In Arugam Bay we stayed for almost a week. We were ready to experience the cuisine, the yoga places and the nightlife. Sadly Sally got sick and she had a fever for the whole time we were there. So we couldn’t do much together. This didn’t stop me however. I went out every day surfing the waves of Arugam Bay. Only problem was that everyone had the same idea. The spot was crowded the whole day, even though it breaks on a shallow reef. Usually I tried to paddle in from the beginners spot. This takes about ten minutes, but it is the safest route. A few times I just went out as is. This has proven to be a mistake, because I cut my finger on the reef. I was lucky though compared to another surfer. He came back with 20 sea urchin spikes inside his foot. This made the 15 minute paddle not to bad.

When Sally was strong enough we opted for a walk on the beach and saw a massive dead turtle lying in the sand. This is something you don’t see in the western world that often. Once there is cadavar it is usually removed. In countries such as these it let’s you accept the harsh reality of life and death more easily. You come clean, that every living being only has a certain time on this planet.

I also went on a short surf safari to a more remote spot. The Tuk Tuk was driving through a lot of land. You would see the Sri Lankan highlands in the background. The rice fields were dried out and simply black. In Sri Lanka not only the surf season moves around the island. Also the dry and wet season follows the same pattern. It made me feel like being in Africa again. I was looking for a wild elephant. Sadly I didn’t see one. We were cruising from the road to a sand path. When we arrived at the surf spot I was a bit disappointed. Of course it was too crowded as well. The locals made it a business to bring surfers here. The second thing, that I disliked about this spot were the crocodiles, that could also swim in the ocean. I went back to surfing the main break in Arugam Bay. The beach was stunning nontheless!

It was time to leave again. I was fed up with the crowds. The locals were just dropping in on you and didn’t care about any rules. I was looking forward to a nice line-up, which I found earlier in Weligama. Even it was not season yet the waves were looking promising. We packed our things and off we went.

Sally also was feeling better again and it was time to leave our cheap accommodation, where we slept on a small mattress with a wooden floor to go back to the south. Once arrived we got back into our South-East-Asian routine. Renting a scooter, going surfing and exploring the area. The difference was absolutely clear. Unlike the east coast, where everything was dry at the moment, here the rivers were filled to the brink. It also rained, when we arrived. That didn’t stop us from. As expected the line up was not filled and I had a few waves to myself. I always prefer the less good wave with fewer than a horde of egos arguing over a wave. It also paid off as we found one of the most gorgeous beaches of Sri Lanka!

Once the sun came back out, we wished that the rain would come back as it suddenly was so hot. It felt like your skin would burn instantly. The waves were still fun and manageable. On one particular spot I just watched one person surf. I didn’t go out though, because there were some heavy sets coming in. The wave also broke over shallow rocks and I could the channels working hard. I gladly passed that opportunity and went surfing somewhere else that day!

Soon enough our time was running out and before we left the country we wanted to experience an luxurious hotel for the first time. We hopped onto the train and went to Colombo. Unfortunately the train had an engine failure and we were stuck at a stop for hours. If this doesn’t make me homesick I don’t know what will… (Anyone outside of Germany reading this, it is the same in Germany with our trains. In Colombo we didn’t do anything special except enjoying the hotel. We walked around a bit and took a few cool photos.

Then it was already time to hop onto the plane again for the next adventure.

Thank you for reading. Cheers!

We all squeezed into his Tuk Tuk, because our host wanted to take us around to the local rice fields and a stunning lake. He explains that the rice fields must be protected. Otherwise the wild elephants would come and eat the rice plant. The whole premise has a small fence around it with a few empty cans. The cans make a sound when someone touches the fence. They also have a treehouse like lookout for a person. Once an elephant is heard or seen some fire crackers are shot to scare the elephant away. Some people have to abandon their families and have to live in the hut for month until the rice is ripe.

In the area of Sigiriya there are two rocks. The Lions rock, where an ancient side is found and the Pidurangala rock. Both are popular tourist attractions to watch the sunrise from. We saw the rocks from the lake already and were already planning our sunrise tour. Some locals took bath in the lake we were at. A particular one is a monk bathing in the lake talking on the phone. One of my favorite pictures I took so far!

The next morning we wanted to watch the sunrise. We chose not to see the ruins and went onto the Pidurangala instead. The decision was easy… The lions rock costs about 30€ to enter, while the Pidurangala only costs 1.50€. We got up at 4:30 and made our way there. We had to take a Tuk Tuk, because it can get pretty dangerous to walk here at night, the reason being the wildlife. This was for a good reason, because we spotted a crocodile a few days later. We made our way up and watched the sunrise. After the sunrise you could see the vast jungle wet lands that we were surrounded by. A flat jungle looks so different to a mountainous jungle! A flat jungle always looks like moss from above, in my opinion. Watching a vast landscape full of life always makes me happy. You see so much vibrant colors and so much untouched land. It makes you feel small

After that we went back by foot to our accommodation. On the way back a few street dogs trotted along with us on the dirt road. We also spotted a small ancient side and a temple, where a Buddha was sitting inside of a curled cobra. It already was hot when came back to the accommodation. We took a small shower and had some breakfast and noticed, that it was still only 7 a.m. There is an indescribable feeling, when you wake up this early to go hiking… Something I thought I would never say!

