Tissa and Yala National Park, Sri Lanka 12-13 Jan 2014

Matara is the end stop of the southern Sri Lanka rail line. From here we took a local bus to Tissa. Tissa is short for Tissamaharama. A small town south eastern of Sri Lanka. A gateway to Yala National Park. The bus journey was 3 hours but mostly along the coastline and small villages. This time we chose a seat far away from the speaker and at the end of the bus to avoid all the noise. It was much better. We have learnt to pack some food for the journey because you never know how long the journey will take.

SundaLanka Rest

We were approached by a local on the bus who was offering his guesthouse. It was 2km away from town, so we told him we wanted a place near to town. Then he said his brother has a place near town, he will bring us there. It was drizzling when we arrived, the bus station and the town was deserted, I guess everyone is off on Sunday. So we followed him to his brother's guesthouse, no harm anyway, the house is about 200m from town, tuck in the green coconut plantation. Surprisingly it was nice. Big room and close to nature. We like it and took it. Next is to book for our safari, of course he sells the safari package as well. We bargain for an acceptable price and sign up. :-) We are all set!

Tissa Buddhist Stupa

When the rain subsided, we went for a stroll, the town is basically dead. We walked out of town passing some paddy fields and stumble into a Buddhist Stupa. We follow the local and walk clockwise around the stupa, my brother did it 3 times. A monk came to chat with me, he told me he was a headmaster before but he fell sick. Some kind of lung disease, said he has to go Colombo for treatment and it was very expensive. Lastly he get to his point of asking me if I can give him some money. I didn't because first of all real monk do not ask for money. Luckily he wasn't pushy and left.

Sunrise

Yala National Park is the second largest in Sri Lanka but is the most visited. The park covers 979 square kilometres. 44 species of mammals are resident here and it has one of the highest leopard densities in the world and the Sri Lanka elephant. Yala harbours 215 bird species including six endemic species of Sri Lanka. I was very excited to finally get here, I hope I can see a leopard. :-)

The safari started at 5:30am with a pick up from the guesthouse. We were then join with others and swop around jeeps and regroup. We were in a 6 seated jeep with just 4 of us. The jeep is basically converted from Jeepney with 6 seats and a sheltered fixed at the back, both side are open. It took about 45 minutes to get to Yala National Park, the dawn and sunrise in the park was breathtaking. After getting thru the registration at the entrance, off we go. We didn't have a guide from the park nor seen any tickets issued, as written in the travel book. Maybe the driver cut corner but we got in the park anyway.

Elephant Rock at Yala National Park 

Peacock

We were greeted with peacocks after peacocks, on the tree, on the road, in the bushes, they are everywhere. There were also herd of buffalos, soaking in water holes, resting in the mud or some were crossing the road. The driver was our spotter, every time when he see something he will stop and point to us. We saw fox, crocodiles, bambi, wild boar, and lots of birds - Indian Cormorant, Grey Heron, Black-headed Ibis, Eurasian Spoonbill, Asian Openbill, medium-sized waders, Egrets, Oriental Darter, Lesser Whistling Duck, Crested Serpent Eagle, Asian Paradise-flycatcher, the list is long... 

When a Leopard was discovered

We were not allow to get off the jeep at any point except for the beach stop and river stop. Drivers update each other what they saw when they cross each other on the road. An hour later, after spoken to another driver (in Sinhalese), he immediately reversed his car into a small path. There was a big traffic jam of jeeps behind us, we could not get close. With my binoculars, I saw a fade leopard tail hanging on a big tree. We were forced to move on as we were blocking the other jeeps behind us to pass, our driver has to take a big loop and queue at the end of line. after we finally got to the spot, the leopard has already gone. :-( disappointed!

Toque macaque

Crocodile

Peacock

Sri Lanka Bambi

Sri Lanka elephant

Sri Lanka Leopard

We continue our safari, hoping to see another one later. At 10:30am, we stop at the beach spot for a break, I counted more than 50 jeeps were there. It was also a long holiday for Sri Lanka, so there were a lot more local tourist in the park. Their jeeps mostly packed up to 12 people in it. Probably they paid lesser. 

