After our exertions the previous evening at the cocktail bar we just about managed to get up to book out before midday! We went down to the foyer ready to book out. I ordered a pot of tea and then we booked out. The paying of the bill proved to be traumatic. They had  no records of any bills we had accumulated (a bar bill of 1 lion and 1 lemonade, a bottle of water from the room and the pot of tea we had just had). However, after I listed it out to the staff they seemed happy with it and prepared the bill.

 

When we got to the car we found the car had been washed! We loaded up the boot and then went for a wander to look around the souvenir shops. We were looking for a wooden elephant to take back to the UK as a permanent souvenir of our time in Sri Lanka. Eventually we stumbled into Sharmalee Perera's shop where Helen spotted a small version of the elephant we wanted. Sharmalee said she had a larger version at her workshop and would take us there if we wanted. We agreed and returned to the car park to fetch the car as her workshop was a short drive away.

 

It only took 10 minutes or so to reach the workshop (which was adjacent to Sharmalee's home). The elephant she showed us was not quite finished but was exactly what we were after so we agreed on the spot to purchase it for 15,000/-. She said it would be ready be Thursday and so I agreed to pick it up from the shop on Thursday evening. We dropped Sharmalee back at her shop and then headed off to Colombo.

  We had arranged a wake up call for 08:30 but were up well before then. It had not been a particularly good nights sleep. The hotel room was quite noisy .For some reason what sounded like crows woke me up several times in the night. They had made a tremendous racket around sunset the previous evening but had quietened down soon after. Although I had gone outside to try and locate the noise as the sun went down I had been unable to spot the source from the hotel grounds and so I guessed crows to be the most likely source.

  Breakfast was a huge disappointment. I was looking forward to a good curry for breakfast but the waiter asked only what type of eggs we wanted. I asked for scrambled egg but without and enthusiasm and the plate turned up with a heap of scrambled egg and some bacon. I picked at it but couldn’t really summon up any appetite for something as bland as this so I left it. I asked for tea to accompany the meal and for some reason the waiter poured tea from the pot and then topped it up with water so the tea was rather weak. It was a shame that this should blemish such a wonderful stay at the hotel. I did mention the poor breakfast to the manager who was at reception when we checked out and he seemed surprised we hadn’t been offered the choice of having a Sri Lankan breakfast.

  We set off from the hotel at 10:00, immediately taking a wrong turn but quickly getting back on track. The scenery was once again magnificent, the main road to Colombo (just under 200km away) winding up through tea plantations. We noticed some large nests in the trees overhanging the road, presumably either bees or wasps. There were few vehicles on the road and initially we made reasonable time.

  Although the scenery had generally been magnificent throughout the hill country nothing prepared us for the road from Haputale to Beragala. This was the most incredible driving experience I have ever had. As you come out of Haputale it looks just as if you are going to drive out into thin air as the road takes a sharp right. We pulled up for 10 minutes and just took in the view. Maybe World’s End is more impressive but as it was extremely cloudy when we visited 18 months ago I couldn’t say. The view from Haputale over the plains beneath defies description. I would guess the drop is around 3000’ and although not sheer it is extremely steep. You seem to look out for miles and miles, over the plains below and over the foothills too. No clouds blocked our view and is was incredible. I have to admit the drive from Haputale to Beragala bordered on the terrifying. I am extremely uneasy of heights and although we had, over the last few days, driven on roads with huge drops of 100s of feet there was always a hill on the other side of the valley. I find it a completely different experience driving on a road cut into a hill side with a 3000ish foot drop to my left (with no barrier at all at the side of the road) and nothing between me and the sea probably 100km away and a 2000ish rise to my right. I literally drove down at 20kmph practically stopping when we met another vehicle so I could edge as far over to the left as I dared. Fortunately there were few vehicles on the road but I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we left the sheer drop behind. Not that I would have missed it for the world. This was one of the most memorable experiences I have had yet in Sri Lanka.

  Ratnapura was an experience as the standard of driving in this town seemed particularly poor. It also started raining so we didn’t stop. Once the rain stopped some miles passed Ratnapura we stopped off at a roadside restaurant and had a traditional Sri Lankan buffet. It was a bit like sitting in a goldfish bowl as all the locals seemed to be staring at us as we ate.

  One incident of note on the way back was that we got caught up in a queue of traffic and the cause of the queue was a snake in the road. It must have been a good 6’+ long and was sitting in the road in front of a lorry coming the other way. It was most definitely alive.

  We arrived back at the apartment around 16:00.

We had arranged breakfast an hour earlier than usual, at 09:00, so we could get on our way by 10:00. We both went for the now established breakfast of string hoppers and curry, chicken and potato today, along with sambol. After breakfast we packed our bags, paid the bill which came to just under 12,500 /= for 3 nights B&B, two evening meals and two evenings worth of beers. For me this was excellent value for money.

