Since I have tons of vacant time due to unemployment, I decided to travel slower with minimum 2 nights in one place. My route settled from Colombo – Kandy – Ella – Nuwara Eliya – Udawalawa – and Galle. The trip was kinda spontaneous so I was not really that well prepared in terms of where to stay and how to get to every of destination. I also don’t keep track with the budget, I let it rollin while we’re goin.
Despite the unhappy or dissatisfied state with the overall trip to Sri Lanka, does not mean I did not have things I enjoyed while I was there. I’ve done plenty of ‘it’ Sri Lanka list, some of my favorites are :
Climbing the Sigiriya Rock
If you know me quite well, I am dead afraid of height. So climbing this rock sort of grand achievement for me. Previously I did not know that climbing the Sigiriya rock would something I should be cautious of, until I watched this trending post on TikTok that saying Sigiriya is not for a height phobia. I quickly turn in doubt, dang… I don’t think I will do it.
But I’ve booked a private car already from Kandy to Sigiriya and return – I was based in Kandy. On the way to Sigiriya, I told my driver about the height phobia thingy and the TikTok trending post. He was like – ‘madam, I think you’ll be fine. Also, the entrance is quite costly if you don’t climb the rock there will be no point to go there. Plus, we drove 3 hours from Kandy to Sigiriya, 6 hours return. If you dont go to the top – it would be triple waste.’ Well, he was damn right. Next thing I know I was on the top of the rock. LoL.
It was scary. But, I tricked my self by focusing my sight to the sky and I went super slowly, stairs by stairs with my hand tightly holding on to the rail. Lmao. Some people giggling behind me but I did not care. I will get to the top no matter ridiculous I looked like.
And yes, it was beautiful at the top of Sigiriya Rock. I’ll lose big time if I did not do it.
The Safari in Udawalawe National Park
I’ve never been to Safari before so I could not compare the experience. I paid $50 for the entrance not including the safari car for a 2 hours loop, that feels a bit pricey to me. It was amazing to be able to encounter so many elephants and saw their behaviors. The guide said that I was considered as extremely lucky because the other guest in the morning only able to spot 1 of them.
Well, I am grateful for that. But – I don’t know why it somehow felt boring? I know I should have appreciate more. It could be because I was not fully recovered from a bad flu when I took this safari, so my excitement was just not there, yet.
A Pretty Little old town of Galle
Amongst beach-side town like Mirissa, Unawatuna, and Galle, I’d much preferred Galle. It’s just hit different with its cute preserved old town. I like to walk along the wall, and finding nice cafes or restaurants to eat and chill that weirdly something that I rarely found during my trip to Sri Lanka. I noticed a lot places closed down in Sigiriya, Kandy, Unawatuna, hence the good options became a gem. I relied a lot to reviews on Google, but 7 out of 10 was a toss. If it’s because of their economical state, I hope they can recover really soon.
Now let’s move on to what makes me unhappy.
1. I got sick – a bad flu that unfortunately led to bad migraines. I needed 1 full day of bed rest in Ella. Clearly I had to drop all my plans including trekking to Little Adam’s Peak and I did not even go to the famous bridge. Although luckily I booked an accommodation with a perfect view of the bridge, so I could still enjoy it from my terrace. But seriously, my migraine was killing me, so whatever nice view I had in front of my eyes, it’s not that interesting, huhu. But looking back to my galleries – the view of Nine Bridge in Ella was magnificent!
(Sorry for the bad quality of pic since its taken from the video, I did not even bother to take a good pic of the bridge as my migraine was torturing me.. lol)
2. The food I had just did not meet my expectation. To be very honest, I never had high expectation when it comes to food. But looking for a good restaurant was quite hard when I only relied on Google Map. Like all the review was great but it apparently just so – so.
I know that Sri Lanka is a tea country, but their cafe culture are very very limited. The only place with a decent restaurant or cafes are in Galle. I was hoping they have many local tea-cafe options that we could not experience in other place but unfortunately that’s not the fact.
3. It was raining so bad in the beach towns like Mirissa, Unawatuna and Galle. So most of the time I spent in the room waiting for the rain to stop – which was not fun!
4. The train trip was overrated. I am very sorry to say but I had nothing special with the train trip. The view was good but not as great like many people raved about as a ‘one of the best train trip’ in the world. Well. I would say I can find many similar train trips in other Asian country. Sorry!
Well I hope this is just me and my experience that did not built right with the expectations. But that was still a great trip to remember, after all!
