Tropical Surf Tour

From 50 meter Kaiser Hats to relics of The Raj, I’ve been there, seen that & I’m happy back home with my friends, my surfboard & the Indian Ocean’s waves.
After Polonnaruwa I bused to Arnarudhapura. A tuk-tuk took me to Mihintale, the place where Buddhism arrived in Sri-Lanka. It is another impressive hill rising from the plains & a great place to visit at dusk, as I did. My shorts were deemed inappropriate for such a holy place so I was put into a sarong. Luckily there are no decent photos! The highlight was a climb up a big rock formation on top of the hill & taking in the view below: The giant Buddha image (statue) & the huge stupa with the plains far below& the evening star as a backdrop.
Arnarudhapura was more of the same – more ruined ruins than Polon & bigger stupas than Mihintale. As well as this it has the Bodhi tree which is (apparently) a cutting from the original tree under which Buddha became enlightened (does this mean he came up with the idea of gravity after being hit on the head by a falling apple?) over 2000 years ago.
Kandy next & this time I got further than the bus station. I checked into ‘Queen’s’ hotel, a 150 year old fading Raj relic. It was wicked despite being about 10 times more expensive than my usual guesthouses. Still only $35 for a huge, high-ceilinged room in the centre of town, a pool, a huge breakfast & more flunkies than you could shake a stick at. Cheap but rasai (delicious) dinner at another even more faded relic, the ‘Olde Empire’ & then to the mixed Hindu-Buddhist temples which were cool. The high-priest at the Kataragama Devale (He’s met the Dali Lama dontcha know?) blessed me by chanting/singing & gave me a cotton necklace that I’ve to wear for 6 months to ensure good health, luck, the usual. Unfortunately it comes off with my t-shirt every time (despite my best efforts to stop it) so I’ve probably already broken the spell.
Next day I visited the ‘Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic’. I can’t say much for the tooth relic because you don’t actually get to see it. The temple itself I liked a lot. It would fit right into ‘Tenchu’, the Ninja game I was addicted to a few years ago. I then hopped on a train for the long ride ‘home’ to Midigama. Back to surfing morning & evening. Back to conversation. Back to lazing around in the midday shade. Back to laidback happiness

It was the right bus & now I’ve seen the caves at Dambulla, the rock of Sigiriya & some of Polonnaruwa. All these have been interesting but not fantastic. I guess I’ve been spoiled by seeing Siem Reap, it is amazing. The beautiful scenery here more than makes up for it. Flat land with sheer hills rising suddenly up from the jungle. In the early morning they are shrouded in mist & in the late afternoon haze. Dambulla I saw in the afternoon & Sigiriya in the early morning. The views from both were wicked. Sigiriya had some great wildlife too: Bee eaters; daredevil swallows; monkeys; a small pack of friendly dogs & a water snake (bringing my snake total to three).
I’m still amazed by the lack of tourists. I’m writing this at the Polonnaruwa ‘Rest House’ on their terrace overlooking the ‘wewa’ (reservoir). The Lonely Planet says it’s a great place for an afternoon relax/drink & they’re spot-on. But I’ve got the place to myself. I guess civil war isn’t good for business. On that note, the further north I’ve traveled the more roadblocks I’ve seen. There are actually quite funny. They consist of a few barriers that force the traffic to slow down & go through single-file. The barriers are always ‘sponsored’-a local electronics shop or some fruit drink for example & if it wasn’t for the soldiers with machine guns it would just seem like advertising gone mad.
OK, I’ve finished my fruit juice so its time to hop back onto the hired boneshaker & rattle back to the guesthouse for a curry, coffee & kip before my 6 AM start tomorrow :-)

My trip 'upcountry' has got as far as Kandy's 'Cargo Shed'. The road outside is logjammed with hundreds of brightly painted ancient Leyland buses all jostling to get ahead of each other. Full throttle or full brakes, no middle ground. Tuk-tuks watch out & if there's one or many gods I hope it/they is/are looking out for the pedestrians.
The cargo shed is little better but at least some of the buses are stopped. The one I'm on (which all being well will take me to Dambulla) has just been started & is now being revved for no apparent reason. As the bus alongside reversed in rather than sounding a warning beep it played 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' in proper electronic Christmas-card stylee.
Today I started in Ella. I got the early Columbo train & enjoyed breathtaknig scenery as the train ambled between stations. Speed limit signs of 10 KMH were often beside the tracks; the train didn't have to slow too much to meet them.
OK, we're moving now so I'll stop writing & find out if I'm on the right bus.

