Town hopping to the east coast, Sri Lanka

After spending 30 days in Mirissa it was time to hit the road again and head inland then slowly make the journey to the east coast. Deniyaya The first stop was Deniyaya. The trip takes about 2.5 hours by bus from Mirissa. The town doesn't have anything to offer except a little peace and quiet. The one thing going for it is its proximity to the Singaraja Rain Forest. A huge recognised and protected park and about a 30 minute tuk tuk ride from town.

It's a tropical rain forest and home to many species of reptiles, birds, insects and other animals. Many endemic to the park itself. I didn't see many of them, just a few spiders and lizards. I did see however, and had to remove plenty of leaches. It was great to be back in nature and far away from the noise and crowds of people I left behind on the south coast.

This mud built house was once owned by our trekking guide. You can clearly see the destruction caused by the recent floods and landslides. Unfortunately the umbrella didn't provide much help.

We stayed with a family in a local guest house and it was awesome (actually most guest houses like this are awesome) and the food is always good. A great improvement from what you get in the restaurants.

Kitulgala

Some days start bad and just get worse....

Rathnapura was supposed to be the next stop on the road trip but that didn't happen. 30 minutes before we were due to depart we learnt that Rathnapura had been hit hard with dengue fever. Recent torrential rain caused flooding and land slides in many places which sadly resulted in deaths, serious injuries and homelessness. Civil infrastructure such as culverts and stormwater pipes in most cities are inadequate and the water simply can't be dispersed. This causes stagnation which is a breading ground for disease that the mosquitos carry. So the poor folk of Rathanpura and other areas suffered more pain with hundreds to thousands of known hospitalisations with dengue fever. We weren't going to take the risk so our host suggested we go to Kitulgala instead. He knew what our final destination was and what we wanted to see, we had no time or wifi so we took his advice. The journey took around seven hours in total and we had to change busses three times. I actually woke up feeling sick on this day and only got worse as the day went on and this tortuous journey didn't help. When we arrived into Kitulgala it was dark and raining and I felt like the walking dead. We needed a place to stay and any clean place would do, so we accepted an offer after quick negotiation from a local guest house operator we met at the post office. Nothing he told us prior to arriving at the guest house was true. The room and everything in it was damp and it stunk of dirt and mould. There was mould growing on the walls and ceiling. The basin was broken, there was no hot water and the mattresses were filthy. Exactly the opposite to what I needed and I now name it the worst place I've stayed at during the 10 month journey so far. And the price we negotiated? Well that changed on site also. He wanted more and retracted breakfast! We argued, he didn't get more and we didn't get breakfast. This isn't the first place we've stayed at like this and we've had worse hosts.

Oh and I nearly forgot, where is Kitulgala? Nowhere where we needed to be! In the opposite direction to where we wanted to go and further away from our destination. Turns out this town is famous for rafting. And that's it! Who goes rafting in the monsoon season? I still have no idea why our host recommended it. Needless to say we left early the next morning.

Nuwara Eliya This town has very little resemblance to any other Sri Lankan town I've seen. It's like it just fell out of the sky. Nuwara Eliya is a two bus, 2.5 hour ride from Kitulgala and I was so relieved and glad we chose this as the next spot. It's a vegetable farming area with lakes, reservoirs, verdant hills, public gardens, golf courses, pine forests, water falls and a racecourse.

The town isn't overly busy, large or loud. It's clean, manicured and well maintained with good infrastructure. At the start the weather was in the Goldilocks zone and just want I've wanted for months. Unfortunately later on in the stay it turned rotten, wet, cold and windy. Anyway, I love his little town. This is where I felt the most relaxed. I didn't feel like such an attraction to the locals as I wandered around even though we were, as usual, the only foreigners. I loved being surrounded by nature and we decided to rent a little log cabin on the border of the pine forest with a little stream running past the back door. Most Sri Lankan towns and cities have cows roaming the streets, in Nuwara Eliya they've traded them in for horses.... There were horses everywhere just hanging around the streets and in parks. They don't interrupt the traffic and love a pat. Most of them. I even took one for a little spin when I was walking through the racecourse.

I think Nuwara Eliya is a little more civilised and it just seems to go about it's business with little fuss and at a gentle pace. One of my favourites for sure.

Ella I've been here before. When I stayed in Haputhale I visited Ella on a day trip. Nothing has changed since. It's still full of tourists and they appear to almost outnumber the locals. This time we traveled by train from Nuwara Eliya which took about 3 hours.

Mini Adams Peak is the towns main attraction. It's a high hill that offers a 360 degree view of the area and only a 3klm walk to reach the top. It's a nice walk and the view is pretty impressive.

Other than that, all other sites or points of interest are 10klm away or further. Arugam Bay The final destination for this town hoping journey. Sri Lankans and foreigners always talk about Arugam Bay, or A bay, as a must see destination. It has a reputation as being a good and popular surf spot and chill out town. It's definitely chilled and very popular. There were heaps and heaps of tourists (most in their 20's) but that was to be expected, it's the "cool place man".

It's a 1klm strip of restaurants, surf shops and hotels and parallel to the tourist strip is the beach which I reckon is about 4klm long. The swimming was ok and I watched surfers out in the water for hours but none of them ever caught a wave...