Time to say goodbye!

As it was time to head off from the beach and leave its peace and serenity behind, we wanted to have a soft landing back to the buzzing city life of Sri Lanka. We had read and heard that The Galle Fort, UNESCO World Heritage Site, would be a relaxed spot to visit and filled with nice restaurants, so we took a two-hour bus ride to Galle and stayed there for two nights.

Galle was a port on the island in the 16^th century and was developed to its full capacity in the 18^th century during the Dutch colonial times. Even though the fort is the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers and has strong walls, the 2004 tsunami caused a lot of damage to the houses and people. As there is a desire to retain its historical feel and architecture, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs has launched a project to protect the Fort.

Overall, we had an extremely pleasant stay at the helm of the Fort as the pace of life is relaxed and  the atmosphere is, have to say, quite European. The streets are almost entirely reserved for pedestrians as most of them are too narrow for cars. To our pleasure, the restaurants provided a much-needed shelter from hot days and a nice change for traditional Sri Lankan cuisine. A perfect place for reading a book and enjoying a cup of coffee.

From Galle we continued by train to our last stop in Colombo before our flight back home. We visited the local market area of Pettah, which was an experience of its own. People carrying huge boxes over their heads and pulling strolls full of stuff to the shops that seem to have problems to storage even their current products!

The list of things we have experienced and done during these seven weeks is almost endless and is definitely something to be grateful of. We both are absolutely sure that the memories will last and this has brought new perspective to our everyday life, and also a lot of appreciation towards life in Finland. Perhaps the small challenges we'll face in life will feel even smaller in the future, as there are so many good memories to turn to.

This journey was a huge step to take, even more so because of our upcoming move to Geneva, which is waiting for us in January. And whilst it's not yet clear what the new year will bring with it, we are more than ready for it!

Relaxation, relaxation, relaxation

Sri Lanka is filled with the most beautiful beaches in the world, but finding a suitable one might be a harder task. Many of the beaches are nowadays full of accommodation options and a serene atmosphere may be hard to find. Since we had been travelling already quite a bit and it had taken its toll on us, we had a peaceful beach on mind where we could just rest and relax. After some research, we decided to head to Marakolliya beach, which is located a few kilometres east from Tangalle. First we were a bit afraid of how we're able to settle down for a few days without being immediately bored, but it turned out to be a pointless fear. Just listening to the sound of the waves in a hammock with a cold, fresh fruit juice in hand was enough excitement for a day, and we ended up staying there for a whole week. We would highly recommend this stretch of a beach to anyone travelling to Sri Lanka!

One of the best parts of our week on the beach were the early-morning HIIT-workouts followed by a swim in the ocean. Golden!

Two accommodation tips: the Hideaway Lodge and these Shiva's Beach Cabanas

Culture in Kandy, hiking in Ella

Kandy, the former capital, is one of the biggest cities in Sri Lanka. Nowadays it is famous for its culture and religious events. As it is located in the Hill Country the climate is cooler than in other parts of Sri Lanka. The streets in Kandy are busy and traffic is chaotic and air is thick of exhaust fumes, like in almost every city in Sri Lanka, but after few days you don't pay any attention to it anymore. 

At the second evening we visited one of the numerous dance halls that have a daily show, mainly for tourists. Originally only males were permitted to train as dancers, but luckily there has been some progress and now there is a lot of female dancers as well. As the Kandyan dance is normally performed with only percussions, the costumes take control of the stage. There is bling bling and masks on everyone, and anklets that rattle at each step and jump.

Kandy holds the Temple of the Tooth Relic, which is one of the most sacred places of the Buddhist world. Our visit to this World Heritage site didn’t go as planned, as one of us nearly fainted during the holy tooth relic ceremony! Fortunately, we got help from a local Buddhist, who knew which nerve points to press, so we were able to go back to the temple and see a glimpse of the place where the tooth is kept. After this we headed straight to the hotel to get some rest. During the night we discovered that both of us had got a traditional stomach flu, which kept us at bay for one more day in Kandy, before we jumped on the train heading deeper into Hill Country, towards Ella.

