Nuwara Eliya highlights:
King Fern cottage was an excellent choice: rooms are built into the jungle hillside overlooking a golf course. It serves good food, cold beer and even has a pool table. Victoria park: Otto fell in the lake trying to conquer the stepping stones on his own but the park was lovely. It has a slightly run down play park also which was the first swings and slide action we’ve seen in Sri Lanka. Horses: they’re everywhere. As well as a golf course, Nuwara Eliya is also home to a race track, albeit a dilapidated one. As such, there are lots of stables around and an abundance of ponies wandering tge streets, which made for a change from the cows. Jess took a ride on Best of the Best. I’m unsure if he would have much of a chance at Newmarket but he was about right for our 3yr old.
2 Comments
It continues to rain, so we have left the coast and headed for the hills. Quite literally.
A taxi from Arugam Bay to Ella and in the midst of the misty tea plantations we found a little home from home at Chamodya Homestay. Unfortunately there are only three rooms there and it is very popular so we could only stay for one night but it was a very welcome break from the sand and the rats who had become our unwelcome squatters in our beach front paradise!!? From there we took the 11am train this morning from Ella to Nanuoya for the lofty, Nuwara Eliya. At 1890 metres above sea level it's pretty chilly and I'm glad I brought a jumper. Mikes rather rashly jettisoned his only jumper on arrival in Bentota so is now as I type walking into town in the hope of buying a fleece. The train is reputed to be one of the most scenic in the world and it lived up to its reputation. We paid 1000lk which is around 5GBP for the 3 hr journey in the 1st class observation car, which sits right at the rear of the train with large windows facing out behind to admire the view. Photos will follow, when I can find somewhere to upload my camera SD card. Up until now, all the photos have been from Mikey's phone of Jessica's small unbreakable camera, but as Mikey's phone has now gone the same way as Mikey's sunglasses and Jessica's bag (left in a taxi and lost) we await some from the big camera. We are now holed up in King Fern Cottage, in a room with a trapdoor to get in! Staying here for two nights before we embark on the train journey to Kandy. We've been here in Arugam Bay for a week now and although we're probably not going to stay for the month as we once thought (weather is definitely on the turn) we're settled for at least another few days.
We've almost been here long enough to feel at home. We have a lovely tuk tuk driver, Fazreem, who has been taking us to all different local sights and we've found a lively evening eating establishment - Beach Hut - where the food is good and cheap (£1.50 - £2.50) and there's endless cold beers on tap. Here are the highs and lows of the last week: Peanut Farm beach: swimming on a deserted beach when the raucous trumpet of a wild elephant was heard. The very same large, male, tusker who had visited the day before and plodded straight through the wall of the kitchen in the cabanas there, eaten all the food and protested at the amount of plastics by kicking it all out. Eco-warrior Elephants! Most animals would be if given the chance I guess, but it takes one the size of an elephant to make a real impact! I'm trying not to worry excessively about the dangers the kids may face on this trip, but I did find myself frantically looking for an escape route for if the beast appeared. Could I beat a stampeding elephant to the steps of the tree house whilst carrying Jessica? Or should I take my chances swimming deeper into the ocean? Can elephants swim? Can elephants climb rocks? Can elephants be subdued by cute blonde haired kids? Thankfully, I didn't have to find out any answers as he never appeared. Panama and crocodiles: about 15 of the prehistoric reptiles, just lazing in the river we were walking by. One of whom was around 7ft long and could have easily eaten Otto in one snap of the jaws. Cue excessive worrying mother in me again! Whiskey point: being served omlettes by the Sri Lankan spit of Martin Hunt. There's now a plush hotel with swimming pool here, where 4 years ago there was just a platform for the beach parties! One low point was they wouldn't let us use their luxury pool - not even after Jessica cried her eyes out. Nothing was to work on the stony faced staff members. One other low point was Jessie left her cat backpack in a tuk tuk a few days back and it's now lost, with it her favourite toy horse, Cola and the family photos we'd brought with us of the whole Newitts, Hunters and Judges. On the flip side though. More highs last night and today. We met a great fun English family who are driving a tuk tuk round Sri Lanka in their half term. Tony, Joanne and their kids, Lucy(5) and Christopher (7). Lucy has given Jess her pink, Disney princess bag so Jess is happy again. Hopefully we'll hang on to this one for longer than 3 weeks! Released a turtle into the sea today at Pottuvil Point that had been caught in the fishermen's nets. And watched the fishermen dividing a catch of probably 40 or 50 sting rays. Here's how happy Mikes was driving Tony's tuk tuk... Day 3 in paradise...
