Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka II

Today I have few extra experience about Sri Lanka:

The cities in Sri Lanka were not anything special. Kandy was one of the nicest ones. We spent two nights there and we tried some restaurants, we were walking and then we continued. I thought that I would not like being in the centre of Sri Lanka and I would prefer being near to the sea in the first place. Honestly, I have to admit that part in the centre of Sri Lanka was amazing as well! For instance, we decided to climb up to the big famous stone. In fact, there were two of them. I don’t remember the name of the first one but we went to Sygiria. Someone already told us that the stones are almost same except for the fact that there is a fee to enter the first one. Of course we chose not to pay and we visited the one for free. It was such a nice trip. We were climbing up and when we reached the peak we had a stunning view. I never experienced this. There was only landscape surrounding us and then nothing. I could get enough of it. It was unforgettable experience for me.

We were travelling mostly with tuk tuk but when we needed to move further we had to use a bus or a train. The bus is quite funny thing in Sri Lanka.There are no binding schedules for buses. When we wanted to use it, we went directly to the bus station and we asked each driver where they went. Sometimes it even happened to us that they told us wrong direction not to bother with us. Once we found the right bus nobody knew what time it was supposed to get going. Therefore, we were waiting in front of it or we went inside. There was no air-conditioner in the bus. I felt awful inside. When the driver decided to go, the bus went. We of course did not know about this before. Such an inconvenient surprise. As we were tourist they always charged us more than normal citizens. Once we asked another man from Sri Lanka how much he paid and it was less than we did. They did not care about our backpacks at all and they always threw it somewhere with space. It was always a big experience to travel with the bus.

Opposite situation was with the train. They did not have doors there. If you managed to take a place at the door you could seat there with legs put out of the door and you could watch the landscape around. It was an amazing experience to lean out of the door and watch properly everything. On the other side, it happened few times that the train was totally full and we had to stand three hours which was terrible. They also had three classes to buy for the train. It was not same as in the Czech Republic where the first one is business class with better service. Sometimes the only difference was less people and doors. We never knew what to buy. After all, we preferred using the big car because we were seven people and travelling in it was more comfortable.

Since beginning I was keen on seeing free elephants in nature. We heard about one place where there were any of them and you could even feed them or watch them bathing. Nevertheless, my friend´s friend said that when she was there it was not nice because the elephants were not free at all. They were tied whole time and it was not same as it was described in the guide. That´s why we skipped this place and I was hoping to find another one. I thought that elephants would walk normally everywhere without the ropes and it was not like that at all. During our travelling the driver of tuk tuk recommended us one place where we can take a ride on elephant. When we got there we were all staring. It was not nice as it could see. In 30 degrees weather the elephant had to take a big basket for 6 people and he was forced to do a walk with them on his back. We could immediately see he did not like it. The worst thing was that if he did not want to listen to the people they just stabbed him to his leg. When we all saw it we did not want to take a ride on him anymore. After long consideration few of us went up and did it. I did not like harming the elephant at all but the thing was that even if we did not take a ride on him they would continue with harming him no matter what. In the end it was a great experience.

There were many experiences during this trip. Another one is about the highest peak in Sri Lanka – Adam´s peak. Since beginning, we were determined to climb to the mountain because we wanted to do this trip. On the internet, we read a lot of positive information about it such us that there is a stunning view that is definitely worth seeing. They also mentioned that the best time to climb there is in a very morning because you can see a sunset and view is amazing. Therefore, my friends suggested we could start going at 2 am to be there on time – at 5 am. I did not agree but on the other side I did not want to stay home alone so I decided to go with them.

I can say that it was the worst idea ever. Since it was quite cold around 2 am, we had to wear a jacket. When I heard my alarm I was so unhappy! I did not want to get up at all. I just wanted to stay sleeping. Although I was just saying to myself: “You are abroad. You should enjoy your staying at maximum.” And we were heading to the top. Unfortunately, it was really cold and moreover, it started to rain immediately we started going. Normally, I like trips like this but it was different this time. I did not expect to climb the stairs whole time!!!! It was crazy. For the first time in my life I saw so many stairs. Basically, we were climbing the stairs all the time. It was endless. I was so desperate. My legs already hurt after few minutes of walking. I was counting the stairs but it did not help at all. It was funny but after two hours it was terrible. If the weather was nice, it would be the way better but unfortunately, the weather was shitty and I did not like it much. I was freezing, I was just climbing the stairs, everything was wet and it was dark. At least we were hoping to see the sunset.

Nevertheless, when we climbed up to the hill we were there too early. It was around 4.30 am and the sunset was supposed to be at 5.30 or 6 am. It was never ending. We all were just freezing and waiting. There were many people. It was awful for me! I just wanted to be inside to make myself warm! The only good thing was that we were trying to warm ourselves so we were hugging whole time. I think I even fell asleep while standing there. After two hours we recognized we were not going to see the sunset. It was so sad because we were supposed to see that beauty but due to bad weather we did not. Anyways, my body hurt for a long time.

To sum up, Sri Lanka was epic and I am going to do similar trips for sure!