TRAVEL: Sri Lanka (2018)
I love going away on a holiday for my birthday. What’s a better way to spend the day than being away from work, relaxing under the warm sun, and enjoying good food and good company?To be honest, Sri Lanka was not my first choice of destination for my birthday this year. I was hoping to spend some time in Melbourne (or any city in Australia) instead. But after watching some travel videos on Youtube and some convincing from my partner, I decided to give it a go.Now, I’m completely sold and I am already looking forward to returning for another trip. My favourite things about Sri Lanka are the friendly locals, the delicious curries, and their aromatic teas. I am not a huge travel blogger, but I thought it would be nice to share some of the places we went to, things we did in, outfits I wore and snaps I took...
Colombo
We spent only 1 night in Colombo and I’m sure that’s all you need. Colombo is such a large, busy city and we just didn’t think we needed that since we were coming from Singapore! Our first dinner was at a Sri Lankan buffet at Nuga Gama at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel where we discovered hoppers and my love for unsweetened ginger tea. It's a little pricey compared to everything else you could have (since it's located in a hotel), but it was such a beautiful alfresco dining experience and it gave us a good introduction to Sri Lankan cuisine for us.
Kandy
We travelled to Kandy from Colombo via the train. Our first class tickets were purchased in advance via the Visit Sri Lankan Tours website. After we arrived in Kandy, we took a tuk-tuk to get to our accommodation, the Mountbatten Bungalow. This is where we spent most of our time in Kandy.
There’s a pool and fully-equipped kitchen. Everything we needed was available here (WiFi included) and we enjoyed all the hours we spent lazing at the pool under the sun. Of course, I also spent some time to knit my Beauty School Turban (pattern by Amy Appel on Ravelry) by the poolside!
Galle
Our next big stop was Galle Fort. We travelled from Kandy back to Colombo via train, and then hired a car to take us to Galle from the Colombo Railway Station. We would have loved to enjoy a scenic train ride from Colombo to Galle. Alas, the timing didn’t match up and we didn’t have many days planned our for this entire trip, so a hired car was the most time efficient method of travelling.
We stayed at the Rampart View Guesthouse, in a cosy room that was located right next to the fort. We loved taking walks along the fort in the morning and watching the sunset in the evening.
There were also many restaurants and cafes that are worth visiting within the fort. My favourite tea place was a little “dive” tea shop called Royal Dutch Cafe. They were so many different types of tea available from the menu, and the tea I ordered came in a beautiful teapot in red and gold. Of course, the tea was brewed to perfection, like all the other pots of tea I had in Sri Lanka.
We also spent an afternoon at the Unawatuna Beach near Galle where I got harassed by a little monkey kept in chains called "Lala" and bought some peanuts from a toothless septuagenarian.
Matara
While we were in Galle Fort, we realised that we had more time in the area than we thought, so we decided to take a little day trip out of Galle to another nearby town. We ended up taking a train to Matara for a walk along the beach and some restaurants. As we didn't have any train tickets booked beforehand, we ended up purchasing second-class tickets which was only about SGD0.70 each.
We had a delicious lunch at The Doctor's House and briefly discussed the possibility of us abandoning our city lives and live in a quiet town like Matara. The conclusion was that we simply could not live the life of a beach bum.And so, here we are, back at our city lives in Singapore.SaveSave