Offseason bagpacking in Srilanka

The most important part of the journey is the start.

We started our journey from Chennai to Columbo. Flying over the beautiful Ram Sethu, which definately looks much better realtime then in pictures.
Landed in Colombo around 11am, the first day of our journey. Got a local SIM, you can also get a international roaming pack if you want.

Although thr train is the best way to travel through the beautiful nature, we had to take a bus to Galle from Columbo. The journey was long and we reached Galle by evening 5pm. Checked in at Mama's Cafe, a very clean and nice hotel near the Dutch hospital.
Went out for evening walk and had dinner at duch hospital, you can see that in the pictures.

Good morning.. I mean a beautiful good morning..!!
As always I got up early to see the sunrise, and yes I could spend a whole day just sitting on that same rock joying the blissful sunrise.
Well a call from my hotel for breakfast,that ends the story of beautiful sunrise and foodie inside me couldn't hold. A tasty breakfast was waiting.

We then took a ride on tuktuk(sri lankan version of auto rickshaw) to marissa beach. It was a small ride and the best part was the clean and uncrowded beaches (of course it was off season). We were told that we had missed a boat ride which would take us to see the dolphins, the disappointment of the day. But we can go for a snorkeling, the saviour for the mood. I'm not very found of slimy animals but i touched a turtle and few fishes, and i enjoyed it. Spent our day visiting nearby beaches and found a secret beach (suggested by the tuktuk wala) on the way where we had our lunch, spent some time there and then left for the next destination Nuwara Eliya a long but awesome journey.

Checked-in at our Airbnb booking and fall asleep in that perfectly cold weather after the beach times.

A change in weather but not in the feel. Nuwara Eliya is on the hills and is perfect after two hot beach days.
Started late for the morning walk, but went ahead to mark the nearby places for tomorrow's morning walk. Walked around the nicely maintained race course in slight rain. Got some snack from a small nearby shop and stood under the bus stop admiring people with colorful umbrella walking in rain. The rain stopped and i got a call for breakfast from the hotel, it's time to be back.

Ready for a ride after a filling breakfast, we started our journey in tuktuk towards Seetha Eliya, the place where maata Sita was kept by Ravana. Our driver explained that the whole of Eliya was actually the ashok vatika mentioned in Ramayana.

Then we went to see botanical garden, it has got so many verity of flowers I could hardly remember. Had our lunch on the way to Ravana caves and Ravana falls. couldn't spend much time as it was getting dark to get back home in mountains.

As always got up early for morning walk, a never disappointing time ever. Clean and perfectly maintained hills with clouds suggesting rains very soon, i still choose to walk around and see something local. The beautiful Gregory park next to the lake made my walk worth it. Also the race course on the way back to hotel.  I'll let the no filters pictures tell you the story. Again a call for breakfast, and the foodie starts walking back to the hotel.
Today we started for the nearby bomburuella falls. A small hike to reach the falls, just beware of the leaches on the way. Unfortunately I found 2 leaches on my leg, not very dangerous but it sucks the blood. Anyway the falls were a view to remember (Pictures included).
We then started back to Nuwara Eliya for lunch. The juicy Pizza at the grand hotel a not to miss dish in Nuwara Eliya.
The stay at Nuwara Ella was over and then we started for the next destination to reach kandy. Enjoying our drive through large tea estate, trying local food we reached late at kandy and went to sleep. The next day is planned for srigaria.

An early day today as we had planned to visit Sigirya fort which is little far from kandy. Mostly traveling on wheels but covering blissful views we were at Sigirya fortress. Sigirya or Sinhagiri is a rock fortress shaped like a lion(Sinha). The fortress is destroyed from outside leaving mostly the lion foot but the inner architecture is a glimpse of human achivement. Interestingly there is a small wall near the exit where visitors are allowed to draw the complete fortress on paper using imagination.
This whole trip took more then half the day and now we started our journey back to kandy. Tired of climbing the large fortress the journey was mostly covered sleeping and we were back to kandy by evening.
After freshening up we went to visit temple of the sacred tooth relic. Another place not to miss if you are into temples and architecture and history.

Final day of the trip, we started back to the capital city Columbo. The journey on wheel comprised of the memories we had collected, the beautiful views from our window. The day was more of going around the city collecting souvenir for ourselves and friends and family.
And finally waiting for the flight to home country.