Sri Lanka

Banana seller

Two weeks after our trip to the Philippines I was off travelling again, this time to meet a friend in Sri Lanka. There are no direct flights from Seoul, so I had to travel there via Singapore.

As I was travelling with a friend who writes guide-books, we were lucky enough to be invited to stay in 9 different hotels over a two-week period, gradually working our way down the south-west coast.  One of the first hotels we stayed in was the Mount Lavinia, just south of the capital Colombo.  This is the view we had from our room :

The hotel has an interesting story, as it was originally a country mansion built by the island's second Governor, Sir Thomas Maitland, in 1806.  When he fell in love with a beautiful mestizo dancer, Lovinia Aponsuwa, he lodged her not far away and an underground tunnel - which apparently still exists - connected her humble dwellings with the governor's mansion so that they could pursue their clandestine romance.

There is a railway station just next to the hotel, and Colombo is not far away by train.

Here are some street scenes from Colombo:

Jami-Ul Alfar mosque, Colombo

Cargills department store, Colombo

Further down the coast at Kalutara we stayed at the Kani Lanka resort :

hauling in the fishing net

Gangatilaka Vihara dagoba, Kalutara

mosque, Kalutara

temple, Kalutara

lighthouse, Berawala

Here is one of the ubiquitous tuk-tuks, normally seen on the roads, but exceptionally in this case on the beach !

tuk-tuk

Next was the Barberyn Reef Ayurveda Resort at Beruwala, where we had some ayurvedic treatments, and toured the ayurvedic treatment center.

This area suffered many losses during the 2004 tsunami.  This memorial is dedicated to the 1270 train passengers who lost their lives that day.

Tsunami victims memorial

Tsunami victims memorial

Our following stop down the coast was the UNESCO-inscribed town of Galle, staying in the The Fortress hotel - much more luxurious than its name sounds !

Galle

playing cricket

There were many fishing stilts in the sea just in front of the hotel.  The fishermen perch, holding onto the stilt with one hand and fishing with a rod in the other hand.

fishing stilts

fishing stilts

We then moved onto another Barberyn Ayurvedic hotel, the Beach Resort, from where we visited Dondra, which has two important temples and a lighthouse at Sri Lanka's most southerly point.

temple, Dondra

temple, Dondra

temple, Dondra

temple, Dondra

Dondra Head lighthouse

Sri Lanka's most southerly point, near Dondra

We also visited Weherahena temple which houses an enormous Buddha statue as well as scenes from Buddha's life.

monk, Weherahena temple

Weherahena temple

Weherahena temple

Weherahena temple

Afterwards we headed inland to Ella in the hill country for one night :

rice paddies

Ceylon tea plantations

tea pickers

before taking the train to Kandy.

tea plantations & pickers seen from the train

on the train, looking back

Kandy's (and probably Sri Lanka's) most important site is the Temple of the (Sacred) Tooth (Relic), which, as the name implies, is supposed to house one of Buddha's holy teeth. In Kandy we stayed at the Mahaweli Reach hotel.

Temple of the Tooth

One of the striking architectural features of Sri Lankan temples are the moonstones, which are semi-circular carved stone slabs.

Moonstone

 Inside the temple of the tooth :

We then took another train down from Kandy to Colombo, and from Colombo to Wadduwa, where we stayed at the lovely Blue Water Resort.

Kandy to Colombo train.

from the train

Wadduwa

kingfisher/kingfisher-type bird

Our last stop was at the Taj Sumudra hotel. The photo below was taken from our room, looking over the Galle Face Green to the famous Galle Face hotel.

Recommended reading :

Lonely Planet Sri Lanka (Country Travel Guide)

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Philippines

Last month we spent two weeks travelling in the Philippines. First we flew from Seoul to Manila, then travelled to a resort on the north coast of the island of Mindoro for a few days before heading to a small island called Pandan off the west coast of Mindoro for more diving. After a few days we crossed the Mindoro strait and stayed on Dimakya island, near Busuanga in Northern Palawan.  It was mainly a scuba diving trip  and while diving we saw a shark, turtles, and sea snakes (one was more than 2m long).  Afterwards we were told that the sea-snakes are 17 times more venomous than cobras ... (but they can't open their jaws wide enough to bite humans apparently). We also did a great wreck dive on a big Japanese warship sunk since 1944 - very atmospheric. 

Jeepneys - typical Filipino mode of transport

en route for Pandan island

Mindoro landscape

noisy bats on Dimakya island !

Intramuros in old Manila

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Land of the morning calm after six months

Coming back to Korea after a trip we've just made abroad I realised that I no longer felt Korea was such a strange place; perhaps after six months we're starting to settle in ?  (The other day when I was walking along the street I even had a taxi driver ask me directions !). Anyway I'd better hurry and jot down my impressions about things here before they really start to seem 'normal'.

Last month we went to the Philippines, we did several dives during the two weeks we were there, and were able to see a shark, turtles, and sea snakes (one was more than 2m long).  Afterwards we were told that the sea-snakes are 17 times more venomous than cobras ... (but they can't open their jaws wide enough to bite humans apparently). We also did a great wreck dive on a big Japanese warship sunk since 1944 - very atmospheric.  Manila on the other hand probably has it good points but we found it mainly dirty and noisy (and hot !).

We also made the most of the long weekend here when there was Lunar New Year to do some travelling locally, and amongst other things we went to the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone between the two Koreas).  The name is pretty ironic because it's probably one of the most heavily guarded places in the world.  We saw lots of South Korean soldiers but only one North Korean one (although I'm sure there were plenty hiding in the background).

We saw the place where the third world war nearly started when a tree was cut down in the 1970s, and we visited one of the four tunnels that the North Koreans secretly built in order to invade Seoul/South Korea.  

Inside it's painted black and apparently this was going to be the North Korean excuse - pass it off as a mining tunnel; the problem is that the whole area is granite and there's no coal for miles around !  I also recently read a book written by a defector who spent 10 years in a North Korean gulag as a young man, and I went to a conference held by a British tour operator based in Beijing specialised in trips to North Korea. He explained that when he talks to the guides there they've never used internet, a mobile phone or a laptop - although at least they've heard about them, which is not the case out in the N. Korean countryside (Click here for the account of my trip to North Korea in August 2010).

I can't wait for June - not because of the weather but because they'll be bringing out the new 50 000 won bank note (about 25 pounds).  Until now the biggest banknote has been 10000 won (5 pounds), and because cheques don't exist here ("cheques, but not as we know them") you spend most of your time carrying around wads of cash so that you're never caught short. Another idiosyncrasy here is the address system. Each district is sub-divided and in that sub-division buildings carry a number, but not the number of the building next-door.  So 123 is not next-door to 124 for example ....  The postmen know what they're doing with post, but whenever you go to someone's house or a shop you always have to have a map and directions otherwise you'll never find it.  The government is putting into place a system whereby streets have names and building have numbers that follow each other but it won't be finished before we leave Korea.

Winter seems to be almost finished - my husband's first ever - and spring might be here.  The coldest we saw was -15°C. V was delighted to be able to go skiing on Sunday mornings just an hour away from Seoul.  Korea's not a very snowy country - it's too dry - so they make real snow artificially. Koreans aren't early risers (I've been wondering if the country's nickname "Land of the morning calm" was because of this ?) so the ski slopes are pretty empty on Sunday mornings.


Suggested reading:
Korea Unmasked: In Search of the Country, the Society and the People a graphic novel by Rhie Won-Bok 

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