Author: DawnO

From Sigiriya we decided to go on an adventure… we wanted to try to reach Jathika Nemal Uyana (Pink Quartz Mountain) using public transportation, even though we couldn’t find any info on the web about getting there by bus. How hard could it be? We took a bus to Dambulla and we were waiting on another bus to get to a part-way town called Madatugama when we were approached by a persistent tuk tuk driver who kept telling us that we would have to take a tuk tuk, so we should just pay him. Undeterred and very stubbornly we sat on the stationary hot bus for another 20 minutes while he tried to wait us out. Eventually the bus roared to life and the adventure continued. Unfortunately he was right about not being able to take another bus the rest of the way so we hired a (much cheaper) tuk tuk to take us to the wooded park.

It was a beautiful walk through the forest before we got our first glimpses of pink. The mountain is SE Asia’s largest deposit of pink quartz and is thought to be 500 million years old. It was so neat to be hiking on what is normally gravel, but was tiny pebbles of pink quartz.

On the way home we had a great interaction with a security guard who kept us company when we waited for a bus, then bartered us a tuk tuk to a different part-way town for a successful series of buses home. Take that, doubting tuk tuk guy!

We had another great visit with our Sigriya tuk tuk driver, Anu, who took us to a more local spot for sunset views. If you’re ever planning to come here let me know and I’ll connect you with him as he was our favourite person in Sri Lanka.

After another looong distance bus we arrived in Polonnaruwa, which is the 2nd oldest of Sri Lanka’s kingdoms and a World Heritage Site. We explored the huge area of ruins by bike until the heat chased us back to our guesthouse. A consistent theme of this trip is sitting in front of fans in our underwear; it is THAT HOT!

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to go on an elephant safari. RockyB had never seen elephants in the wild and it was an auspicious start when we saw our first one walking up the side of the highway! We had the chance to see numerous grey gentle giants, often quite close to our jeep. We were pleased that our guide seemed quite respectful of giving the animals space and we often found ourselves away from the ‘herd’ of jeeps that seemed too intense.

Our guide was very into the birds of the area and I can honestly say that I am becoming quite a ‘bird nerd’. I didn’t have our zoom lens so the pictures suck, but we saw some really colourful green bee eaters, chestnut headed bee eaters, kingfishers, brahminy kites, and great spotted eagles. Have you ever seen a peacock fly? What an unexpectedly cool thing to see.

I have about a hundred pictures of us enjoying cold drinks during the trip, another definite ‘beat the heat’ theme (pictured are king coconuts, coconut shakes, soursop(Rocky)/passionfruit(me) shakes).

The food in Sri Lanka has been delicious. At times we have been missing vegetables as it’s quite heavy of the rice and breads, but we have definitely found our favourites: hoppers, coconut sambol, and dahl curry. I would definitely recommend Sri Lanka as a travel destination. The people are genuine and helpful, and it has the 2nd highest per-capita income in SE Asia. Though it is a developing nation it appears (from what we’ve seen) that most people have their basic needs met and are happy.

After a full day of train travel we arrived back down south, close to the airport. In the ‘would you rather’ game we would both pick a full day on the train over a full day on the bus, but 9 hours is long no matter how you do it! We’re both feeling a little blue as it is our last day of Rock-Awn 7.0. We both are heading to new and exciting adventures, but we have so much fun travelling together that it’s always a little sad to part ways.

I’ll be posting from a new time zone soon, and you can follow RockyB’s adventures at: https://delafrijoles.com/. Rock-Awn!

Our first night in Kandy we were wandering along and happened upon the world heritage Temple of the Tooth Relic. In order to respectfully enter Buddhist temples you need to have your knees and shoulders covered, and both RockyB and I always have a scarf/sarong at the ready. The eagle-eye security guard noticed that Rocky’s sarong had images of Buddha on it and immediately banned it from entering. She also re-wrapped mine and it was such a tight pencil skirt that I could only take tiny little Geisha-like steps. Rocky paid a deposit to borrow one and in we went.

In the Hindu area of the temple, the temple priest waved us over and did a special blessing for each of us where he held our hands, recited some stuff, and gave us a coloured smear onto our foreheads. This was followed by pointing at the offering plate of money and instructing us to make a donation. I pulled out 100 rupees (about $0.50) and the priest indicated that I was being too much of a cheapskate by pointing to a 500 rupee note (about $2.50). Embarrassed, I complied. I was feeling even more sheepish when RockyB laid down a 1000 rupee note and thought she must have really been ‘feeling it’.

