We survived India...
For now. We'll be heading back in ten days so don't want to jinx it - but both of us seemed to avoid "Delhi belly" for the most part. We made our flight no problems, and touched down in CMB airport - but headed straight to nearby town Negombo by taxi - staying the night at Ripple Jay Hostel, which was a lovely, comfy place to rest our heads. The plan was an early night, but a common theme on this trip occured again - bumping into some familiar faces! Conor & Lisa, who we'd met up with in Jaipur, happened to be in town at the same time as us, so on we went to meet up for traditional Sri Lankan rice and curry, and maybe a drink or two afterwards.
After a 5-6 hour journey, we finally made it to our accommodation for the next two nights, Jungle Vista Hostel. It definitely lives up to its name, as we stayed in the recommended outdoor 17 bed dorm room - it's literally in a jungle:
Big love, Dani & Stu.
Currently Listening to:
A nice way to start off our Sri Lankan journey, and we were immediately onwards and upwards the next morning, as we jumped on a bus right outside our hostel and set off for Sigiriya. Non-AC and in 30 degree heat, Dani was happy enough to have her pick of the window seats (they drive so fast here it's basically AC....kind of):
Despite having to put up with an amount of insect bites we felt to be never before possible, we'd still recommend it, an absolutely class hostel - it has lunch/dinner every day in a communal open dining room, and they look after all the tours/hikes in the surrounding area too, so joining up to whatever activity you want is very easy to do. We started off on day one by heading on a hike that afternoon up Pidurangala Rock (there's two main hikes in the area, this one, and hiking Sigiriya Rock) - this hike is a lot cheaper than Sigiriya rock, and allows for great views of the bigger rock once we reached the top. Was a little bit sketchy at the end, as you've to climb the rocks on all fours, but we made it in one piece!
and we stayed here to catch our first Sri Lankan sunset, though then raced down before dusk, to make sure we didn't leave ourselves tackling the descent in complete darkness.
Day two, and a few people in the hostel had signed up for the Elephant Safari in Minneriya National Park, so we joined up for the day out. We'd wanted to get to see some elephants up close, but did have concerns about any ethical/cruelty issues that could be present when doing so. We were assured this was a national park, and there was nothing to worry about. Seemed to us this was true, as the elephants had absolutely no problems at all coming up close and personal with our jeeps, and no chains in sight:
The hostel seemed to always have the right idea, as the drivers surprised us by bringing us to a sunset point not too far away, and cracking out a few cans for us to enjoy over the edge of a cliff/gorge. What could possibly go wrong?
A great place to have a bit of craic with all the crew at the hostel, and take in another sunset:
That pretty much wrapped it up for the night. We went to Sigiriya town to get dinner, which turned out to be more difficult than we expected: everyone at the table ordered rice and curry (as already mentioned it's their most famous dish) - it had "finished", so no curry for us. Apparently spring rolls are frozen potato croquettes too. Despite the questionable dining experience, we all got a good laugh out of it, and sitting around the table we were able to make plans with our now friends Shannon, Karlijn, and Marlot - we were moving on the next day to Kandy, which luckily coincided with their plans. Our next non-AC bus journey awaited, and we all walked out of the jungle together looking forward to it.
We'll let you know how we get on in Kandy, where we'll be taking the train on one of the most scenic journeys in the world (apparently).
Big love, Dani & Stu.
Currently Listening to:
No comments:
Post a Comment