Colombo and the Ministry

So we left the hill country for Colombo today, braving second class on the train for 7 hours. At the platform we met some other travellers who had failed on second and were on third; based on the train we'd been on the day before I wished them luck. Once again our train rolled in exactly on time, and it was some new sleek blue modern train - the backpackers in 3rd would be fine, and we ended up in a lovely carriage and settled in for the day. I chucked more motion sickness tables down my neck ( nicer carriage, seats still backwards) and caught a few zzzzzz's. A few hours later I got chatting to a railway protection officer who then proceeded to want photos at the station with us - him looking official us just laughing. Like most Sri Lankan's he was very genuine, very proud of his country and very kind.

The hours flew by and we arrived into Colombo at nightfall, our trusty tuk tuk driver Raman whisked us over to Lake Lodge and we embraced more sleek polished concrete. Curries and beers at Lake Lodge followed and I again pondered how or why Sri Lankan food isn't more of a 'thing' in London. It damn well should be - every curry comes accompanied by 4 vegetable side dishes, rice and poppadoms - so far our vegetable dishes have included beetroot ( sounds wrong but oh so right), okra, Dahl, potatoes, pumpkin and green beans. Without exception the curries have been amazing ( and about £3). We then said goodbye to Jodie and promised to have a terrible day without her. I was particularly going to miss Jodie's polite requests to Helen in the night to stop snoring and to roll over. I was far less polite that night without her......

Morning comes and after brekkie at Lake Lodge we get Helen's lovely tuk tuk friend Nisantha to drive us to the Old Dutch Hospital - Colombo's oldest building and now turned into an upmarket eating/ shopping venue in the Fort area of town. We have some gifts to pick up, pedicures to have and coffees  to drink. All successfully done, we head over to a few more shops before rain stops play and we head back for a pre dinner rest.

Come sunset off we go to a place I'd read about in a newspaper called the Ministry of Crab - a new restaurant opened by two Cricket players and that was a shrine to my star sign emblem the crab. We have a few sundowners beforehand and get shown to a beautiful table inside the ministry. When you read the menu you know you are going to like the ministry. The constitution tells you they only cook fresh, they won't pick baby crabs, water is served in carafes not bottles and they don't believe in freezers. The actual menu amuses - you can shoes right up to OMG! or Collosus crabs, we went for an XL crab in garlic and chilli sauce, accompanied with bread and spinach. 

Our crab arrives, we demolish it - it went to a good home. Beautiful. Before we leave one of the owners - the very handsome Kumar Sangakkara arrives, having dinner with friends. He's pointed out to me by our waiter - he's the cricket captain apparently. 

I left thinking that there was a gap in the market, perhaps I should open a ministry in London

Bye Sri Lanka you have been wonderful - highlights if you are ever to go include:

Ella - the walk to little Adams peak through the tea plantations and the curries and view at Zion View

Tangalle - Mangrove Cabanas, book the villa with outdoor bathroom, lobster at Cactus Lounge

Mirissa- Palm Villas and do go whale watching

Colombo - book the Ministry of Crab, stay at Lake Lodge, have a 90 minute £13 pedicure at Spa Ceylon

Trains - do them and lots of them - cheap, fun and good way to meet locals

An evening at the Hill Club

We reluctantly said goodbye to Ella and the brilliantly run Zion View with their tasty curries and headed to the train station in a pimped up Tuk Tuk. We had a first class ticket to Nanu Oya and apparently the train ride was an experience by itself. 

The train stations in Sri Lanka are very cute and old fashioned, and the 10.57 to Colombo rolled in exactly on time - along with lots of smoke ( I mentioned old fashioned right?). We hauled ourselves and backpacks up into first class and found a rickety, shabby carriage with lots of charm. We each had a window, and I wasn't totally expecting to be travelling backwards, nor from the look of my fellow passengers was anyone else. I'd used all my travel sickness pills on the boat to see the whales so minor panic started to set in when 5 minutes in the tell tale saliva in mouth started to appear. As a result I spent the next 3 hours with legs in an awkward position and neck craned out of the window in an attempt to face forward. This gives me an excuse for another massage and I ended up enjoying the journey through what is some pretty spectacular scenery. Kids waved, tea pluckers picked and dogs barked. 