  By 10:00 we were on our way and we re-traced the route to we had taken the day before to the Haggola Gardens, calling in at an excellent little Hindu temple, situated on the left hand side, just before the gardens. The road to Badulla was actually a lot better than I had been expecting. There were precious few pot holes and although the tarmac did break up on occasion the road surface was much better than the other roads around Nuwara Elyia that we had travelled on over the last few days. I have to say the scenery on the journey to Badulla was breathtaking. We took the A5, which is the main (and probably only) road to Badulla. It wound around mountainsides, dropped into valleys and climbed out again. The road was often single track in places. There was the usual drop on the side of the road, often hundreds of feet to the valley below with no barrier of any kind between where the road stopped and thin air started. It took us around two and half hours to reach Badulla and until we got on the outskirts of the town I doubt whether we saw more than 20 or 30 other vehicles.

  We had a drive around Badulla, which looked an interesting place, before stopping at the rest house for a drink. The rest house was pretty warm inside as it only had a single ceiling fan that I could see and that was in the dining and we sat in the lounge area. The pot of tea and lime soda that we had cost 120/=. I wanted to see the Dunhinda falls but Helen decided she wasn’t up to the walk (she had caught a cold in Nuwara Elyia) and so I dropped her off at the Green Woods Holiday Inn and headed off to the falls.

  To get to the falls follow the signs for the Dunhinda Falls Hotel and then turn left at the crossroads immediately after. Just follow the road for 10-15 minutes and you come across the entrance to the falls at a hairpin bend. There is parking available outside and I paid a chap 50/= for a parking ticket. I slapped on factor 30 sun lotion, put on my walking boots, slung my rucksack on my back and set off. You follow a path for a few hundred yards, passing a number of stalls selling various knick knacks before coming across the ticket office.

  The walk to the falls is around one km I am told and that seemed about right. At one stage you cross a shallow ravine on a rope bridge and several times you need to scramble down rock faces but it is not an overly daunting journey and the path is clearly marked out. At times the path does drop away several hundred feet with no barriers so if, like me, you don’t have a head for heights this can be a little disconcerting. There are a number of stalls along the way selling knick knacks, food and drinks. Note that on my journey 75% of the stalls were empty and I did start to panic 10 minutes after the ticket office when I hadn’t seen any selling water and I had foolishly come without any. Fortunately, just as I was cursing my stupidity, a stall selling water came into view and I bought a half litre bottle for the very reasonable cost of 35/=. Note that the falls you can see from the pathway at the start of your journey are not the ones you are going to; the ones you are heading towards are out of sight and higher up. The walk to the falls took around 30 minutes and I met several people coming back up who I stood and chatted to for a few minutes before continuing on. At the end of the path there is a small viewing area with excellent views to the falls themselves. I spent around 15 minutes taking photographs and enjoying the scenery. Fortunately there were only 3 other people there so I was able to take my time. The journey back was a little more taxing. Certainly the first half is mainly uphill and I have to say I had to stop a number of times as I simply couldn’t get my breath. I wish I could blame the altitude but at around 1500’ I think the more likely explanation was a lack of fitness on my part. I bought another half litre of water on the way back, making sure, unlike a lot of people, that I placed my empty bottle in my rucksack. There was, sadly, rather a lot of litter to be seen. If you looked down the mountainside at the back of the stalls you could see they just appeared to throw their unwanted rubbish down the mountainside. I can appreciate that disposing of rubbish in such a remote spot can be difficult but I would have thought the local government would have sorted out some sort of facility to collect the rubbish otherwise this beautiful spot is in danger of being ruined. There was one encounter of note on the way back when I heard a crashing noise ahead at a ravine and so I approached somewhat cautiously, just in case a bear of wild boar appeared on the path. The cause of the noise turned out to be what looked like large bamboo canes being pushed down the ravine by a couple of men. They stopped whilst I passed and later on caught me up, passing me with the canes slung over their shoulders. I forgot to mention that there are Hindu and Buddhist shrines on the side of the path and I dropped a small donation in both and said a small prayer, mainly for managing to survive the climb back!

  Once back in the car I changed back into my driving boots and set off to pick Helen up on. I passed a few Ox carts, not in itself an unusual event in Sri Lanka but these were different in that two Oxen were pulling the carts. All the ox carts I had seen up until now had had a single Ox pulling them. I was back at the Holiday Inn almost exactly two hours after dropping Helen off and she had had a good time supping a beer and reading her book. I didn’t stop for a drink but decided for us to push on to the next stage of our journey to Ella.

  Again the countryside was breathtaking and the road pretty reasonable. It took us around an hour to get to Ella although I can’t remember exactly. To get to Ella you need to turn off the main A14 route for a few Km. I have to say the view through the Ella gap is breathtaking. It is claimed you can see the sea, around 75km away, but there was too much haze when we arrived there at around 16:00 to make it out. We drove a few miles through the gap towards Wellawaya before stopping to take some photographs. I promptly got attacked by a number of mosquitoes and beat a hasty retreat to the car within just a couple of minutes. Ella itself gave the impression of being very touristy. I certainly saw more westerners there than I had since we left Colombo. However, we have added it to the list of places to come back and visit.

  The final stage of our journey for today took us from Ella, back onto the A14 and onto Bandarawela. The only reason we were going to Bandarawela was to stay at the Bandarawela Hotel, as recommened by  Royston Ellis in Bradtz’s guide to Sri Lanka. We arrived shortly after 17:00 and managed to locate the hotel (next to the post office) after just a few wrong turns. And to be honest this completed a pretty much perfect day for me. They had vacancies and Helen got the room on half board for 4700/= a night. I dropped the luggage off and parked the car around the back. When I got back to reception there was a welcoming fruit juice drink waiting for me.

