Although not as famous
as its counterpart, the much bigger South Africa, Sri Lanka has also quite a
number of national parks and wildlife safaris for tourists! Scattered in various parts of the country,
each national park is particularly known for seeing certain types of
animals. My mission was LEOPARDS and one
of the most popular national park is Yala National Park southwest of Sri
Lanka. Of course, there being only 20-25
leopards in the entire national park, the chance of seeing one is 1 in a
million à possibly
impossible maybe. But you never know if
you don’t try!
The journey from
Colombo to Yala (or Tissa which is the base for most people) is a long one,
however made easier and more comfortable with the new expressway which opened
early 2014! Yes, you can still choose
the traditional way of going direct from Colombo to Tissa with the semi-luxury
bus (Note, it is NOT luxury at all – no air con, and just a normal public bus
that stops along the way). But with the
new expressway, it connects Colombo to Matara non-stop and within 1-1.5H you
are at Matara (which is south of Sri Lanka costs LKR500). From there take a public bus (those
semi-luxury costs 150LKR) to Tissa which is 3H away! Total travel time maximum
5H compared to the traditional 8H! And the best part, for the first 1.5H you
get the comfort of AC cushioned bus! Although the bus station (Kudewala) is not
as central as Peeta bus station, it is not hard to get to. You could get a bus down in 40min or grab a
tuk tuk down. I was told construction is
underway to connect Matara all the way to Tissa with the expressway, that would
mean getting down to Tissa in 3H!!!!
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| Matara Bus Station |
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| The off island temple |
At the stop in Matara,
there’s a small temple island that’s connected to mainland with a hanging
bridge. When I was there, the waves were
really strong and wind was blowing so hard that even walking along the bridge,
I felt like I was gonna be blown away anytime! And I’m like 50kg with a 3kg
pack on my bag. I probably wouldn’t
recommend anyone below 45kg to attempt that walk unless you have supervision J That temple is nothing to shut about and the
fact that donation is enforced made me uncomfortable. Donation should be voluntary, but upon
entering, the guy will hold out his hand to make you donate. I said later and when I got up top to the
Buddha statue, another guy was standing there and pointing to the box to get me
to donate. Then there is another
“tollgate” at the top where another guy again blatantly asked me to donate and
when I said I already did, he gave me a face…
When I went down to exit, that same guy asked me to donate again and
when I told him I did at the top already, he gave me a face too! What’s up with
these spiritually people!!! Pissed me off a little.
Anyway, onto my bus
ride to Tissa, was quite uneventful but I was damn lucky. Met a local guy (seriously forgot his name)
who sold his safari and guesthouse to me at a good price! He was trying to sell me La Safari Hotel for
1500LKR per night (which is a really good price) but when we arrived there,
that room was already sold out. So he
took me looking and searching for other GH at the same price! Talk about
service! Finally found one at Mihisara
for that price which included WIFI and hot shower which was adequate
enough. The safari I got for 5000 LKR
(exclude breakfast). My tip – to exclude
breakfast from any safari tour cos with breakfast the price was like 5800-6000!
And what breakfast you get?? Sandwich with cheese and egg + water. Like that
will cost me 1000LKR!!!
Anyway the local guy
brought me out to dinner at a local place where we had curry + rice. Was really good and it is buffet style and
very local, but when paying up, the local guy told me the owner wanted to
charge me foreigner price (350LKR) instead of local price (150LKR) Talk about
discrimination!
Most people base themselves in Tissa for Yala trip, it is a cheaper town and not far from Yala. Of course you could join Yala Safari tours where you stay overnight in Yala itself, but that cost a bomb! Tissa town is nothing to shut about, really small and nothing much happening there.
Next morning, the
safari starts real early with a 5am pickup and arriving at Yala at 6am. FYI, it is 3000LKR for entry into the safari
which is always included in the safari tour package. Entering Yala, you are surrounded with sand
and drying/dying trees. Everything was
bone dry!!! It was afterall the dry season.
