Backpacking trip in Sri Lanka and Maledives

Day 1: 

We started our 3 week backpacking trip with arrival at Colombo airport. After an adventure taxi ride to the main train station we had an fantastic 4h train ride to Matara. From Matara we got to our beachhotel Talalla resort.

Arrived fully packed :-) 

Our nice room buttom left

Our bathroom shower.  Attached to the bathroom (sink and mirror on right side of photo) and fully private but the top was left open so you were basically in the tropical forest while showering. So great!

Just watched wild monkeys and enjoyed our first rainforest rain. 

Day 2: Today we had an awesome relaxing day at the beach and the pool with watching a 1.50m big varan(monitor lizzard) and bats as big as a buzzard...scary ;-) 

Enjoying the private beach

Our new pet 'Edgar'

Day 3: Safari day!
After a nice relaxing we had a great safari at Uda Walawe nationl park. We saw elephants, baby elephants, jackals, water buffalo, peacocks, parrots, chameleons, monitor lizards, monkeys, eagles, colourful birds, deers etc

Day 4:

Moving towards country highlands with real Sri Lanka food and a 1 hour Tuktuk ride to Ella. Here we got a great bungalow with a stunning view over tea plantages and the Ella gap. In the evening we enjoyed our first rice and curry in Dream Cafe restaurant in Ella.

First real Sri Lanka food...spicy!!!

Our balcony

Day 5:

Starting the day with a relaxing breakfast on the terrace. Afterwards  exploring area around Ella. Climb to little Adams peak, took a great tour in Uva Halpewatte tea factory and visited the Dowa temple.

Day 6:

The day started off on the wrong track as the culture differences hit us really hard this morning.  The harsh sites and smells of a 3rd world country finally got to us, starting at breakfast when an overcrowded bus stopped an arms length away from our street side table and about 200 people got off, turns out they had a 5 minute break there.  

The people swarmed around and past our table to get into the cafe/store behind us while especially the kids stopped and looked in awe at the wierd white people sitting at the table.  No problems here, just a bit crowded.... but then into the field next to us went about 15 dudes who started peeing, AWESOME  (and the breakfast was already tasting horrible, weird and disgusting)

We got out of there quickly and moved to the other side of town to a more relaxing spot for a cup of coffee/tea and as soon as we sat town the towns version of a trash truck stopped right in front of our street side table.  Picture a tractor pulling a huge barrel the size of a swimming pool cut in half and full to the brim with open trash.  The smell was enough to knock you on your feet and there was a swarm of flies as big as house around this thing.  We picked up our drinks and ran to the back of the cafe, but it was too late..... we were done!

So, we grabbed our stuff and headed out of town for a walk.  We figured we would do as the locals do and walk the railroad tracks.  Sonja was scared we would get run over and killed by a train (which damn near almost happened).

About 30 minutes into our walk we noticed a makeshift sign pointing to a waterfall.

A small hike through the jungle and down a steep hill and we made it.

All the crap in the morning was quickly forgotten as we sat there and marveled at the beautiful surroundings. 

Day 7:

Today it rained from morning to night, tropical weather redefined.  Luckily we scheduled more then half the day in the car as we drove from Ella to Kandy.  Ran into a pack of monkeys blocking the road and forcing us to stop, thank God because these must of been the worst roads known to man...... think we will have back pain for the next 4 weeks.

Kandy is not too impressive, for the first time feels like we are back in Egypt and everybody is trying to hustle us for money (such a shame, every SINGLE Sri Lankan has been extremely friendly and genuine before we reached this city).  

We walked around Kandy Lake, had some cheap short eats, bought Sonja some "local" skirts, got a tour of the local fire station by the a fire fighter who promised not to ask for money and then eventually begged for 100 rupee, ate dinner at Kandy Muslim Hotel where Sonja kept asking if I was sure they werent going to take me in the back and kill me because Im American, then walked home for 15 minutes in monsoon rain.

Day 8:

We woke up and got out of Kandy, continuing to head north.  The main goal for the day was going to see a big rock at Sigiriya.

The drive from Kandy to Sigiriya took about 5 hours and we stopped once along the way to visit a Bathik factory (traditional garment dying and production)

Sigiriya was awesome, ruins of massive water and rock gardens built in 5^th century by the current king who then built his palace on top of this huge rock.  Eventually we scaled the rock on some very suspect passage ways but in the end we made it and stayed up there for a while enjoying the view.

Just before the final ascent, the "Lion" steps where the King had claws carved into the rock as the official entrance to the palace.

The view from the top looking down the same path though the gardens that the other pics are taken from.

We checked into our hotel which looked like awesome bungalows from the outside and at first glance, but the place turned out to totally suck as it was dirty, had no air circulation and smelled like “cheese foot” according to Sonja and finally when night came we realized the place wasn’t sealed so great and there were tons of insects and bugs that made it into the room including a huge flying cockroach that practically made Sonja cry ;-)   Thank god for the mosquito net!!

Day 9:

Happy Halloween!

No that was actually not our costume for halloween. Today we made our way back the airport to fly to Maldives. Before landing we got the notice to cover our eyes and nose because the crew will spray anti mosquito stuff because this is requested by law. Funny!

The night we stayed in the nicest hotel of the trip. A really comfortable boutique hotel in Male and ended the day with some awesome Thai food.

Day 10:

Adventure continued :-) 

We took the local ferry in the morning to get to the island maafushi. And with ferry I mean a big wood boat. Half the way we got in a big storm. Raining like crazy and waves were shaking the boat really bad. 3 crew members were standing in front searching for the island and luckily they found it. I was super scared and sea sick...Dan slept ;-) 

Our guesthouse is great with comfortable rooms and nice sandy garden. 