  For those of you (and this included me until a couple of nights previous to actually stopping here) who aren’t aware of what the Bandarawela hotel is all about let me indulge you. It is like something out of an era long lost. The brochure claims the Bandarawela Hotel is stuck in a time warp somewhere between 1930 & 1950. Although I am far too young to have experienced that era I can imagine that it is so. We had room 208, which got special mention in the hotel brochure as being the largest room which could accommodate a dining table if required. The beds were two huge single beds looking like something out of bedknobs and broomsticks with the brass rails and posts. The bathroom had an old fashioned bath and shower with tons of hot water. Outside the front of the room a balcony ran the length of the building with chairs outside each room, the balcony overlooking a central garden. There is no a/c in the room but at 4000’, at which altitude Bandarawela is situated, I found even a ceiling fan (that was rather noisy anyway) unnecessary as the nights whilst certainly lacking the chill of Nuwara Elyia were much cooler than we are used to in Colombo.

  After a refreshing bath for myself and a shower for Helen we explored the hotel and it was a real delight. There is a lounge area next to reception with many old photographs hanging on the walls. Newspapers are available on a stand in the corner. The bar at the back of the lounge was wonderful. An old fashioned telephone hangs on the wall next to the bar. A grammer phone record player stands next to the door to the courtyard. There is a fireplace, which was certainly not required during out stay. There was no one serving in the bar and Helen went to reception to inquire if we could get a drink. Normally this would irritate me but somehow this seemed perfectably acceptable here. A waiter promptly appeared and I was delighted when I inquired and found out that the hotel even sold 3 Coins Riva, my favourite Sri Lankan beer. On the bar we found some gazettes which appeared to be the Sri Lankan tea plantationers monthly newsletter dating from the 1960s. They made fascinating reading. We were pestered by mosiquitos in the bar and they were monsters, the largest I had seen since coming from Sri Lanka. They proved rather agile too as it took me a good hour to kill one that was particularly bothering me. Whilst we were sitting in the bar a rather apologetic waiter approached me and asked me if I had a car parked round the back of the hotel in the car park. It appeared that the drivers and staff wanted to play a game of cricket and wondered if I minded moving my car round to the front of the hotel. Of course not! Nothing must interrupt a game of cricket so I promptly moved the car so the game could commence.

  Dinner was served promptly at 19:30 and the waiter came out to the bar to let us know they were ready for us. Only two other tables were taken. There was a choice of fish or chicken for main course and a choice of three desserts to choose from. The starters were fixed. To start with there was avacaddo and prawn, followed by soup and then for the main course I chose the grilled chicken which was accompanied by cauliflower, runner beans, duchess potatoes and carrots. I chose cheesecake for dessert. The meal was excellent and my only criticism were that the vegetables were a little overcooked for me. After dinner we retired to our room, where I think the afternoons exertions finally caught up with me and I went straight to sleep.

Another decent night’s sleep for around 12 hours – must be this mountain air (or possibly the quantity of beer consumed yesterday). Breakfast was slightly different this morning in that instead of potato curry we (Helen joined me having the curry for breakfast) had dhal. The meal was a tad spicier than the previous day and Helen did struggle a bit with the chicken but I enjoyed the lot.

  Around 11:00 we kicked off for the Hakgala gardens. As they are situated some 10km out of Nuwara Eliya on the Badulla Road we took the car. The road is in fairly poor condition and narrows to single file in many places. On several occasions we met buses on tight bends and had to reverse to allow them passed.

  Once we arrived at we parked the car almost opposite the entrance. There was a man directing the parking and he produced a parking ticket for 50/=, which I paid. Entrance for residents into the gardens is only 20/= (It is around 300/= for non-residents). The gardens are a lot smaller than at Kandy but I found just as enjoyable. We wandered around for about an hour. As well as the various trees, ferns, shrubs and rose gardens there were also monkeys and a myriad of insects, mainly concentrated around the many ponds.

  After the walk we were fairly thirsty so we decided to call in at Humbugs, a small café just a few hundred yards further down the Badulla Road from the gardens. There we sat outside under the shade of a tree and had Strawberry Milkshakes (150/= each + 10% service charge). Humbugs also offers food such as curry and seems to specialise in Strawberries.

  After spending a very pleasant half hour at Humbugs we drove back to Nuwara Eliya & took the Uda Pussellawa Road as we wanted to visit The Tea Factory, a tea factory now converted into a hotel. It is located at the small town of Kandapola, some 15km east of Nuwara Eliya. Again the road is fairly poor with many blind bends and large pot holes, although there are no steep climbs to negotiate. The views are spectacular. Once in Kandapola you need to keep an eye out for the sign for The Tea Factory. The turning is on the right and there is a journey of around 3km up an extremely winding and poorly maintained road. The road is mainly single file with passing places and as most Sri Lanka drivers seem to prefer to spend 10 minutes trying to get passed you where the road is single file rather than wait 30 seconds at a passing point to allow you passed I find it worth while keeping a mental note of the passing places and do the reversing myself rather than rely on the other drivers. The drive to The Tea Factory was certainly worth it. We sat in the bar and I had a pot of tea (175/=) and Helen a Riva (150/=). The building is impressive. Some of the original fixtures are still in place but the renovation has been impressively done and the place oozes class. We enquired about staying there and resident rates are currently a very acceptable 8000/= a night. There were two restaurants and you were able to sit outside and eat. During the mid afternoon the temperature was almost (for me) ideal; 20-25 degrees I would guess. On the way back we stopped and took a few photographs and were back in Nuwara Eliya for 16:00.

