Sri Lanka – Part 4 – East Coast and Kandy Rail Trip

Day 13 (June 18) – Polonnaruwa and Pasikuda Beach – Today we changed location, moving to the central east coast at Pasikuda Beach. Along the way, we stopped for a significant tour of the ruins of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. Built between the 10^th and 12 centuries AD by South Indian invaders, then later re-occupied by Sinhalese, it was the capital of the Sri Lankan Kingdom. Centered around a vast man-made lake that fed a huge irrigated area, the ruins consisted of a palace, royal audience chamber and a great many temples. The earlier buildings were the most remarkable, being of carved stone with perfectly interlocking pieces. The later buildings were of brick. The scale of the city suggested a major civilization, and Sri Lanka was known as a major trading and exporting nation at that time. Excavations of the ruins have found Chinese coins, showing the extent of the trade. By the 14^th Century, the city had been abandoned, the capital moving closer to modern day Colombo as a more defensible location against the threat of Tamils from the North and Southern India.

The weather was hot and the sky cloudless, a far cry from other days on the trip. We hadn’t packed hats, an error that had not bothered us to date, but today we needed them. There was a hat stand near the entrance to the palace ruins and the bargaining started. We rejected $2500Lk ($12.50) opening bid for each poor-quality cap on offer and countered with 1000Lk for two. After a bit of two and froing, we decided to walk in the shade and set off through the gate, the hat seller still calling offers after us. On our return, we had fresh bids, but we ignored his right up until we got in the car and he was tapping on the window accepting the 1000Lk ($5) offer. Nilanker was well amused. He probably knew we were still robbed. Christine was even upset with me because I got a red “Adidas” cap that she thought looked too much like a MAGA cap.  A few days later on we saw hats at several stalls priced at 450Lk each, about $2.50. Nilanker liked that.

The tour of the ruins was interesting but we were just about done with ruins and temples. It was also very expensive at $US30 a person, as most tourist sites are for foreigners. The site would demand a great deal in terms of restoration and maintenance and it is clear the Government sees tourism as a way of financing the task. Even so, it has been a topic of discussion amongst the few other tourists we have managed to talk to. Sri Lanka is regarded as expensive compared to other SE Asian countries.

We reached the coast and found our accommodation, bearing the promising name of Blue Sands Resort. Tripadvisor rates it as a 9.1 with wonderful stuff said about the staff. The “staff” was one person and he was very nice and helpful. We were the only guests once again and the room gave beautiful views of the beach, only separated by a scrubby field filled with goats and cows. We had access if we walked down a nearby laneway. Once again, the TV didn’t work because the bill had not been paid. It is a common thing when the tourist numbers are down.

The ”resort” did not have any restaurant facilities other than breakfast but two nearby options were given, Laya Waves just a few doors down and the Cinnamon Café. Nilanker took us 4 kms or so back into town to a “foreign beer” shop where we stocked up on a bit of beer and even a bottle of wine, a Chilean Red. Alcohol in any form is a luxury item here.

Later, we wandered down to the beach, a broad expanse of white sand and clear waters. A sea breeze was in, cooling things slightly but making the sea a bit too choppy for swimming. The only things on the beach were dogs and boats, colourful things with outriggers (not the dogs). After a cooling paddle, a couple of locals herded 20 or so cows onto the beach to move them along and graze them in the land in front of our resort. It looked to be some kind of common for grazing. We strolled into the Laya Waves Resort, flashier than ours with a nice pool to enquire about dinner for later. It had a nice looking restaurant but the only person we found to ask about dinner was at reception. She assured us that dinner was on.

In the evening, we enjoyed a couple of beers on our balcony, watching the palm squirrels play then headed back to Laya Waves Resort. The restaurant was in darkness. We should have taken this as a warning. The receptionist scurried around and dragged a man away from playing on his smartphone so he could turn the lights on. Not a good start. We should have left.

We ordered a chicken dish each and Christine asked about wine. What was she thinking? However, he went off for ten minutes or so and returned with two bottles, a rose type thing and a Spanish white that Google said was a cab-sav of reasonable quality. The price was only around $14, so we took it. It was bad, really bad, gone off type bad. We relocated the bottle and the glasses to another table for the hour it took for the meals to arrive. Mine consisted of dice sized chunks of chicken that had been roasted for the entire hour we waited. They were hard, so hard it was difficult to tell the flesh from the bone. Christine’s was slightly softer but in large chunks. She had butter rice, which was truly horrible. My French fries were just passable. The waiter took the hint about the wine and did not charge us.

