goriolakwatsero

As I mentioned on my previous post, Day 3 of our Sri Lankan vacay was the most strenuous, stressful, tiring and hardcore of them all. Since the three places we wanted to go to are located way too far from Colombo, we had to prepare ourselves for a loooooooong drive to the Golden Triangle area of Dambulla, Sirigiya and Ponnolaruwa.

It took us about three hours to arrive to our first destination, which was Dambulla. Dambulla is a big town, situated in the Matale District, and is home to the largest and best preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The Golden Temple of Dambulla is a World Heritage Site, which features more than 80 caves in the surrounding area. Major attractions are spread over five caves, which contain statues and paintings. These paintings and statues are related to Lord Buddha and his life. Since we were on a time crunch, we were not able to enter the actual caves, which was a big mistake for us. Looking back, we should’ve just waited for their 15-minute lunch break to be over since the photo ops inside those caves were amazing. I really don’t want to talk about it anymore since I really feel so bad we just left without waiting and checking the sights inside those caves.

Our next stop was Sigiriya. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sigiriya, which means “lion’s rock” in Sinhalese, is a town with a large stone and ancient rock fortress and palace ruin in the central Matale District, surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens, reservoirs, and other structures. A popular tourist destination, Sigiriya is also renowned for its ancient paintings and is one of the eight World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka. The entrance fee was a little costly, $30 per foreign visitor.

The Sigiriya rock is a hardened magma plug from an extinct and long-eroded volcano. It stands high above the surrounding plain, visible for miles in all directions. The rock rests on a steep mound that rises abruptly from the flat plain surrounding it. To date, walking up that rock and the steep climb to the top is one of the toughest walks I have done so far, even beating the Great Wall walk I did last June.

The Sigiriya site has the remains of an upper palace sited on the flat top of the rock, a mid-level terrace that includes the Lion Gate and the mirror wall with its frescoes, the lower palace that clings to the slopes below the rock, and the moats, walls, and gardens that extend for some hundreds of metres out from the base of the rock. Both a palace and a fortress, the Sigiriya still furnishes a stunning insight into the creativity of its builders and the moats and walls surrounding the lower palace are still exquisitely beautiful. My favorite spots were the Lion Gate entrance, with the two lion paws on either side, which serves as the entry point for the steep climb up the palace area, and the frescoes which featured unique paintings of beautiful female figures in graceful colors.

Before heading to our last destination, which was Polonnaruwa, we decided to have lunch along the way first since we were so hungry from too much walking and climbing. After lunch, we were on the way to Polonnaruwa. The Royal Ancient City of Polonnaruwa is one of the most ancient of Sri Lanka’s kingdoms and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the best planned archeological relic sites in Sri Lanka, the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa stands as a testimony to the discipline and greatness of the kingdom’s first rulers.

The place actually reminded me of Ayutthaya in Thailand. From its beautiful statues and ruins, to the preserved temples and palaces, the long drive to that place was all worth it. We didn’t stay long there since we have a long drive back to Colombo. The roads were pretty dark and there’s no lights along the way, so our driver had to be very careful when driving. I didn’t realize how long we actually travelled that day until I looked at my watch and it’s already 8PM but we were still halfway to Colombo. We arrived in our hotel a few minutes before midnight, beaten up like hell. Good thing our flight to Kuala Lumpur was scheduled to leave 12 noon the next day, we had enough time to pack and get some much needed sleep.

All in all, we had a great time in Sri Lanka. Truly a beautiful place, unique and definitely interesting. Though we had our own shares of not-so-good experiences with the touts and scammers that flock the Galle Face area, it was truly an eye-opening and learning experience. Seeing the Sri Lankan people go about their daily lives, even just from the window of my car seat, exploring their historical sites and enjoying their scrumptuous and tasty cuisine, it truly is a gem in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Will I be visiting the place again? Slim chance, but who knows. All I know is that I enjoyed our short stay there and I was so glad I was able to endure the crazy travel itinerary we had from the insane airport hopping to the long roadtrip hours we had visiting one place to another. I hope and pray Sri Lanka will develop itself to the fullest and to finally let go of the stigma of being a war-torn country because it seriously is an undiscovered gem that alot of people need to explore and discover.

For our second day in Sri Lanka, we have scheduled ourselves to go to Kandy and visit the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and the Temple of the Tooth. It would take us about 3 hours to get to Kandy from Colombo, so we had to wake up really early and meet with our driver at exactly 6AM in our hotel lobby. We had the hotel prepare breakfast for us for take away so we can eat it while travelling. I love cruising down the streets of Colombo in the early morning, taking snapshops of people as they go about their daily lives.