  I called in at one of the two garages I’d spotted in Nuwara Eliya and asked them to fill up 1000/= of petrol so we would be ready to set off straight away tomorrow. We then headed back to the Rock, arranged an evening meal for 19:30.

  We couldn’t resist one last visit to the Glendower and so we made the 15 minute walk down from the Rock to the Glendower, where we had a Lion Lager each and tried a new card game of scrabble that Helen had bought back in Colombo. The waiter arranged a Bajaj back to the Rock for us, cost 70/=.

  The evening meal at the Rock was excellent. We had an excellent chicken & asparagus soup with bread and butter to start with followed by fried chicken, fries, carrots, runner beans for main course and banana fritters to finish. Afterwards we retired to the bar and shortly after Helen retired to bed. I stayed up another half hour or so chatting to Tillena, the excellent waiter/bell boy etc. who had looked after us during our stay.

  I had a decent night’s sleep, Nice and snug under the blanket on the bed – yes the nights are slightly nippy this high up, even 6 degrees from the equator. I was awoken several times by mosquitoes whining in the room during the night – there are no mosquito nets at the Rock.

  The shower in our en suite was excellent – plenty of water and nice and hot. We had arranged the night before to have breakfast at 10:00, the Rock having an excellent policy of serving breakfast until 10:30. Breakfast did not disappoint for me. I had ordered string hoppers and curry. Helen ordered poached egg on toast. Helen ended up having some of my curry it was so delicious. String hoppers taste pretty much like pasta to me. They are white and long and stringy like spaghetti. There was chicken (I did have the choice of chicken or fish) and potato curries along with orange sambol to accompany the hoppers.

  We decided, after breakfast, to take a stroll down to Nuwara Eliya town itself. It only takes around 15-20 minutes from the Rock and is all down hill. The temperature was cool enough to warrant wearing a fleece, especially if the sun went behind the clouds, which was frequent.

  We wandered around the town for about an hour. There is, honestly, not a lot to see in the town itself. We bought an umbrella that fitted into the rucksack I always carry around with me. (240/=). We did find we got accosted by a number of beggars in Nuwara Eliya so be prepared for this if you go a wandering in the town centre.

  Around lunchtime we found we weren’t hungry at all so we decided to call in at the Glendower Hotel, where Helen had stayed during her previous visit to Nuwara Eliya, earlier this year. The Glendower has a smashing beer garden at the back and sitting there you could easily think you were back in the UK. We had a couple of Lions each (230/=) and read and watched the bird life. There were a number of different birds, the main ones being House Sparrows, which are extremely vocal and great fun to watch. I finished Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadurai, which quite frankly was a big disappointment. There was little reference to Cinnamon Gardens in it and the ending was pretty lame. I also felt I wanted to give all the main characters a slap they were all so irritating. A real let down after Shyam‘s first book, Funny Boy, which I really enjoyed.

  Later in the afternoon we moved onto the Grand, one of the main hotels in Nuwara Eliya and certainly the oldest. I had been there before, during my previous visit some 18 months ago, for a drink in the bar and not been impressed with neither the service, which was dire, nor the atmosphere, which was dead. This time we sat outside the main entrance, on the lawned area and the service was pretty good. We had a Lion Lager (280/=) each and just sat and watched the birds and the comings and goings of people. I have to say that inside the Grand smells of what I can only describe as cat pee. It certainly put us off eating there and we decided to move on after an hour or so.

  We returned to the Glendower and had another Lion Lager, moving inside as the sun went down and the temperature dropped fairly rapidly. The lounge inside the Glendower was excellent and I can certainly recommend it as the best place for a drink I have found in the town.

  By 19:00 we were hungry and I fancied a steak so we asked the barman at the Glendower and he recommended the Heritage, which was on the way back to the Rock so we decided to give that a try. The Heritage boasts that it is the Friendliest Hotel in Nuwara Eliya and we certainly saw nothing to disprove that. The restaurant is split into a smoking and non smoking rooms and the service was fast and efficient. I ordered Steak and Helen ordered Fish & Chips and the meals were excellent. My steak was a little bit over cooked for rare, as I like it very rare but tasty enough and also tender enough to cut with a normal eating knife (no steak knife was supplied nor required). With a couple of bottles of Lion Lager and Helen’s dessert the bill came to under 2000/=. The waiter also sorted us out with a taxi (3 wheeler) and we paid him 200/= to take us back to the Rock. Needless to say we got back around 21:00 and I went straight to bed, the beer starting to kick in!

We set off for Nuwara Eliya around 11:00, with directions on how to get there written down by Francis. Kandy is at an altitude of around 1500’ and Nuwara Eliya around 6000’ and the distance between the two around 70km.

