recently opened up to tourists. Before that it was off-limits. There's not much to do there - in fact most tourists visit as a long day trip from Paro. It's also possible to do homestays, which is what we did.
We arrived in Haa around 3:30pm. Our hosts had a large farmhouse that was over 200 years old. It allowed us to see inside a typical Bhutanese home.
The centre of action is the kitchen - that's where the wood stove is. There's no chairs - we sat on cushions around the wood stove, had some tea and snacks (roasted rice, popcorn (!), and a deep fried snack we had tried in the Thimpu market). We chatted a bit with our host, with Yeshey doing the translating.
We had another hot stone bath, this one was very relaxing. We watched the process again - red hot stones are taken from the fire, dunked in a bucket to clean off the ash, and then into the bath. They had two baths, which had separators for the stones. They also added some herbs in a larger version of a pot pourri bag. One of the stones exploded on the dunking, which caused a brief moment of excitement, luckily no one was hurt. They had a nice setup where they could add stones from the outside, while Heather and I were inside the bathhouse. We were toasty warm after the bath. It really heats up your core.
Dinner was served in the traditional manner, around the wood stove, with us seated on the cushions. It was excellent, in particular the beef was really tender. They also made one of the better butter teas we've had. It's also typical to eat with your hands; but we stuck with cutlery.
After dinner we had some arra, and then headed to bed around 8:30pm. The sleeping arrangements were also typical - mattresses on the ground, with plenty of blankets. We were warm, but sleeping on the floor still gives us the willies.
Sunday, December 06, 2015
Punakha, Bhutan
We checked out of the Norbuling Hotel after breakfast. It was one of the larger laundry bills we've had, but we did wash about half the items in our packs.
The drive from Thimpu to the Dochu La pass (3140m) took about an hour. We were lucky that the sky was clear and so we had great views of the Himalayans, with several peaks over 7000m, including Gangkhar Puensum at 7541m, the highest peak completely in Bhutan.
Our travel agency (Bhutan Travel Club) had arranged for us to spend an hour discussing meditation with a lama. At the pass there is a monastery, and so we spent some time with the resident lama, getting an introduction on Buddhist meditation. It was interesting, although our guide (Yeshey) is really knowledgable and we've learnt quite a bit from him.
We then continued with the drive to Punakha, arriving with enough time to visit Punakha Dzong. This Dzong is one of the highlights of Bhutan, and I was looking forward to seeing it almost as much as Tiger's Nest.
Punakha Dzong sits at the confluence of two rivers, with an old pedestrian bridge leading to the entrance. At this time of year it's home to about 500 monks who winter here (it's one of the warmer cities in Bhutan). The monks provide convenient subjects for pics :)
We spent almost two hours exploring the Dzong and getting the history from Yeshey. It was really cool to see.
That was it for our day. We drove back to the hotel, had a nice dinner and then to bed.
...
We had an early start to the day, meeting Yeshey and Hasta (our driver) at 8am. Breakfast was a buffet, they did have a local honey which tasted great on toast.
First was a short trek up to ? It's supposed to take about an hour, but I think cause we had acclimatized from our trek, we only took 30 minutes. We had great views of the valley below. The rice harvest had just completed, and we could see different groups threshing the rice, putting aside the rice stems for animal feed. Power lines got in the way of some of the pics.
The temple itself was nice, with three levels plus the rooftop with even nicer views. On the 2nd level there was a monk repeating a mantra, while beating on a drum, and occasionally the cymbals. It was cool to listen to him. The monk repeats the mantra every morning and evening to appease the local deities.
Next we visited Nalanda University, a monastic school. Supposedly it's cool to attend a debate, because the monks are very dramatic although they don't raise their voice. It's all in an ancient Tibetan language so we wouldn't understand, but it's more about watching. Unfortunately the monks have exams coming up and so they were all studying, and weren't debating.
We had a picnic lunch at the university, provided in tiffins by our hotel. It included a dried fish dish (we had seen the dried fish a couple days ago in the market and were curious about them). Locals eat the whole fish, bones and all. We just ate around the bones. It was salty (as you'd expect with dried fish) and yummy.
We then visited a nunnery (Khuruthang Goemba), drove to Pana village for some souvenir shopping (we were looking for a little higher quality so didn't buy anything) and finally Chimi Lhakhang, a temple built for the Divine Madman, the nickname of one of the historical religious figures in Bhutan.
It was a long day, and we had a nice relaxing dinner back at our hotel before calling it a night.
