Monday 9 January 2017

Sri Lanka - early days!

Heyyyyy

So I'm now blogging from my new destination - Sri Lanka!

I'm here for one month, and I have a fellow backpacker joining me - Tashya, who was one of the girls I did my advanced diving course with. So she joins me tonight and then the real travelling starts here!

I landed on the 6th at 1am and quickly caught an Uber (cheaper than a taxi, where locals use their own car for rides) - as if Asia has Uber now - thats just so weird and it's almost lazy - but yea, i couldn't be assed with taxi haggling at that time of morning, so maybe it's a god-send! However, it was an interesting ride as my 23-year-old driver couldn't stop himself from babbling on about his problems with his German ex-kind-of-girlfriend and his current and past sex-life. Already I was beginning to switch back to my India-me and learnt to switch off and shut up. Luckily his accent was pretty hard to understand so i just nodded and made the appropriate words to go along with his conversation. He then had the balls to ask me about my sex life 'so how is your good sex life? how many partners have you had good christina?' lol! Oh my days, it was like being back in India but kinda funny as here they have a humour to it, it's very brash and very rude, but they kind of don't mean it that way. Plus it's normally from the younger ones who want to escape the society 'norms' and think us western women are the people to be this open with...a little stereotype there!

He dropped me off at my hostel in Negombo Beach where a little middle-aged lady, Latta greeted me in her bobble hat and tired eyes and called everyone 'darling'. It was a very basic hostel, but the fact that the lady who managed it was so cute and kind of like your mother, you didn't really mind it's flaws like no wifi and dark fan-only rooms, plus it was across the road from the beach so, I really had nothing to moan about! it was so funny though as bless her, she stays up for her late check-ins, and so while she was writing out my reciept, she was falling asleep! So it took a while to check in but i managed to finally get some kind of sleep, until I was woken up by some rude Chinese people in my room at 6.30am who decided to greet their friend checking-in by turning on the light and shouting!

That day I met a lovely french girl who was coming to the end of her trip and we spent the day together eating curry and rice, chilling on the beach and going out for a meal in the evening, while trying to avoid all the tuk tuk drivers wanting to get you in one! She had actually missed her flight to India that morning because they wouldn't let her board without a return ticket, which she didn't have as she was staying for 6 months and didn't know when she would leave.

The next day I decided to pay the high price of $3 to use the pool of one of the beach resorts to avoid the beach sellers and local oggling eyes as I was on my own. So after 12 hours sleep, finally, I was able to have some relaxation after being on the road these last few days. I also went for another local curry and rice at a lovely place down the road which was delicious and I am beginning to enjoy eating with my hands again - especially as Maude the french girl had given me a little extra tip to help - use the thumb to push it into the mouth!

I also met Johnathon, a local from Jaffna who had been traveling India and Asia for a while and was back for his Australian cousins wedding. We spent the afternoon by the pool chatting, talking about Sri Lanka, travelling etc and he introduced me to some local mangoes and something called a Wood Apple - which is weird but after a while you get used to the taste!

My evening meal was across the road from the hostel at Mr Crab, the freshest seafood in town, and I paid the high price of 6gbp for grilled prawns in garlic butter, chips and salad! It was yum!

I left for Colombo the next day (yesterday) and by the advice of Latta took the local bus (all of 20 rupees - when 171 is one pound) to Negombo Bus station, and then the local bus from there to Colombo which was 56 rupees. I managed to haggle a tuttuk driver down to a very good price and checked into my hostel along Galle (pronounced Gawl) road, near the beach front, which is very plush at 13 pounds a night, where I will await Tashya's arrival!

At lunch I ate at a very local place where all the men couldn't believe a foreign girl was eating with her hands, and she does it so well they gasped! Last night i went down to Galle Face beach front where it's tradition amongst the locals to hang out, fly kites, eat speciality snacks and watch the sunset, I obviously also tried those speciality snacks. Today I will head down to Fort area probably and check that out, not before having some more delicious cuisine!
P.S Photo's will be added once uploaded!

1 comment:

  1. I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I do not know who you are but definitely you’re going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already Cheers!
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