Sri Lanka Made Me Fall In Love With Travelling
The decision to visit Sri Lanka was a sudden one. Because I had always wanted my first international trip to be to Bali but then we could only have a quick vacation because of work and my two furry babies at home.
I’ve always been a fan of planning trips. It gets me very excited and makes me go into Monica Geller's level of meticulous organization and planning. The sticky notes and the notebooks come out with a dozen travel blog tabs open on my computer.
That’s why I don’t get it when people go to travel agencies to choose a package and just follow the itinerary they paid for (more than they should’ve).
When to Go
Sri Lanka has two different monsoon seasons. The east coast gets rain from October to February and the monsoon in the west and south-west coasts falls between May and September.
This makes November to March a peak time for tourists visiting the west coast. The western part of Sri Lanka has your cities like Colombo, Kandy, Negombo, Bentota and Galle. So we picked August as an ideal month for our travel to this part of Sri Lanka. With the monsoon receding and the ongoing Festival of the Tooth in Kandy, it was perfect for us.
How to Go
Book a flight at least two months in advance. Since this is considered off-season the tickets cost us 24000 INR for two people. (I did the blunder of booking our return tickets on 15th August which is Independence Day here in India which increased my return fare substantially)
Day 1: First Evening in Colombo
The flight was in the evening and after a no-hassle journey, we reached Bandaranaike International Airport, Colombo at 7:40 pm. Make sure you get the ETA( Electronic Transport Agreement ) before from the website to save the hassle of standing in a queue and paying more for the on-arrival visa.
Also, you can buy a Sri Lankan SIM card in the airport for a mere 400 INR(5 USD) which gives you 4 GB of data and few minutes of local and international calls.
You can hail a prepaid taxi or book an Uber from the airport.
We reached our Airbnb in an hour since the expressway offers your a smooth ride to the city. (Sigh. I wish Bangalore had something like that)
We headed for dinner to Sushi Kai for some Ramen and Sushi. It was such a pleasure to eat some hot chicken Ramen as the first food in a new country. The sushi was so good since the seafood was fresh.
Day 2: Exploring Colombo
I woke up early morning and went on a run to explore the neighborhood. Although a bit apprehensive about running alone I wanted to enjoy the neighborhood in all its morning glory.
We stayed in Colombo 05 and it was a very posh area and made running a joy. After Anirudh woke up we headed to Java Lounge for some delicious breakfast.
We took an Uber to Gangaramaya Temple. It was bizarre in the kind of things it exhibited. From cars to toys to Buddha statues of varied sizes and types. It was an interesting 30 minutes we spent there. We got to see the sacred hair relic of Buddha and click some pics.
Any Buddha temple you visit in Sri Lanka make sure that the women cover their shoulders and legs. Men are required to wear full-length pants and not expose their legs.
After this, we headed to Pettah. It’s a very big market with wholesalers and retailers selling textiles, electronics, etc., Didn’t buy anything since I didn’t know how to buy yards of cloth.
Anirudh ended up spotting a LED Chelsea fidget spinner and bought it with delight. You need to haggle if you decide to purchase something. They tend to quote really high prices once they realize you’re not from around here.
The plan was to reserve train tickets to go to Bentota and Kandy. After we reached what looked like a stranded railway station, we were informed that there’s an ongoing Railway Strike by the employees and train services might not start for another two to three days.
After what was a long walk in the hot and humid afternoon of Colombo we reached the Pettah Bus Stand to catch a bus to Negombo to take a riverboat tour by Sarath Boat Tours.
Negombo can be reached by bus (plenty of AC buses available) in 90 minutes. Make sure you take the buses that take the expressway. These will take you to Negombo much faster than the other buses.
Negombo also has Uber so getting to Summer Side Residence wasn’t an issue. We started our boat tour at 3 pm since it was just the two of us in a 6 seat motorboat. The boat takes you through the Dutch Canal to the Maha Oya river and a narrow channel where the river meets the Indian Ocean. There are a lot of birds like Kingfisher, Water Hen, etc., to be spotted. You will also see Water Monitor and Iguanas here. This tour is of 2 hours duration which also involves a tour of the toddy-making process. It’s a treat to watch toddy being collected from the tall trees. You get to taste it too. The sunset across the ocean is breathtakingly beautiful.
We picked dinner from Isso and wine from Food City. The prawn meal box was on the spicier side but delicious at the same time.
Day 3: Galle Face Beach
This was the day when we had planned for Bentota beach but a bus ride would be too hectic for a day trip. So we decided to just explore Colombo.
Went to Upali’s for an early lunch. It is a must to go place in Colombo if you’re looking to taste Sri Lankan cuisine. We ordered Kotthu Paratha, Squid curry, Kade bread, and the famous EGB Ginger Beer.
In the evening we headed to Galle Face Beach and enjoyed the sunset at the Galle Face Hotel. It’s a great place to walk and enjoy a drink. There are some good cafes with live music. There were kids flying kites and a lot of Sri Lankan street food stalls.
That was followed by a very nice walk near our Airbnb and some bubble tea for dinner.
Day 4: Colombo to Kandy
We checked out of our Airbnb to catch a bus to Kandy. Without any access to trains, a private bus was our next best option.
If you ever want to travel to Kandy from Colombo and have the option of trains then do avoid buses. They don’t have space for your luggage and take a ridiculous amount of time to reach Kandy.
We took more than 5 hours cramped up in an uncomfortable bus to reach Kandy at around 3:30 pm. Since there is no Uber here, Tuktuks are your best mode of travel. There are buses here but reading the signboard and understanding where they are going becomes difficult.