  The road took us past the botanical gardens at Peradeniya so we decided to stop off and have a look around. As residents we can get into the botanical gardens for 20/= and I think the tourist price is 300/=. We had been to the gardens before at Christmas 2003 and spent half a day wandering around them. Today we just spent an hour, taking in the bats roosting, the royal palm avenue, a short drinks break at the café close to the entrance where we had a Lime Soda and Lassi at the rather expensive price of 350/=.

  At 12:30 we headed off towards Nuwara Eliya. The road was, to start with, excellent. There were few other vehicles about and we made good time. We made Gampola in around 30 minutes, where I got 1000/= worth of petrol. However, from Gampola onwards the road deteriorated rapidly. Last time I came this way 18 months ago they were rebuilding the road and little had changed to this day. At times the road surface had been completed removed and we were basically driving on dirt. On several occasions the road narrowed to single file and several times we were stopped by workmen with stop go signs. A word of warning here. The workmen with the stop go signs are often seated under the shade of a tree at the side of the road and are not obvious. The stop go sign can sometimes not be immediately apparent and a casual wave of the hand is all that indicates you need to stop. At one point we came across a barrier across the road and we had a wait of around 10 minutes whilst some workmen were causing rocks to fall onto the side of the road from where they were working 50’ or so up on a rock face. The nearer to Nuwara Eliya we got the steeper the climb. There are many hairpin bends and if you meet a bus coming down at one things can get a little complicated. Several times we had the bus conductor getting out of an ongoing bus once it had stopped and directing traffic to pull to the side of the road/reverse up etc. to allow the bus to get through. The delays are short and everyone seemed very relaxed about it.

  We stopped twice on the way up. The first stop was for lunch around 14:30 at a restaurant come shop next to a tea factory. The lunch was excellent. Helen had sweet and sour chicken complete with the obligatory chilli (which seems to get in just about any food in Sri Lanka) and I had Lamp Rice which was basically Lamprais. To drink I had a pot of tea and Helen had a non alcoholic beer. The bill came to just over 900/=. The service was good too. We did try and get a tour around the tea factory but the visitors centre was completely devoid of life so we decided to move on.

  The second stop was at the Labookellie tea factory at around 16:00. Once again we were out of luck as the tea factory was actually under refurbishment and would be re-opening in a couple of weeks. However, a very helpful lady showed us round and explained the process of making tea. She then took us to the restaurant and we sat outside admiring the wonderful view and had a pot of tea. The tea was complimentary and the tour was free of charge but we left a 50/= tip for the waiter and gave a 200/= tip for the lady who explained the process of making tea. We then bought some of the tea we were served with as it was very palatable (it was BOP tea which I now know stands for Broken Orange Pekoe) and an excellent tea cosy with the picture of an elephant on.

  As the roads winds up towards Nuwara Eliya there is always something interesting to see. The scenery is magnificent. There are mountains towering over the road you are on and often sheer drops, of many hundred feet, off the road you are on (with no barriers) down to the valleys below. You pass a number of waterfalls all set within a mixture of tea plantations and forest. There are young boys at the side of the road selling flowers. Often, if you don’t stop to buy off them, they will run up the steep banks and be waiting for you after you have followed the road round the hill side.

  We finally rolled into Nuwara Eliya around 17:00. We had booked into a hotel called The Rock, where we had stayed 18 months before and enjoyed so much we decided to stay there again. I remember last time we stayed the local steak I had was the best I have had since coming to Sri Lanka and the room we stopped in had a fire place and although electric heaters rather than coal or logs were used to heat the room the open fire place reminded us very much of home in the UK.

  We located the Rock taking only one wrong turn. It is a little awkward to find but IMHO worth it. The Rock is a real gem. It is a fairly basic no nonsense hotel, with none of the thrills of the 5 star hotels in Colombo. There is a car park opposite the hotel.

  The rooms are clean but basic as is the en suite. There is a small bar and restaurant, and the choice of food is limited; certainly in the off season anyway as we could have either chicken or seer fish. The service, however, is second to none. We agreed to pay 3000/= a night B&B. After we had sorted our stuff out we spent a couple of hours in the bar in the company of a few bottles of Lion Lager. I typed up some more blog entries and Helen read her book. The evening meal turned out to be excellent. There was soup to start with accompanied by bread. For the main course I had the seer fish and Helen the chicken. The main dish was accompanied by vegetables; runner beans, carrots and leek. We then had fruit to finish. We went immediately to bed after the meal.

 I had a much better night’s sleep and although I woke around 08:30 I fell asleep again and didn’t surface until around 10:30. Helen sorted the packing and all I had to do was load the car up. We said goodbye to Francis and gave her 700/= to pass onto her staff of three: housekeeper, handyman & houseboy, as they had looked after us royally.

  I awoke around 09:00 after a poor night's sleep having made the mistake of leaving the windows open in the night as there is no air conditioning nor ceiling fans at France's bungalow. Consequently I was woken many times in the night by dogs barking, the noise of trains, some animal (a dog I hope) snoring outside the window and the noise of an impact against the curtains which I hope was simply either a dog snout or insect. However, in my half awakened state, I had visions of snakes slipping in between the bars of the window and so couldn't pluck up the courage to walk over to the windows and shut them. Despite the mosquito net around the bed a mosquito also found its way inside them and its whining noise as it flew around kept me awake. What a city boy I have become!

