The first things that struck me in Sri Lanka were the amount of police and security officers at the airport, the number of crows happily roaming the air, and the gigantic piles of curry leaves traded at the market behind the Fort train station. The first night and day passed well, and I moved smoothly from the arrival hall, to the ATM, to the free shuttle bus connecting to the nearest bus station, to the bus to Colombo Ford bus terminal, and finally to the nearby train station - and all this between 2am and 5am, by which time I had bought a second class ticket to Galle where I arrived at 10am, walked into the Fort and got myself a lovely room at the Weltervreden guesthouse for much less than expected – one has to love the off season :)I spend two nights in Galle - recharging.

The Weltervreden was bliss, absolutely quiet with a wonderful courtyard in which I spend most of my day just sitting and reading. In the morning and afternoon I went on walks on the walls of the fort or through the many streets taking pictures of the old houses. As lovely as it was on the third day I decided to move on and took a bus to Mirissa. Here I got a lovely bungalow right by the beach for only 900 rupee in the Central Beach Inn. Mirissa is a extremely beautiful beach and still very quiet. The noisiest feature at this time of the year are the majestic waves crushing onto the beach. The first day I strung my hammock and enjoyed the sound of nature and the waves. The second day I decided to take the bus into the nearby Weligama to hunt for some of the beautiful sarongs that I saw men wearing in this area. I have no idea if these orange and red coloured ones are available all over Sri Lanka, but I did not want to risk it. After much walking around I realised that these Sri Lankan hand woven sarongs are rather expensive, but nevertheless I bought two which I want to use as blankets at home. Never even panning for this I also bought some laze for my grandmother from three women whom I found working outside their home. How they manage to create the laze pattern is a mystery to me, I was in awe and bought on piece to show appreciation for their art.

Coming back to Marissa the guy running the Merissa Beach Wadiya restaurant showed us that the turtles had just hatched from a nest they had protected for the last 45 days. It was the first time I was fortunate enough to see turtle hatchlings and even better watch them go on their way later in the afternoon and at night. Some of the locals and the coast guard fight hard to stop the poaching and selling of turtle eggs in Mirissa, where turtle numbers are rapidly declining and it is awesome to see the tiny creatures dashing into the wild sea, boldly swimming into a rather dangerous future. With a seemingly endless string of fishing boats on the horizon one knows that many of these tiny creatures will end up dead in trawler nets and on longlines, but it is better not to think of this at such a moment and just wish the tiny creatures luck.

With time being limited and Sri Lanka having so much to offer I decided to leave Marissa after two nights to make my way towards Yala national park to spot some leopards.

The bus journey to Tissamaharama, or simply Tissa bought a sudden change of landscape as I travelled from the tropical to the arid zone. Soon there was little green to be seen until the lush rice fields around Tissa replaced the red sand with lush green once more. At the bus station I was greeted by man who offered me a tour and a lift to the guesthouse. I was little inclined to go with him but eventually accepted the ride to Vikum Lodge. The place turned out a lot less attractive than described in the travel guide and had a rather tired feel. Still, it would do for a night and so I settled into the room before a casual evening walk to the nearby manmade lake where swarms of locals bathed in the adjacent stream and thousands of ibis and cormorants flew in to sleep on the lake's island. It was a rather spectacular view. I finally accepted the trip offer by the guy who brought me earlier planning to leave at 5am in the morning for Yala. Yet when another driver in another vehicle picked me up in the morning and then single-handedly asked for 3 times the amount agreed up front I refused to pay. In turns he started to scream and shout at me and brought me back to the guesthouse. Thus I went straight to the police to launch a complaint and the head of police came down with me to talk to the company to settle the matter. It appeared strange that every bus conductor, shop owner, and guesthouse employee can speak English, but hardly a single person in the police force could understand a word of my explanation. Still the deed was done and in the process I reckon that the entire town new that “Independent Traveller's Inn” is cheating its customers, which was the entire point of the exercise. I then went on a bus to Kindara where alighted just before the village to try my luck in the Sudaweli guesthouse, which turned out to be a gem. I found the garden dry at this time of year, but the cabana was delightful and I got it for 1000 rupee, which is a good price. The owner Santha also offered me a safari the next morning, which I happily agreed to. Sadly enough he had a couple of friends around for the night and hit the Arrak bottle with the result that I got up again the next morning at 5am only to find no Santha. My attempts to wake him were futile so I finally gave up on the entire Yala idea and decided to forgo the chance to see a leopard in the wild. Instead I packed my things and in the process got stung by a centipede that hid in my backpack. Having thrown it out it was caught by a large lizard and eaten, which seemed a bit as if the saying “to eat and be eaten” took shape right at that moment. I took the first bus back to Tissa from where I took the Kandy bound bus till Ella. I was lucky to get one of the last seats, thus the journey from the lowlands along increasingly curvy roads into the highlands was pleasant. In Ella I got a room for 1000 rupee in the Hill Top Guesthouse which, true to its name, is reached after a steep 100m climb along a tiny road. The next morning I climbed Ella Rock and realised along the first kilometre how much I missed walking in nature. It was amazing that after a short walk out of the village I was surrounded by absolute silence. I loved the climb up the little mountain and decided to to climb the even lower Little Adam Peak in the afternoon, which was another nice little walk to finish off the day.