During the day we checked out a very popular temple, the Dambulla Cave temple. This temple is more than 2000 years old. There are about 150 Buddha statues inside the six caves. The cave has some interesting history, of kings hiding inside as well as religious significance. The whole cave covered in murals and paintings.

From Sigiriya we went to Kandy for the Esala Perahera. This is a spiritual festival towards the tooth relic. Every driver and every person recommended us to go this festival. On the way we tried a proper Durian with our driver. If you don’t know Durian it is basically known as the stinky fruit. The stinky fruit smells a bit like 5 day old trash. Some even say it smells like gym socks or vomit. The taste is a delicacy among South-East Asians. For me it tasted like whipped cream, in combination with garlic and custard. To be honest I actually liked the taste a lot. I even regret, that I didn’t try it sooner or ate more of them.

When we got to Kandy the whole city was already in chaos mode. People were sitting at the sidewalk in the morning to watch the march in the evening. Cars going everywhere. The usual South-East-Asian chaos, just more intense. The walkway was blocked, so everyone was walking on the busy street, which made it even more chaotic than usual.

One evening we wanted to watch the parade of the Esala Perahera. This festival honors an elephants tooth relic. It is believed, that Buddha was cremated in this part. Today it is a symbol for Buddhism in Sri Lanka. To honor the tooth a parade is happening every evening for ten days in August. The parade consisted of humans with drums, a lot of fire and elephants marching down in costumes. We didn’t like the fact, that elephants were marching there in facemask leds on it. It was way too loud for the elephants, as well as too crowded and too bright. For the locals it is the place to be. It get’s so crazy, that people sleep in the streets in the rain to save a spot for the evening.

Otherwise Kandy is surrounded by a beautiful lake and some mountains. We explored a few things. For instance the woodworking of the locals as well as a few temples. We visited one temple. It was not a particular special temple. However we met a lovely monk that even knew our hometown as he was a member of a club close to our hometown. This is so unusual, because no one knows our hometown! He told us his story how his passport and baggage got stolen in the German train. I found his story quite amusing. I got a lot of reactions of people from home, who questioned my choices of countries I visited. The stigmatization is always the same of a country being ‘unsafe’. This is the prime example, that good people and bad people exist in every country. I almost only good people as they are the vast majority!

Gladly we exchanged numbers. We also checked out the botanical garden in Kandy. It started to rain a lot though, which led to this nice picture.

We enjoyed our time and suddenly it was already time to say goodbye to Marvin. He was leaving back to Germany and we were staying a bit longer in Sri Lanka. We enjoyed our last evening with some beer. This beer got served in a mug. This confused the hell out of us. We later found out, that serving alcohol was prohibited on certain public holidays. This was the answer from the bar to this problem.

Thanks for reading. Cheers!

Many people come here to watch a spectacular sunrise and we planned to do the same. Everyone starts the pilgrimage to the Little Adams Peak early in the morning. The alarm was ringing at 4:30 a.m. and we woke up in agony and got ready. We were walking through the night guided by the stars. It was nice and quiet until a thousand Tuk Tuks were racing through the night so some tourists had to walk a little bit less. The Tuk Tuks even drove past on a small dirt road, right to the entrance. We walked instead and a lot of other people were walking, too. We were a bit annoyed by all the tourists, but in the end we came to the realization, that we were part of the problem so we let the thought go and tried to enjoy the sunrise. We also found a quiet spot to enjoy the sunrise with only a few people.

After this sunrise we went back down slowly through the tea plantation until we spotted something weird. A Sri Lankan person was sitting on the road with a weird container. He started to play the flute and a cobra was dancing to it. We only noticed after we walked past, because we were still a bit tired. When the realization kicked in we jumped a few steps away from it. The Sri Lankan laughed and the cobra hissed and tried to attack the Sri Lankan. Without any words we walked past it. What a weird morning experience… Another famous tourist attraction is the Nine Arch bridge. This bridge was constructed in 1921 by the British to export more tea. Construction was stopped soon after, because the steel was needed in the European war during that time and was later finished. Today many people come to watch the architecture. You can also walk on the tracks as there are only a few trains coming. We were watching the turmoil from above as a local shop owner approached us. He told us, that the morning train was late and we were in luck, because the train would soon arrive. We agreed on some coffee and tea and sat down at his place. We were waiting for the train to arrive as we sipped on our refreshing morning drinks. The said train never came. We have a feeling that the local is telling this story often to gain a few customers. It worked this time. I’m not complaining, though, the view was stunning nonetheless and we were the only ones up here!

