Sri Lanka (1/3) – Wilpattu & Anuradhapura

We picked up our third suitcase, which we had stored at Manila Airport before leaving to Bohol, and suddenly realised that our flight to Kuala Lumpur was supposed to depart from a different terminal. It was not our mistake, they had just moved all flights of Malaysian Airlines to another terminal a few days before. We arrived there well on time but had then some trouble with our luggage. The problem was that the first leg of the trip was part of our OneWorld around-the-world ticket, while the second leg had been booked by the agency in addition, so they had different ticket numbers.

At the check-in counter, they were finally able to check the luggage through until Colombo so that we would not have to leave the transit zone to claim our luggage and check it in again – which would have added two passport and security controls. However, once the boarding started we were suddenly called out to come to the counter and an officer informed us that our luggage tags had to been changed to Kuala Lumpur as destination for technical reasons.

Hence we had to go to the transfer counter in KL airport, and luckily the lady there redirected our luggage to the subsequent airplane to Colombo and said we would not have to check-out. We had serious doubts that this would work on such a huge airport with several terminals, but hey it did, and all three pieces of luggage arrived in Colombo with the same plane as we did. Phew!

It was quite late in the evening, but our driver from Darshana Tours (https://darshanatours.com) was still waiting for us with two girdles of flowers to welcome us on the island. His name was Dushan and he was our driver and guide for the next week – and we were very happy after the trip that we had him. He was very kind, attentive and a calm and safe driver. He followed the itinerary which we had agreed with his boss, Darshana, but also showed flexibility to adapt to changes as needed. He was the first driver of this local enterprise and this for a good reason. We wish him and his family that he can make a good living now after the hard times of Covid-19 where he was basically out of work for 2 years.

Dushan brought us to the J Negombo Hotel, not far from the airport and his hometown, so he could stay one night longer with his family. The next morning we slept a bit longer, had a breakfast on the terrace with sea view, and a short swim in the pool. We then headed off with Dushan driving us all the way up to the Wilpattu National Park as our first destination, where we started a safari tour after a really delicious lunch with „Devilled Chicken“ in the „Leopards Den“ Restaurant.

For the safari we climbed up to the semi-open seats on the back of a massive 4-wheel car. It allowed us to look out in all directions, while being protected against sweeping branches and other potential dangers. We were the only guests and Dushan joined the driver on the front seats. And the show began after entering the National Park main entrance in that area. To be noted that the park as such is quite large and one of the hot spots for animal sightings.

The „Big Three“ in that park are Leopards, Sloth Bears, and Elephants. As always with real nature you do not know what you will see, but we hoped of course for the big three in the course of our 4 hours safari. And we were lucky again!!!

Just a few kilometres into the park and the road was occupied by a self-confident, black Sloth Bear.  The two cars there had to move backwards to make way for it as animals always have priority. He then continued to move just next to us in the same direction, so we had plenty of time to admire this endangered species – mainly due to the loss of its habitat.

After seeing plenty of other amazing animals, like deer, wild boars, a crocodile with its open mouth in the mud, turtles, a mungo, monitor lizards, several hornbills, a kingfisher, an eagle, egrets, and an eagle owl, our driver spoke with another one and suddenly went into high speed zig-zagging his way on the dirt roads though the jungle. After a couple of minutes he came to a halt and there they were: our first elephants in Sri Lanka feeding on the long grass.

We the continued already in the direction of the exit, when we were blocked by another two jeeps and people staring into the underwood. It took us some time to adapt our eyes to the twilight, but then we could see a long tail moving behind some bamboo. And the noble cat came slowly out of the brushwood and stopped right on the dirt lane in full view so as to allow to take some star footage – and we did. After a minute or so he sent a last glance to our car and moves into the brushwood on the either side of the road. Just awesome!

We happily moved on to our hotel next to Anuradhapura. The „Black & White Eco Hotel“ was somewhat remote in the middle of a green hill with a large refreshing pool and quite descent food. After some insistence they even found a few Lion beers for us after the long hot day.

From there we started to visit the first of the most important ancient towns of Sri Lanka. Anuradhapura is today a busy new town, but you can still find across the town the remains of the previous capital of Sri Lanka. Some are just the ruins of former palaces, monasteries and temples, while others, mainly religious buildings, have been maintained or restored. In that regard, there are several of the largest and very impressive „Stupas“ of Sri Lanka and the whole buddhist world in the town. Some are just made out of bricks, other have been painted completely in white, which is apparently been renewed every year by volunteer worshipers. They are mostly solid which means nothing is inside these immense domes besides a relic that is buried deep inside. People worship at the many shrines that are located at the bottom all the way around. Another highlight were the ruins of the main monastery which was home to up to 4000 Buddhist priests some 1000 years ago. Most spectacular was the refectory where we found two immense stone troughs, the smaller one used for curries and the much larger one to contain the rice for 4000 monks for each meal. It most have taken a long time until everybody was served.

Another feature of most ancient towns of Sri Lanka was that they had built hundreds of large ponds to collect and distribute water. Most of Sri Lanka most have been coated with channels and ponds to ensure water distribution also during the dry seasons and in the dry highlands. We also loved the so called „Moonstones“ which are the starting stones of stairways up to the temples and contain a variety of symbolic emblems from the Buddhist mythology.

The whole area is quite large and despite some explanatory boards and maps it is better to take a local guide. The entry to most of the important places in Sri Lanka is quite expensive – up to 30 Dollar as tourists – and the guide takes also up to 20 Dollar per tour plus a considerable tip is expected. In general, one has to give smaller and bigger tips for most services anywhere. For example, you have to take off your shoes before entering basically every ancient or religious building and to leave a tip at every building for the shoe keepers.

In any case, our guide (hired by Dushan) was really knowledgeable and it was very interesting to do the tour of nearly 3 hours with him. We moved in between the different sightseeing places with Dushan and his car, otherwise you would need to walk for ages in the heat. Another option is to do it with a rented tuk-tuk, or you hire a tuk-tuk with driver for the sightseeing trip.

We then continued to visit Mihintale, an ancient monastery up in the mountains. There are only ruins left from the monastery (again with huge troughs to feed the monks), but you can climb stairs over several plateaus with ruins until you reach a temple section. From there again a steep stairway leads up to two very large Stupas, one fully renovated in blending white, and on the other the rock stairs to the top of stone pillar with an amazing view on the surrounding highlands and the mountains which are rather dotted like ant hills in between instead of being a typical mountain range. 

We took some time to visit the whole area before we went back to the parking space. From there it was a 2-hour drive to Trincomalee at the East coast which was our next destination.