After more than 3 hours of driving, we arrived at our first destination, which was the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. Located at the Pinnawala village, near the town of Kegalle, the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is notable for having the largest herd of captive elephants in the world. It serves as an orphanage, nursery and breeding ground for wild Asian elephants in that part of Sri Lanka.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is an orphanage, nursery and captive breeding ground for wild Asian elephants located at Pinnawala village, 13 km (8.1 mi) northwest of Kegalle town in Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. Pinnawalla is notable for having the largest herd of captive elephants in the world, originally founded in order to afford care and protection to many of the orphaned unweaned wild elephants found wandering in and near the forests of Sri Lanka. It was a Saturday, so there were alot of tourists and locals during that time. It was the first time I saw so many elephants in my life. Usually I’d end up seeing one or two in Bangkok, but this one was truly all about elephant overload.

There was a daily schedule that is being observed in the orphanage. At around 9AM, we witnessed the bottle feeding of the elephants, and a number of tourists was able to do so, for a fee. It was about a few seconds of photo opportunities and yeah, feeding those elephants with milk lasted for like 5 seconds since those creatures can drink up a huge bottle almost faster than you can blink. Our driver, who also served as our guide, brought us to the souvenir shops just outside the orphanage, to wait for the elephants to parade into the river to bathe, and had the opportunity to do some shopping while waiting for the elephants to arrive.

We were able to visit a store that specializes in creating and selling poo paper products. Yes, they are selling elephant poop products. We were able to witness how they create paper using elephant dung and the process involved as well. I was able to buy myself some really cool stuff there at really low prices. I always had this feeling I was paying so much because of the amount, but looking back, they are really cheap if you convert it into your local currency. I was able to buy some more souvenirs on the other shops nearby, from ref magnets to keychains to T-shirts.

A few minutes later, I heard a little sound, I guess to announce that the herd of elephants are about to pass by and go to the river to take a bath. It was absolute stampede, in an orderly manner, of course. There were so many of them, and it was such a unique feeling to see and experience this kind of routine for the locals in the area with these elephants, which is happening everyday. There was a huge number of tourists and locals surrounding the Oya River that time, enjoying the view and witnessing these elephants interact and play with each other while bathing.

After a few minutes, we went back to meet our driver to visit the Spice Garden and a tea factory, which were just along the way to our next destination, which was the Temple of the Tooth. I didn’t really enjoy the Spice Garden, it was just a bunch of herbs and spices being planted everywhere in the area, stuff that are pretty much available and can be seen in a number of Chinese stores in the Philippines. The tea factory, on the other hand, was quite a learning experience. We were able to see the process of how they create this product, that their country is very well known for. And I know why. Ceylon tea is very delicious and comes in a number of flavors. I actually bought two packs for myself. I was actually looking for some milk tea but I wasn’t able to find anything there in Sri Lanka. We then had lunch at a restaurant, somewhere in Kandy, before we headed out to the Temple of the Tooth. They served us some local Sri Lankan cuisine and it was very delicious. I was hoping it would be a little bit spicier, but since Audrey requested for it not to be spicy, it was all good. I really didn’t recognize half of the stuff on our table, but I just mixed it and ate it and it was really so good.

We arrived at the Temple of the Tooth about 20 minutes later. Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in the city of Kandy. It is located in the royal palace complex which houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is believed that whoever holds the relic holds the governance of the country. Kandy was the last capital of the Sri Lankan kings and is a UNESCO world heritage site partly due to the temple. The temple sustained damage from bombings at various times but was fully restored each time. We were only able to take pictures outside the royal palace since the relic area is only going to be open around 7PM and we cannot stay until that time in Kandy anymore since it’s going to be a long ride back to Colombo. After a few minutes of picture taking, we decided to go back and meet up with our driver to head back to our hotel in Colombo, arriving at around 8PM. We had to rest well since we have a really big and long day ahead of us the following day. Just how long? We were on the road for about 18 crazy hours!

I have always been intrigued by Sri Lanka ever since I’ve heard of its name. The name itself is reason enough for me to be curious about the country. I don’t know what got into me when I decided to go visit the place and decided to book for a flight considering it’s not an easy route and not the usual destination a Filipino would try and visit. Maybe that’s why.  Maybe because of being too curious about the place, that I so wanted to check it out and decided to try something different.

I have absolutely no idea what to see and do in Sri Lanka. I only did my research after booking for a flight. All I know about it is that it has been a war-torn country, my favorite singer M.I.A. is from there (or her parents are), it’s close to India, and a big part of it was badly damaged by the 2004 tsunami. I love airport-hopping and the thrill of flying so booking a hardcore flight connection via Iloilo-Manila-Bangkok-Colombo-Kuala Lumpur-Clark is probably the most tiring and stressful vacation I’ve ever had. All in 6 whole days.