We went down to walk on the tracks ourselves. We took some more pictures and crossed the bridge. Here we saw a shelter for protection against bees. Apparently there are massive bee hives under the bridge. These seem to attack everyone once they get threatened, which happens quite often. A lot of tourists fly drones to get a nice shot of the bridge. When they come to close to the hives the bees feel threatened and attack everyone. Luckily we didn’t experience this. We also saw the timetable on the other side of the bridge and decided to wait a bit more, because the next train would arrive soon. Low and behold the train actually arrived and it was the most unspectacular thing ever. I don’t know what we expected, but it literally was just a train passing through…

We wanted to check out a temple in the mountains close to Ella. For this we chartered a Tuk tuk and bargained the price again. The Tuk Tuk driver raced through the mountains. We were cruising left and right and up and down until we only went up. The road turned into a dirt road with a lot of pot holes. We were surprised just how durable and how off road a Tuk Tuk can be. Thirty minutes later we arrived at the peak. Just in time for the sunset. The vast green mountains turned into shades of blue and then finally in different kinds of grey. Mist was creeping up the mountain, which was creating a mythical experience, while the sky turned orange. We heard chanting from the temple. A few monks hurried to the ceremony. It didn’t even stop the monks, that the temple was still under construction. Sally and I were used to the Buddhist temples of Thailand, which are one of the most beautiful of all times. In this temple you could see that it is going to be beautiful in the future, since this one was unfinished. For Marvin it must have been an amazing experience. We listened to the chanting for half an hour and the sun was completely gone. It was time to head back to Ella.

We left this unfinished, but still amazing place, with no doubt in our minds. This temple will shine in the future! On our way back we encountered a wild bore. Our heart stopped a bit as these creatures can be quite aggressive. The Tuk Tuk driver took our shock as curiosity and plainly stopped. Luckily the bore was not bothered to much and just went back into the bushes.

From Ella we took the train to Nuwara Eliya. This train is one of the most famous in Sri Lanka. It cruises through the highlands along of waterfalls and tea plantations. Basically the whole ride there is a lot to see. This time we made sure to enter the right wagon. The train was also on time! We bought a chai on board enjoyed the open doors.

When we arrived in Nuwara Elyia we were struck by the climate. This is the highest town of Sri Lanka and it was cold. At least compared to the rest, which would be best described as scorching hot. Nuwara Eliya seems to be the favorite amongst Sri Lankans as well, for the same reason. Everyone we asked said this was his favorite place.

Marvin didn’t feel good this day so Sally and I went out alone. We took a short walk to the nearest park to find some absolute insanity. Apparently the locals have a week off and they all came here to enjoy the place. We find Jet skis and boats on the small lake cruising around like maniacs. The park is full of people, getting snacks and everything. We spotted some colorful busses, as we walked passed the park. I wanted to take some nice pictures so we came closer. We started to hear music blasting and our curiosity was evoked.

I took a few pictures with the camera and we were spotted by the locals soon enough. When they saw our camera they all wanted pictures taken. We started another commotion. After a while they were also taking pictures with us and their own phone camera again. This reminded me a bit of Sumatra. At some point they just dragged us into the crowd. We danced with them happy as ever. We love these random situations. Especially if the locals are so interested in strangers. We danced a bit in the dust of the parking lot and then went back to the accommodation.

We also visited a tea factory, which to our surprise was completely held in German. The sweet lady tried her best with the pronunciation. We will never forget how she pronounced all those words. The tea process is quite simple. The black tea is dried for one day, the green tea for two weeks and the white tea for a whole month. They also only use the tips for the white tea, which makes it the most exquisite, but also the most expensive.

Thanks for reading and until next time!

We landed in Kuala Lumpur, knowing exactly where we had to go. We had been to Kuala Lumpur two times prior to this visit. Their immigration is pretty easy for our passport. You basically just have to show up… We went for some amazing food, found a supermarket and went back into the airport to take the second flight. This was one was no first class and we were crammed back in. When we landed we were exhausted, but greeted by a really friendly Sri Lankan host. He picked us up from the airport, gave us a drink and some food all without ever charging us for it. The next day he brought us back to the airport to pick up Marvin, a friend of mine and my former and future roommate. We were sitting down and we were waiting with all the other taxi drivers for Marvin to arrive.