  As Francis was working until 14:30 the morning was spent sitting on the veranda typing up my blog entries, watching the birds and insects fly by and keeping an eye out for the monkeys which made several noisy appearances. I saw several Sri Lanka Legge's Flowerpickers in a bush by the side of the veranda, a number of dragonflies the size of my hand and even a black and white butterfly the size of my fist! Francis had told us that she gets wild boar in the garden and there is even a leopard in the vicinity!

  Francis's housekeeper served us lunch at around 12:00. This consisted of salad with fruits as dessert. She also kept us supplied with a constant supply of tea.

  Although Francis got back around 14:30 she retired to bed with toothache and so I spent the afternoon reading Cinnamon Gardens on the veranda after Helen too retired for an afternoon siesta. I did manage a stroll around the grounds and located an ants nest in one of the trees, made up of leaves joined together on one of the branches about 8’ off the ground.

  Francis cooked for tea and we had pork with vegetables and baked potatoes, accompanied by one of the bottles of red wine we had bought Francis. We chatted for several hours and then around 21:30 I had to call it a night as I was tired, but in a wonderful relaxed way J

As it was my wife, Helen's birthday, I had offered to take her out for a meal to celebrate and Helen decided she wanted to go to Helga's Folly, a hotel with a bizarre reputation. Frances declined to join us as she was tired but gave us directions from her bungalow to Helga's Folly. I offered to drive as I didn't want the hassle of finding and bargaining with Bajaj drivers to spoil the evening. Frances' directions proved to be excellent and we arrived at Helga's Folly around 18:45 after a 10 minute journey. As we hadn't made a reservation I stopped outside the main entrance and Helen popped in and checked they could accommodate us. They could and the receptionist came out to direct me to park the car.

  What can I say about Helga's Folly? Well it certainly didn't disappoint! The interior is bizarre and certainly unique. What it looks like in daylight I am not quite sure but in the dim light of the evening it worked for me. The lounge area where we were directed to had a marvellous ceiling, panelled with various designs but mainly signs of the zodiac. The walls were decorated with a complete mish mash of paraphernalia, most of it apparently unrelated to anything else. I remember antlers featured a lot and there was a particularly eye catching picture, very stylised, of a man in what looked like either a kilt or sarong. There were a lot of candelabras holding half a dozen candles or so and with what looked like years of wax allowed to drip from them creating solid blocks of wax that covered the metal of the candelabra completely. I could go on but it really is somewhere you have to see for yourself to fully appreciate it.

  Needless to say the menu was unusual too. The meals were $17.50 each and there were a choice from three dishes, that changed every day, and one special. There were 5 courses and all but the main course was fixed. There was one complimentary cocktail to start with, all others you had to pay for. Additional cocktails cost around 600/= each. We both ordered Jamie's Green Curry and were warned that the meal would take between 45 minutes and an hour to arrive as everything was freshly prepared. Helen had a wander around the various ground floor rooms and the manager asked her if we would like to look around the rest of the hotel. It turned out they only had a couple of rooms taken at the moment as it is off season (the season running between Nov & Mar) and so we got see all the various standards of rooms, the swimming pool and the dining area. Everywhere else proved to be as whacky as the lounge downstairs. When we got back downstairs there was one other couple in the lounge and they proved to be the only other guests we saw in the hotel for the rest of the evening.

  Having finished our cocktails we decided to order a bottle of wine, a Gato Negro Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, which cost 2900 /=. This arrived promptly and proved to be very enjoyable. Our meal was ready shortly afterwards and it was served to us on a balcony upstairs. We had a lovely view over the Kandy lake with the lights twinkling in the darkness. The meal consisted of avocado with onion and lemon as a side dish, green Thai soup served in a coconut, the main dish was chicken on the bone with lemongrass, ciltrano and coriander and four vegetable side dishes dhal and three others we couldn't identify, and to finish there was banana in caramel with chocolate ice cream. Bread rolls and butter were served with the soup. The highlight was definitely the soup which was magnificent and rather tangy. However, all the other courses were excellent, although the main curry dish was a little mild for my taste. We finished off with a coffee downstairs again in the lounge and this proved to be the only disappointment of the evening as to be frank it was pretty ghastly coffee.

  The service throughout the evening was of a high standard and I left a 10% tip on top of the bill for 6300 /=. Certainly money well spent in my opinion as it was an evening I think both of us will remember for the rest of our lives. If you want to stay or eat somewhere completely different in an environment I doubt you will experience anywhere else in the world let alone Sri Lanka I can recommend Helga's Folly.

It was around 09:00 before I finally got up on Saturday morning. I made a pot of tea and went on EVE for an hour. My wife, Helen, the birthday girl joined me and around 10:30 I suggested we try Waffles for breakfast. Waffles is a local waffle shop on duplication road that has recently moved to larger premises. However we found out that bizarrely Waffles doesn't open until midday so we ended up going to Waffle's old premises and having a drink and dessert at Cravings, a recently opened shop (which has other outlets scattered around Colombo) selling cakes, tarts, pastries etc. We both had a cup of coffee and I had chocolate cake and Helen had a fruit tart. The snack cost 200/= and was excellent value for money.