Well, day 1&2 were in Hotel Paradise - which was anything but. Just a dark, cramped, family bungalow with the main road as our, not so beautiful, vista. But thankfully we've now moved to Paradise Sands Hotel which is more what we were hoping for when we ventured out on the 4 day trip here to the East Coast. We now have a beautiful cabana on the beach and a few hammocks to relax in! Arugam Bay is an eclectic mix of Aussie accented Sri Lankans calling "g'day mate!" as you pass them in the street and white people attempting to surf with varying success. Otto came a cropper yesterday, trying to use the tight rope line as a finish line for his running race. He didn't so much cross through the line as get bounced off it with a major slapdown to the sand. No lasting damage but he may have a nice shiner on the next few photos! We've found a bar that shows rugby, cricket and football - so Mikes has definitely found his slice of paradise. We got marooned in said bar last night during a monsoon storm reminiscent of the Bacardi advert from years ago which didnt seem too big a problem! And the sun has reappeared today as well. Yey! Still waiting to hear confirmation of anyone coming to visit...Shirls - get those flights booked to Phuket in December! Everyone else who's thinking about it - let us know dates and we can let you know where to book flights to. Missing you all xx So we've made it all the way to A-Bay. In a roundabout way. We left Mirissa onTuesday after another day on the beach. The kids spent hours playing with their new best friend, Lola. She even let Otto borrow her trains and played cats! The sea here is beautiful but dangerous and we were reminded that the biggest fear we have wherever we go, is water. We are always teaching the children the importance of safety in the water and we're continuing our attempts at teaching them to swim. Grandparents don't fret, they are never in the sea without us hanging on to them and their arm bands on. That said they did try body boarding with Mikey - which Jess loved and Otto hated (he's not so keen on getting water splashed on his face). Wednesday saw us at the Elephant Transit Home in Uduwalawe National Park, where they raise and integrate orphaned elephants back into the wild. Followed up by a swim at a luxury hotel, which was way beyond our budget, but only cost us £5 to swim for the day. We met a lovely Canadian/Russian couple who had a 3year old girl, Alecia, so again the children are finding lots of playmates. Thursday we travelled to Mongarala up in the hills where we were almost the only white people there. We got the VIP room opened up for us in a cafe when we went to buy two bread buns and two cokes (which I felt suitably embarrassed about but it felt rude to refuse) And now we're here, Arugam Bay. On the East Coast of Sri Lanka. It's fairly full of western tourists and there are about a gazillion places to stay. The weather is still hot and sunny, despite it being apparently monsoon season on this coast! We plan to stay for a few weeks but we'll see how it pans out. What a beautiful place this is. We had two peacocks climbing our outside stairs this morning and a troop of monkeys crossing the wall this afternoon. Jess and Otto tried body boarding today. Jessica was very brave and rode a few waves on her own with mixed success. Otto had a few tears but was still proud to tell everyone he'd been surfing!
We also met some more Western children today: An American couple with a 13 month old boy who were living in Jakarta and a lovely British/Kiwi (Danny) travelling with her daughter, Lola who was 3 and looked the spit of Jessica. It's so nice to meet other people doing the same thing. It's early days for us but I'd definitely recommend travelling with your family. There's no substitute for spending precious time with your littluns. Friday, we got the express train from Aluthgama to Mirissa. A two hour journey along the coast with beautiful views all the way. Jess and Otto entertained the passengers in our second class carriage, even when they were fighting over crisps, lollies and various other bits of bribary we'd come prepared with.