In the jeep with 7 of us, we raced through the roads in search of bears
and leopards. Well we saw a beer (there
are only 10-15 bears), but leopards were hiding from us. The usual suspects like deers, buffalos,
birds, crocodiles! And elephants
too! The highlight of the trip was
witnessing crocodiles hunting a poor little deer right in front of our eyes!
AWESOME! The safari ended at 11am and by
the time I got back was dead tired. But
another day is ahead of me. This day, I
arranged with the local guy to bring me around Kataragama and the temples. He got his cousin DIM to take me around for
free! Well I paid for his fuel for the motorbike but basically I paid nothing
and got a free guide!
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| The dusty road ahead |
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| The best location in the whole Yala Park! |
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| Stop over at the beach halfway |
We rode to Kataragama
and visited the famous temples there – Dewalaya and Kiri, Hindu and
Buddhist. Tips to others: Wear
socks! Entering into the temple vicinity
requires you to take off your shoes! Which means walking around on hot
scorching sand/marble in your bare foot.
Which was the equivalent of walking on hot stones! Man, my sole hurt so much!!!! When I went, the celebration just ended the week before. When the celebration was held, there would be parades and dancing every night at the temples and people would come from all over Sri Lanka and crowd the temples. Sounds amazing.
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| Kiri Verda (Buddhist temple) |
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| Entrance to Dewalaya |
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| Lotus for the buddha |
Visiting the temples you can get a feel of
how religious the Sri Lankans are and how much they respect their
religion. There were tons of people there,
praying and buying fruits as a form of offering to the gods. And everyone was
wearing white! I’m guessing it’s a sign of purity in the eyes of the god. Also, now I understand why everyone was
telling me to visit in the mornings or evenings (although I couldn’t quite
understand why not afternoon) because the ground/floor will be super hot from
the sun in the afternoon!
After Kataragama
temples, we went to Wadasiti Kanda, which is 2km away from the temples. You could take a tuk tuk there or walk (it’ll
be a long walk though). I was told that
it’s just a walk up the mountains to the temple, but lo and behold it was a
climb! And I told myself I’m not gonna take another hike again after Adam’s
peak! It was 4km uphill all the way and steps all the way up! When I said about how devoted they are, it
was also apparent by the fact that they all, young, old, able-bodied or crooked
knees, would willingly take that hike up to pay their respects! I saw old ladies possibly 50-60 years old,
climbing without aid up, although with a bit of trouble, but still went
up! I’m not saying it’s easy climb or
hard, but 4km all up the stairs, not something that is to be taken
lightly. And you see little kids do the
same! And most of them did the climb barefooted! Just walking on the rough
steps and stones like it was nothing! And
also beware of those terrible monkeys waiting to attack! One monkey attacked a little girl and
scratched her head!
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| The steps on wadasiti |
So it was 1 h later we
reached the top. The temple is nothing
to marvel about and yes, you have to take off your shoes and walk barefoot in
the vicinity. But the view up there is
pretty amazing! You can see the entire Yala National Park from up top! It was super hot in the late afternoon and
yes almost impossible to walk barefoot so I guess that was why I was told to go
in the morning not afternoon…
After the climb we had
a little snack of prata with sambal!
Their prata is made of coconut + breadcrumbs, very interesting
combination! And you can really taste the shredded coconut in it! And the
sambal reminds me of how we used to eat prata with sambal as well! Nice!
And of cos in Sri Lanka EGB (Elephant Ginger Beer) is a must try! The ads are everywhere – No ECG No Food! So
of course I had to try and I must say it really tasted like beer with real
ginger in it! The ginger taste is very
strong, which I like, and the combination is very refreshing!
That night, I basically
concussed till the next morning.
Sithulpawa temple –
Had no idea that temple existed and had no plans when I initially wanted to go
Yala, but a talk with my counterpart in Colombo office revealed this beautiful
temple set in a beautiful environment!