  It was just after midday when we had the packing finished, the car loaded and we finally set off. Destination, Hillcrest Kandy, where Helen's friend Frances had kindly offered to put us up for a couple of days. The journey to Kandy was fairly uneventful. I put 1000/= of petrol in the car just outside Yakkala to keep the tank over half full. The trip as far as Nittambuwa is well known to me as I make it a couple of times a week as I work some of the time at one of Crystal Martin's factories at Wathupitiwala, a small village a few Km from Nittambuwa.

  Once passed Nittambuwa the road is less well known and still holds a lot of interest. There appear to be themes to certain villages you pass through. In one village everyone appears to be selling cashew nuts. There was stalls setup on the roadside, usually with women dressed in brightly coloured clothes who will wave at you in an attempt to get you to stop and buy nuts from their stall. Another village seems to sell nothing but cane furniture, and in fact we have a couple of wicker chairs on our balcony brought from the 'cane village'. One section of the road that is a little puzzling is the steep climb just before Kegalle. Here plastic blow up toys are sold (for children in paddling pools rather than X-rated ones I would guess). Whether there is a local factory that makes them I have no idea but it does seem an odd thing to be selling at roadside stalls.

  Anyway, towards the bottom of this hill we stopped off at a rest house called the Mile Post if memory serves me correctly. There I had an excellent pot of tea and Helen had a lime soda. Cost 120/=. The toilets are worth a mention here as they were kept in excellent condition. Note this is certainly not always the case in Sri Lanka where some of the toilets can be a stomach turning adventure. Often toilets have a collection box just inside the entrance and I always drop a 10/= note in if they are kept in an acceptable condition. The buffet also looked very appetising here but we were due to eat out in the evening so I resisted the temptation to participate.

  During the course of our journey we had noticed a number of vehicles moving in the opposite direction with blue, yellow and red flags draped over the roof or bonnet. I have no idea what that was all about but would be interested if any of my readers could fill me in on what the significance of this.

  At around 16:30 we arrived in Kandy. We wanted to buy a couple of bottles of wine as a present for Frances so I parked the car by the lake and we walked back into the town centre. We got accosted by the usual people trying to get us to see shows who express disbelief when we decline the chance to see them. I've noticed in Kandy we also get accosted by people who claim to recognise you from 'the hotel'. As we weren't staying in one this would be difficult. My guess is that they hope you will take their word for them being at your hotel and expect you to trust someone staying at 'your hotel' and then they can somehow get some money out of you by offering to take you somewhere. All part and parcel of life over here. We did struggle to find anywhere that sold wine and in the end a chap latched onto us and did show us an excellent liquor shop where we bought a couple of bottles of red wine for around 1500/=. The chap asked us for money for a beer for showing us the shop. He requested 2 pounds but got 100/= which is more than enough to buy a couple of bottles of beer over here.

  Frances lives in a bungalow on one of the hills overlooking Kandy and I was quite impressed when my wife's directions got us straight there. It is about a 10 minute drive up some rather narrow lanes culminating in a dirt track for the last half Km. At the start of the dirt track is a gate and when we pulled up in front of this there were a number of monkeys sitting on the top. So it was over to me to get the gate open. Fortunately a few claps of the hands sent the monkeys scattering and I was able to open the gates. I am cautious approaching monkeys over here as we did have one monkey take a disliking to us last year and got very aggressive. We backed off and escaped unscathed but monkeys can have nasty bites and can carry diseases like rabies so discretion is usually the better part of valour as far as I am concerned.

  Anyhow by around 17:15 we arrived outside France's beautiful bungalow. It is an old colonial style bungalow with verandas, set in its own grounds.

I had a few most welcome days off work last week. I finished work on Wednesday and had Thu - Sun to go and see a bit of Sri Lanka. We decided a few months ago that we wanted to see the Perahera and so Helen, my wife, booked us in at the Swiss Residence in Kandy and seats to view the Perahera at Queens. This was all done several months ago as we were warned Kandy gets chocka when the Perahera is on. We were told Queens was the best palce to see the Perahera from as it is right in the center of Kandy, not far from the Temple Of The Tooth.

 

So Thursday morning we set off for Kandy around 11:00, calling in for a couple of hours at the Elephant Orphanage on the way. Entrance is only 50/= for residents (500/= for non residents). We had a meal at a table overlooking the elephants bathing. Very pleasant indeed.

 

We arrived in Kandy around 16:30 and the traffic was pretty bad. The pavements along the Perahera route were all taken by people sitting down waiting for the event to start. After a few wrong turnings we eventually located the Swiss Residence. My car refused to climb up the entrance drive which was seriously steep so I abandonned it at the car park half way up (Think I have a clutch problem in the making). The Swiss Residence offered us a 10% discount if we paid cash so I readily agreed to that. The cost was 6300 /= per night board only. The room was excellent, with its own balcony and en-suite bathroom. The lift up to the room was a bit dodgy but we made it in one piece!

 

Note that throughout Perahera you cannot buy alcohol in Kandy itself. Even the hotel bars are shut, although they will deliver alcohol to your room. We found this out when we tried to buy a bottle of wine to take to Fancis, a friend of Helens from her Celta course, who had invited us around for tea.