OK, a quick update while I’m out of surfing action.
I’m still in the guesthouse at Midigama. Its great, so quiet & laidback, like pembrokeshire but warm! We went back to Hik last weekend. It seemed too busy & touristy, which is funny ’cos when I arrived in Midigama I thought it was way too dead..
The weekend in Hik left me feeling rough again despite the fact that I didn’t drink any booze. This led to a day or twos’ break from surfing
The other day we hit Galle which is just as the guidebook says: Great colonial walled town, chaotic new town, lots of touts & general annoying folk wanting a piece of you. Fen got a hammock made (that lasted 5 minutes ‘cos the material was too thin) & I furthered my research into ‘short eats’. This is the name for stuff like samosas that are available all over & are dead good
Down at the guesthouse we’ve seen a couple of cool birds. A few times there’s been a beautiful, bright kingfisher flying about or sat in the trees. The other day a woodpecker came & sat in the tree. He was piebald on the sides & had a bright red cap & back. Dead good. Also we found out that Sri Lanka has roughly 150 species of snakes. Oh, & a gecko fell off the roof & hit Jim on the head!
Surfing-I’ve come back to the reef break of Midigama & have caught some great waves. Unfortunately the last one I caught I should not have paddled for. It bit me (well my fins did) & now I have a scratch up my calf & a gash in my foot. No surfing for about a week
If I get my act together I’ll use this time to visit Kandy & the many ancient cities & monuments of the island.
Hope life’s good with you guys whoever you are & wherever you may be.

Niall

Well here I am travelling for a while :-) I'm in Weligama typing this & its HOT outside! I arrived two Mondays ago after a great last night out in London with a few good mates(& a continuation of the random Cardiff friend theme-there was a random someone I knew in the club, which was odd 'cos London is normally 100% anonymous). After a bit of flu I'm having a ball. I've spent a week in Hikkaduwa surfing a fast break there & lying in hammocks with lots of Pembrokeshire folk.

Now I'm staying in Midigama, which is a much smaller village & is more basic. I'm sharing a room with Fen, a girl from back home & its costing us RS700 a night - that's roughly three pounds fifty! Its a great little place. To get to the beach from our guesthouse you cross a river on a home-made bridge, walk down the railway for about 20m, cross a coconut grove then the road & you're there. Its cool :-) In Midigama there's a really long left reef break with a big, scary take-off. Apparently its deep enough that you won't hurt yourself if you get the take off wrong, which is nice to know ;-) Its not too busy (unlike Hik on a bad day) but it is highly populated by French people.

Today I've been surfing the beach break in Weligama which (today) is very big but not at all scary. It closes out pretty quick so its not the longest ride & makes it difficult to get back out, but its still good.

With all these waves, what am I doing here at a computer I here you ask? Well, there's tonnes of sun & its strong. I'm hiding from the midday heat so I don't have to deal with severe sunburn. Its been cloudy a few days, which is nice, athough it will still burn you given 1/2 a chance. There was a great thunderstorm yesterday, bright lightning & crashing thunder.

The wildlife I've spotted so far is pretty cool: two small snakes, some 'Water Monitors' (Big Lizards that swim), geckos & lizards, some little tropical fish in the river & some big fish in the sea, turtles, a Bittern, some stork-like things, a kingfisher type thing, some big bird-of-prey things, loads of cool butterflys & ants, a giant click-beetle, etc. etc.! There was a thing a bit like a giat gerbil in the bathroom the other day; I left him to it! The other night Fen had a couple of cockroaches inside her mozzie net. She didn't like that much! Read about it here.. www.overthehillsandfaraway.blog.co.uk

Thoughts on Sri Lanka? Beautiful & jungley; a little choatic; very friendly, smiley people; cheap to live in. There's not too much wrong with it so why they insist on having a civil war I don't know :-( Come on everybody, let's just get along :-)

Niall

Pictures to follow!