Driving Around Sri Lanka for a Week
A week spent in Sri Lanka felt more like a lifetime. There were so many amazing places to see and things to do. How could somebody possibly do all everything here in only one week? Well, hiring a driver to take you around the island was the way to go. I say island, but Sri Lanka is a BIG island. So, we changed hotels every single night to accommodate for the lack of time. This made for a real adventure.
Day one was basically just a travel day. When the plane landed, the driver picked us up and took us to our first hotel near Negombo. It was kind of late, so that meant dinner time. The restaurant was a place called King Coconut and I ate a pizza with all sorts of seafood toppings. It was surprisingly good. King Coconut was an open-air building directly beside the beach, so seeing the sunset while eating was pretty nice. Walking the streets in the evening was fun too because there were all sorts of little shops to look at. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and chilled out for the rest of the night. The next day was the real start of the adventure.
Day two was a bit of a drive, but not nearly as long as the days that would follow. The first stop was an old fish market. Fisherman go out very early in the morning to catch fresh fish to sell. Once they get them back to shore, the workers begin the drying process. They cut the fish in half and lay them out under the sun for a few hours and then cover them up. This process is repeated throughout the day. After several weeks when the fish are dry, they can then sell them. The amount of fish laying on the beach was astounding. Almost the entire beach was covered with them! One of the workers was telling us about a certain type of fish called the “sea chicken”. They are named this because their meat looks and tastes a lot like that of a chicken. This was interesting because I had ordered a chicken Subway sandwich earlier in the trip and it was DEFINITELY not really chicken. The meat was slimy and all around weird. So, I made the connection that the sandwich probably had the “sea chicken” instead of REAL chicken.
Right after the fish market, our driver (Mr. Dayal) took us to an elephant sanctuary. When we arrived, we chose a 30 minute tour, which included riding an elephant bare-back, feeding an elephant and washing one. This was EPIC! The coolest part was probably washing the elephant. An elephant would be laying in the river and it would just sit there and let you wash it. We used a coconut shell because they have thick skin, so it felt like a massage to them. Riding the elephant was fun. It had a sheet on its back and that was all. Nothing to hold you on – just a simple sheet. I had to get used to it at first, but I ended up enjoying it. Feeding fruit to this giant creature was great. To see it use its trunk to grab the melon from me was really interesting. We had an awesome time!
Next item on the list…climbing Sigiriya Rock. Twelve hundred steep, rocky stairs up and down. Even though it was a long hike, it was definitely worth it. As I saw the summit, I sprinted up the last 200 or so stairs because I was ready to see that gorgeous view. It was absolutely stunning! All the mountains, trees and vegetation came together to make for a lush, bright green landscape. There are just not enough words to describe it. After climbing that humongous rock, we were all BEAT, so we proceeded to our next hotel to check in for the night.
Day four was mainly driving. Our driver stopped us at a couple of places. The first stop was the Golden Temple of Dambulla. This temple was made up of five different caves. Each one was different. The paint on the walls of the older two caves was still bright and the pictures were still mostly visible. In contrast, the paint in the newer caves was fading quickly. This is because the chemicals in the newer paint is not as reliable as the older method of painting. Beautiful sculptures were throughout these caves. Some of which were incredibly big. Since the temple was up on a mountain, it is a mystery how the people got these sculptures up there before modern machinery existed. Later, we visited a couple more local sights and drive around Kandy, one of Sri Lanka’s bigger cities. It was SUPER crowded, but fun to walk around and look at. That evening, we went to see a traditional Sri Lankan dance show. Now, this was something else. The dancers were dressed in the most odd costumes and the music was mainly all drums. Don’t get me wrong, it was really cool, just somewhat odd. At the end of the show, there was also a fire eater which was enjoyable to watch.
Day five was another day of a lot of driving. We visited two tea farms and tried a few different types of tea. There were just hundreds of thousands of acres of TEA! It was everywhere you looked! Trying it was fun, but then I saw what these people have to go through to make it, so I felt a little guilty afterwards. The workers go through all those acres of tea all day every day and pick the ripe plants. Once they collect all of it, the tea goes through a factory process of separating, drying and sifting the leaves. Fun fact: all black and green tea come from the same type of plant. Soon after the tea education, we hiked down to a waterfall for a few minutes to stretch our legs.
Day six was a travel day. A five hour, scenic train ride took us across the island. When we arrived at our next city, we went to a park and walked around for a bit. Being right on a lake, there were all sorts of boats and water activities to do. Later, we got to our hotel. Since it was still daylight out, my parents and I went for a walk and got to wave and say hello to some of the locals. To finish off our day, we ate some ice cream from the hotel cafe.
Day seven was absolutely amazing! The first stop was anther waterfall. This one, however, was not such an easy hike. To get up close to it, there were a ton of rocks that you have to climb over. I eventually gave up and took off my flip flops because it was so slippery. There was one high rock right in front of the waterfall that made a stunning picture. The only thing was that it was about ten feet high and I am but 4 foot 9 inches tall. To get on top was a challenge, but I managed. The pictures were definitely worth the climb! Later, a Jeep took us through a wildlife park where the animals roamed free. Water buffalo, peacocks, elephants, monkeys, crocodiles, and deer were seen throughout the ride. The most unique wild animal that we saw was a leopard. We were one of the only people to see one that day because there are so few throughout the area. Luckily, we had our driver with us. He was the one that spotted it. This Jeep ride and safari was such a unique and wonderful experience!
Day eight was also great. We walked up a lighthouse to start the day. Next, we went on a boat ride through mangroves and drank a coconut. Don’t judge me, but I wanted Pizza Hut for lunch, so that is what we did. Shopping around the city and seeing local sights was fun too. By now, we were close to our driver. He was so kind as to offer us to come to his house for a little bit to meet his family. Mr. Dayal had a wife and two children. His wife prepared lots of different fruits for us to try and some cake (I always prefer the cake). We ate and talked about our lives. His daughter was so sweet, shy, but sweet. Sadly, we did not get to meet his son because of school. After meeting Mr. Dayal’s family, we went to a sea turtle sanctuary. We held newly hatched turtles and got to see a 130 year old turtle. Before we left, I got to release one of the young turtles into the sea which was an awesome experience.
Day nine was our last. It was only a half-day because our flight was that afternoon. We drove through through Sri Lanka’s biggest city; Colombo. throughout the city, there were unique local sights, such as an old mosque and military boats. On our way to the airport, Mr. Dayal took us to a spot where we could see a parade that was happening. There were fireworks, floats and children singing and dancing. The funny part is that we had no idea that this was happening until our driver stopped and asked if we wanted to see it.
Leaving Sri Lanka was definitely sad because we would miss Mr. Dayal and the beautiful weather on the island. On thing that I would not miss was all the driving – almost three hours a day! Switching hotels was also a bit hectic, but it allowed us to visit much of the country instead of one single place.
