5th – 6th September

Sri Lankan Train Travel

I left the next morning at 5.30am to get to Colombo. One of the next saving graces Jon & Mini gave me was offering to keep my main backpack at theirs so I could just take a small one for the next week or so- fab idea. TIP: DO THIS WHEREVER POSSIBLE!! One do the most famous things to do in Sri Lanka is take the train up into tea country from Colombo. I did this in two parts, starting with the Colombo – Kandy leg. Janath is a local guy who works for Jon & Mini and he kindly took me to the station and helped me buy my ticket. Even at that time in the morning it was busy. I’d read 2nd class was the way to go as you could see more, but they had no tickets left, so Janath grabbed me a 1st class ticket. He took me in to wait at the platform with me. It was here we met Nina, my future travel companion for the next few days. Nina had no clue where she was going and asked us where the train was going from. As we realised we were going to the same place, we agreed to meet up at the other end, as as we were in different parts of the train.

First class was actually great! They had an observation car with big windows and I was lucky to get a seat right at the back to face out of the big windows at back of the train. Don’t get me wrong, first class does NOT mean luxury, but it was comfy and I had my own seat! With space! The journey was nice, but as we started ascending up into the hills, the views got more and more amazing! Sri Lanka is famous for it’s Ceylon tea and this route goes through miles & miles of tea plantations scattering the hills.

Kandy Culture

Arriving into Kandy I was desperate to pee and had my first experience (on the trip) peeing into the hole in the ground that are the station toilets.

TIPS: Always keep tissues and hand gel handy! No toilet paper or soap is common public toilets.

As I went through the barriers and heard Nina calling that she’d found the local guy I was meeting, Toga, a friend of Janath’s. Nina & I shared a ride in his tuk tuk, my first ride in the crazy bike-like 3 wheelers Asia is famous for. Nina has booked a hostel, but as I had a 2 bed guesthouse room booked she decided to join me. We left our stuff there and Toga took us on a crazy day of sightseeing! We had no idea what we wanted to do so we just went with the flow!

Kandy is a big city with lots of temples and big lake to one side. It’s pretty, but hectic with a mix of tourists and locals. We weren’t there in high season but this route is always touristy. In 1 day we; tried on sarees, visited a tea factory, out first Buddhist temple, the local university, monkeys, the Royal Botanical Gardens (bit more expensive but worth it – more bat viewing, roosting in the trees!), saw a cultural show (not my cup of tea but saw some local dance & traditions) and walked past the main temple of the tooth, by which time we just wanted to do food & chill! I chose Sri Lankan curry, as usual – I love spicy food so it’s perfect for me here!

(Ignore the shiny forehead!! It’s so hot & sweaty!)

We hit the hay for a later start at 9.30 the next day. We’d decided to do the much recommend hike up Pidurangula rock, the more famous is lions rock, or Sigaliya rock, but we wanted this in a view! Plus it Pidurangula was a cheaper option. I hadn’t realised it was 100km away 😒, so about 3 and a half hours later (with a couple of non-planned stops to change a tyre on the car & visit a spice garden) we reached the hike. Hot, sweaty, feeling a little nauseous we had to try and cover up to walk through the temple to get to the hike. We had dressed in shorts & straps tops so had to use towels and scarves and carry them all the way.

TIP: You need to cover your shoulders and knees & take your shoes off to go into temples.

We were told the hike was an hour and a half and I was flapping as I’d left my water in the car! It was over 30 degrees! But it was an easy 20 minute height / scramble. The views were absolutely amazing! A must do!!

We then made a quick decision to do the safari at Minneriya National Park to see all the eles! We saw hundreds! Plus water buffalo and lots of birds 🦅, I loved every second!

We had booked into a hostel for the second night and after a stupidly long & late journey back, we got dropped off…. at the wrong hostel. We walked up a steep hill to a dodgy area with growling dogs to find our hostel was a couple of km away! I rang Toga and he picked us up. Finally we arrived safe. We were starving only having eaten bananas, a bit of cake and crisps all day! The hostel manger was great and took us to the only restaurant open, unfortunately it was famous for its burgers rather than curry, so we grabbed a pizza and then went straight back to shower and bed!