Day 14 (June 19) – Polonnaruwa and Pasikuda Beach – The next morning we enjoyed a good breakfast at the resort and got Nilanker to drive to the Pasikuda Beach, about a kilometre away. This beach is also beautiful but more developed, with a string of high class hotels, most with pools out front, some bars and eateries and an offering of water sports. We spent quite a while in the perfect temperature water, just soaking. We exchanged pleasantries with a woman who asked where we were from and then we asked her. The eyes lowered and she paused before saying, “Russia”. We let that go and had a conversation as much as her English would allow. Her expression was a give away, or perhaps she had experienced negative comments before. Later, when we walked along the beach, we noticed that almost everyone other than locals were Russian. Nilanker says the Russians only come for the beaches and almost never travel to inland tourist locations.

We did talk to a pair of New Zealanders, part of a group of six travelling in a minivan with a guide. That would be a good way to go because the costs of tours like safaris would be better when shared. They too had the experience of staying in hotels with no other guests.

We ordered a chicken burger and hamburger at a beachside bar, probably our first burgers ever in Asia. They were relatively cheap ($7) and absolutely delicious. After a good afternoon nap and catching  up on emails etc, we waited for the heat of the day to ease and headed off to try the Cinnamon Café, the other nearby restaurant. What a contrast to Laya Waves. The lights were on, a few other people came and the food was beyond comparison. We ordered a whole grilled mullet (which was a wrasse, not a mullet) and Sri Lankan Style Cuttlefish. Both would have graced any restaurant anywhere. The fish, while far from the best species, was saved by the way it was cooked, coated in a rich spicy gravy. The cuttlefish was so tender and the curry filled with many different spices, but with the chili held back so it was edible and all the flavours could be appreciated without a volcano going off. All in all, the stay at Pasikuda Beach has been very enjoyable. It would be better to spend the extra money on one of the 4 or 5 star hotels right on the main beach and then it would be absolute heaven.

Day 15 (June 20) – Trincomallee – We drove the 100km to Trincomallee, mostly close to the coast. Almost all the land we travelled through is “dry zone”, with lower rainfall and low thorny scrub. Cattle were common in largely unfenced lands so we had to wait at times as they strolled across the road. In one place, a large herd of buffalo were relocating so we had a long wait. The presence of heavy electric fences in some parts were an indication of elephants and warning signs on the road were common, but we didn’t see any. A few significant rivers enter the sea on this coast, including the Mahaweli Ganga, Sri Lanka’s longest, which we had last seen in Kandy. Large mangrove lined inlets are common and the size of the fishing fleets suggested they were productive.

Trincomallee is a large natural harbour that has been a focal point for shipping and trade for millennia. Like most ports in Sri Lanka, it had been occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, French then the British. It was the home port of the British naval force in WWII after the fall of Singapore. We visited Fort Frederick, the Dutch-built fortress that had a commanding coverage of the harbour. It was very hot and walking around visiting the various gun points and places of interest was sweaty work. The views out across the harbour were spectacular, a feature being the beautiful turquoise water, very deep under cliffs, but crystal clear.  We visited the Hindu temple, quite crowded due to several large school groups who had come from as far away as Kandy to visit. The Hindu Temples certainly dazzle with the artwork and myriad colourful sculptures. We did note, however, that this was to be our last temple for the trip. We were soaked with sweat and quite happy to leave and get to our hotel.

The Blue diamond read up really well on the web, beach access,  private beach, restaurant, swimming pool etc. Hhmm! Our third floor (no lift) room had good views of the water but….. beach access was restricted because we had to go through another hotel and they were embroiled in an ownership dispute with the court had locked the grounds. The security let us through on one occasion but rejected us the next time. It was a bit of a walk around through the fishermen’s area, smelly and with snarly dogs. The private beach bit was pure fantasy. To enjoy any kind of facility at the beach we relied on the good graces of another hotel, which was obtained by spending money there. It was ok but not optimum. The beach itself is beautiful, white sand, clear water and swaying coconut palms.

We enjoyed a nice meal at the beach hotel and the proprietor kindly walked us home through the fishermen’s area and past the snarly dogs. He wasn’t even after a tip. He said we reminded him of his mum and dad.