We continue our search and finally we saw a Sri Lanka elephant, moving alone in the bush not in a herd though. My first wild elephant, he was huge!! We continue to spot other animals like Sri Lanka Mongoose, Toque macaque, king fishers, etc. As our driver turn into another path, he stop abruptly and cut the engine. Yelled to us "LEOPARD!!" The moment of truth!! We saw a leopard 50m away walked out from the bush on to the path heading towards us, slowly taking his time, we kept our camera clicking, he came as close as 20m away until he disappeared into the bush. We were speechless for a moment with a big smile on our face. We finally saw our first leopard. I was still shock from that moment, could not believe what just happen. He was bigger than I expected. He was very beautiful with those spots on the body. We hung around for another 30 minutes to see if the leopard appear again. We were so lucky!!

Asian Paradise-flycatcher

Kingfisher

The half day safari finished at noon, we had lunch, check out and left for Ella. We have to take 3 buses to arrive at Ella. First from Tissa to Thanawalwila, from Thanawalwila to Wilawaya and lastly from Wilawaya to Ella. All 1 hour journey each. The connections were actually smooth, we didn't wait more than 30min for the next bus. Everyone was so helpful and they make sure we got onto the right bus. The journey up to the highland was refreshing and scenic. That made the trip less taxing.

Water buffalo

Accommodation
Sundalanka Rest, Tissa Tel : 071 2244108 – 1500rp per room/night with fan, attached toilet with hot water. 

Transportation
Local bus from Matara to Tissa - 150rp pp
Local bus from Tissa to Thanawalwila - 51rp pp
Local bus from Thanawalwila to Wilawaya  - 61rp pp
Local bus from Wilawaya to Ella - 61rp pp

Recreation
Yala National Park half day safari - 5500rp pp incl park fees

Colombo and Galle, Sri Lanka 10-12 Jan 2014

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is known as "the Pearl of the Indian Ocean" because of its natural beauty. The beauty came from the long history, the culture, the nature, and the people. It has never came across my mind that such beauty exist so close to me. After a quick study and googling, I am all ready to pack my bag.

I was so happy that my brother Anthony is coming with me to Sri Lanka, we had an amazing time travelled together to Cambodia and Laos. I looked forward for another great trip with him. We booked our tickets and I made all the planning. We will spend total of 8 days in Sri Lanka. That is the maximum number of days I can squeeze out of my holidays. :-) Short but we will see what we can manage in that 8 days.

As we will land in Colombo midnight, I made a reservation for accommodation in advanced. I was shocked when I checked the prices online, even a hostel cost $25 per person. Since we didn't plan to stay or sightsee in Colombo, any place cheap and reasonable is ok. It was a house with SPA and rooms available upstairs. We checked in at 1am early Sat, slept, had our breakfast and left. The person who run the place speak very basic English but he managed to help us with what we need. He told us that there are many buses going to Galle, he gave us the bus number to take from the main road to the Main Bus station at Fort. It was easy. We got to the main road the buses were there instantly.Colombo is clean and pretty rustic. The buses are non-aircon and the bus conductor sell us tickets in small sheet of paper. It was surprising cheap! We paid rp35 for 2 person to the main station, that is S$0.17 cents per person. :-)

Local market

We started to realised that everyone was staring at us. With their big eyes you can felt the fierce stare even from far away. I look them back and gave them a smile, then everything change, they didn't look away and gave me a big smile back. Those who dares will start speaking to me, asking me where I am from, how long in Sri Lanka, do I like Sri Lanka etc. I started to realised how friendly Sri Lankan are, I started to like them. :-)

Local Market

Someone showed us where to get off at the Main Station and where to get our bus to Galle, everyone was so helpful. We had time to walk pass a local market before we jump on our bus. The local produce are mangoes, beans, chillies, jackfruits, potatoes, carrots, onions, papaya, pineapple, orange, cabbages, etc. not much different from Malaysia.