The train ride from Kandy to Ella is appreciated as one of the most beautiful rides in the world and evidently locals are also keen to it as well. We noticed this when trying to buy tickets, and heard that all tickets are sold out for the whole of December! Apparently this is the local holiday season, but luckily they reserve a small share of tickets for each train to be sold at the same day, so we only had to be on time at the station to get on the train.

Ella is located in the most beautiful Hill Country of Sri Lanka, and you're able to see it has a tourism-oriented spirit and economy. As the climate is optimal for tea plantations, there is one in every other hill side. Half an hour from Ella, in the town of Haputale, is one plantation that we all have heard of, Lipton's Seat. We gave a visit to these hills and did a tour in the Dambatenne tea factory. Now we know how bulk tea is made - they produce it around 5 tons a day!

One tea-leaf picker collects around 30 kilos of tealeaves daily.

As Ella is very popular among tourists, it was no surprise that there you'll find almost all western menu options in restaurants and coffee lounges aimed to quite exclusively to tourists. And the amount of guest houses, phew.. What the town of Ella itself may lack in sights to see, the views and the surrounding nature make up that loss! 

As we missed the famous pilgrim destination, Adam’s Peak (and it's 5000 steps up the mountain), because we got ill, we got to do the small one instead. And even this Little Adam's Peak had stunning views down to the valley, and it left us wondering, what we may have missed.

     

 

Getting to know the north: from elephants of Mahongo to the villages of Kavango people

If you want to see a different side of Namibia, the lush green scenery, the hippos and the crocodiles, head to north to Caprivi strip. The northern parts of the country are the only ones with a year-round running rivers (as well as malaria, so it’s good to have your mosquito repellent with you). The drive from Etosha to Caprivi journeys through a couple towns, Tsumeb and Grootfontein, where it’s good to stock up before heading up north towards Rundu.





Our initial plan was to stay at Grootfontein and then drive to the beginning of Caprivi strip to Mahongo Game Reserve. (We decided to spare the last miles and not go further from there, maybe + 6000 km on the road is enough ;) But the rain season was starting, and our drive up north got interesting with heavy rain and thunderstorm. Driving in the pitch black evening in pouring rain was an experience of its own, but it was only fair to skip camping that night and have a roof over our heads, so we headed to Tambuti Lodge at Rundu, and had a very pleasant night there with dinner in the room and a nice Namibian local breakfast the next morning.

On the next day, 200 km down the road, we got to our final destination, Ngepi camp with campsites by the river side, with hippos swimming by. We decided to take an afternoon game drive at Mahongo Game Reserve before it got dark, and that turned out to be quite an exciting drive. Even though we missed the big herds of elephants in Etosha, we got to experience plenty of those at Mahongo, even a bit too close this time! The last 30 minutes before the gate was closing and sun setting there we were trapped between an elephant herd at the waterhole and + 10 km to go on a 4x4 accessible only road. Have to admit, we were quite happy to get out of there ;)

On our way back from Caprivi we stopped at N’kwazi Lodge to take a village walk with a local guide. It turned into a very interesting and inspiring afternoon with Marcus, our guide, and the local Kavango tribe people from the village. The owners of the lodge together with the community have started a pre-school in the village, which enables the children to get a basic education without having to walk +10 km daily. How handy would bikes be in the rural areas of Namibia! In the villages there might be tens of people living in a few huts, and women practically run the daily life there since their husbands are living elsewhere farming / herding goats or cattle. Marcus told us that according to a small study executed in the area, it turned out that women do 75 % of all the work there is to be done in the households, in the fields, carrying water from the wells, preparing meals for the whole family etc.  There’s a German lady, Ingrid Poike, who traveled in the area and since then has been widely supporting the community. She keeps a blog about the ongoing projects in the village together with Marcus, you can read more from here (helps if you understand German though).