As we were walking away I confessed to Rocky that I felt like such a cheapskate and she started laughing, revealing that she was initially going to give a 50 note but saw my interaction. She realized she had given her last 500 note as a deposit for her sarong so was very reluctantly parting with her 1000! She was contemplating trying to make change from the plate of money but thought better of it. Rock-Awn laughter ensued.

We found a little restaurant where we had a fun travel interaction. Mr. Nathan was extremely attentive: washing our hands for us, wanting to find out all about us, and staring at us as we ate. Of course we had to take photos with him and promised we would come back.

We did go back a couple of days later and he was a good sport about doing a jump shot with us. He’s so excited to stay in touch over WhatsApp. These connections are one of the reasons why I love travelling.

One day we walked up to a huge Buddha statue.

We had great views of Kandy as we could go up to the level of the Buddha’s shoulders. It was such a peaceful and serene setting.

On the walk back down we loved visiting a brightly painted temple.

That evening we revisited the Temple of the Tooth Relic for the evening ceremony, but it felt extremely touristy and confusing. We had much better experiences in the smaller, less crowded temples.

Feeling a bit ‘templed out’ and ‘special blessing-d out’ we spent a day at the Uddawata Kele Sanctuary, a large forest reserve in Kandy. At the entrance we had one of many examples of what I’m calling a ‘change standoff’. In Sri Lanka’s primarily cash society we are constantly trying to strategically break up the large bills dispensed by the bank machines into smaller notes that can be used at restaurants and vendors. It’s not unusual to see tourists going to the grocery store to buy a small item with a 5000 rupee note, just to get change. Frequently when paying the vendor will ask for exact change as they claim they don’t have change to give. Sometimes I have it but don’t want to use it all up, and more often I don’t have the change. Nevertheless it ends up with a staring contest of both of us waiting for the other to find the change. At the forest reserve the entrance fee was 930 rupees, but she said she didn’t have change when I paid with 1000! For the record I won the stand-off and we spent the whole day recharging our batteries in nature.

For the 3rd time I was a stand-in for BRod for their anniversary (10 years, 14 years, and now 20 years!). We celebrated with massages and drinks at an upstairs patio.

We relaxed by Kandy lake one afternoon but got caught sitting under a tree for almost an hour of jungle rain.

We took a couple of buses to get to Sigriya (SEE-gree-ya), our home base for the next 5 nights. Through Booking.com I rented us a room with private bathroom and fantastic daily breakfast for a grand total of $43USD (for all 5 nights!!). The best part (other than no squirrels in the ceiling) is the lovely family who own the property.

We explored the Dambulla Cave Temples, a temple complex that dates back to the first century BCE. The 5 caves are intricately decorated with carvings and painting. After exploring we sat on the steps and watched a troop of monkeys terrorizing tourists and stealing food from offering plates.

My first glimpse of the Sigriya ancient rock fortress gave me the feels. It is called ‘lion rock’ because it used to have a giant lion carving, but now only the feet remain. The palace at the top was constructed in 477AD. It was a sweaty stair climb to the top, but absolutely worth it!

We followed our gut instinct when picking a tuk tuk driver and were rewarded with Anu, who took us around to a few different viewpoints of Sigiriya.

Anu dropped us a Pidurangala in time to hike up for golden hour and sunset. This climb is beside Lion Rock and offers great views of the monument. There are 2 severe bottlenecks on the trail where hikers can only be headed in 1 direction and this resulted in many stoppages and some confusing times where nobody seemed to be hiking down, but we also weren’t moving forwards. There were a few tourists behind us who were trying to queue-jump, but in true Canadian style we politely stood beside each other, elbows up, holding the line.

When we reached the top we understood why so many people wanted to do this hike. The sunset views of Sigiriya and the countryside took my breath away.

Today we opted for a pool day at a hotel down the street and it has been just what we needed. A few more stops are left in this Rock-Awn adventure so I’m sure there will be another blog.

On our last day along the coast we walked over to Unawatuna, which is a beach with good beginner surfing waves. We had each taken 1 surf lesson previously and were keen to try it again. We walked onto the beach and in classic Rock-Awn style we chose the first surfer dude who approached us about lessons. We headed out to the break and got to it. Similarly to my first experience I was able to get up relatively easily and LOVED IT. As a typical non-water sport person, I can definitely say surfing is at the top of my list. At one point Rocky and I were both in the shallows and here’s how our interaction went:

• Me (grinning ear to ear like an eager beaver), “This is so great!!!!!”
• Rocky (person who loves being in water usually), “I fu$#&n hate this!!!!”

You know how they say that married couples start becoming like one another? Maybe after 7 Rock-Awns we are starting to morph into one another.

