Beautiful Sri Lanka

Rich and I arranged to meet some of our London friends in Sri Lanka and travel around together. Rich and I arrived late on Friday evening after taking the Emirates flight from Singapore. Due to the time difference we didn't arrive into Colombo until close to 3am and as the flight was only a short three and a half hours we barely got any sleep. The hotel taxi whisked us off and we arrived at our hotel Jetwing Sea Hotel in Negombo Beach 30 minutes later. We found our room and crashed out. The next morning we woke up slightly bleary eyed and made our way down to the restaurant for the buffet breakfast. The hotel was located on the beach and was modern and clean.
As soon as we had finished our breakfast we hopped back into a taxi

and went back to the airport to meet our friends Hugo and Ollie. We waited in the large waiting area and greeted them with big hugs. Once we had sorted ourselves out with money and water we went outside to find out driver. He was waiting patiently outside along with lots of other drivers. He whisked us off in our van and headed north towards Kandy.
We were told the best way to travel around Sri Lanka was by private car and although it was comfortable the roads were slow. We weaved our way through villages and towns and after a long 5 hours we made it to Habarana. We then had the challenge of finding our hotel which our friend Nimmons had found on Airbnb. After much deliberation our driver took us down a long dirt track filled with pot holes. As we drove further and further away from the main town we all felt a bit anxious as to where we were going. Even the driver didn't like the road and was amazed that we were staying somewhere so remote. After a bumpy 30 minutes we found ourselves at our lodging. The

GALKADAWALA FOREST LODGE was tucked away amongst the trees and felt a very long way away from civilisation. Our host Maurie welcomed us and showed us to our tree house. It was extremely basic but very cool at the same time. The rooms were completely open to nature and I was worried that a monkey or worse was going to find itself into our room. We congregated downstairs in the living room area and had a well deserved drink. Maurie joined us for dinner and told us all about how she started the jungle lodge. After a delicious dinner or lentils and rice we made our way upstairs to sleep under our mosquito nets. We had to wear earplugs to sleep as the birds and insects in the forest were so noisy.
The next morning after another delicious meal of buffalo curd and syrup our driver took us to explore the monuments of Polonnaruwa - the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. The town was littered with crumpling temples. The highlight was the three images of buddha carved into the side of a cliff with a giant reclining buddha. We also

visited a huge pagoda. We had to take off our shoes to walk around the pagoda. The stones were so hot that we could barely walk and I found myself hop skipping and jumping from shaded patch to shaded patch to make my way back to my shoes.

In the afternoon our driver took us to Minnariya national park to see the elephants. We jumped into the back of our jeep and headed off into the park.

- ? Sigiriya rock
Monday 21 st Sept – Tuesday 22 nd Sept
Clove Villa, Kandy
- Train ride from Kandy to Ella
Tuesday 22 nd Sept – Wednesday 23 rd Sept Ella
Misty Hills Ella Resort
Wednesday 23 rd Sept – Thursday 24 th Sept

Cinnamon Wild Yala Hotel:
2 x Jungle Chalets
- ? Rawana water falls
Thursday 24 th Sept – Friday 25 th Sept
Seven Turtles Resort: Tangalle, Sri Lanka
Friday 25 th Sept – Sunday 27 th Sept
Dunes Unawatuna Hotel