The drive from Thimpu to the Dochu La pass (3140m) took about an hour. We were lucky that the sky was clear and so we had great views of the Himalayans, with several peaks over 7000m, including Gangkhar Puensum at 7541m, the highest peak completely in Bhutan.
Our travel agency (Bhutan Travel Club) had arranged for us to spend an hour discussing meditation with a lama. At the pass there is a monastery, and so we spent some time with the resident lama, getting an introduction on Buddhist meditation. It was interesting, although our guide (Yeshey) is really knowledgable and we've learnt quite a bit from him.
We then continued with the drive to Punakha, arriving with enough time to visit Punakha Dzong. This Dzong is one of the highlights of Bhutan, and I was looking forward to seeing it almost as much as Tiger's Nest.
Punakha Dzong sits at the confluence of two rivers, with an old pedestrian bridge leading to the entrance. At this time of year it's home to about 500 monks who winter here (it's one of the warmer cities in Bhutan). The monks provide convenient subjects for pics :)
We spent almost two hours exploring the Dzong and getting the history from Yeshey. It was really cool to see.
That was it for our day. We drove back to the hotel, had a nice dinner and then to bed.
...
We had an early start to the day, meeting Yeshey and Hasta (our driver) at 8am. Breakfast was a buffet, they did have a local honey which tasted great on toast.
First was a short trek up to ? It's supposed to take about an hour, but I think cause we had acclimatized from our trek, we only took 30 minutes. We had great views of the valley below. The rice harvest had just completed, and we could see different groups threshing the rice, putting aside the rice stems for animal feed. Power lines got in the way of some of the pics.
The temple itself was nice, with three levels plus the rooftop with even nicer views. On the 2nd level there was a monk repeating a mantra, while beating on a drum, and occasionally the cymbals. It was cool to listen to him. The monk repeats the mantra every morning and evening to appease the local deities.
Next we visited Nalanda University, a monastic school. Supposedly it's cool to attend a debate, because the monks are very dramatic although they don't raise their voice. It's all in an ancient Tibetan language so we wouldn't understand, but it's more about watching. Unfortunately the monks have exams coming up and so they were all studying, and weren't debating.
We had a picnic lunch at the university, provided in tiffins by our hotel. It included a dried fish dish (we had seen the dried fish a couple days ago in the market and were curious about them). Locals eat the whole fish, bones and all. We just ate around the bones. It was salty (as you'd expect with dried fish) and yummy.
We then visited a nunnery (Khuruthang Goemba), drove to Pana village for some souvenir shopping (we were looking for a little higher quality so didn't buy anything) and finally Chimi Lhakhang, a temple built for the Divine Madman, the nickname of one of the historical religious figures in Bhutan.
It was a long day, and we had a nice relaxing dinner back at our hotel before calling it a night.
Friday, December 04, 2015
Thimpu, Bhutan
It felt great to wake up in a bed after four nights of camping. It was so much easier to get out of bed when it's not below zero outside the blankets.
There were two large groups taking up the rest of the hotel, and the restaurant didn't have enough room to hold everyone eating at once, and so we had to come back down 30 minutes later for our breakfast. Breakfast was pretty good - à la carte, as opposed to the buffet for the groups.
First on the list of touristing for the day was Buddha Dordenma, a 50m tall Buddha overlooking the city. This was quite impressive, even though we've seen some big Buddhas on this trip. The inside will eventually hold 125,000 statues of Buddha, which was about 50% completed and looked cooler to us than Pindaya in Myanmar.
Next was a stupa that you could walk into (one of two in Bhutan). This was okay; the cool part was all the elderly walking around chanting their mantras.
We then visited a heritage museum where we were dressed up in traditional garments and tried out archery (albeit only about 10m, not the 140m in competition). Heather hit the target; I was happy just to not maim anyone.
We rushed to the post office to get there before noon, under the mistaken impression it was Saturday. Turns out it was Friday, so we didn't need to rush. We got personalized stamps made up on the spot - they even have USB cables to connect to my iPhone to download the pic we wanted. Bought some postcards which we'll have to write at some point.
Had lunch, and then visited a couple factories. First was a paper making place that was way more interesting than the one we saw in Myanmar. This one was an actual factory as opposed to a made-for-tourists place.
The incense factory was really cool. I've never put any thought to how incense I made. Well now I know. Various ingredients are made into a pulp, which is squeezed into long strands about 1/4" thick. The workers then roll and cut to the final length, and it's dried in batches on boards. The finished product is packaged in bamboo containers for selling. It was fascinating, and smelled great.