Be ready to pay as much as the TukTuks ask since they rarely accept the fare you bargain. Our Airbnb here was on a hill around 2 Km away from Kandy town.
The couple who run this Airbnb is some of the sweetest people we met in Sri Lanka. They go out of their way to accommodate guests and it makes you feel at home in a foreign place.
Since Anirudh wanted to watch his football match we settled in our room for the night and grabbed some KFC dinner along with some nice beer at the nearby supermarket.
Day 5: Exploring Kandy
This was the day we explored Kandy. We visited the Temple of the Tooth, to begin with where I was moral policed because I wore tights.
Do try the breakfast at Lyon’s Restaurant if you want some authentic Sri Lankan breakfast spread.
A tip to people traveling from SAARC countries. Do mention you’re from a SAARC country to get a discount on the ticket prices.
After almost 40 minutes of standing in the queue, to our dismay, the main temple was closed. So we couldn’t see the relic that houses the tooth of Buddha. We proceeded towards the National Museum which exhibits the various personal belongings of the royal families that worshiped and helped preserve the Tooth from around 300 AD.
After this, the next stop was the International Buddhist Museum. This houses various Buddhist sculptures and the stories of Buddhism from various countries where Buddhism is followed. If you’re a history fanatic and have the time you’d easily spend more than 2 hours in here.
You can also grab souvenirs here for a reasonable price.
We went to Cafe 7 which is right next to the temple for lunch and some cold beverages. This cafe mostly caters to tourists and the menu is mostly European.
After this, we headed to Bahirawakanda Vihara Buddha Statue. It’s a 900 m uphill climb if you’re up for that sort of thing and don’t want to take a TukTuk all the way to the top. The Buddha statue and the view from the temple are breathtaking. It gives you a view of the town and the serene Kandy Lake. There’s an entry fee here as well.
Kandy is a beautiful town to explore on foot. It started raining on and off and that added to the beauty of this quaint little town. We did some shopping for the family and headed back to our Airbnb after another round of coffee at Cafe 7.
Day 6: Day trip
Sigiriya
We rented a car from our Airbnb for our day trip to Sigiriya. Sigiriya is around 90 km from Kandy. We left as early as we could wake up since the climb would get difficult if we reached it late. It takes around 2 hours to reach Sigiriya.
Again, you need to show your passport if you want the SAARC country discount for the entry tickets.
The queue to the Mirror Wall and the frescoes which have paintings of many naked women was crazy long. The wind didn’t help the climb either. You’ll see a lot of locals as well as foreigners here. The climb to the top is not at all easy and can prove difficult if you’re not physically active. The view from above is worth that treacherous climb up the narrow iron/steel staircase.
Dambulla
I wanted to see the Dambulla caves which are 19 Km from Sigiriya even though there wasn’t a plan to go there before. The Golden Buddha statue is magnificent. This can be seen at the entrance. But to actually see the cave temple you need to climb a steep flight of 250 stairs from the ticket counter.
The ticket counter is around 800m from the base and is situated on a steep slope. There are TukTuks that will drop you there for 100 LKR. But we just preferred to walk. There are some stalls here which sell good quality cotton t-shirts and kurtas and can be bought after a good bargain.
The cave temple houses a sleeping Buddha and murals on the ceiling of the cave. Each cave had many statues of Buddha and bodhisattvas.
We were spent after all the climb and started back for Kandy town for some spice shopping. The cinnamon from Sri Lanka has a strong flavor and is paper-thin and makes a good addition to teas.
We went to Licensed to Grill for dinner. It is a rooftop cafe and is not very easily visible from the street. This place got great wraps, burgers, and sandwiches. You also get hookah if you want to try that out. All the tiredness of the day vanished after one bite of this finger-licking food.
This was our last night in Kandy.
Day 7: Last Night in Colombo
We took the 10:30 train from Kandy. Make sure you reach the platform as soon as you get the tickets because the train reached the platform early and you will miss out on a seat if you’re not early enough. We reached Colombo by 2 pm. The journey by train is scenic with some very dark tunnels on the way.
We checked into our Airbnb. This was a very beautiful house and we were happy to have the complimentary iced tea.
The evening was spent in the pool in our AirBnB which provided us with the much-needed respite from the heat.
This was our last night in Colombo and we wanted to end it with a great dinner. I had made reservations at the Ministry of Crab second day of our trip and luckily got the table for the 7 pm slot. Reservation is mandatory otherwise you’ll mostly end up missing out on dinner here.
Having never tried crab before Anirudh and I frantically starting looking at video tutorials to learn how to eat a crab. Having gained enough confidence we reached the restaurant hoping for a good experience.
The crab was so delicious that we forgot about how nervous we were a few hours ago and just dug in with our hands and ate all of it with some Kade bread and Garlic bread. The Prawns Bisque we had was extraordinary. For dessert, we ordered a Tender Coconut pannacotta. Do try their Iced Tea Soda.
The 17th century Old Colombo Dutch Hospital which has been converted into a shopping complex houses some really great cafes and pubs. There was a Latin Dance Night in one of the pubs and it was a treat to watch. Unfortunately, we were too full to go to the pub for drinks and headed back to our Airbnb.
Day 8
It was time to say goodbye to Sri Lanka and head home.
Bought few souvenirs from the Airport which were many times more expensive than what I bought in Kandy. So try to buy your souvenirs from the local shops and not the Airport.
Sri Lanka has got the sweetest of people and it felt great to experience the hospitality and the warmth of a country that shares so much of history and culture with India.
