8. From bottom to top

After a long time of silence, a new post. Although we have now crossed two more country borders and had many experiences, we will of course still report on the wonderful time in Sri Lanka.

After Josi's heat stroke and our elephant marathon, we enjoyed a good night's sleep and headed towards the beach, specifically Pigeon Island. We drove to refuel and while doing so, we watched an elephant with a rider run across the adjacent intersection. Biogas? ;-)

After about 2 hours drive, we reached Sam Trincomalee. A beautiful beach resort, the sea makes you want more. We set off on an adventurous ride to a small island called Pigeon Island. Shortly afterwards we were assigned a snorkel guide. We quickly noticed that the equipment was very cheap and the guide responded quite indifferent to our questions. We started our tour with our hippie nickis and swimming fins. At first, we didn't see anything we hadn't already seen. Broken reefs, a few fish or often simply no more than two meters ;-).

The guide skillfully ignored us with his long fingernail. On the way back of the small round we were able to see sharks and a sea turtle. A highlight, although we could only recognize this later through our GoPro recordings. Marcel and Irina snorkelled for a second round, then we headed back.

Sam wanted to sponsor us an Ayurveda treatment the next day for the somewhat failed excursion. Sure! Then we went to our accommodation. We should spend the night in a tree house in Sigiriya. It was great! On the way there, we visited a Hindu temple with elephants. Men are only allowed to enter some temples bare-chested and with a sarong. So the guys got undressed and the girls veiled themselves even more. Beautiful complex and the elephants' bow to the gods was a crazy circus act.

The next morning everyone was fit and in a good mood. We went on a village safari.

We started in an ox cart and rode to a beautiful lake. At the lake, we crossed over with a raft and collected water lilies. A brown (poisonous) snake got a paddle when it got too close to our boat. The young boatman made us beautiful necklaces from the water lilies. Cool show performance!

We walked a few meters past fruit and vegetable plantations and a tree house where the locals stay when elephants plunder their rice fields.

Arriving at a small house, we were cooked by two old women over an open fire in a traditional way. We had coconut with chili, lime, and salt on flatbread made from rice flour and coconut. The subsequent tea was delicious and we learned a lot about traditional cuisine. We were allowed to sieve rice and grind flour and watch the traditional palm leaf roofs being braided.

We went to the promised Ayurvedic treatment with loud music in the tuk-tuk. After an ayurvedic herbal tea, our treatment began. It was warm and the oil on the skin felt even warmer. To our delight, we were put into a damp oven where we should simmer for about 15 minutes. Luckily we weren't eaten, maybe that would happen later in Indonesia ;-).

Still a little greasy, we made our way to Kandy. On the way, we stopped at a vegetable wholesale market. There was a lot of activity in the three large halls. The vans lined up, the men diligently loaded their goods, and there was intense debate about the conditions. We stood out next to bananas, onions, cabbage, and chili.

Next, we went to Dambulla to see the famous cave temples. Another highlight for Josi, who loves to visit temples. The ascent was tough in the heat, but the view was worth it. When we arrived at the top, numerous monkeys greeted us. Wrapped in sarongs, we walked on the hot rocks (ouch!) into the caves. It was breathtaking. The atmosphere was magical and the numerous Buddha statues and wall paintings were super beautiful.

We approached Kandy and stopped at the center of Sri Lanka. The four of us walked through an old gate and admired a lonely temple. On the way back to the temple, something incredible happened. Marcel saw a leopard about 200 meters away. The beautiful animal sneaked up on two peacocks, but Marcel, startled by this very rare encounter, was about to ruin dinner with his loud exclamation: LEOPARD !!!! Totally excited about the sighting, we arrived at the car. Sam didn't want to believe us and asked a local who confirmed the animal's presence. WOW! What luck. Leopards are very rare in this area.

We arrived in Kandy late in the evening, which is considered the cultural center of Sri Lanka and appeared clean and bustling.

We ordered pizza from Pizza Hut together with Sam and drank beer and arrack. A convivial evening. Arrack is a special coconut schnapps that tastes like a mixture of rum and whiskey. Arrack with cola is a hit. The twice-distilled arrack is a fine spirit that can be enjoyed neat. Just the right thing for Marcel and Robert.