Because it was Friday and not the weekend, we had to wait until 4:30pm to visit Trashi Chhoe Dzong, the highlight of Thimpu. (The king works there until 4:30pm so you can't enter till he goes home).
To pass the time we visited the Weekend Market, a well-organized market. Our guide was great at pointing out the various fruits and vegetable we had eaten. I was thinking it would be useful to have a guide take me through Loblaws or TnT back home in Toronto to explain what everything is. Half then stuff we saw in the market is sold at home, I just had no idea what it was or what to do with it.
Finally it was 4:30 and we went to Trashi Chhoe Dzong. It's an impressive fortress, and we were lucky to see the tail end of the changing of the guard.
For dinner we went to a place a little outside the centre that served momos (dumplings). I first had momos in Tibet about 20 years ago, and had a hankering after seeing a lot of restaurants advertising them. The momos were great, along with a bunch of other dishes.
Back at our hotel we crashed pretty early, around 9:30pm. I suppose this was late compared to the 8pm on the trek, it's all relative.
There were two large groups taking up the rest of the hotel, and the restaurant didn't have enough room to hold everyone eating at once, and so we had to come back down 30 minutes later for our breakfast. Breakfast was pretty good - à la carte, as opposed to the buffet for the groups.
First on the list of touristing for the day was Buddha Dordenma, a 50m tall Buddha overlooking the city. This was quite impressive, even though we've seen some big Buddhas on this trip. The inside will eventually hold 125,000 statues of Buddha, which was about 50% completed and looked cooler to us than Pindaya in Myanmar.
Next was a stupa that you could walk into (one of two in Bhutan). This was okay; the cool part was all the elderly walking around chanting their mantras.
We then visited a heritage museum where we were dressed up in traditional garments and tried out archery (albeit only about 10m, not the 140m in competition). Heather hit the target; I was happy just to not maim anyone.
We rushed to the post office to get there before noon, under the mistaken impression it was Saturday. Turns out it was Friday, so we didn't need to rush. We got personalized stamps made up on the spot - they even have USB cables to connect to my iPhone to download the pic we wanted. Bought some postcards which we'll have to write at some point.
Had lunch, and then visited a couple factories. First was a paper making place that was way more interesting than the one we saw in Myanmar. This one was an actual factory as opposed to a made-for-tourists place.
The incense factory was really cool. I've never put any thought to how incense I made. Well now I know. Various ingredients are made into a pulp, which is squeezed into long strands about 1/4" thick. The workers then roll and cut to the final length, and it's dried in batches on boards. The finished product is packaged in bamboo containers for selling. It was fascinating, and smelled great.
Because it was Friday and not the weekend, we had to wait until 4:30pm to visit Trashi Chhoe Dzong, the highlight of Thimpu. (The king works there until 4:30pm so you can't enter till he goes home).
To pass the time we visited the Weekend Market, a well-organized market. Our guide was great at pointing out the various fruits and vegetable we had eaten. I was thinking it would be useful to have a guide take me through Loblaws or TnT back home in Toronto to explain what everything is. Half then stuff we saw in the market is sold at home, I just had no idea what it was or what to do with it.
Finally it was 4:30 and we went to Trashi Chhoe Dzong. It's an impressive fortress, and we were lucky to see the tail end of the changing of the guard.
For dinner we went to a place a little outside the centre that served momos (dumplings). I first had momos in Tibet about 20 years ago, and had a hankering after seeing a lot of restaurants advertising them. The momos were great, along with a bunch of other dishes.
Back at our hotel we crashed pretty early, around 9:30pm. I suppose this was late compared to the 8pm on the trek, it's all relative.
Thursday, December 03, 2015
Druk Path Trek - Day 5
It snowed on-and-off throughout the night. The wind would pick up and flap the snow / rain every so often, a sound we weren't used to, and so it would wake us up. We were lucky that during our trek it didn't rain / snow and there weren't high winds.
I got out of the tent around 6am, to check out how bad the trail was based on all the precipitation. It wasn't too bad - just a coating of snow on the ground - I think our imaginations from all the sounds got the better of us.
The trekking crew was up early too, and we had breakfast, packed up, and started off by 7:30am.
First we checked out the nearby Phajoding Goemba. The sun was melting the snow on the roof which looked like rain falling from the inside.
The trek down to Thimpu was pretty easy. It was through tall pines, and the fallen needles provided a nice cushion on the ground for walking. The smell reminded us of Christmas. The 700m descent took us about 1.5 hours.