Colombo Fort Bus Station

From an aircon minibus and a local non aircon bus, we decided on the local bus. We picked the first row, got ourselves seated comfortably and the journey begins, we enjoyed the view of Colombo town as the bus pass thru the city, a lot cleaner than I expected. The bus stops every 100m as the bus conductor hung on the door and call constantly "GalleGalleGalle..." Gave me a flashback of minibus service in Kuala Lumpur. The Indian Pop music was blasting in the bus and we were fortunately sitting right in front of the speaker. :-( The bus driver was cursing using his honk. Colombo city seems endless, after an hour we were still in the city, after 2 hours we were still in the city fighting thru the traffic. We got bore and fell asleep. Finally I think 3 hours later we saw the coconut trees and beaches. Endless shoreline and beautiful beaches. Finally we arrived after 4.5 hours on that 119km route. It was a good start! :-)

Galle Light House

Galle was the main port of the island back in the 16th century. The Galle fort is a world heritage site and is the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers. The bus stop is just outside the Fort, as we arrived at 2pm it was hot but not humid. We went looking for food, got into the first restaurant we saw in the fort. It was nicely decorated with Bob Marley photos. I got my first rice and curry. It was delicious! Not much different from Indian cuisine back in Malaysia except that it was less spicy.

Galle Fort

Galle

Galle District Court

After checking into our guesthouse, we went to explore the fort. A walked along the wall, pass the lighthouse, beach, a big mosque, churches, museum, lots of old Dutch buildings, gigantic ankle left over from the old days on display by the road and small little boutique of hotel and shops. Such a pretty little city, lots of photograph opportunities. We stop by a local fishing bay where the local fishing boats were dock. The traditional boat was built with wood, long and narrow body with one outrigger on one side to balance the boat. The other type was the fiberglass flat bottom type.

Traditional Fishing Boat

Fiberglass Fishing Boat

A few of the locals came to chat, they told us the fishing was done at night, they leave after sunset, out the entire night and back at dawn. 2 type of fishing method were used, hand bait and net casting. For net casting a few boat has to work together to circle the net and trap the fishes. One of them actually invited us to join them that night. Ohh..If only we have the time...:-( it's our lost to miss such an opportunity but then again we might not survive the night. 

Kottu and Devile

At night the guesthouse owner recommended us a place to eat, we tried out some local dishes introduced by the guesthouse owner. The Kottu is actually roti canai cut into small pieces and fried with vege and meat of your choice. The Devile is onions and chilies with meat of your choice fried with sweet soya sauce and we ordered an extra plate of vegetables. We love it! Anthony finished 2 plates of rice. :-)

The catch of the day

We left early the next day to Tissa. To get there we have to catch a train to Matara and change to a local bus to Tissa. The guesthouse owner was very friendly, he told us what time is the train and where we could find the fish market in the morning. It was where we pass yesterday, the fishermen came back with Tunas, Trevally, Grouper, Snappers all hand bait. There was one giant grouper just the head was 6kg, I don't know how they pull it out with their hands.

The train ride was nice and comfy, no more traffic jam! We got to Matara in 45mins. When we arrived a tuk tuk driver approach us and asked us where we want to go. We hesitated and told him bus station(we tried to avoid tuk tuk because they always overcharge) he told us it is 2km away 20 mins walk. We told him we will walk. In return he gave us the direction and said good bye. We were shocked by his feedback. Sometime this is what we miss and what made our day when you least expected it. A nice and humble person who just wanted to help.

Galle to Matara

Accommodation
Thusare House & Spa, Colombo – $56 per room/night with aircon, shared toilet, hot shower, wifi. Breakfast - 1000rps
Leynbaan Villa, Galle - 3000rps per room/night with fan, mosquito net, attached toilet with hot water, wifi.

Transportation
Cathay Pacific SG-Colombo return S$372.80 pp
Visa - $30 pp applied online
Taxi to guesthouse - 2700rp per taxi
Local Bus to Main bus terminal - 17.5rp pp
Local Bus to Galle - 150rp pp
Train from Galle to Matara - 80rps pp

Recreation
NA