Sri Lanka - Tangalle and Galle

This is the third of three posts about Sri Lanka. See the first two here:

-- Colombo, Kandy and Sigiriya

-- Adam's Peak and Ella

After a busy first week in Sri Lanka, during which we packed in lots of walks, mountain climbs and train trips, we decided to slow the pace down as we headed south.

We took a minibus from Ella down to Tangalle on the south coast with a Dutch couple we'd met the previous day. The journey took a few hours and we dropped our travelling companions off near the Yala National Park before continuing to our base.

We were after a few days of R&R and thought the Lagoon Paradise Beach Resort would tick all the boxes. It was perfect.

Because it was a few miles away from Tangalle's main beaches, the beach was quiet and empty.

The hotel was also calm; just a few tourists, mainly couples, milling around.

We spent our three days there doing very little. Long walks down the beach, reading books by the pool, drinking Arrack and eating good seafood.

The most energy I expended was killing a couple of cockroaches in our room. A room that joined onto the world's biggest bathroom:

With our batteries fully recharged, we took a taxi down the coast to our next destination: Galle.

On the way we asked our driver to stop off briefly so we could take a picture of the famous stilt-fishermen.

They no longer fish commercially, and are purely posing for the benefit of tourists like us. It was slightly depressing, seeing these guys out in the ocean waiting for people to stop and take a photo. But there you go. We paid, we snapped, we left.

We also stopped at Marissa, one of the more well-known beaches on the south coast. 

It was a potential place for us to stay before I decided on Tangalle, and after spending an hour there and seeing the built-up tourism and lack of character, I'm really glad we made the decision we did.

We finally reached our destination after a few wrong turns by the taxi driver. To give him his due, we had chosen a place well off the beaten track.

Niyagama House was about 10 miles inland from Galle and was undoubtedly the highlight of our holiday.

We pulled up the driveway and found a place that was like something out of Conde Naste Traveller magazine.

The house was incredible. A central courtyard that was open to the elements, with about eight rooms over two floors. It was the creation of a friendly German woman called Elke and her Sri Lankan husband (who was away when we visited).

It was a yoga retreat, which we tried during our visit, and the relaxed vibe was the perfect way to end our holiday.

We ate some really good food, including some we made ourself on a cookery course...

...and spent time chilling and swimming in the picture-perfect pool.

We had a massage one day, did rooftop meditation on another, and even took a silent meditative walk through the surrounding villages with Elke.

London felt like a long way away.

While we were there we took a day trip to nearby Galle fort. It's one of Sri Lanka's most iconic locations, and we had an enjoyable time ambling around its narrow streets.

In the afternoon we took a walk along the fort ramparts as the sun was setting. Very atmospheric, even more so when we came across that typical Sri Lankan scene of boys playing cricket on a strip of sun-weathered grass.

We fancied a nightcap so took a tuk-tuk a couple of miles down the coast to the Jetwing Lighthouse hotel. I had wanted to visit a building designed by Geoffrey Bawa and this was our opportunity.

After a drink out by the rocks we took in the Bawa staircase, featuring some scary characters, before heading home.

The colonial-era buildings in Galle fort were preserved in great detail, none more so than what is now the Amangalla Hotel.

On our next visit to the fort, following a visit to a nearby temple, we had a great evening meal there.

Yep, rice and curries again.

Something that wasn't particularly on my radar before the holiday was Sri Lanka's whale watching potential.

While at Niyagama House we heard it was a good time for sightings, so booked ourselves on a trip for the following day.

We got up at the crack of dawn and got a tuk-tuk to Marissa where we jumped on a boat, along with 15-20 others.

After about half an hour of motoring out to sea (as a flotilla with about 10 other boats) we soon started seeing whales. Blue whales.

The biggest animals on earth. Wow.

Unfortunately Lottie's morning was spoiled somewhat by her feeling seasick. While she sat downstairs and tried to not throw up, I was upstairs scanning the ocean for the elusive glimpse of a whale.

The guys driving the boats were very excitable, and told us that there were an unusually large amount of whales in the area that week.

In total we probably saw whales on about 10 occasions, including an amazing moment when one of them fully surfaced its whole back before drawing its huge tail out of the water and splashing it down.

Incredible stuff.

Nothing could top that, and I was buzzing on the drive back to Niyagama House along the coastal road.

We had a final evening, and a final tasty meal, at what is probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. The following morning we had to somehow extricate ourselves from the bubble of Niyagama and get back to the real world.

Our journey back to Colombo was a bonus. I hadn't realised there was a train route that went from the south coast back to the capital, but there was. I didn't need to hesitate when choosing train as our return mode of transport.

We travelled back during the afternoon, which meant several hours hugging the coast and several hours of great views out of our window in the Rajadhani Express.

The sunset was a particular highlight.

Our final night, a pokey guesthouse run by rude staff near Colombo airport, was forgotten about by the time we boarded the plane back to London. 

Sri Lanka was unquestionably right up there with the best trips I've taken. Lovely people, great food, testing mountains, superb train journeys, secluded beaches and more.

Go now before it becomes the next Thailand!

Sri Lanka - Adam's Peak and Ella

This is the second of three posts about our holiday in Sri Lanka. Read the first, about Colombo, Kandy and Sigiriya.

One of the reasons we chose Sri Lanka was the variety of things to do in a relatively short space of time.

So after a few days exploring part of the cultural triangle (Kandy and Sigiriya) we found ourselves on a train heading south to Sri Lanka's tallest mountain: Adam's Peak.

First and second class on the train was sold out so we waited for its arrival with slight trepidation. What would our third-class experience will be like?

We needn't have worried. We climbed on board to find a spotless carriage with small, comfortable booths and large windows to enjoy the winding journey through Sri Lanka's tea plantations:

I love a good train journey.