One of the biggest delights of Ella was the curd and mixed fruit at the Curd and Honey shop right next to the bus stop. The dish is a true marvel which one ought to try when visiting the town. The next morning I took my last buffalo milk curd before heading for the train to Haputale. The one hour trip runs through marvellous landscape and Haputale itself is perched on the top of a mountain ridge with stunning views across the surrounding landscape. I got a room in the Sri Lak View Inn, which is right in the town centre. Its proximity means that one hears every azan, but I planned to get up early anyway, thus I did not mind. I had managed to arrange a tuk tuk with very honest driver Ajith at 5am the next morning to the Horton Plains national park. The park is a 1h 30min drive away from Haputale and while my tuk tuk cost me 1700R both ways, the entrance fee for the park was a hefty 3047R. Despite my shock at the cost I enjoyed the walk through the park's unique mist forest and open plain landscape. The 9km loop brought me to Little World's End, World's End and Baker's Falls. In my opinion the park is a gem, eve though the only animals I saw, apart from the many small birds, were Giant Squirrels and Samba Deer. Back in Haputale I walked to the Haputale Tea Factory to buy fresh BOP at bargain price at the Haputale Tea Centre.

The next morning I left early to catch the first train to Kandy. I bought myself a second class ticket, but when the train arrived the 2^nd class was full. Thus I first sat next to the door on my backpack, then the officer took me to the third class where I found a seat, yet I eventually gave that one to a mother with travelling with four small children, thus ending the journey sitting at a table in the canteen carriage. Kandy came as a bit of a shock. After all the village and small town settings it appeared noisy, overcrowded and extremely unappealing. I took a tuk tuk to the Green Woods guesthouse, but the rooms were too expensive and finally got a room right next to it in a brand new house for 1100R, the dearest room since my arrival. The forest setting of the place were beautiful, but one was constantly threatened by the roaming monkeys that invade much of Kandy. The guesthouse had no food, but I found Hotel Saumiya, a brilliant roti place in D.S. Sannayaka Visediya and New Javantha Hotel, the best bakery in Sri Lanka, in Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha. To avoid the thousands of school children I went into the fenced in temple complex around 7am the next morning only to find that the Temple of the Tooth entrance fee was 1000R which I refused to pay. Instead I walked around the encloser visiting the four Devales at the time of the morning pujas, which was wonderful. That done I decided to leave Kandy, walked to the bus station and took a bus to Dambulla. Dambulla is the only place that has really grotty, run down rooms for rather high prices on offer. I wish I had seen a more high end place before settling for one of the better of the bad places. In the afternoon I visited the Dambulla cave temples for which I had to pay 1200R. The entrance fees in Sri Lanka are so much inflated that I decided at that point to forgo virtually all cultural sights and travel to the east coast instead, especially as I found the cave temples filled with noisy school children and all the rock pools filled with litter. The temples were beautiful, but the entrance fee makes it a questionable experience.

Finding Dambulla and its horrid guesthouses appalling I took the first bus bound to Trinconmalee, a large, but very low key coastal town with natural deep harbour at the east coast. From here I took a local bus to the nearby Uppuveli, a village with a beatiful beach just north of Trincomalee. The beach turned out miles better than the Rough Guide promised and walking down the beach I struck a great deal at the Underwater Safari where I got the brand new bungalow for a bargain 1000R as the first ever guest. On my walks down the beach I watched the fishermen haul in their nets and paid them 100R for the privilege to set a young stingray free. As the only tourist restaurant in Shiva's served the most horrid watered down so called curry I followed some locals to the prata shop on the main road that did great prata, roti and after 6pm kottu roti, thus avoiding the uninspiring tourist option. On my way through the village I also encountered my first Grey Langurs, which are very pleasant and graceful monkeys unlike the rowdy Macaques. I spent three tranquil days at Uppuveli before taking the bus back to Trincomalee and from there to Anurdhapura. Here I opted for the cheapest option at the Sandalle Holiday Resort versus the more expensive, but nicer Nadeeja next door. With both options were better than the adjacent Lake View I picked the one with gave me the biggest discount. The next morning I explored the ruins at Anuradhapura which are little more than a few foundation walls and random pillars. It makes no sense to pay any of the horrendous entrance fees, as the Sri Maha Bodhi is free and the impressively huge dagobas (pagodas) are best viewed from a distance. Thus I wandered for 6 hours along the roads of the Mahavihara, Jetavana, Abhayagiri monasteries and the citadel which was nice enough and avoided paying the government another huge amount for very little.

On my arrival in Anuradhapuri I had bought my first class sleeper cabin train ticket to Colombo for my last day of stay as the following morning brought me to Dhamma Anuradha, the new Vipassana meditation centre near the town where I attend a three day meditation course before returning to the capital by train for my fight home. The Dhamma Anurdha was wonderful, a place full of bird life, including wild peacocks, which provide a perfect setting for the course. The first class sleeper on the other hand was far from convincing and Colombo turned out boring apart from the Pettha district, where one can buy pretty much everything before hopping on the bus 187 to the airport. All in all Sri Lanka was a wonderful experience and I am surely planning to return. There are only two things that can be mildly annoying in the country, which are the drastically overpriced entrance fees for national parks and cultural sites and the comments from young local men of the age between 18 and 25 who seem to reduce their thought process, if there is indeed any, to the area between their legs. Other than that Sri Lanka is beautiful, diverse, and an absolute pleasure to travel in and I reckon I might just do that again soon.