We left the comfort of the Heritance Ahungalla just two days ago, but it kind of feels like a week. We checked out of the hotel, and told the staff we wanted to take a bus to our next destination. They couldn't believe it, and tried to convince us to take the hotel taxi, but we stuck to our guns and walked out the long driveway, out of the gates, and across the street to the bus stop. As soon as we left the grounds, we were offered tuk-tuk rides by drivers who also couldn't believe we wanted to ride the bus. Eventually, one of them wore us down, and we took a ride with a tuk-tuk driver and his 10 year old son down the coast to Galle. On the way, the driver filled us in on some of the local sites, including the effects of the tsunami. We saw the area's tsunami memorial, commemorating the people who died in the local area and in a train that was derailed by the wave. We made it to Galle with surprisingly little traffic or hassle, and said goodbye to our driver, who invited us for dinner at his house if we returned to the area.
In Galle, we dropped our bags at the train station and bought tickets for later in the trip. Then we walked through the fort area, which is a peninsula surrounded by stone walls that block the breeze. We sweated our way through the streets, then climbed the walls for a view of the ocean and a wonderful breeze that changed our outlook on things. Had lunch at a little boutique restaurant, where I ate the most complicated salad I've ever seen.
Then we picked up our bags, headed across the street to the bus station, and, after some helpful advice from the locals, boarded the 2:35 bus for Deniyaya.
The bus started off pretty full, but we had seats to ourselves and were pretty comfortable. The bus stopped every couple of minutes to let people on or off, and the ticket agent, displaying impressive memory, walked through collecting fares from new people. His skills continued to amaze me for the entire trip, as by the end people were packed into the aisles and he had to slither his way through, remembering who he'd already collected from. The countryside grew increasingly hilly, covered with tea plantations and jungle, and the road got more and more sketchy, getting more narrow as the frequency of twists and turns increased.
We made it to the last stop, squeezed our bags out the door, and found a ride to the Deniyaya National Motel. We checked in at the bakery/office and took a look at the room, which was described on various websites as a "two story bungalow".
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| Bungalow in the jungle-o |
This turned out to be a mud hut, complemented with metal and plastic sheeting, probably about two meters in diameter. On the first floor was the bathroom and a couple of chairs; somehow, they managed to put a second story on the thing, and that was where the bed (built for short people who don't move at all when they sleep) was. Amenities: electricity, running water, and Sanjit the 5-inch spider to watch over you as you sleep.
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| Sanjit, and his creepy, glowing eyes (not a photography trick!) |
Entertainment: 9PM amplified chanting from the buddhist temple across the field.
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| Nothing to see here, but play it on repeat at full volume for a really great night's sleep. |
Don't get me wrong here, the whole thing this "hotel" has got going on is cute, very rustic, and probably an amazing experience for a (short) backpacker in his 20s. The staff were all really cool and helpful, and they had pretty good rice and curry. We struggled through the night, not getting much sleep, had breakfast, and headed out for a hike through Sinharaja Rain Forest, which is a Unesco World Heritage site. We spent about 5 hours walking through the forest with a great local guide, battling the leaches and coming to understand why they call it a "rain" forest (we got very wet). We saw a giant squirrel (apparently the national animal of Sri Lanka), some monkeys, tons of lizards, many spiders and insects, a green vine snake (which I got to hold), and some impressively ancient trees. Overall a pretty great experience that we probably would have enjoyed more with a better night's sleep.
Somewhere in there, we had decided that we really didn't want to spend another night in this place, so we worked out a 4-hour tuk-tuk ride to our next stop, Kataragama. The manager of the "hotel" was our driver, and a really nice guy, so it was a good end to that short episode of our stay.
I'm sitting in our new place in Kataragama as I write this, and there's more weirdness here that I'll share in the next installation.
Missed this one earlier. Very cool. Sounds a bit like being an MCC rep in Congo.
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