Colombo.

Unfortunately, our itinerary required us to stay our very last night in Sri Lanka in Colombo. We had been dreading this portion of the trip after hearing about our friends’ experiences there. The touts were aggressive, the hotel (that we had also booked) was dirty, there’s nothing to see… etc.

When we boarded the train to Colombo, our expectations were pretty low.

Turns out, it wasn’t so bad. Our hotel room was the nicest one yet (hot water, water pressure, clean linens, mini fridge, flat screen, AC), and the touts more or less left us alone. We relaxed in our room (watching bad tv) until check out. Then we visited Paradise Road (our friends’ recommendation) for a bit of shopping and a very expensive (but delicious) lunch.

Unfortunately, we were swindled by our driver as we were dropped off at the airport. But why let that ruin an amazing trip?

xo, jill

Back to the beach!

After visiting Udawalawe, we ended up in an inconvenient part of the country. The route the locals kept recommending was to travel quite a distance to Ella, and then take a 12 hour train ride back to Colombo. We thought it over. Then went back to the beach!

Despite our hotel assuring us that a tuk tuk ride to Matara would be out of the question, we decided to do it anyway. Surprisingly, it was the shortest and smoothest of all of our extended tuk tuk rides. The plan was to stay two nights in nearby Mirissa and take the train back to Colombo from Matara (only 4 hours).

I think we made the right decision.

Mirissa is a tourist town that lets you forget it’s a tourist town. The hotels and restaurants are built back in the trees so when you look out at the beach you see… the beach. We spent our time relaxing, taking walks, and playing in the water.

It was the perfect way to end our trip.

xo, jill

Unless you want more tarantula?

Our next stop in Sri Lanka was a visit to Udawalawe National Park. The park reserves 119 square miles for the wildlife that was displaced due to the construction of a nearby reservoir.

We arrived bright and early with high hopes for viewing elephants. We weren’t disappointed.

I love seeing animals in their natural habitat. I couldn’t help but think of the elephants I’d see in childhood at the Oregon Zoo. The indoor viewing room was brutal.

In addition to seeing elephants we also saw a few peacocks, parakeets, water buffalo, a baby crocodile, an elk, and an eagle (of sorts).

We had a surprise guest in out hotel room this time around as well. Don’t worry, this one was a bit less creepy.

And the monkey family living in the trees just above our balcony was pretty cute too.

xo, jill

PS. Can I just take this minute to once again implore you: Please don’t ride the elephants!

Or “We have a WHAT in our bathroom?”

After a not-too-sound of sleep, I was ready for our early morning rainforest trek. I was excited to see some wildlife but feeling a bit wary of leeches. I cannot think of a more disgusting pest.

A short tuk tuk ride later, we had met up with our guide and were good to go. First step to entering the rainforest: Salting your shoes and socks. The salt keeps the leeches away and I was keen to keep the leeches away.

Our early arrival allowed for us to see quite a bit of wildlife. We saw a snail, several millipedes, a viper, a few chameleons, several monkeys, and a tarantula.

Seeing the tarantula settled a bit of curiosity we’d had since arriving at our hotel. While checking out the bathroom I noticed something. I called Mike in for a look. I believe my exact words were, “Hey Mike? Are you afraid of spiders? Because we have a pretty big one in here.” Take note of how calm I sounded there. Although Mike is not afraid of spiders… the look on his face was priceless. I’ll leave it at that.

After discovering our house guest we kept the bathroom door firmly closed. Every so often we’d do a little check to see what he was up to. One of his favorite hangouts was the toilet. Kind of inconvenient. At dinner we asked the proprietress if any poisonous spiders lived nearby. She assured us they did not. We weren’t too worried. In fact, we put our hands right up next to the spider for photos to show its giant size. No big deal. Then we showed our rainforest guide our friend… he chunkled. “Tarantula!” Oh. Ooops! I wasn’t too sad to leave that hotel behind.

But back to the hike… it was a nice quiet walk in the woods. We were seeing wildlife and learning valuable information about the guest living in our bathroom. Then we reached the river. The guide looked at me and said, “Now. We cross. No trousers.” “Um, no trousers?” “No trousers.” “Oohhkaay… no trousers.” We decided to just change into our swimsuits in anticipation of a planned swim further down the trail. A little privacy would have been nice. Despite my attempts to convince Mike that the guide was not watching him… he was totally watching him. Kind of awkward. Kind of whatever.

Reaching the waterfall was worth dropping trou in front of a stranger. The water was a bit chilly but nice to swim in. Sticking my wet legs back into my jeans? Not so pleasant.

After the hike we went back to our hotel to rest, have lunch, and bid farewell to our pet tarantula. We were off to see some elephants!

xo, jill

…and in style.

After a nice breakfast (I ate a lot of toast in Sri Lanka), it was time to say goodbye to the beach. It wasn’t easy to leave behind these pretty waters, but we were ready for some inland adventure.

Apparently, the route we chose wasn’t too popular with tourists. The transportation options were a bit limited, but we were encouraged by our hotel owner’s excitement that we’d see beautiful landscapes. We ended up taking quite the tuk tuk ride… about 3 hours. I couldn’t stop giggling over how ridiculous (and uncomfortable) it would be to take a tuk tuk so far.

When we got a bit closer to our destination, we asked to be taken to a nearby waterfall. That was a challenge. The tuk tuk ripped down what looked more like footpaths than roads. If there had once been pavement, it had been washed out long ago with only random chunks remaining. I kept thinking surely he’d make us get out and walk… but nope. Only when the path entered the bushes did the tuk tuk driver give up. We walked the rest of the way to the peaceful falls.

After the waterfall we continued on our way the Rainforest Lodge. Once again the tuk tuk amazed me by commanding the rough roads, and once again we had to get out and walk the remaining steps to our destination. The lodge is located on the edge of the jungle in the middle of a tea plantation. It is only accessible by foot and boasts amazing views.

Shortly after our arrival the rain began to fall. Now, if you’re currently living in the Pacific Northwest, that might sound like a bad thing. But… if you live in the Middle East… rain is quite the thrill. We did a little a dance.

We spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing. Mike did a little exploring around the grounds until the leeches drove him back inside. Those things are gross. You can imagine how excited I was for our potentially wet rainforest hike the next morning…

xo, jill