Day 16 (June 21) – Trincomallee and Nevelli Beach – Nilanker took us north about 10km to another beach area, Nevelli Beach. It is a bit more touristy, and even quite full of locals given that it was a Saturday. Many boats lined the beach to ferry people out to Pigeon Island, a National Park about 3km offshore. It had been on our itinerary to go there for snorkelling but we canned it, after reading the reviews on Google. It seems that much of the coral is dead and turtles and reef sharks are the main marine life. We figured that spending over $100 on a mediocre snorkelling experience with all that we have to offer back home was not good value.

However, we enjoyed a wonderful swim in the clean water and low surf, watching the boats come and go and soaking in the 30 degree water.

Back at the hotel, we met Anna and Martin, a UK couple who are at the start of a 30 day or more stay in Sri Lanka. They were happy to pick our brains for the things we had found on our journey. They have finished up a lengthy working stay in Zurich and decided to just spend some time trying to live cheaply in SE Asia. Later that evening, we headed out with them to a wonderful eatery called Black and White Kitchen. They served a large variety of Sri Lankan food, some of it quite new to us. It was ridiculously cheap, the four of us spending 2,700Lk ($13) all up. When we got back to the hotel, we headed to the little restaurant for a beer. There was a game set up called Karen Board, a snooker type game but using round counters flicked with the fingers instead pool. Martin and I tried it, slowly getting the rules right under the direction of the staff. Then we sat down for a pairs competition with the two staff. It was great fun and something really different.

Day 17  (June 22) – Negombo – The day was a long drive, by Sri Lankan standards, some 260km across the island east to west and back to our starting point, Negombo. It was interesting watching the vegetation change as the climate became wetter to the west. Although we followed a main arterial highway, the traffic was heavy with tuk-tuks, motorbikes, trucks and the dreaded buses. We seldom got up a full head of speed because of the amount of slow moving traffic. The only exception was a 40km section of high speed toll road that allowed 100km/hr and was devoid of tuk-tuks.

Nilanker did drive a little faster than normal as we neared Negombo. The lure of seeing family again must have been an incentive. We found ourselves back at the Optimum Residences, with some nostalgia. It remains the best accommodation we have encountered, and we were warmly greeted by the staff as returning customers. The big surprise was that it was quite crowded, with several families and couples in residence and playing in the pool. It made for a pleasant change and suggested that the predicted tourism influx in July was starting.

Day 18 (June 23) – Colombo – The Optimum Residences have a wonderful breakfast. We now know that it is a showcase of much of Sri Lanka’s street food favourites, and they are now ours. The string hoppers, coconut sambal pancakes, potato curry and lots of other delicious things we normally wouldn’t dream of eating for breakfast. We followed that up with a swim, having the morning to wait before moving to Colombo.

The drive to Colombo was not an improvement on the last time we did it, heavy traffic, crazy tuk-tuks and streets cluttered with goods of all descriptions. The driver found Central Street and motored down towards 132, the location of the City View Port Hotel. As we got closer, we didn’t get warm vibes. It was in an area of commercial warehousing with no shops or restaurants in evidence. The hotel proved to be good enough and worthy of its 3 stars, but the location was a shocker. Trying to walk around the neighbourhood was an exercise in dodging trucks unloading pallets of goods.

We needed to go to the rail station to pick up tickets to Kandy. How hard can it be? Go outside and hail a tuk-tuk. The lady at reception suggested it should cost 200Lk to the station. We finally got a tuk-tuk, gave him instructions and settled on 300Lk. We logged the trip into Google maps and watched in dismay as we headed in the opposite direction. The issue was that the driver had almost no words of English, to match our zero words of Sinhalese. We got through to him that he was going wrong so the solution was simple, throw an immediate U-turn in front of all oncoming traffic. We got him back on track and after several more U-turns and incredible near misses, we arrived.

A nice man at the station took us in hand and verified our on-line bookings, activating them so we could use digital tickets the next day to go to Kandy. The next step was fighting off the tuk-tuk drivers and T-shirt sellers that surround the station. We escaped over a bridge and headed into the depths of downtown Colombo. What an eye opener. The streets are chaotic and the difference between sidewalk and roadway is blurred. We navigated through many different types of streets before we returned to the hotel.