Our destination was the heart of the Ceylon tea plantations and a hotel out of town which had that trying to be a mock Tudor house thing going on. We decided to head into ' little England' otherwise known as Nuwara Eliya for dinner at a club called the Hill Club. A colleague had told me it was an essential place to visit. My guidebook suggested we didn't get too excited about the food. It was very, very wrong. The drive way up the club is suitably grand and we were warmly greeted by a butler at the entrance and taken through to the Mixed Bar ( as opposed to the Ladies bar, which would have got all of us in an instant sexist rant no doubt) for a pre dinner Hendricks. 

Our menu for the evening was:

Prawn Fettucine

Leek and Potato soup

Roast Pork and vegetables 

Strawberries and cream

Coffee or Tea

We were escorted into the very grand formal dining room by our butler and the feast began. And it was gorgeous; all of it. We had about four different young Sri Lankan waiters fawning over us. I started eyeing up which piece of crockery I could discreetly into my bag, but the hill club had an answer for that too.....I was escorted to the souvenir shop.

If you are in Sri Lanka I couldn't encourage you to visit the Hill Club any more, we absolutely loved it there - £20 very well spent - and when you come to mine for a cuppa you can be served from a Hill Club teapot.

Marvellous x

The early bird catches the worm

I've always been an early riser, so when we were told to get to see a national park we had our eye on we had to leave at 5am, there was a mini groan but only a mini one. So we had dinner at our guesthouse ( Zion View in Ella), had an early night and before daylight we were up. Zion view packed us a lovely little brekkie and we waited with our guard dog Alsatian friend Toby for our driver. Only we waited. And waited. And waited........30 minutes stood in the dark when you are half asleep feels like hours. Finally our driver arrives and off we set.

We had a bit of a deadline - the park we were going to - Worlds End has an amazing plateau ( with a scary 880m drop)  which if you time it right lets you see villages down below tea plantations, forest. If you time it wrong however you get a view of cloud and not a lot else. So off we went - only our driver didn't get the time urgency. Or even if he did I'm not sure what his diesel van could have done about it. The gears seemed to flummox him, tuk tuk's overtook him and we didn't see the speedometer clock more than 40 km/ hour even on a dual carriageway.

Suffice to say we saw a cloud forest, but hey we enjoyed the nice leisurely drive home....and laughed about it later on, our man was on Sri Lanka time.......He more than made up for it by showing us some wildlife on the way home in the form of some cheeky monkeys scurrying across the road.

Now this was something special

Unhappy with the heat, sand flies, lazy staff etc etc at our previous resort - we hunted for something better.

We didn't have to search that hard - the first place we tried further up on Marakolliya Beach was just the ticket. Well the bar was good anyway and given it was dark we went with a feeling that our beach cabana with outdoor bathroom would be good. We booked in for our last two nights and broke the news to the lazy boys that we were off.

Mangrove Cabanas here we come :-)

Joyfully it's even better in the daytime - our Cabana is a delight all beautiful wood and polished concrete. I'm writing this draped on our outdoor daybed, and there is not a single soul around me. The dangerous ( sea definitely not safe for swimming) waves crash onto the shore in front of me. Some eagles sore overhead. Apart from my ocean injured leg there is nothing to be thinking about. 

Man I could do with another week but the hills are calling us...

Just enough time for a final outdoor shower, passion fruit martini and a lobster....

Sometimes things don't go according to plan

This bit of the trip was meant to be the best bit - 3 stressed out city girls having some beach time in what was meant to be the most idyllic of spots ' tangalle'.

It started out well - we had a very calm good driver from Mirissa, we passed some new year festivities on our way. But then we got to Frangipani Beach Villas and our hearts sank. The feel of the place was all wrong. There was no air circulating, the staff were more interested with flirting with 18 year old German girls than serving drinks and the whole place needed a spring clean, and some women working in it. 