The next morning we visited the tooth temple from the outside, but 35 € admission seemed a bit too much. In Kandy, we visited the well-kept botanical garden in the morning. We drove through beautiful landscapes further up into the mountains to the tea plantations. Beautiful views, a beautiful Hindu temple, and winding roads shaped our day. Also constant seat changes in the car, as the rear seat was close to filling the sick bags. Arriving in the highlands, the temperatures dropped and it started to rain. A dream after the 35 to 40 °C in Sigiriya. Sam promised us to see at least seven waterfalls during the trip in the highlands. And so it was. We were able to swim or dip our feet in some of them.

Sam organized a visit to one of the famous tea factories of Damro (formerly Lipton). We were initiated into the various quality levels and marveled at the tea production. Quite loud and elaborate.

With a view of the tea plantations, we enjoyed a good tea and then drove towards our accommodation.

The accommodation in Nuwara Eliya was great! Fresh beds, good food, and a picture-perfect view. We were supposed to stay here for three days. Hurray! We enjoyed a good dinner and later embarked on a very special night safari, which we prefer to tell with a lot of enthusiasm in private. Keyword arrack.

Day No. 2 in the highlands. Today it should be wet inside and out ;-).

We drove through crazy serpentine roads towards the valley. Arriving at a castle, a tea tasting was prepared for us. A woman explained the different varieties, methods of preparation, and gave us samples. Among others, the extremely tasty but also very expensive white tea. We were wet from the inside!

Further down in the valley, we were supposed to get wet from the outside. We went whitewater rafting... Woo! Woo!

Equipped with helmets and paddles, we walked to the water and received specific instructions on the jungle river in the inflatable boat. Ready, set, go!

GoPro on! And action... J

First calm, then really fast again. We got wet and had a lot of fun.

A highlight was the finale. We jumped out of the boat into the river and let ourselves float with the life jackets. What fun!

We drove the two hours back and were looking forward to a quiet evening because the next morning we 'wanted' to get up at 5 o'clock.

We started almost on time towards Horton Plains. Horton Plains is the only nature reserve in Sri Lanka that can be walked on foot. It was a steep climb with tight turns, and when we almost reached the top, we took the time to watch the sunrise. It was almost cold. We started our small hiking tour to Worlds End and back. We hiked for 5 hours. The highlight of the park for us was the "Little World's End," a very steep gorge with a wonderful view of the neighboring mountains. The sun came out and it got warm. We arrived at the starting point around 12 o'clock, where Sam was waiting for us.

We decided to take some wind out of our sails and relaxed at the accommodation, while Irina, Marcel, and Robert were chauffeured around the lake near the accommodation in the evening. Josi had a stomachache (oh, always this spicy food). Or Josi had drunk too much milk from the Highlands dairy where we bought our favorite milk with vanilla or cocoa flavor.

From now on, the program was supposed to slow down a bit. A world trip can be quite stressful ;-).

The next morning started again with a good breakfast.

Sam had reserved the best seats for us in a train from Nuwara Eliya to Ella. Typical Sam - only the best in the panorama car for his favorites.

We drove through the beautiful highlands of Sri Lanka in an old German locomotive. The technology was from colonial times and no new tracks had been laid since then.

The picturesque journey through the numerous tea plantations, past schools and the everyday life of the people ended punctually in Ella. The German Railway can learn from that ;-). Sam picked us up from the station in Ella and we drove to the largest waterfall in Sri Lanka. Well, unfortunately, it wasn't worth it.

After that, we moved into our new hotel for only one night - "The View". And that's exactly what it looked like. The most beautiful view of the entire trip. A pool with a view of the mountains invited us to refresh. Dreamlike. Due to a mishap with the reservation, we only stayed one night. It wasn't so bad, we were in the mood for the sea anyway. In the evening, we went to a hip restaurant and enjoyed pasta and tapas.

On September 16, we drove with Sam towards Unawatuna. On the way, we visited a beautiful and famous railway bridge called the Nine Arches Bridge and a waterfall again. The drive to Unawatuna was beautiful. We saw a few more elephants on the roadside and were then glad to have arrived at our new accommodation with Olivier, a crazy Frenchman, after a 5-hour drive. Here we said goodbye for now to Sam, whom we lovingly called "Papa Bear".

We are currently sitting on a train in Indonesia. So our blog is exactly one month behind schedule.

We had imagined that we would always be up to date and have plenty of time for blog posts. But you can only dream of that. We have already met so many nice people with whom we prefer to spend the evening rather than with the laptop on our laps.

Stay tuned... Josefine & Robert