At mid-afternoon we arrived in Hatton and boarded a ramshackle bus to a village called Dalhousie, about an hour's drive away.

On the way we were entertained by the stunning views over lakes and tea plantations, as well as a sweet old lady called Brenda who claimed to be the oldest Adam's Peak guide.

We weren't going to argue with that, but politely declined her invitation.

In Dalhousie we checked into our sparse and slightly dingy guesthouse, had a quick walk through the village (where we met Brenda again) and then had a great rice-and-curries dinner in the guesthouse next to ours.

Adam's Peak from Dalhousie

Our guesthouse

At 2am, after barely a shut eye, our alarm went off and we were up, clothed and off.

Adam's Peak is one of Sri Lanka's most religiously significant locations, and climbing it is a pilgrimage that tens of thousands of Sri Lanka's Buddhists make each year.

The reason for leaving base camp in the middle of the night is to reach the summit to watch the sunrise and, because the climb is so punishing at the best of times, it's not advisable in the burning heat of the day.

Adam's Peak is more than 7,300ft high and there are no gentle, winding paths to amble up. Instead you are confronted with more than 5,000 steps on the 3-4hr walk to the summit.

As Pulp once said: This Is Hardcore.

The first part of the climb took us through some Buddhist prayer sites and past several budding stallholders selling food and drink to the intrepid pilgrims.

Lottie and I maintained a relatively steady pace throughout, stopping every hour or so for a quick sugar hit, a drink and to rest the knees.

Both of us are fit and healthy, but it was the pressure on the knees that you can't legislate for. 5,000 steps is going to hurt.

As we got closer to the top the wind picked up. We'd wisely bought some cheap fleece hats and gloves in Dalhousie the previous evening. Good job we did as it was becoming very cold.

At about 5am we made our final stop before the summit, buying a roti off a smiling stallholder and enjoying the slightly surreal atmosphere of tourists and pilgrims huddling together 7,000ft up a mountain in the darkness.

Now I'd love to end this tale on a euphoric note with a summit experience to match Hillary's ascent of Everest, sun bathing our weary, cold faces as we reached the peak.

Unfortunately I can't.

At the top we were asked to remove our shoes for religious reasons. We then walked around the small building perched at the very top of the mountain, stepping through big puddles in our socks.

Nice cold and wet feet right there.

We then huddled under a rockface and waited - along with a couple of hundred others - for the sunrise to end all sunrises.

Unfortunately the sun never came.

Instead we got a blanket of cloud and fog. Visibility was about five metres, if that.

So we hung on for 30 minutes or so before cutting our loses and heading back the way we came. Gah.

Getting down was easier, obviously, but the toll on our knees continued. Towards the bottom the cloud finally cleared and we managed to get some decent views over the valleys.

We got back, showered, ate, checked out and booked a minibus back to Hatton.

From Hatton we got another meandering train across the hill country, this time to a small village called Ella.

We picked Ella due to its position at the heart of the tea-growing region and for what the guide books described as a chilled, laid-back place to kick back for a few days.

After getting slightly lost on our walk from the train station we eventually found our guest house. It was owned by a great guy called Nelson, an ex-army sergeant who now rented out three rooms of his house while he and his family lived in one room out the back.

Lottie and I walked back into the centre of the village on the first night and had a slightly disappointing meal in a westernised bar. Pizzas, wifi, tourists everywhere. Not exactly what we were after.

The next day was better. We walked to Little Adam's Peak, a 15 minute stroll from the guesthouse through the patchwork quilt of tea plantations.

On the way we passed women working in the tea fields, plucking the leaves by hand and putting them into huge sacks on their backs.

Unfortunately the weather beat us again, with more fog and wind at the top of the Peak giving us no visibility over the valleys below.

On the way down we took a detour to a boutique hotel called 98 Acres. It was luxury chalet accommodation built into the hillside, with a central restaurant and bar.

We stopped off for a drink and some food, again with fog surrounding us, before heading off.

That afternoon we continued our exploration of Ella's countryside with a walk down to the railway track that goes through the town.

We met some enthusiastic kids on the walk, including these three brothers who enjoyed practising their English on us:

As we followed the track away from Ella we came to a tunnel which Lottie inexplicably wanted to walk through. I pointed out that a) there would be bats and goodness-knows-what creepie crawlies hidden in the darkness and b) a train could come along at any minute and kill us instantly.

After that we decided to try walking up over the tunnel and re-join the track the other side, but quickly realised our mistake as small leeches latched onto our feet and ankles in the undergrowth. Ugh.

So we turned back and headed home, meeting our friendly brothers again along the way.

That night we ate at Nelson's. It was a great meal of - yep, you guessed it - rice and curries. We just couldn't get enough of Sri Lanka's staple dish.

We had one more full day in Ella and made full use of it.

In the morning we set off early, following a cracking Sri Lankan breakfast at Nelson's of egg hoppers, rotis, fruit, dahl and coffee.

It was a week of peaks, and after our disappointing summits of Adam's Peak and Little Adam's Peak we were determined to get a vantage point with a view.

Our third attempt was Ella Rock, a peak within walking distance of Ella village and an obvious way to spend a productive morning.

The walk there was great, taking us along railway tracks, across streams, through woods and forests, and then up a steep rock-strewn hillside.

At the top we came out of the woods into a clearing and then out onto a jutting summit with fantastic panoramic views:

Now that's what we were after.

In the afternoon we took a tuk-tuk to a local tea factory. We arrived late, so missed seeing the factory floor in full tea-making swing, but still enjoyed a tour of the buildings and a short tasting session at the end.

Ella was a perfect two-day diversion with enough to do to keep busy, but with a slow pace of life that suited us after our first few days on the island.

Next up we headed south, to the beach.