The island is a local island which means people live here so not just a resort island. We got an idea of the 'real' Maldives. This also includes to follow Islam rules. Woman can not wear bikini to swim they have to wear at least shirt and shorts to knee. There is only one small beach where I'm allowed to wear bikini for swimming but need to cover on way there and back. Also alcohol is strictly forbidden. 

Poor Dan no beer :-) 

Day 11:

Hard to describe the incredible beauty of white sand, green trees, colourful fishes and the most beautiful blue water I have ever seen. 

We saw it all today. By visiting one of the close island resort Biyaadhoo we were allowed to enjoy a full day of swimming, snorkeling and relaxing. 

For seeing fishes we only need to walk in for some meters and they were all around us. The coral reef was only a small swim away from the beach and we saw all different kinds of beautiful fishes. This was a great first day on Maldives.

Day 12:

Starting the day with a boat ride to the sandbank (Furafathi). After spending a couple of nice hours in our own island we drove to a picnic island (Maadhoofinolhu) to have lunch. We found a nice shadow spot at the beach to take a nap. After some time I woke up and saw just black clouds right in front of us. We packed our stuff and ran to the boat. The others were already there and searching for us. We all got in the boat and it started raining like crazy immediately after we got in. Another bumpy and wet boat ride :-) 

Day 13:

The island hoping continues. Today we drove to Fihaalohi island resort. This was with 30 min speed boat ride the most far away we got.

Another really beautiful island with white beaches and clear water. This resort also had water bungalows with own terrace and entry to he ocean. We had another great and relaxing day.

We ended the day with live music from the islands one and only band playing traditional music (Bodu Beru) for our guesthouse.  Some impressive drumming and 1 Russian dude (a fellow guest) getting crazy and stealing the show.

Day 14:

First day staying on Maafushi and relax at the guesthouse beach which means I can wear a bikini :-) 

We tried fresh coconut to eat and drink from a small stand right at the beach. 

In the afternoon we joined our friends from netherlands who books a diving trip. We had pretty rough sea that day but Dan convinced me to snorkel and it was another great experience. Just couldn't find the turtle.

In the evening we watched an awesome sunset at Maafushi beach. Perfect way to end a day.

Day 15:

We saved the best for last.  Our last day before leaving Maafushi Island and returning to Malle we did a day trip to Anatara Resort and Spa.  Everything you could imagine about the ultra luxurious lifestyle was found here.  The place was breathtaking and it was cool to get a taste of the 5* resort islands that most of Maldives has become.

They charged us $100 per person to visit the island for the day (as opposed to $10 in the other resorts) but the good thing was the $100 was a credit line we could use throughout the day at the resort.  

Sonja reading at the pool.

Lunch seaside

Sonja & the Stingray

Antwin and Charlotte (aka The Dutchees) posing for a pic with the Stingray

Change your latitude

After a few $15 cocktails we decided to return to the front desk since the staff was so friendly and gave them some story about how we were returning next June for our honeymoon so we wanted to see their rooms.  

Room 1: The Beach Villa with private pool, $650 per night (Dan and Antwin acting really serious about booking)

Room 2: The Water Bungalow with private deck and entry to the ocean and bathtub practically hanging over the edge and into the water, $1000 per night (again....Dan and Antwin acting really serious about booking) 

At the end of the day we snuck to the beach in the darkness with our Dutch friends to finish their accidentally smuggled in alcohol (half a bottle of local Sri Lankan Arakh that was in their luggage from the previous week.) We felt like teenagers again hiding to drink alcohol, but probably not so smart since they throw you in jail for possession of alcohol in this country.  95% of the countries prison inmates are there for drugs and alcohol.  Did we mention you go to jail if you wear a bikini on the beach? (these laws dont apply to the resort Islands where there is no local inhabitants and a lot of tax revenue being generated) 

Gotta love Muslim Governments!!

Day 16

Spent a few hours in the morning laying on the beach in Maafushi for the last time. Then caught the 12:45 ferry back to Male in preparation for tomorrows flight home.

Our Maafushi beach

On approach to Male

The famous Male fish market

Day 17

We woke up back in the lovely Sala Boutique Hotel and enjoyed the best breakfast of the trip.  We had until the late afternoon to explore the capital city Male before jumping on the plane.  We walked the whole island and it was very unimpressive.  I didnt get too many pictures but it struck us as very poverty stricken and prompted Sonja to comment "this is the ugliest city I have every seen".  Later in the day we sat with Thomas (owner of Sala) for about an hour drinking tea and had some interesting discussions about the current state of the country.  Turns out same old story, different corrupt government.  The country of 300k people is booming off of tourism taxes but none of the money is going to the people or being invested in public projects. (imagine what the tax revenue on $1000/night rooms must be). 

Even more interesting was the politics.  For 30 years Maldives had one president and in 2008 he left office.  The new President won the election by joining with the Radical Muslims and the past 4 years have seen a rapid and swift implementation of hard line Islamic rules.  As Thomas put it "5 years ago women came to my restaurant in skirts and dresses, now they are forced to cover from head to toe as a result of psychological and physical pressure."

That's a good summary what partially made our 1 week experience in this environment VERY interesting.

Sala Boutique Hotel (the nicest establishment in all of Male)

Males "Artificial Beach"

Woman swimming completed covered form head to toe in normal clothing.

 In a makeshift pool, another woman swimming with veil and head dress.

The town

The national museum, small exhibit which took about 30 minutes to walk through.  Nothing too exciting except for this old school Palequin

See you later Maldives!

Day 18

Ditched the sandals and shirts, put on the long pants and scarves and already dreaming about the untouched beauty of Sri Lanka and the clear blue waters of the Maldives.

On arrival in Frankfurt..... ITS COLD!!