Sri Lanka to Home!!

We arrived at Colombo in Sri Lanka after leaving Varkala at 5am, and then a 1 hour flight.  It then was a 4 hour drive to Unawatuna where we had booked accommodation at the Pink Elephant.  By the time we arrived it was quite late, so we grabbed a meal of garlic prawns and then hit the sack.  With a lovely view from the balcony….

The beach at Unawatuna was very pretty but we had heard there was better up the coast, so arranged to head there to check it out.  The whole drive was along the beach road which was totally beautiful, there was bay after bay and each one a little prettier than the one before.  Sri Lanka looks a lot like India except it is much cleaner and the water is crystal clear.  Sri Lanka was quite badly affected by the tsunami and there are a lot of half demolished brick buildings along the coast.  Because there is so much coastline there are some big resorts with private beaches but there are also almost deserted beaches. 

Before we got to the beach we were heading for we stopped at the turtle hatchery.  This is based just off one of the beaches that the turtles come to lay their eggs on.  The centre which is manned by volunteers go down to the beach once the turtles have laid and collect up the eggs.  They then bury them in sand on their own plot of land, they wait for them to hatch and them keep them in tanks for a couple of weeks.  Once they are2 weeks old they are released into the sea to live wild.  The centre also buy the eggs from the locals who try to steal them from the beach.  It was a really fascinating place and the baby turtles were so cute.

There are five varieties of Sea Turtles found in Sri Lanka, and the centre had some of all of them, Olive Ridley Turtle, Green Turtle, Loggerhead Turtle, Hawksbill Turtle and the Leatherhead Turtle.  The centre also takes in injured turtles and tries to treat them and release them, although there are some that unfortunately cannot be released.  This because they would not survive with their injuries, one in particular was quite a character, you can see that he has lost a flipper.  This means he cannot dive, therefore in the wild he would not be able to feed. 

The work these people is really important, and it is really nice to see the locals doing something to protect their natural wonders.  If you would like to know more or support them here is the website - http://seaturtlefarm.org/

After spending what might be considered too long gushing over baby turtles we eventually made it to the beach.  The waves were really big and while Craig enjoyed getting chucked around in the sea, I got some much needed sun.

We got about two hours of sun, before the epic clouds came over, it looked like something out of independence day, and then the heavens opened.  We soon learnt that it did this everyday at about 2-3pm, but it was pretty impressive.  We jumped into our tuk tuk, which luckily came with button on waterproof sides, and headed back to Unawatuna, with our trusty driver…..

We spent the next couple of days on Unawatuna beach, which is beautiful but quite busy and there are loads of really pushy hawkers

Sri Lanka has some really nice souvenirs, some a bit more unique than in India and certainly quite a bit better made.  I bought a few silk bits and two really lovely leather chairs, which are now taking pride of place in our new flat.

Later on that week we heard about Jungle beach, which was meant to be a bit quieter, so we made the epic trek there.  It was quite a lovely walk, if very hot walk, but we saw a few monitor lizards..

And our first view of jungle beach…

Now jungle beach was quite quiet and it was totally beautiful, the only things letting it down were the amounts of rubbish (not that different to India), and the view of Galle City on the other side of the bay.

But I did get some of the best bits on camera too….

Just as the massive clouds started to gather and we thought about heading back we saw some monkeys just in the trees behind the beach, they were a troupe of purple faced lagurs.  They ran away I soon as I noticed them so no pictures but I did steal this one from google, because I just had to show you how cute they were, like little old men…

The following day we went with our slightly stalkerish tuk tuk driver to the tea plantation.  But not any tea plantation, no, this was Handunugoda, the Virgin White Tea Plantation.  It was a fascinating experience and a lovely drive through some small villages to get there.

Handunugoda is a 200 acre property, that grows tea, rubber, cinnamon, pepper and coconuts, its also a wildlife reserve due to the conditions being like a jungle.  There are peacock, porcupine, deer and monkeys.  There is no entry fee and you get treated to tea and cakes on the veranda while a very knowledgeable guide talks you through the tea making process.

First you take a tour around the plantation, which is full of fascinating plants…..

Including the famous Virgin white tea.  This is the most expensive tea in the world, it is cut by golden scissors and is untouched by the human hand.

                        

Then it was onto the tea factory, now despite being a massive tea drinker I had no idea how it was made.  This factory uses all the old fashioned machines and it was really interesting to see them working.