Our driver was waiting for us at the pick-up point. Along the way to our hotel we drove by the Takin Reserve and spotted some takin, the national animal of Bhutan.
It felt great to finally shower after five days of trekking. We gave three bags of laundry to the hotel, containing all of our trekking clothes. We had saved a clean set of clothes to wear when we finished the trek, almost everything else was dirty.
We had lunch at the hotel, a little bit of a let down after the great food we had on the trek.
We had asked our guide, Yeshey, while on the trek, if it was possible to arrange another hot stone bath at the end of the trek. He had suggested going to the home of our trekking guide, Sunam, which we agreed to, as it would be a more authentic experience.
Sunam's place was about 30 minutes outside the city. His house was a five-minute climb up paths from the road. I guess that's not unusual here so no-one mentioned it; but we were in our clean set of clothes. Anyways, it's all part of the adventure :)
We thought we would head straight to the hot stone bath. But first we had to have tea and snacks. We were then fortunate to watch the whole process. River rocks were heated in a fire until red-hot, then quickly dunked in a pail of water to get rid of the ash, then placed in the tub. It took a while to heat the rocks, and so we were offered arra (a home distilled drink from wheat). We then learned customs around drinking - first you dip your ring finger in the drink and flick it in the air three times, say cheers ('le jembay dja'), and then you have to add a little more to your glass after the first sip.
The arra wasn't too strong (I would guess about the same as wine) so the full glass they poured us didn't impact us too much.
Eventually the water was hot enough and so I went first. In the commercial hot stone bath we had in Paro, there was a wooden separator between the bath and the rocks, with holes for the heated water to flow. In a backyard hot stone bath, there's no such niceties, and we were instructed how to lie down without burning ourselves on the stones. It started to cool down and so I asked for another stone; this sizzled under water for almost five minutes. It really heated up the water.
Next was Heather's turn. They replaced all the rocks in between, but Heather is okay with a hotter bath.
By the time we were done it was dark, and we descended the path back to the car using our smartphones. (We had originally thought we'd done by 4:30pm so hadn't planned for flashlights).
Dinner was supposed to be at the hotel, but based on our mediocre lunch experience, and the fact that we were in the capital with the best opportunity for non-Burmese, instead went to a pizza place. Our guide and driver picked us up from the hotel and drove us there. They were going to wait around until we were done and then drive us back, but we were just a 10 minute walk away so we convinced then we'd be okay, and so they were able to have the rest of the night to relax (our guide had started the day trekking just like us).
The pizza was pretty good. We chatted about the trek and had a couple Druk Lagers, then walked back to the hotel to sleep in a bed for the first time in five nights.
I got out of the tent around 6am, to check out how bad the trail was based on all the precipitation. It wasn't too bad - just a coating of snow on the ground - I think our imaginations from all the sounds got the better of us.
The trekking crew was up early too, and we had breakfast, packed up, and started off by 7:30am.
First we checked out the nearby Phajoding Goemba. The sun was melting the snow on the roof which looked like rain falling from the inside.
The trek down to Thimpu was pretty easy. It was through tall pines, and the fallen needles provided a nice cushion on the ground for walking. The smell reminded us of Christmas. The 700m descent took us about 1.5 hours.
Our driver was waiting for us at the pick-up point. Along the way to our hotel we drove by the Takin Reserve and spotted some takin, the national animal of Bhutan.
It felt great to finally shower after five days of trekking. We gave three bags of laundry to the hotel, containing all of our trekking clothes. We had saved a clean set of clothes to wear when we finished the trek, almost everything else was dirty.
We had lunch at the hotel, a little bit of a let down after the great food we had on the trek.
We had asked our guide, Yeshey, while on the trek, if it was possible to arrange another hot stone bath at the end of the trek. He had suggested going to the home of our trekking guide, Sunam, which we agreed to, as it would be a more authentic experience.
Sunam's place was about 30 minutes outside the city. His house was a five-minute climb up paths from the road. I guess that's not unusual here so no-one mentioned it; but we were in our clean set of clothes. Anyways, it's all part of the adventure :)
We thought we would head straight to the hot stone bath. But first we had to have tea and snacks. We were then fortunate to watch the whole process. River rocks were heated in a fire until red-hot, then quickly dunked in a pail of water to get rid of the ash, then placed in the tub. It took a while to heat the rocks, and so we were offered arra (a home distilled drink from wheat). We then learned customs around drinking - first you dip your ring finger in the drink and flick it in the air three times, say cheers ('le jembay dja'), and then you have to add a little more to your glass after the first sip.
