The Coast and The Hills

Do you like hot weather? Then Sri Lanka is your place. How about cool rainy weather? If you like that too, then Sri Lanka is always your place. 

After Jafna we explored the east coast of Sri Lanka with stops in Trincomalee, Batticola and Arugam Bay. We traveled from place to place by very hot local buses (often over 39 degrees Celsius), made more uncomfortable by Bollywood hits played at high volume. The beaches along the east have a somewhat desolate, uninhabited feel to them, and lack the shady trees of other beaches I've visited, but they were still beautiful in a rather stark way. In

French fries + waves = happy kids

Trincomalee we walked up to a high point with a Hindu temple and saw beautiful views. Just north of there the kids and Rob went snorkeling with sharks and saw many beautiful fish. I attempted to snorkel but had trouble seeing, and generally misunderstood the whole shark business. I thought we were supposed to flee if we saw sharks, but apparently we were SUPPOSED to see them. I found this very confusing. I also found it very stressful. Makaio as a

View from Trincomalee

kindergartener was obsessed with sharks and I read him countless books, mostly relating their various levels of danger, and there we were swimming with them. The kids and Rob didn't see it this way, and rated it our best adventure yet, until we we surfing. 


Our surfing lesson in Arugam Bay was organized through a pizza place that was memorable not only for the food but for the portrait of David Hasselhof (of Bay Watch fame) that a traveler had made for the owner. I was also moved by the stories told by the owner of the 2004 Tsunami that destroyed the town, as well as many other parts of Sri Lanka. The owner told us that after the storm Canadians were the first group to arrive with food and water and that he would always be thankful for that. Later I learned that our surfing instructor, who oddly to me at the time spoke with an Australian accent, had lost both his parents in the tsunami and had been raised by an Australian couple. Sri Lanka is full of these contradictory things: great beauty and heartbreaking stories. 

Dassa was the true surfing master, jumping up on his board with ease and coasting along the waves. The rest of us managed to stand with slightly less panache and perfected some amazing wipe-outs. Rob impressed us all by cannonballing off his board.

I love this pic because all four of us are in it, all watching to see Makaio pop up and ride the wave. 

Top of Ella Rock, Ella

The extreme heat made us excited to head to the interior of the country to the hills. It took us three harrowing bus rides to arrive at the hill station of Ella, but happily it was a comfortable 22 degrees. After the dryness of the east coast, the very lush and damp highlands were a pleasant change. We spent our days in the hills hiking through tea plantations to beautiful look outs. We also toured a tea factory, which was interesting, and hiked up to a place called Lipton's Seat, where Mr. Lipton (you know, of the tea) used to look out over his plantation. 

Tea plantation selfie

Nine Arches Bridge, near Ella. The little red dots are my boys in matching t-shirts.

The best person ever

We weren't the only people to find coastal Sri Lanka too hot and to head to the hills. Many of the hill stations were developed by the British and some even have a very British feel to them. Our last stop in the hills, Nuwara Eliya, had some lovely British-built buildings, including The Grand Hotel, a botanical garden called Victoria Park, and a museum about the British in Nuwara Eliya. As I have read a lot about the Victorians in India, this was of particular interest to me. As a treat Rob suggested we go to high tea at The Grand Hotel, which was a great change of place. Instead of rice and curry, we had small sandwiches and sweets. Tea was also accompanied by a traditional Sri Lankan dancing, although the dancers finished with some line dancing to Cotton-Eyed Joe- definitely my favourite part!   

The beautiful garden behind The Grand Hotel

Dassa wasn't too into the tea, but he liked the snacks!

There were a few aspects to our week in the hills that were less than ideal. We stayed in increasingly dismal and expensive guest houses, each one more musty and dusty than the next. Dassa was allergic to most of them (and refused to take anything for it) and spent each night snuffling and keeping us awake. (I tell you, Liebermans with their stomach issues and their allergies!) In one hotel the doorway was particularly low and Rob smacked his head every time he left the room. Since it rained frequently none of our laundry ever dried, and while this might not seem like a big deal, if you are obsessed with hand washing clothes the way I am, this was disconcerting. And lastly, all of our hikes had to be done before 10 am when mist took over the hills, and definitely before 1pm when torrential rain started to fall. This made for a lot of very early mornings, rushed breakfasts and early nights. So although we enjoyed the hills, it was with some exhaustion that we decided to spend our remaining time in Sri Lanka hanging out on the coast.

We've spent the last four days in Bentota, a lovely beach on the west coast of Sri Lanka. We've upgraded ourselves to a hotel (!) with a pool (!) across from the beach. This was a good place to be for the Sri Lankan new year since almost everything is closed for the holiday. On our way here we spent one night in Colombo and the city was so quiet we had cupcakes for breakfast because a cake shop was the only open restaurant we could find open. 

The beach in Bentota has some foreigners, but mostly there are Sri Lankan families enjoying the new year by jumping in the waves, picnicking and playing cricket in the grass. 

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Pool selfie with goggles AND sunglasses

In Bentota I had anticipated doing some day trips to a turtle hatchery or taking a river safari, but the kids don't want to leave the pool, not even to walk across the train tracks to the beach. This is fine with me. We've swam, done some yoga, walked on the beach and had a beer on our balcony every evening when it starts to pour around 5pm. This stay has also give us time to work out the details of our next adventure: we travel Friday to Jordan.