 

We ordered a taxi at reception for 18:00, which turned out to be a Bajaj. We asked the driver to take us to the address Francis had emailed to us via a cashpoint and this he did, although we had to ask a policeman to allow the Bajaj to aprk for 2 minutes as Kandy was a complete non-parking zone. Some streets were closed and the police were out in force directing the traffic. The Bajaj driver had some difficulty in locating Francis's bungalow, which was up on one of the hills overlooking Kandy. Then came a massive row when he requested 600/= for the 10 minute drive. Eventually we gave him 400/= just to get rid of him. Bajaj drivers really are the scum of the earth sometimes :( Anyway, we had an excellent evening sitting on the veranda chatting to Francis (who I had not met before), eating dinner, which was an excellent Sri Lankan vegetarian meal cooked by Francis's housekeeper. At around 22:00 Francis asked her handyman to see us to the gates of her long (and rather dark under thr trees at night) drive. We managed to get a Bajaj within a few minutes walking and bargained BEFORE we got in this time. 250/= saw us home.

 

It was gone 11:00 on Friday morning before I rose the next day after an excellent nights sleep. I grabbed a cup of tea in the bar area (110/=) before setting off to walk into Kandy. The walk was very pleasent and all downhill and took around 20 minutes. Our initial destination was Queens to make sure the seat reservations were all sorted. The walk through the town center was educational. People were already sitting down on the pavements ready for the Perahera (tonight was the last night). I can't remember EVER seeing this many people packed into such a small area before. The police really had their work cut out for them keeping the traffic moving whilst people spilled over onto the road.

 

We arrived at Queens rather shattered and in desperate need of a drink. Queens is a lovely old colonial hotel, where the receptionists all wear saris and the waiters waistcoats etc. Our seats were all sorted for the evening and we were told to arrive around 18:00. We headed into the restaurant, initially just for a drink, but on looking at the menu we decided to have some food. I had lamprais, which is basically a Sri Lankan curry served wrapped in a banana leaf. I went for the chicken option (I could also have had vegetarian or beef) It had egg, lots of rice, egg plant, a few bits of chicken, kancun and a leek like vegetable and a fish ball all mixed together. I enoyed it very much. It cost around 300/=. We were so impressed we decided to book a table for the evening and for that we paid 1200/= per ticket.

 

On getting outside and seeing the crowds we decided to have a wander and experience the atmosphere. However after half an hour or so we were getting pretty hot and finding there were too many checkpoints where the police were chcking bags and frisking you so we decided to beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel until the evening. We grabbed a Bajaj and paid 200/= to get back to the hotel.

 

The afternoon passed very pleasently bird watching from our balcony with a few beers. I have become quite addicted to bird spotting since coming to Sri Lanka and find it a very relaxing pass time. We had a shower before leaving for Queens around 17:45.

 

We flagged down a Bajaj on the way down the hill and for 150/= he took us around half of Kandy trying to avoid the road blocks etc. I gave the driver 300/= as he managed to drop us right off by Queens. The evening meal was a buffet and it was a good job we got there early as by the end of the meal people were queuing up to get into the dining room. The buffet was excellent and I'd recommend the food at Queens. We finished the meal around 18:30 but were kept hanging around for our seats to view the Perahera for over an hour. Apparently we were sitting just outside the main entrance to Queens and they needed to build a platform and put the seats out and waited until as late as possible to do that.

 

Anyway, around 19:45 we finally got to our seats, which were about four rows back but with a reasonable view of the road. Although the seats were allocated there was the usual Sri Lankan moving of seats, grabbing other peoples seats, putting them back again etc. The parade started around 20:30 and was pretty memorable. There were all sorts of dancers, lots  of elephants, all dressed up with lights, beautiful coverings, some ridden by people, others walking with their keeper. Throughout the parade there was constant noise. The beating of drums, the sound of other instruments, the clanging of bells. Although it was dark there were men carrying buring coals on tall poles who followed the parade around, filling up their braziers at set points that were constantly being topped up by men carrying baskets of coals on their heads. Police lined the route, every 10 yards or so, their backs to the parade, looking into the crowd. There was no trouble at all though. Everyone had simply come to watch the spectacle.

 

 I have to say that 3 hours was a bit long. Around half the time would have been about right. Once you've seen 10 or 20 elephants, even as magnificent as these, you've seen them all ;-) By middnight we were ready to go to bed and a little thankful when the last dancers passed us by. We grabbed a couple of cokes in the Queens Bar whilst we waited for the crowds to die down and then got a Bajaj for the journey of a lifetime. It was absolute chaos. It took 45 minutes to do the usual 10 minute drive to the hotel. There were vehicles and people EVERYWHERE. Our Bajaj got hit once from behind by another Bajaj (smiles all round as no damagae was done) and there was a lot of borken glass and plastic littering the road from other accidents as vehicles vied with one another to gain an extra ince of the road. The police did a magnificant job getting an ambulance through the chaos, forcing drivers onto pavements in an effort to create space. We finally arrived back around 01:00, giving the Bajaj driver an extra 100/= on top of his 200/= asking price. We collapsed into bed, glad we had seen the Perahera but glad we wouldn't have to go through it again !!!