The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
April 2006 - Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was not on my traveling radar until the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, which also affected the east coast of this tear-shaped country of 20 million off the southern tip of India. It made me take a closer look at Sri Lanka, which for some reason I had (wrongly) associated with India, which is far down on my list of Places to visit – not least because of its sheer size. But while India is also predominantly Hindu, Sri Lanka is primarily a Buddhist country, a culture and philosophy I very much like from my experiences in Thailand and Tibet. Compared to its giant neighbor, Sri Lanka is a reasonably-sized island that can more easily be discovered in a week or two.
First impressions are important and our arrival in Colombo after a seven-hour flight via Singapore was a surprisingly pleasant one. The airport was new and clean, immigration polite and efficient and our transfer to the hotel short and painless. Our guide Shane, a foreign-looking Sri Lankan of Dutch decent, spoke excellent English but given his size and looks could just as well have been our bodyguard.
Since flights from Asia arrive Colombo in the evening, we spent our fist night in a beach hotel in Negombo, only 20 mins from the airport. The Blue Oceanic Resort was straight out of the 80s with a main theme of concrete and tiles. German was the main language after English and “Neckermann” and “Hotelplan” signs dominated the lobby! Luckily we only spent the night and were soon off on a five-hour drive towards the highlands and ancient cities (the so-called “cultural triangle”). The vegetation along the way was an interesting mix between tropical palm trees and “normal” trees, some of astonishing size.
Our first ‘activity’ of the trip was an elephant ride in Habarana followed by a jeep safari in the Minneriya National Park. Sri Lanka has a large population of wild elephants and they are a major attraction. Mei is a big fan of these giant animals so we wouldn’t give the elephant ride a miss. Two beers in hand we clambered on top of “Nona” as she took us for a ride in her backyard, including an elephant shower in the local swamp. Very refreshing at 35 degrees!
The jeep safari was equally enthralling as we came across about ten elephants in the wild, including a family with a three-month old “baby” (about the size of a compact car!). The guide also pointed out a variety of rare and colorful birds, but I’m not so much into birds (of the avian type, that is…).
We spent the night at the Banyan Tree-run Deer Park Hotel in Giritale, a beautifully designed resort in a lovely forest/jungle setting.
Next day our ever- (or over-) friendly guide talked us into doing another safari in a more remote natural reserve. He and the staff at the guide shop talked excitedly about leopard, bear and big elephant sightings in recent days. In the end it was more of an expensive bird-watching trip with a couple of deer and a lonely elephant thrown in for good measure. Certainly no leopards or bear and fewer elephants than we encountered on the roadside on the drive back! On top of that we had to travel three hours each way at the back of an open jeep. I’m not the queasy type when it comes to road traffic, but this was the scariest white-knuckle ride I’ve been on in a long time. Looking out the back of the jeep was the best option as you did not have to face the oncoming traffic at lightening speed. All in all an expensively wasted day.
However, there was one part I did enjoy as we blasted past the various villages: waving at the local kids they break out into a broad smile as they briefly catch your eye and frantically wave back. There are few pleasures more innocent yet that enjoyable on this planet and I get a great thrill out of it whenever I visit places less traveled by foreigners.
After another night at the Deer Park Hotel it was time for a day of culture with a tour of the ancient royal city of Polonnaruwa, sprawling ruins dating back to the 12th century. The scale of the site is impressive, especially the large man-made water reservoirs (“tanks”) that give an idea of the advanced engineering and irrigation skills of the time. Unfortunately however, unlike places like Angkor Wat, Polonnaruwa had been mostly destroyed by subsequent conquerors, leaving often nothing more than the basic brick foundation, thus leaving most of the grandeur of the time to the imagination. Maxi, our guide for the site, tried his best to fill in the blanks and rattled down the names of all the kings, gods, temples and deities as we went along. I’ve forgotten them all in the meantime, but it was an enjoyable tour nevertheless and arguably a must if you visit Sri Lanka.
In the afternoon we took in the other major attraction of the “cultural triangle” – the rock fortress of Sigiriya. Sigiriya is a supremely impressive ancient fortress built – as its name suggests – on a huge rock. Imagine Angkor Wat on top of Ayers Rock! You can read the history yourself, but most impressively this huge complex was built by a king ion the 5th century in only seven years! To imagine 5th century workmen and artisans clamber up this sheer rock face on bamboo ladders to build such an amazing collection of caves, temples, thrown halls and tanks (water reservoirs) is mind-boggling. Ironically, the king – who had 500 concubines!!! – ruled only for 18 years. Maybe he ran out of Viagra, but if the concubines looked anything like the seven remaining frescos on the rock face half way up the wall (there used to be 500) he must surely have had a great time!!!
Climbing 2500 steps to the summit at 360m above sea level in the mid-day heat (ca. 35 degrees) is serious exercise, but the view across the jungle expanse below certainly justifies the effort.
Back in the nicely air-conditioned jeep it was a three-hour drive to Kandy. Since I had insisted on doing all the driving myself, the travel agency had duly endorsed my license by the Automobile Association of Ceylon (the former name of Sri Lanka – still often used today). Numerous people warned me about the road conditions in Sri Lanka, but I found them neither better nor worse than in any other developing country I’ve visited. In the contrary, the roads were well paved, the honking was kept at an acceptable level and the bus drivers were not more suicidal than those that I’ve encountered in Vietnam, Laos, Tibet or Thailand.
Thanks to prior research on the internet, we stayed at a beautifully restored, 200-year old colonial-style manor house converted into a boutique hotel, called the Kandy House. Although in a somewhat remote location outside Kandy, it has only eight rooms – all exquisitely restored with modern bathrooms – and must be one of the most memorable places I’ve every stayed. There is a small garden out front and in the back with a fantastic pool that opens up into a field of rice terraces. When we arrived, there was only one other room occupied and the staff-to-guest ratio must have been 5 to 1.
Actually, I know for a fact that there are at least twelve staff, because we all played cricket together the following afternoon. It was my first attempt at the game and it was a most memorable experience – despite the fact that our side lost by one run (28 runs in 5 overs, taking 4 wickets – see, I know my cricket now!!!).
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