And here we are, after many “twists and turns” and a good month of delay, here are finally the articles on our stay in Sri Lanka, sorry for those who were waiting for them. As I had mentioned before, it was not a destination on my priority list, but as the primary goal of this trip was for me to return to France, Sri Lanka happened to be on the route…
So Jitima, who was also due to come to France, suggested stopping off on the way to this pearl of the Indian Ocean as it is affectionately called (because of its shape, like a tear which according to legend would be a tear of a goddess or a pearl from a necklace of Lackmi, wife of Vishnu).
12-day tour to see the essentials
So here we are, off on a 12-day tour of the Isle of Jewels, the Resplendent Isle or the Spice Isle, which are also nicknames given to this small piece of land separated from theIndia of only 31 km by the Palk Strait (country also planned to visit but on the way back!). Starting from Columbo Our stay will take us from Galle to Anuradhapura but in chronological order passing through Ella, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Dambulla, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and we made a detour to Sigiriya before leaving for Colombo.
The adventure begins!
In 12 days, I would say that we were able to see almost the essentials, from the beaches in the south, the tea plantations in the mountains and the ancient cities of the kingdom of Sri Lanka further north. My only regret is not having been able to visit the Udawalawe National Park, a nature reserve that has nothing to envy from African safaris, due to lack of time but also means (I remind you that for this trip, I made myself a combo Bangkok-Colombo-Dubai-Paris-Amsterdam-Calcutta-Bangkok).
Colombo-Galle, which bus should I take?
We had decided to do the journey in one go from Bangkok to Galle, towards the southern tip of Sri Lanka. Having barely arrived at theColombo Airport I took the time to get a local sim card to have internet on the phone (count 1300 R or 7 €) before taking a taxi to go to the bus station, taxi which is relatively expensive since it was. The information was a little confusing and we opted to go to the station near Colombo Fort (Bastian Mawatha) Yes, because there are several bus stations... We also hesitated to take the train.
No time to rest, imminent departure by bus for Galle! My bag is carried by a guy who introduces himself to us, right out of the taxi, 200 rupees if like me, you are a little lazy.
If we could find a bus to go to Galle for Bastian Mawatha It was a local bus as we were looking to catch the new buses that run on the equally new expressway that connects Colombo to Galle in just 1h30, to do this, it is at the station Maharagama, further south of the city that you need to go to. The bus cost us 750 rupees for the 2 of us.
A small bottle of water before leaving!
In our case, it took us no less than 3h30! Besides the fact that we wanted to arrive as early as possible to see as much as possible upon arrival and to rest from the trip from Bangkok, I had an urgent need like I've never had before, and believe me, holding it in for more than 3 hours when it's really really urgent... it's a nightmare! I was on the verge of peeing in a bottle or throwing myself off the bus during a stop when a train was passing... But given how anxious they are to wait... I preferred to abstain.
And off we go for another 4 hours of travel.
The road runs along the seafront for a good part of the journey.
Driving in Sri Lanka, a style apart!
Oh, you don't have to be afraid of that... driving in thailand in comparison is almost "European"... No discipline and the kings of the mushroom, that's how we can sum up the driving style, overtaking everything that hangs on the side or even overtaking when another vehicle is coming the other way, stopping at the last minute to pick up passengers on the way and yet, it still took more than 3 hours... Knowing that there are only 120 km... That's to say the many stops and in the end, the average speed is not high...
At this point, my urge becomes extreme; it's a real nightmare and we're not there yet...
Arrived in Galle, phew!
So we arrived at the end of the afternoon, knowing that we were not staying on Galle same but on the side of Unawatuna au Sam's Guest House on Matara Road. Knowing that the tuk tuk that we took when we arrived at Galle Bus Terminal a bit of a struggle to find the hotel, which we hadn't booked but had just spotted in the guide, it's a family hotel which is quite nice but remains basic. Once we had paid the 400 rupees for this journey (6km) we had just enough time to put down our bags and look for a restaurant for our first dinner at Sri Lanka.
The least we can say is that it was very quiet (even at the hotel there didn't seem to be many people there, we came across a few locals but no foreigners), anyway, welcome to Sri Lanka !
