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hello all,
we are in Hikkaduwa now, i was going to wait until the end of sri lanka before updating this again, however its raining heavily today for some reason and there isnt much to do here other than watersports, which isnt much fun today as its so muggy and humid due to the down-pours. so instead ive found a very cheap internet cafe with air conditioning!!
17/02/2009
After seeing the various factories in kandy such as the jem stones, fabric design and the wood calving place, which i would have hapily stayed in for a few days! we headed for kandy town itself. what a crazy place! morgan found a KFC which i decided not to trust and headed for a street market to buy some vegetable somsoas. i gave the man 50RS- about 30p and was expecting just one, and ended up with about 6 or 7 wraped up in a paper bag made from old newspaper. they tasted so so good. hugo got a tailor to make him a shirt from charcoal linen, and morgan bought a red and gold sari. i found a sri lankan friend with a suzuki GS500s which i talked to about england and motorbikes whilst hugo haggled for their clothes in the market.
that evening we went to the Kandy dance, which was amazing, very harsh drumming and mezmorizing dancers, it was a fantastic show with fire breathing and fire walking. afterweards we went to the temple of the tooth, a breath taking building, for the night ceromony. it was very spiritual, with only 2 or 3 other westerners and the rest sri lankans.
18/02/2009
We set off early from our hotel in Kandy to get to the elephant orphanage near Rambulla. it was incredible to see as many as 70 elephants walking up a vast expance of shallow, riverbed, in the blazing sun. they ranged from 1year old to 50 or 60. they washed in the river whilst some bulls tryed to mount their mates, but the magority failing miserably. you might guess that i enjoyed that most!!
we drove to our next guesthouse, not expecting anything nearly as nice as our kandy hotel. however, Ivan our legend driver, did it agian. a remote guest house in the hills of sri lanka near Rambulla. the room had a balcony with huge views of the waterfalls and a natural swimming pool down some stairs from the room.
19/02/2009
We visited a tea plantation half way along the journey to Adams Peak. it was incredible to see how these factories work, completely unchanged since they were built in the late 19th century. crude machienery and hard working men and woman churned out 7 differnt types of tea. we tasted it, but as you know i hate tea so didnt participate too heavily.
we arrived at the small purpose built village below adams peak at around 4 in the afternoon. Adams peak it the highest point in sri lanka standing 2500m above sea level. it was huge! at the top is a buhddist temple. there are 5200 steps which wined their way to the top lit by lanterns. the pilgrimage runs for 6 months of the day, with many sri lankan people doing it with there families.
we bought a jumper for less than a puond and after a small dinner, we hit the sack for a couple of hours shuteye before our alarm got us up at 2.00am to start the pilgrimage. it was beautiful walking with sri lankans of all ages moving at there own speed. it was the hardest walk i have ever done withe the gradient inceasing all the time and the leg burn becoming unbarable. we stopped at the numerous tea shaks built on the side of the mountain to rest. We finally reached the top after around 3 hours of hard graft. the guide book said between 2and a half and 5 hours is good, so we were pleased. the temple is not open, its a dakkoba which are solid, you just pray outside it. the path surrounding the temple was covered in sri lankans curled up under blankets with gloves and hats on, shying from the bitter cold wind. we took part in the festering in a cubby hole by a rock. we rested and shivered until 6 o'clock when we all watched the sun rise. it was a fantastic feeling when everyone was together, with similar vibes to a festival. The sence of achievement was made real when we began our decent back down the stairs. the cloud cleared slowly as we decended below the cloud level and slowly the rays of sun beamed through and lit the lake at the bottom. it looked unreal, and i will try to put sdome pictures up soon.
At the bottom, we rested for the morning after breakfast and i did some washing. i made a makeshift washing line on the roof of our geust house and also helped a lady hang some bed sheets to dry. she was very pleased.
21/02/2009
Fully rested after the epik walk, we started our decent along winding roads out of the mountainous regions of sri lanka. this was a time i was very glad to have such a good driver, who navigated us seamlessly to a little shed about 100KM alond this road. we stopped here to do some white water rafting which was crazy!! but great fun. we had lunch and continued our long drive to Hikkaduwa.
We arrived at Ivans best mates hotel at about 6 that evening. where we were shown our room. we gave Ivan the legend a bottle of Arrak - coconut rum, local to sri lanka to say thanks for a great time. we invited him to the table for dinner, and we chatted about the trip and our families over several glasses of beer, and soda water wiuth arrak. Ivans friend- the manager layed on loads of sri lankan snacks and a prawn curry, which we all ate together with the manager, all the bar staff and the old wrinkled one toothed chef. we made many toasts, followed by glasses of Arrak and had a brilliant night. ivan invited us to his house to meet his family and to eat some curry on the 25th of feb when we are back in Negombo before our flight on the 27th.
22/02/09
today we relaxed on the beach and hot over our hangovers by snorkelling in the sea looking at the coral, and hugo and i got a full body massage. we went out for some food, and met a surfer dude who invited us to see his geust house along the beach as is seemed alot cheaper than the polace we were at. it turned out to be very nice so we have checked in there today (23rd) for two nights.
thats about it from me!! next time i will write i will be in india!! unless i come back here later to upload some photos, as it seems to have very fast internet connection!!
hope all is well, speak again soon,
lots of love, Matt. xxx
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