Last of all was the tea tasting, there must have been about 30 different types to try.  Amazingly enough neither of us liked the very expensive Virgin White tea at $1500 per Kilo!  We opted for the much more reasonable Rainforest tea, and a book about the origins of the plantation, which are really fascinating.

The guy that wrote the book has had the plantation in his family for the last 150 years.  It was part of a larger plantation of 2200 acres which was nationalised in 1974, 1000 acres were taken over by the Government when the British Plantations were nationalised.  Another 1000 acres was lost by the Grandfather on the roll of the dice, he was President of the suicide club, so called because it was a purely informal association of gamblers.  There are now 200 acres left of the plantation, but it is a working living museum.  A very interesting trip it was too. 

On the way home our tuk tuk driver suggested stopping at his home, as they often do.  We have mixed feelings about this, as it inevitably means that his wife is running around like a blue thingyed fly tidying the house, and making some sort of homemade treat, and tidying the children.  Just because hubby has decided to bring some tourists home, its all bit odd, but he was very persistent so we went.  It was very pleasant, they lived in some houses donated by the Dutch after the tsunami, as their house on the beach had been washed away.  He told us about the tsunami and his fear at seeing the water continue to rise around him.  He also echoed another story that we had heard in Indonesia.  This was that just before the tsunami hit the tide went right out, at that point a lot of people rushed down to the sand to harvest whatever exposed sea creatures were there.  This of course was the cause of a lot of deaths in this area, luckily our tuk tuk driver and his family got to safety.  There seems to be a lot of help from the Dutch went into this area and people are very grateful to them for providing them with homes for life.  People here are a lot like the other countries that we have been, that when dreadful things happen they an unwavering (and sometimes a little unnerving), positivity.  We at home could learn a lot of from them.  Anyway lecture aside, we had a lovely time, tea, biscuits, photos of their wedding and introductions to their daughter and the boy from next door.  Who absolutely insisted on having his picture taken at least 20 times, until I sat on my camera, and hid my sunnies.

The last couple of days we spent on the beach and searching the right move app to try and set up viewings for our return.  A few mornings when we have been having breakfast we have seen turtles swimming really close to the beach, and right up behind people.  There seem to be quite a few of them about this bay, and on our last day, one came up behind Craig less than a foot away.  It was quite amazing on our last day there, he was just swimming and turned around and there he was, obviously I was too slow with the camera.  Although the turtle did stick around for a couple of hours, each time he came up it was too quick to catch him, though I did spend a good couple of hours trying.  We has also spent a lot of the day collecting shells, Shiva eyes to be precise, I have no idea why there were so many, as they had not been there before.  But pretty soon everyone was in on the action, and due to edging closer and closer to the sea and very large chunks of loose coral we both got some pretty badly bruised ankles.  But it was all worth it and to top it all off again we saw the monkeys in the trees behind the beach before we headed back to the hotel for the last time. 

That night was a very surreal feeling, and the following morning, it was beyond weird driving to the airport for the last time.  I don’t think it quite hit that we were going home until we landed on the runway at Heathrow………………

So thats it, as you all know we have been home four weeks now, and I have obviously been in denial about doing the last post.  We got a flat sorted very quickly, and it is lovely, got a car too.  Going back to work was pretty rough and I am still adjusting to that, but I know it will take some time.  

Now we have been back a while it is starting to feel like it was all a dream, but we have 15,000+ photos and a few days worth of video to prove that it was not.  It has been lovely to see our families and friends that we have missed heaps, and it was the best feeling to see mum standing at the gate when we arrived at Heathrow.  You cant beat seeing mum to feel like your home!!!

Obviously the trip was amazing, and although we are back we are both going to try to carry the lessons that we have learnt with us.  For me the best bits of the trip were meeting the wild gibbons in Indonesia and spending time with the female detainees in Varanasi.  Craig's best bits were the caves, particularly the Cathedral type ones in Vietnam, and the adrenaline sports that we did, firstly the zip-line.  Snorkeling with the turtles was amazing and we felt very privileged to meet the Orangutans in Sumatra and all the people that told us their stories about the tsunami.  All those were truly once in a lifetime experiences, amongst so many others.  We met amazing, inspirational people everywhere we went, travellers and locals, and saw some of the most amazing views I will ever see in our lives.

I hope you have all enjoyed our adventure, although as I am sure most of you have realised just because you have read all about it, we will still continue to tell you all about it again.  So that is it for now, but definitely not for ever, watch this space as they say, but probably not for a few years!!!