And I just had to visit! With
DIM, we travelled the 34km from Tissa (took almost 1H). The road started off smooth and easy as we
passed through Yala National Park (looking and trying to spot leopards Haha),
then it was dirt road all the way for half the journey. The dirt road is not bumpy but just dusty
with bumps cutting the smooth road every 3minutes. Along the way, we stopped at a temple with a
nice view for some photo taking.
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| The lake at Sithulpawa temple - there are crocodiles in it |
At Sithulpawa temple,
there are 2 temples. The temples are
built on top of 2 separate hills and ladies, you are required to cover up your
torso (at least the legs). Short sleeves
are ok, but no sleeveless. I was wearing
bermudas to my knees but was deemed indecent, so had to wrap myself up with a
white cloth (FOC, Dim had to deposit his ID as collateral). But seriously, I don’t think that white cloth
helped. The wind was so strong it was
blowing it apart anyways.
It’s a hill, so it was
a short walk up the first temple, and yes barefoot please! The view up there is really amazing! You have a huge lake down at the bottom and
all the jungles around. The opposite
temple is a little higher up and the trek up is alittle longer but nice! And from up there, the wind is really really
strong that you have to be careful not to lose your footing!
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| I jump |
The area is not so
big, you’ll be done in about 1H, and then it’s time to go. Passing through Yala National Park again, we
saw groups of deers running around and hiding from us.
Then it was time to
travel back and leave the country. The
bus from Tissa to Matara comes very frequently (every 5-10 minutes) so no
worries about the schedule. Upon arriving
back in Colombo at Kaduwela bus station, I was told initially to take a bus to
somewhere close to my hotel in Colombo so I don’t have to spend much on
taxi/tuk tuk. Who knew that bus was not
running to that destination anymore when I arrived at 6pm. After some confirmation, a couple of local
bus driver took me onto their bus to drop me off somewhere else to catch
another bus that was supposed to take me to where I was heading. Who knew that bus was NOT going there and I
was caught in a situation where the conductor spoke NO English. Luckily, a local guy spoke pretty good English
and after finding out where I wanted to go, told me where to get off and got
off with me to catch the other bus to the city center for me. That was very nice of him to help me in that
way! He caught me the bus to near Hilton
Colombo (I think it was bus 190 or something) which was just a 5min walk to my
hotel! That was pretty cool!
It was a long and
tiring day, also having to wait for the red-eye flight at the airport with
nothing much to do and no WIFI.
Overall impression of
Sri Lanka – Nope, it is not the cheapest place for tourism. Local buses are cheap, and street food is
pretty inexpensive. But tourism in terms
of visiting attractions and guesthouses are not the cheapest (You pay much less
in Thailand for accommodation of backpackers’ standards). A trip to safari alone costs at least 5000
LKR (almost SGD50) and my trip to Adam’s Peak cost me a bomb! Food can be
pretty inexpensive for snacks, but a proper curry and rice meal I paid SGD3.50
for (yes it is buffet style but how much can you really eat) which is not
exactly very cheap. Of course, the
locals eat for SGD1.50, now that is cheap!
But the people are in general really nice and helpful (except for those
scammers in Colombo who always try to get you to visit the Gem exhibition which
seems to be forever ongoing and forever “last 3 days” and forever elephants
parade at Gangarama Temple). Otherwise,
I met really nice and helpful people along the way (some people said that was because
I was a female travelling alone). The
place is clean and not cluttered, nothing like what India is about. Sure, infrastructure could do with some
improvements to cut down the travelling time between places and that is on the
way. If you don’t take local buses,
private cars are expensive and yes it also reduces travelling time but really
expensive. I was told you have to obtain
some kind of permit in order to self-drive and how long that takes is a
mystery. Worth a visit! Will I be back? I don’t know, there are so
many other places and countries to visit!