The arra wasn't too strong (I would guess about the same as wine) so the full glass they poured us didn't impact us too much.
Eventually the water was hot enough and so I went first. In the commercial hot stone bath we had in Paro, there was a wooden separator between the bath and the rocks, with holes for the heated water to flow. In a backyard hot stone bath, there's no such niceties, and we were instructed how to lie down without burning ourselves on the stones. It started to cool down and so I asked for another stone; this sizzled under water for almost five minutes. It really heated up the water.
Next was Heather's turn. They replaced all the rocks in between, but Heather is okay with a hotter bath.
By the time we were done it was dark, and we descended the path back to the car using our smartphones. (We had originally thought we'd done by 4:30pm so hadn't planned for flashlights).
Dinner was supposed to be at the hotel, but based on our mediocre lunch experience, and the fact that we were in the capital with the best opportunity for non-Burmese, instead went to a pizza place. Our guide and driver picked us up from the hotel and drove us there. They were going to wait around until we were done and then drive us back, but we were just a 10 minute walk away so we convinced then we'd be okay, and so they were able to have the rest of the night to relax (our guide had started the day trekking just like us).
The pizza was pretty good. We chatted about the trek and had a couple Druk Lagers, then walked back to the hotel to sleep in a bed for the first time in five nights.
Wednesday, December 02, 2015
Druk Path Trek - Day 4
The sun didn't hit our campsite until 8am so we stayed in our sleeping bags until 7am. It was so cold overnight that the water in our water bottles froze inside the tent! Although we were quite warm in our sleeping bags.
I got up to see the view, and also to see if I could spot some blue sheep with the great curved horns in the sun at the top of the mountain. I saw some animals, but they turned out to be yaks.
Yesterday we had seen some blue sheep in the last stretch before camp. However we were so focused on getting to camp while it was still in the sun that I didn't stop to take out my camera and take pictures. Earlier in the day we also saw pheasants and Oriental turtle doves.
I took some pics in the morning of the yaks at about the same distance we had seen the blue sheep, about 500m above us at the crest of the mountain. At that distance the yaks looked like blurs, barely recognizable as animals. So it's just as well i didn't try to take pics of the blue sheep - we wouldn't have seen the horns at all.
Today's walk was shorter, and as we were adjusting to the altitude, a little easier too. We crossed a number of passes between 4,000m and 4,200m. There were some flat stretches (finally!) that were more our style of trekking.
Lunch was yummy (tuna cooked with onions and garlic, with rice and vegetables). I was impressed that it took until Day 4 to get into tuna - based on our last trekking experience in Ethiopia I was expecting tuna or boiled eggs for every meal. But on this trek we haven't had the same thing twice yet, including breakfasts!
We reached the final pass at 4150m and had a great view of Thimpu in the valley below. Our camp was near Phajoding Goemba, an organized campsite with washroom facilities. It felt strange to have other people around after trekking with just our group the past few days. The last stretch from the pass to the campsite was very steep (more than 45* at places). It took us an hour to descend at our knees were pretty sore, even with using poles.
Our whole trek we had been followed by 4-5 rather healthy-looking dogs. They latch onto a group because they get the leftovers from meals. They follow a group one way, and then catch another group going back the other way. Because we're getting out of busy season there wasn't another group going back, so the dogs just hung out at the Monaatery. Animals are well-loved in Bhutan so they should be okay.
We had our last dinner cooked by our trekking chef, which was excellent again. We chatted with the crew - they had all completed the Snowman Trek, supposedly the hardest trek in the world. Our trekking guide, Sunam, had done it three times!
We went to bed around 7:30pm. Just in time too, as it started snowing (more like small snow pellets) at 9pm and continued through the night.
I got up to see the view, and also to see if I could spot some blue sheep with the great curved horns in the sun at the top of the mountain. I saw some animals, but they turned out to be yaks.
Yesterday we had seen some blue sheep in the last stretch before camp. However we were so focused on getting to camp while it was still in the sun that I didn't stop to take out my camera and take pictures. Earlier in the day we also saw pheasants and Oriental turtle doves.
I took some pics in the morning of the yaks at about the same distance we had seen the blue sheep, about 500m above us at the crest of the mountain. At that distance the yaks looked like blurs, barely recognizable as animals. So it's just as well i didn't try to take pics of the blue sheep - we wouldn't have seen the horns at all.