Having established that there were no decent restaurants near-by, we sought out a wholesale sweet shop and bought a packet of potato crisps and some wafer biscuits. The wholesale part didn’t mean bulk. They will take anyone’s money. The crisps were combined with a can of beer each at the hotel and that was dinner. We figured we probably had calories in reserve anyway.

Day 19 (June 24) – Colomb to Kandy – We lodged our main luggage at the hotel and caught a tuk-tuk to the station. This time, there was no problem and we went roughly the right way, with only one U-turn in front of oncoming traffic. The train was easy to catch, largely because there was a nice man who targeted all foreign looking people and made sure they got on the right train and found their carriage. Everything was done with gestures. Once settled on the train, the man appeared again and put a paper in front of us saying that he was deaf mute and represented a charity group, along with a list of people who had donated 1000Lk. A good Samaritan or a good scam? We’ll never know but we paid up.

The train trip was everything we had hoped. The first 60% was interesting enough, with small towns and villages seen from a different viewpoint than when viewed from the road. However, once we started the climb into the mountains, the scenery became really spectacular. Fortunately, we were on the right hand side of the train and had a commanding view of the mountains The forests were thick and jungle-like, with a big variety of ferns, vines, and palms.

We arrived at Kandy and once again negotiated a tuk-tuk to the hotel. This time, the hotel we had chosen was in a retail part of town with an abundance of restaurants. The hotel itself had a roof-top bar and a flash restaurant on the ground floor. It was a good choice. After settling in, we took a walk around the streets, hoping to see a market to buy some T-shirts for the grandkids but there was a complete lack of tourist stuff in evidence. We did come across the Queen’s Hotel, the equivalent of Singapore’s Raffle back in the days of the Raj, but now looking a little worse for wear. Still, we enjoyed a couple of beers while soaking up the old world charm of the building and admiring all the memorabilia. We chatted at length to a British ex-pat now living in Sri Lanka and listened to him extol the virtues of life on the island.

Walking around Kandy is much easier and more pleasant than Colombo. The streets are wider, have sidewalks that aren’t covered with goods and ramshackle shops, and the population is much smaller.

We ate a lovely dinner of Sri Lankan curry back at the hotel and even managed some rare reasonably priced wine to go with it.

Day 20 (June 25) – Kandy to Colombo – We had travelled light up to Kandy, but had packed bathers in anticipation of a swim. However, the weather put us off, with grey skies and mild temperatures. We lazed around after breakfast before checking out and wandering the streets, We went a different way and found a big market with many T-shirts on offer. Of course, we were attacked as soon as we neared the market with offers of “best price” and “superior quality for you madam.” Eventually, we haggled our way through buying five T-shirts and made our escape, filled with the knowledge that we had paid too much, but at least we had put up a good fight.

We stopped at a bakery called Ceylon Tea House and had, of all things, a hot dog and lime juice to ready us for the trip down the mountain on the train. The tea house was another piece of old Ceylon, with many wonderful old photos adorning the walls. As we neared lunchtime, it filled with locals.

Another tuk-tuk bore us back to the train station and we found our train and seat without the aid of the deaf man. This time, we had 2^nd class, meaning no air conditioning and the windows open. Air conditioning is not necessary, but the noise as we passed through tunnels and cuttings was deafening with the windows open. We still enjoyed the trip immensely. It is a 3 hour train trip we highly recommend.

Outside the rail station, we tried for a tuk-tuk and gave him a card showing the hotel. Of course, few tuk-tuk drivers can read but he nodded wisely and set off. Soon it was clear we were badly off course. We got him to change direction and went for a while with us giving him turn instructions from Google Maps. Finally, he pulled over and surrendered. That was it. No more. We paid him 300 or the promised 400Lk and set off on foot. Fortunately, we knew the way from the previous walk and found our own way home.

We retrieved our bags, used our booked room to shower and relax before getting picked up by a car for the trip to the airport at 9pm.

The trip has been amazing. The advice we received that it is too hard to do Sri Lanka without a tour is largely correct. Tourism is simply not that well established and what there is largely caters for local tourists or Indians. The Russians come in numbers but are only interested in the beaches. I do think that having a private car and driver gave us more insight into life in Sri Lanka than we would have gained as independent tourists and the cost was roughly similar to going on an organised tour. It is our first experience of touring with a private car and driver and it is well worth considering.