However the beach was still lovely and the sea was still safe to swim. So in we went. The ocean here is gorgeous - turquoise, clean, and once you are in pretty gentle waves. Unfortunately once you are in it doesn't want to let you out. That's how I found myself being dragged along the ocean floor for a while and why my leg is currently sporting a very attractive plaster tan line........let's hope both legs return to the UK

After a hot and sweaty night under the fan, Helen and I went on our usual power walk. It was when a local dog wouldn't leave us be and when I noticed that the very smily fisherman was actually wanking at us that we decided maybe this wasn't our paradise after all.

Time to upgrade.......

Spending some time with the largest creature to ever inhabit the earth

So where were we? Oh yes in the lovely Mirissa but slightly perturbed by the very particular staff. Well after a great nights sleep at the palm, the 5.45 wake up is easier than expected. I had a certain spring in my step - we were off to see some Whales. It was over 10 years ago that I had an amazing experience seeing some humpbacks up close and personal. I then swam with whale sharks in Western Australia but since then things have been a bit quiet on the whale front. Unless you are my good brother that is who's managed to swim with a humpback family in Tonga and get one inked all over his right shoulder ( much to Hartley Senior's delight). 

Anyway back to Sri Lanka. From Sept to April the mightiest of all mammals the blue whale swims past these shores as part of their migration between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. We were probably pushing it given it was mid April but decided to give it a go. So at 6am we arrived at the harbour hunting for one of the most environmentally friendly of the operators - jet wing. After a fairly painful hour walking past shit loads of fisherman with their tuna hauls we are hooked up with our boat. Sea sickness tablet swallowed and we were good to go. A couple of hours later our first blue whale was spotted - a 20m long female. We then had a lucky hour watching in the end 3 adults. Nothing prepares you for the size of them. I was also really pleased  that our boat was very respectful of the whales and kept their distance.

I'm now ready for some whale tickling in Baja California.....

The curious incident of the waiter with OCD

I write this on a shady veranda of the Palm Villa hotel in Mirissa surrounded by Palm trees, frangipani trees and the sound of the Indian Ocean. The smells are the usual holiday cocktail of Nivea sunscreen, DEET and sweaty bodies. These are sights and smells which I am more than happy with - and things feel a hell of a lot better than they did last Friday night when I reached the new low in my life when after 4 hours grappling with the joy that is holiday traffic I missed my flight. What a difference a week makes.

So better late than never Sri Lanka has been making up for lost time. The fort town of Galle was a delight and we spent an easy few days exploring the city walls, avoidng the numerous flash floods and trying out some new foods. The Hopper was a total delight, a cute bowl shaped thin crispy pancake which can be filled with whatever you like. We went for egg and tomato. Spicy as hell but also a very cute breakfast dish. It was Sri Lankan new year when we arrived so our shopping opportunities were limited, probably a good thing.

Our next destination was Mirissa and the owner of the fabulous hotel in Galle ' seagreen' drove us while teaching us some Sri Lankan language essentials like that's too expensive and another beer. The Palm Villa is in a gorgeous spot away from all the beach bars on a corner spot between two bays. A beer soaked afternoon was followed with an easy dinner right on the seafront. Or at least we thought it was going to be easy. The staff at Palm Villa, while lovely, don't seem to go with the customer is always right mantra. They do however go with the do what we tell you philosophy. Which is how we found ourselves moving from a gorgeous beach side table to an undercover 8 person table so there was enough room for our fish. Our waiter then proceeded to move all of our possessions ( phones, keys, purses, sunglasses) away from us to a particular edge of the table. When the fish eventually turned up they had to face a particular way........

We had dinner somewhere else the following evening.........

We stayed at:

Galle: Seagreen Guest House

Mirissa: Palm Villa

We ate at:

Galle: Fort Printers ( ask for a spot by the pool), crepeology, drinks at the lovely Amangalla, hoppers at Spoons on Pedlar Street, amazing ice creams at Pedlars, and gorgeous banana pancakes at the Pelars Inn