Sri Lanka! Accident-free!?

Accident-free! After a cut on the head before leaving for Thailand, a train delay in Italy, and a strike before traveling to Iran, we finally arrived without any problems this time. We'll just ignore the scary moment of the road closure that we cleverly avoided.

The arrival in Colombo was quite uneventful. Our taxi driver clearly tried to rip us off with 20€ (he underestimated us), maybe that's why he didn't feel like dealing with the traffic after half the journey. He quickly asked another taxi driver to take us to the hotel. After checking in, we were ready to go, but a short but intense shower initially prevented us from doing so. Now we know why the humidity reaches nearly 100% during the rainy season. We head towards the sea, stepping in 40°C warm puddles with our flip flops, soaked with leftover food, garbage, and interesting smells. It doesn't bother us that our clothes are completely wet after a 10-minute walk (not from the rain, mind you). It makes me wonder how Sri Lankans manage to wear long jeans and shirts in this weather... ?

We continue strolling along the beach, nothing in Asia is as one imagines. The beach doesn't exist, trash and a few stalls dominate the somewhat dull view.

We continue north, passing by some nice buildings, temples, churches, and mosques. It's amazing to see people of different religions living peacefully side by side here.

In the evening, we treated ourselves to a luxurious dinner for 30€, as we didn't feel like searching for more restaurants.

Colombo is a nice city to arrive in Sri Lanka, with clear Asian flair. However, for those who have already been to other Asian cities, one day upon arrival and possibly one day before departure is sufficient.

The next day, we booked a driver for 5 days to explore the highlands. But first, we took a 4-hour train ride to Anuradhapura. The 4-hour journey turned out to be one of the best in Asia! Once we took our seats, we were off, leaving behind the lingering smell of urine from the toilet behind us. Almost! It spread throughout the entire compartment, which was already 35°C warm, but after a while, more and more windows were opened and everything was fine (or maybe we just got used to it!?). Passing by tin huts, congested level crossings, rice fields, and various train stations, I noticed that the train drivers exchanged rings at some of the stations while the train was moving or during a stop. It seems that these rings are valid for each single-track section. Example: The train coming from the south takes a ring from station 'A' towards the north to station 'B'. Once a train comes from the other direction, it takes the ring from station 'B' back to station 'A'. If there is still a train on the track, the other train has to wait at the station until the train with the ring has entered and handed over the ring. Everything went well for us, except for one time when an oncoming train had to reverse briefly :-)

If it gets too hot during the journey, you can stand or sit in the doorway, as the trains always run with open doors. However, you should hold on tightly, as the tracks are not laid very well, making you feel like you're on a ship.

Accident!

Well, we finally had it, Ana's obligatory accident. After a delicious dinner, I was woken up in the middle of the night because Ana had to empty her stomach. After a sleepless night, we were supposed to stay in the hotel, but of course, Ana didn't want to. So we went to Anuradhapura with our driver to visit the temples there. It was very impressive, if only the expensive entrance fee of 30€ hadn't been there...

In the afternoon, we went to Lion's Rock, or rather, we chose the smaller brother, as we didn't want to pay another outrageous 30€. The view is the same, I don't know why hundreds of tourists pay so much money for the other mountain. Maybe it's because of the risky ascent, which almost got us into trouble a few times :-)

After that, we went to our accommodation, a treehouse in the Sri Lankan forest, absolutely amazing. Luckily, there are definitely no huge spiders here ;-) However, the occasional monkeys, birds, squirrels, and lizards running through the trees and beneath our hut more than make up for it!

The next morning, we decided not to go to the second ancient capital, Polonnaruwa (where another 30€ would have been required), but to do a village safari instead. We first went with a buffalo and then by boat to a family who baked bread and prepared various delicacies from coconuts for us. In the afternoon, we went on a 5-hour safari, which was absolutely amazing, elephants, buffaloes, various birds, and monkeys in the wild, not much more needs to be said.