Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Hey guys,

after a long time, I'm writing a few lines here again. The reason for the slow updates on my blog is simply... I'm being lazy and enjoying myself too much in Sri Lanka!😎

The flight from India to Colombo was definitely easy, the visa process was also not too complicated. Basically, I was the only one who showed up at the visa counter, and the Colombo airport felt more like a small town bus terminal... it was quite cozy and the people were extremely friendly.

This image continued throughout the rest of my time in Sri Lanka. Especially compared to the Indians, the people in Sri Lanka are extremely warm and friendly.

Colombo is centrally located in the western part of the island and serves as a good starting point. From here, I took a train to Kandy. Essentially, I traveled along the main tourist route, although it didn't always seem that way. However, the country and the people never failed to impress me, always very positive.

You can definitely feel the tourism boom in Sri Lanka... it seems like a hotel or something similar is being built on every available corner. I've been told that the Sri Lankan economy mainly relies on the tea, clothing, and tourism industries.

From Kandy, there is actually one of the most beautiful train routes in the world (at least according to train enthusiasts) that goes from Nuwara Eliya to Ella.

Getting tickets for that route turned out to be not so easy, so I took an Uber taxi to the highlands of Nuwara Eliya and then took the train from there to Ella.

In Sri Lanka, you can reserve a first-class train ticket (with a fixed seat and without people standing in the aisle) about 35 days before departure. If you're spontaneous, you can only buy second and third-class tickets. The ticket costs next to nothing (70 cents for a 2-3 hour journey).

Of course, I didn't book a ticket 30 days in advance, so for the Nuwara Eliya - Ella route, I ended up with a last-minute ticket in order to experience the world-class view.

Unfortunately, many other people had the same idea as me, so I became one of the people standing in the aisle of the second class.

As far as I could see between the other sweaty "standers," the route was really amazing. I had never seen anything like it before... extremely steep valleys, mountains, green palm landscapes, and so on...

To make matters worse, the train had a malfunction 15 km before reaching Ella, and we had to switch to buses... overall, not a big deal, at least I had a seat on the bus!💪

The town of Ella itself is a touristy place, but there are many mountains, bridges, and landscapes to see around it (Ella Rock, Nine Arch Bridge, Little Adams Peak...)

Overall, I have noticed that most city centers are quite negative... lots of traffic, haphazard construction, and rarely pleasing to the eye... but the landscapes surrounding the cities are usually very beautiful.

From Ella, I took a 2-hour tuk-tuk ride to the south to the beach! First to Hiriketiya and then to Matara (Polhena), where I am still currently.

Here, I am not interested in much besides sun, beach, and surfing! And maybe a bit of food, but that is not lacking here either!

My next and almost final destination will be Ahangama, where I will visit a surf accommodation for a week before returning to Colombo and then traveling back to Germany.

That's about it... see you soon!🤙