Sri Lanka
Galle
From November 17th to November 20th
Day 1
We flew from New Delhi and bought up some Dominos pizza at the airport before leaving. Comfort!
Landed from New Delhi at 10pm and had a 1.5 hour drive ahead of us to reach our hotel Amangalla. Because we got in so late, we went straight to sleep.
Day 2
In the morning at the hotel we were so pleasantly surprised by a beautiful hotel and incredible weather.
We started our day off with breakfast in the hotel restaurant
We toured around the hotel and got a lay of the land. The pool was beautiful.
We popped into the church right next to our hotel
Just down the street there was a nautical museum that we passed through. It shared some information on what the local ethnic people may have looked like and how they may have lived, worked and how they may have navigated on boat. We walked along to the perimeter of the area and enjoyed views of the ocean and the small lighthouse. There were locals playing in the water (it was a hot day).
While walking along the main streets we noticed a lot of shops selling gemstones. Seems that Sri Lanka might be rich in precious stones.
It’s really a beautiful part of the city, walking along the city walls built hundreds of years ago. It was blazing hot but we did get to watch some local kids playing cricket on the field just inside the city walls.
Later that day we took a tour out with a guide and were taken to a turtle refuge. It was there that we saw an albino turtle, and baby turtles. Further on our tour we stopped at a Cinnamon plantation and got a hands on tutorial on how cinnamon is cultivated and made. We were greeted with a cinnamon drink upon arriving, took a mini walking tour through their cinnamon fields, then sat alongside the farmer to strip the cinnamon bark from the tree and then set it out to be dried.
We then went to a Tea plantation and got a tutorial on how tea is made. Specifically the Virgin White Tea (ancient Chinese ritual) was the highlight. The mandarins employed virgins to cut the tea leaf with golden scissors into a golden bowl. Only the emperor’s lips touched the tea. The tea factory was 145 years old and its a working living museum. After the tea tour, we went into the shop and tried a number of teas - specifically re-trying the white tea :)
The last stop of the day was to a buddhist temple nearby where we made a mini offering. There were young mischievous monks running around, and a few were watching us with watchful eyes. They were otherwise suppose to be cleaning up the area, cleaning the leaves up and doing general landscaping maintenance. We then lit some candles and went off into the temple area where we received blessings from a young monk. The tiles in the temple were so colorful and ornate.
We passed by the fish market on the way home, but didn’t get a chance to stop. Just before dinner we heard a bunch of noise outside the hotel. Turns out there was a kind of buddhist celebration happening and there were hundreds of locals in the street wearing traditional clothing, while making music, singing, and dancing. We raced outside to see and join in. The outfits were colorful and amazing. It seemed the whole town was involved.
We had a nice dinner at the hotel, then took an evening stroll around the town.
Day 3
It was a rainy morning which was a bit unsettling because we were supposed to have a helicopter ride that day to Sigiriya. After a bit of back and forth, we did end up taking the helicopter ride and after 45 minutes, passing a few incredible waterfalls and massive buddha statues carved into the mountains, we landed in a cricket field full of kids playing the game. Everyone scurried out of the way so we could land and it was quite the spectacle. We got off the chopper and drove the rest of the way to Sigiriya.
The hike to the top might take somebody 45 minutes, but, no surprise, we raced our way to the top and made it within 15 minutes. Peopole were scared of heights, taking pictures everywhere, monkeys were crawling everywhere, stealing people’s food, a little boy ended up tripping and getting hurt so we gave him our packed lunches to cheer him up.
We made our way back to the chopper and headed back in the direction to the hotel. We passed many buddhist temples along the way. We got to do a fly around the Galle area before landing at another field nearby. Upon landing, the field security “guard” handed Hailey 5 sea shells to keep as a memento for our trip. The kids playing in the field prior to landing ran over to the helicopter to take a look inside.
Later we had massages, ate dinner, Hailey went to buy some precious stones from a local shop, and called it a night.
Day 4
We were off to the Maldives