Sri Lanka is one of the countries that requires a visa for Philippine passport holders. Good thing I was able to process an ETA (Electronic Travel Authority) online using my credit card, and in 24 hours, I got all the documents I needed to enter Sri Lanka. It was that quick and simple and it only costs $20 for the application.

Since there are no direct flights from Manila to Colombo, we flew via Bangkok, slept and waited for about 7 hours before we checked ourselves in for our AirAsia flight to Colombo. We arrived in Colombo after about three hours, immigration was a breeze since we got our ETAs already, bought a local SIM card and had arranged for our hotel to have a driver pick us up at the airport. The drive from the Bandaranaike Airport to our hotel, which was the Galle Face Hotel, which is known to be one of the oldest hotels in the world, took about an hour. We then arranged with the person at the travel desk our plans for the next two days, which was to visit Kandy, Pinnawala, Dambulla, Sigiriya and Ponnoraluwa. Yes, I did hardcore research for these must-see sites and studied really well the journey time and the distance from Colombo. Our driver actually suggested that we should’ve just booked only one night in Galle Face then transfer from one hotel to another as we drive along the spots that we wanted to visit in the next two days. The problem is, I already paid for the entire three days of the hotel. So we had no choice but to return back to our hotel every day. And I really don’t care, as long as we are able to visit those sites that I wanted to see.

We were able to check-in early around 11AM, freshened up and decided to explore the Galle Face Green, which was just a few walks outside our hotel. Our hotel itself is a special place to explore. Listed as one of the “1000 Places to See Before You Die” in the book of the same name, the Galle Face Hotel has welcomed a number of celebrity clients including Yuri Gagarin, former British Prime minister Edward Heath, and Princess Alexandra of Denmark, among others. The Galle Face Green is a promenade which stretches for a half kilometre along the coast in the heart of the financial and business district of Colombo, where a number of locals would spend the day to relax, enjoy the sea breeze, do some kite-flying and enjoy their family picnics. The only issue we had with the Galle Face area where the number of touts that scattered. A number of them were really bugging us while we were walking down the strip. I guess they were not used to seeing people from the souteast visit their country and are only familiar with Americans and the British tourists.

While walking along the Galle Face Green and while we were busy taking pictures of the buildings nearby, one of the locals told us that it’s not okay to take pictures of one particular building there since it’s a government site or something. He was very friendly and I don’t know why we even entertained him, that it even came to a point that he invited us to come with him to the Gangaramaya Temple, telling us that it’s only open today since it’s a special day in Colombo, or something to that extent. I am actually pissed that I even went along with it. Yeah, he did bring us to the Gangaramaya Temple, which was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but after feeling pressured to give out donations to almost every chance he got, I knew this was not right anymore. We paid the entrance, we were asked to donate money to the elephant caretaker, to the monks inside the temple, he even brought us to a gem factory of some sorts. That’s when we decided to leave. I told him we had a conference meeting in a couple of minutes and we’d want to go back to our hotel.

He had a tuktuk drive us from the Galle Face Green to the Gangaramaya Temple, to the gem factory, back to our hotel and he was with us all the time. What really irked us the most was when the tuktuk driver demanded that we pay him 1,800Rs, which was around P570. He then said that it’s 1,800Rs each! Now that really ticked me off and I raised my voice in the middle of the street telling him that there’s no way I am paying him another 1,800Rs. He drove away and that super-friendly local who dragged us to the temple asked us for a tip as well. We gave him 500Rs, around P150 (I didn’t realize it was P150 only, 500Rs sounded like a big amount of money), walked away back to our hotel and hoping we won’t be seeing those creeps no more. The only good thing was that I was able to take alot of nice pictures from the temple. We spent the rest of the day inside the hotel since we decided that it won’t be safe for us to explore the city outside after the experience we had a few hours ago. To be honest, I didn’t feel comfortable walking around, with all the eyes looking at me like I’m some strange being from outer space. This is absolutely the first time I felt a little bit unsafe in a foreign country. Some of those locals were actually a little “touchy”, I was bothered somebody’s gonna grab my bag or my watch.

The view of the Indian Ocean from the Galle Face veranda was just spectacular. I loved every minute in that hotel. Since we were to wake up early for a 6AM drive to Kandy, I decided to treat myself and get a massage just inside the hotel. It felt so good I actually slept during the entire session. Since Sri Lanka is 2 and a half hours behind the Philippines, we had enough time to get some sleep and rest at around 10PM that time, and get enough sleep for a long day ahead.