After a few hugs and some chats on what was going on, the three of us went straight down to Colombo. This was a two hour drive and the traffic was crazy, however it was nothing particularly remarkable for Sally and me. The traffic was crazy in Latin America and in Southeast Asia, too. In the end you get used to it pretty fast. One hour in the the car driver suddenly had to stop hard for a pedestrian to cross the street. A few seconds later we hear a loud smack in the back. I saw a motorbike and two people flying by the right side. We were all in shock and didn’t really know how to react. In these moments you first question if you really saw this. Luckily some locals acted quickly and helped them up. Luckily they were both still alive and at least well enough to get up. One of them was bleeding on the fingers and the other one was hurt at the arm. The driver was in shock as well, but he told us to get a different driver. We all felt quite helpless in this situation and we didn’t know how to help. In the end you can’t really help so we pushed on, hoping these people would get the right treatment. The first accommodation felt a bit weird and it only felt partially safe to walk around in the neighborhood. A sign for such neighborhoods are the houses. A few indications give you a good idea. You better watch out in a neighborhood, if everything is fenced in and even has glass shards on top of the wall or some barbed wire. Of course we also got scammed by a beggar in a restaurant. You can’t really care about this, though, because for us it is a few Euros, but for them it might feed them another day. So may this money bring him happiness.

From here we wanted to take the train to Unawatuna. This is a small town in the south of Sri Lanka. We waited at the closest train station to hop on. Of course the train is two hours late. We kill the time by playing cards, talking about what happened in each others lives and comparing the delay to the Deutschebahn, the German railway system, which is also always late. A few trains passed, but these were not the rights ones. However we were not ready, when the right train actually arrived. After asking a few people we knew this was the one we had to hop on. The train was already rolling out of the station as we hopped into a random wagon. This resulted in ending up in the third class. Let me explain why this is a problem. The third class is the cheapest and every local is using it. This can get pretty crowded. By pretty crowded I mean people hanging on the outside of the train. The second class works with seat reservation and is almost never busy at all. The first class has air conditioning, but I don’t know how it looks from the inside. At the counters they usually sell second class tickets to foreigners. Foreigners are always seen wealthy in this country, so they are not really welcome in third class and are expected to pay the higher price. At the next stop we gladly changed to second class.

Second or third class we got there one way or another and finally in Unawatuna the vibe is completely different. No barbed wires, no glass shards and no fences. Instead a colorful street with a few restaurants and beautiful beach. It is finally time to relax again. The weather is more humid and more hot than in Indonesia. We were sweating all the time, as we were acclimatizing. It also was particularly fun to watch Marvin’s reaction on some of the things Sally and I had already been used to, like bargaining, burning trash and street dogs. Nonetheless it was fun to explore new things together, too, like the famous Sri Lankan cuisine, behavior of the people and the wild animals.

The majority of people are Buddhist in Sri Lanka. This means they commonly receive gifts from other Buddhist countries quite often. In this area they received a small pagoda from the Japanese Buddhist community. This is supposed to be a beautiful place and we decided to take a short hike to said place. While hiking there we also found a small other part we happily explored.

I also tried to go surfing in the early mornings. However it was not swell season in the south and I only embarked into absolutely chaotic waves… After a while I gave up and got back to the accommodation. We decided to check out Galle, which is a colonial city close to Unawatuna. This city was once occupied by the Portuguese, then by the Dutch and later by the British. This makes it already an interesting place. Yet the most interesting fact though is, that this place was already a harbor, even before the European occupation. The port did exist long ago and traded with the Persians, the Greek, the Arabs, the Chinese and many other cultures. This mix of culture is still visible to this day. A Buddhist pagoda is almost next to a Christian church and in the same quarter as a beautiful mosque. The houses have a Mediterranean look and feel. This makes the place a cultural gem in Sri Lanka, where many tourists visit.

From here we got into contact with Cosmic Woody. He operates a small restaurant and accommodation in the middle of nowhere. Before he picked us up, we checked out the turtle beach. Here we saw at least 15 turtles peaking their heads out of the water. Cosmic Woody lives as close to the teachings of the Buddha as it can get. This guy has lived his life being vegan, hurting as little animals as he can. He had some great insights and he was happy to share. We spend two nights here, which honestly felt more like an eternity. The place was very beautiful, though and surrounded by only nature and it was the two days I didn’t consume any sugar.

He had hammocks everywhere and soon everyone took a nap. We also did a cooking class with his wife. We learnt how to create a curry spice mix and how to make coconut milk and several curries. She also cooked a lot for us, which of course was also vegan, but nonetheless very tasty every time. The last evening we went to the Bay of Weligama. I saw some decent waves grabbed a board and had a decent surf session. The afternoon light was painting the ocean and the sky in an orange color. The beach was glimmering and the few locals and tourists were enjoying the time of the day. We went for an evening swim and headed back to the cottage. What an amazing day!

Thanks for reading and until next time. Cheers!