Today's walk was shorter, and as we were adjusting to the altitude, a little easier too. We crossed a number of passes between 4,000m and 4,200m. There were some flat stretches (finally!) that were more our style of trekking.
Lunch was yummy (tuna cooked with onions and garlic, with rice and vegetables). I was impressed that it took until Day 4 to get into tuna - based on our last trekking experience in Ethiopia I was expecting tuna or boiled eggs for every meal. But on this trek we haven't had the same thing twice yet, including breakfasts!
We reached the final pass at 4150m and had a great view of Thimpu in the valley below. Our camp was near Phajoding Goemba, an organized campsite with washroom facilities. It felt strange to have other people around after trekking with just our group the past few days. The last stretch from the pass to the campsite was very steep (more than 45* at places). It took us an hour to descend at our knees were pretty sore, even with using poles.
Our whole trek we had been followed by 4-5 rather healthy-looking dogs. They latch onto a group because they get the leftovers from meals. They follow a group one way, and then catch another group going back the other way. Because we're getting out of busy season there wasn't another group going back, so the dogs just hung out at the Monaatery. Animals are well-loved in Bhutan so they should be okay.
We had our last dinner cooked by our trekking chef, which was excellent again. We chatted with the crew - they had all completed the Snowman Trek, supposedly the hardest trek in the world. Our trekking guide, Sunam, had done it three times!
We went to bed around 7:30pm. Just in time too, as it started snowing (more like small snow pellets) at 9pm and continued through the night.
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
Druk Path Trek - Day 3
We didn't sleep well, maybe because it was too hot in the double sleeping bags. At 6am I got out of the tent, it was still about 30 minutes before the sun would reach us, but again I couldn't stay in a sleeping bag that long. The view was great - we were above the clouds, and everything was covered with frost. Eventually the sun came up, and melted the frost. We warmed up and had breakfast - porridge, scrambled eggs, toast. Yummy.
We started today's trek heading up to 4,100m, and then spent the next three hours up and down between 4,000m and 4,100m. It was very tiring, although a beautiful path to trek. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
I wore my trekking pants, a longsleeved base layer top, a neck gator and sun hat, and was quite comfortable. When we stopped for lunch I put on my fleece to keep warm. The temperature was maybe 10C (?).
In a bowl between two passes we saw a couple prepping and drying a plant that is used as incense. It grows wild above 3,500m. Our guide spoke with them, they sell large sacks of the dried plant for 700 Nu in India (about $12). They were okay with me taking photos so I took a bunch.
We finally reached our lunch spot after three hours, a great viewpoint of the valley and the Himalayans. Lunch was a hot lunch again (!).
We then descended to 3,600m to a lake, and then up the other side of a valley, around a bend, finally to our campsite at 3,800m. It faced west, so caught the late afternoon sun. It was a long walk today - 11km over 6 hours 15 minutes mostly above 4,000m, and we were exhausted.
Dinner was excellent, and then we had another campfire. We were at a lesser-used campsite (it's more common to camp at the lake we passed earlier, but this campsite was better if you can reach it). There were semi-nomadic locals nearby, from whom I think we bought some firewood.
We chatted with our guide, tried to learn some more Bhutanese, and went to bed around 8:30pm.
We started today's trek heading up to 4,100m, and then spent the next three hours up and down between 4,000m and 4,100m. It was very tiring, although a beautiful path to trek. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
I wore my trekking pants, a longsleeved base layer top, a neck gator and sun hat, and was quite comfortable. When we stopped for lunch I put on my fleece to keep warm. The temperature was maybe 10C (?).
In a bowl between two passes we saw a couple prepping and drying a plant that is used as incense. It grows wild above 3,500m. Our guide spoke with them, they sell large sacks of the dried plant for 700 Nu in India (about $12). They were okay with me taking photos so I took a bunch.
We finally reached our lunch spot after three hours, a great viewpoint of the valley and the Himalayans. Lunch was a hot lunch again (!).
We then descended to 3,600m to a lake, and then up the other side of a valley, around a bend, finally to our campsite at 3,800m. It faced west, so caught the late afternoon sun. It was a long walk today - 11km over 6 hours 15 minutes mostly above 4,000m, and we were exhausted.
Dinner was excellent, and then we had another campfire. We were at a lesser-used campsite (it's more common to camp at the lake we passed earlier, but this campsite was better if you can reach it). There were semi-nomadic locals nearby, from whom I think we bought some firewood.
We chatted with our guide, tried to learn some more Bhutanese, and went to bed around 8:30pm.
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