Unawatuna Beach

Some photos from my last day on Sri Lanka, enjoying Bentota and Unawatuna Beach.
An extremely improbable thing happened - I ran into Yara and Amr, friends from Ramallah! They were holidaying here for a week and just happened to see me taking photos on the beach! How unlikely is that? But lovely of course, it was so nice to see them again :-)
Ended the day with a quick visit at a turtle center then a looong flight to Amsterdam via Dubai.

Driving through the tea district

Today was a transport day, driving from the Highlands through the stunningly beautiful tea district to Bentota on the South Western coast. We stopped by a river for lunch, at the very place were the bridge scenes in the film "the bridge over river Quai" was filmed.

Politics and tea

Recently Sri Lanka had a presidential election, the first peace time election in over 20 years. It was a tight run between the incumbent President and the general that won the war against the tamil minority. The President won, despite being somewhat unpopular amongst big groups in Sri Lanka. This has led to a lot of tension, and there are rumours of the Generals imminent arrest.

Today started in Kandy, the powerbase of general Fonseca but also the place where the President will be sworn in again the 5th of February (the day after independence day), in the very holy temple of Buddha's tooth. So the city was swarmed with military, both for security but also for practicing the parades for the President and independence day.
In Kandy I also ended up visiting a school and talking with the students. The principal studied at Lund University in Sweden!

After fighting the resulting traffic jam we headed for the Highlands and the very beautiful tea plantations there. It's a bit like vineyards – the symmetry of the plantations interacts with the landscape, creating pleasantly beautiful landscapes. These green hillocks are then dotted with colourful specks – women tea-pickers. Wonderful!

We also visited a tea factory and then checked in at Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya, having a nice dinner and trying out the fascinating mic of ginger soda and gin.  and this morning there was a wedding at our hotel with kids all dressed up in a colourful way.

Rain, rocks and spices

Another early start, this time to visit the ancient rock fortress at Sigiriya. Except for the views (which are great if the weather cooperates), I always found this sight very overrated. I did see a giant squirrel and that was fun.

The spice gardens on the other hand are great fun. A guide shows you how some of our common spices (like pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger etc) grow and are treated. On the way we also stopped at a wholesale vegetable market - a photographers paradise :-)

Now we are in Kandy, a temple city in the centre of the Sri Lanka. It’s been raining more or less all day and the forecasts look bleak for tomorrow as well when we will travel to the tea plantations up in the Highlands.

Elephants & monkeys (and a few Buddhas)

I like Sri Lanka. It is beautiful. People are friendly. Food is good. Prices are low. Surprisingly little changed since I was here last time seven years ago I think it was. Once again peace is in people’s mind and hopes are up for a surge of tourism. At the same time everyone are holding their breath, afraid of post-election violence. But thinks might work out in the end.

Anyway. Today we started really early in Negombo and headed for Pinnawala and the elephant orphanage there. It is as much a tourist operation as an elephant preservation scheme, but whatever it is, it’s lots of fun. Elephants are just so cool!

In the afternoon our bus broke down on the way to the overrated Sigiriya rock fortress. We spent a few hours on the roadside, trying out local fruits and roti, taking photos of monkeys and chatting up a cow. When the bus was up and running again we skipped the rock and went for the Cave temples at Dambulla (lots of Buddhas, a few monks, more monkeys and some beautiful flowers).

All in all a very nice day.