Initially the train was standing room only - a bit like the Friday night East Coast train out of London Kings Cross... But hotter... Even with the ceiling fans... And the doors open! At Galle, the train cleared out and we all had seats. Although, thanks to Otto spilling half the packet of Mister Potatoes (aka Sri Lankan Pringles), we had to share the seats with an infestation of huge brown cockroaches. I'm fairly unsqueemish with bugs and spiders but I am terrified of cockroaches. Needless to say, I then provided much amusement to the coach as I hopped around screaming and Mikey went on a killing spree! We survived it and lucky for us the owner of the guest house we'd booked was waiting on the station for a friend so it was a very easy trip in the end. We are walking distance from the beach - or shoulder ride distance for the kids. The beach is just as beautiful as we remember it from 4 years ago, although there has been a lot of development; there are now about 20 beach side cafe/bars serving frozen cocktails and fresh seafood food. You can get pancakes for breakfast and chips for tea (much to the kids delight). The waves are great for body surfing, not so good for swimming but Jess and Otto have enjoyed being thrashed about, jumping in the waves. Next stop elephants at Uduwalawe. We've had an amazing stay here at Villa 80 thanks to Henry (our host and surrogate Grandad for the kids) but, it hasn't all been paradise so far: just in case some of you were about to disown us for being smarmy smugger than smug things, we have had a few mishaps already...
The grand plan was always to stay in Sri Lanka for two to three months, which was always going to involve a trip to immigration in Colombo to apply for an extension to the standard 30day tourist visa. It should take a day or two to get the passports and visa back at which point we will begin travelling over to Arugam Bay in the East via more beaches and some baby elephants.
Jess and Otto are loving the tuk tuks here and are settling in to our new lifestyle on the road really well (in fact, possibly I'd say they are adapting quicker than Mikey and I). They even enjoyed getting their pictures taken -for the first time since we arrived here in Sri Lanka- possibly helped by the addition of rocking horses in the studio! I can't believe it's only been one week since we left London! Love to everyone at home xx As much as we've loved our first home here in Sri Lanka, tomorrow it is time for a little move. The reason? We have to find WiFi in order to watch the rugby. Let's hope it's worth the move!
Much of the same today: swim in the mmorning, beach in the afternoon. We had a beautiful sunset and we all enjoyed some beach Olympics. Tonight's disciplines were gymnastics, 20m sprint and long jump. Tomorrow we splash out on another pool villa, this time closer to Bentota and with WiFi. So after a few more days we decided to make our first move.
Only a few miles down the beach but we felt we wanted a treat. The new home is more expensive but amazing. At $90 a night it's more than our budget but we did get to watch England's disappointing performance in the rugby. Mikes could rant forever about it, but let's just say at least we don't have the hassle of constantly looking for a way to watch England at 12:30am now. Even the Arrack didn't soften the blow! It's day three of our big family adventure and we're in Sri Lanka; already Jessica (our 3 year old) is calling Zum Deutschen home. As we were walking home from the beach in the dark last night she asked me if we were nearly in our garden. I knew children were adaptable but 3 days to forget about our old deck in Tooting was quick - I hope she doesn't expect every home to have a swimming pool from now on! And so the four intrepid travelers set off: at rush hour; through London; to take the tube to Heathrow; to board a ten hour flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
We knew travelling with two kids under 4 was going to be tough and we were full of doubts as to whether we'd last two years on the road but we were nonetheless excited to be finally en-route. |
Search posts by destination:
All
Useful Links to other sites:Authors (in a very loose sense of the word)Kelly and Mikey (but mostly Kelly). We sold up in the UK to travel with our two littluns for a year or so. If you want to know more click the about us! |