The next morning we were up bright and early to see about a bus to the town of Ella. We couldn’t find any solid info on a schedule but we had 3 anecdotal stories about a 6am bus. We were so jazzed when a bus came along, we identified that it was the one we were looking for, and we were able to do the mad rush on to get seats! We had to make 1 bus transfer and our aisle seat mate shepherded us to the next bus, which was adorned with a neon Lakshmi goddess. The excitement wore off after 7 hours of loud, hot, crowded, stuffy bus time, so when we scrambled off the bus we needed to regroup with a cold drink.

Ella is a town in the mountainous area of Sri Lanka so the climate is not so melty. We wandered around but were too chicken to cross under a bridge on the main highway with lots of traffic and no sidewalks.

We did a small hike to the 9 Arch Bridge. We were nervous to walk on the tracks and then realized that crazy people stay on the bridge even when the train is going by!

We also hiked up Little Adam’s peak for great views.

We visited the beautiful Mahamevnawa Monastery and had a great tour with a monk.

We finally braved walking under the tunnel without sidewalks en route to the Kinellan Tea Factory. Sri Lanka was historically known as Ceylon and one of its major exports is tea. The factory was sweltering inside, so hot that it has become a repeating choice in our ‘would you rather’ game (ie. Would you rather have to work in the tea factory every day or be a politician? Both of us answered the latter!). We tasted a few varieties and as Rocky made the joke that it was like Ted Lasso says, they all tasted like brown water.

Our accommodation in Ella was in the perfect location and had a beautiful garden area where we saw a mongoose, a grizzled giant squirrel, and numerous types of birds. Unfortunately on our first night we could hear something crawling around in our ceiling and we FREAKED OUT! Hilariously both of us assumed the ‘turtle position’ on the bed, as if that would protect us. We frantically knocked on the door of our host, who told us that it was just some really cute squirrels. Because they were reportedly ‘cute’ we calmed down, though each morning when we were woken up by them fighting/playing/mating/dancing on our thin particle board ceiling our ‘fight or flight’ kicked in.

This morning we boarded a scenic train to the city of Kandy. This was the #1 thing on both of our ‘must-do’ lists, and it did not disappoint. The 8 hour train didn’t feel like 8 hours, until the end when it definitely felt like 8 hours! It winds through tea plantations, forests, and villages, with views of temples and waterfalls.

It is an open air, open door train, which means that at every opportunity gringos are hanging out of the train for the perfect photo op… including us!

I don’t know how she did it, but Rocky booked us the cheapest 3rd class tickets and we somehow had the whole train car almost all to ourselves. Our train official was hard core about keeping the other people in their rightful carriages.

We were glad we ordered the ‘pile of rice’ lunch.

We had lots of fun in Kandy already, but I’ll save that for the next blog!

RockyB and I were excited to meet up for our 7th trip together and so far it has already been filled with adventures. We spent a couple of days in the capital city of Colombo, where we put in 30,000 steps per day exploring. Highlights included:

• The Lotus tower

• Buddhist temples, including one on the water and one with a massive Bodhi tree

• The red and white mosque: our tour was led by the sweetest Muslim guy I could have imagined. We wished we could have done a recording of him singing a verse of the Quran. The mosque’s red and white colours and dome shapes are representative of a pomegranate, which is featured in many verses.

• Figuring out the different transportation systems like tuk tuks and the bus!

For distance travel in Sri Lanka, trains are the way to go. We hopped a 2.5 hour train to the seaside city of Galle (pronounced Goal) and loved every second of it: tasting the foods being sold by hawkers, clapping along with a group of young people drumming and singing, and seeing the coastal views out of the open air windows and doors.

One of Galle’s main attractions is a walled fort town that has architecture from Dutch, Portuguese, and British colonial days. We walked around on an afternoon where the humidity was so high I felt like I could have taken a bite out of the air. In a Rock-Awn first we have been having to say ‘uncle’ and duck into air conditioned shops and cafes to cool down!

This morning we visited a sea turtle hatchery and recovery centre. They take in sea turtles that have been sick or injured, as well as protect eggs and babies. It was heartbreaking to see turtles that were sick from eating plastic, blind, had abscesses, or got caught in a boat motor. We had the chance to release some babies back to the ocean. I hope the little guys do ok out there.

After our time with the turtles we were walking along the beach and it was SO hot and SO beautiful that we did another Rock-Awn first… we stripped down to our undies and spent some time in the waves. The surf was rough and it was my first time getting sucked into the rip and pounded into the sand. When we got back to our hotel and into the shower I realized that I had about 3 cups of sand in my undies and another cup in my hair.

We’ve been tasting a lot of Sri Lankan foods and have had some hilarious ‘lost in translation’ moments along the way. I’m looking forward to more Rock-Awn moments!