Kath McGuire

On our third weekend we went to Sinharaja. Sinharaja is a rainforest in southern Sri Lanka. I’ve been there before but this time we were going to the southern edge of it which I haven’t been to.

As usual, our weekend started with a Friday afternoon bus trip. We got a bus to Ratnapura where we would change and get a bus to Deniyaya. We were chatting to the conductor on the Ratnapura bus and he said that we didn’t need to change at Ratnapura, this bus goes to Rakwana and we can get a Deniyaya bus from there. We’d get in at 5, the bus would leave at 6 and we’d be at Deniyaya by 9. After a quick check of a map to make sure Rakwana was actually on our way we agreed.

We did get seats on the bus just after Ratnapura, which was good because from there the road got very twisty. And the driver seemed to be running late. So hold on tight. Laugh at the near misses with the oncoming traffic. Brace yourself and pray. If god ever happens to get lost, then Sri Lankan buses would be a great place to go if you wanted to find him.

We had some time at Rakwana to get our land-legs back and to find some food and then it was onto an even more hilarious bus for the three hours through the hills to Deniyaya. This road was even windier and this driver was in even more of a hurry. The bus wasn’t very full (who in their right mind would have been on a bus on those roads after dark?). And it was more roller-coaster than bus ride.

At one point Lora was attempting to sleep. Purely, I think so that if the bus crashed and we all died horribly, at least she could die in her sleep. This became a recurring joke throughout the rest of the trip.

We did finally make it to Deniyaya alive and in one piece (each). Though several internal organs were feeling somewhat more squashy than they’d been before we started and I think we all had bruises somewhere. The top edges of my shoulders and my temples tend to be the places where I most often get bus-bruises. (Shoulders from knocking against the window/wall and temples from falling asleep and whacking my head on the window, or the metal bar that runs along the window.)

The guest house was run by a really, really lovely guy named Upali. We’d already had several phone conversations with him. Including one absolutely hilarious one about towels. Emily had, quite legitimately wondered whether they had towels, so that we wouldn’t have to bring our own. She’d called him to ask. He wasn’t quite sure what she meant and was asking her how many towels she needed. She said just the one each. She felt like she was making a prank call so started laughing. He started laughing. She threw the phone at me. I tried to continue the conversation but by this time I was laughing. There were two or three other calls as well, though none as surreal as the towel call.

So when we arrived, we were very pleased to see that they did in fact have towels. And Upali was very pleased to be able to provide us with towels. He was happy that the towel situation was to our liking. Towels are very important you know. Ford Prefect would have been proud.

The next morning was breakfast (smoked bread, not toasted) and we headed out. Upali is not just guest house owner extraordinaire, he’s also a guide. So he took us in a van to the gate of the park.

The ranger station on the edge of the rainforest is where we got our tickets and used the toilets. There was also a tap outside for washing feet, hands etc. But the tap bit kept falling off.  Every time it did fall off the water came gushing out of that tap, leaving no water for the people in the toilets who needed it for flushing purposes. Never fear, Kath was prepared for exactly such an emergency. Out came the gaffer tape that she had wrapped round a pencil in the front pocket of her bag. If a problem can’t be fixed with gaffer tape, safety pins, string or micropore tape then it really is a big problem. This wasn’t a big problem. And pretty soon the tape was taped in place and the water in the toilets was flowing once again.

We spent a few hours walking through the rainforest. Just incredible. Upali was awesome and told us loads about the forest. Most of which I’ve forgotten. But I do remember the Iron Tree which is the national tree of Sri Lanka and the wood is really heavy, so heavy that it sinks in water. And it’s leaves are mostly green but some of them are red. And black and white millipedes aren’t dangerous. But red and black centipedes are carnivorous. Green vine snakes are cool but get a pattern on them when they get threatened (like when your guide picks one up and shakes it to show you how it changes colour). Kangaroo lizards hop. Lots of trees and plants in the forest are medicinal and I ended up eating about 8 or 10 of them. Yes, that one does taste like toothpaste.

There was a suspension bridge. There were lots of waterfalls. There were monkeys. There were leeches. We all tucked our trousers into our socks and rubbed salt on our socks. I was wearing my mosquito repellent socks. Which turned out to be a bad idea. They are certainly not leech-proof. Lora got one bite. Emily got one. Lauren didn’t get any. And I got 8. Yes, 8. 4 on each foot. 3 of which were bleeding. I did have sticky plasters and antiseptic wipes so I could clean them and cover them. Upali got a leech bite on his ear! He turned down my offers of antiseptic wipes and sticky plasters. I should probably have used whatever leaf he stuck on his ear.

My bites flared up really badly over the next week or so and were very itchy and swollen and horrible. It’s three weeks later and I still have red marks on my ankles from them. But, even though I find the bites themselves more irritating than mosquito bites, at least leeches don’t carry malaria or dengue or other nasties.

Lora and Emily and Upali went swimming by the base of a waterfall. Lauren sat in the sun. I sat in the shade.

It was a really glorious day. There was a little bit of rain but we were in a rainforest, a bit of rain was the least we could have expected. Actually the weather was wonderful! We got back to the car at about 4ish having left the guest house at about 10 that morning. We got back to tea and cold sprite and a dinner of noodles and curry.

We got up not too early on Sunday and walked to the bus station at Deniyaya. We had been told that instead of going to Ratnapura we could go to Embilipitiya and get an Avissawella bus from there. Which we did. The bus to Embilipitiya was about four hours. And Embilipitya was hot and dry when we got there. Much hotter than Deniyaya had been. That’s one of the things I love about this country. There is so much variation in the climate. We were desperate for the loo when we got to the bus station so we embarrassed a load of bus people (conductors and drivers and the like) by asking whether the Colombo bus went to Avissawella (not embarrassing) and then by asking if there was a toilet we could use. They pointed towards the back of the bus station and we smiled and said thank you.

There was nothing down the back of the bus station, just an empty car park/field with a road going through it to a temple. Hmmm. Well, needs must. So I went up to the monk who was by the front door. Put on my best pious face. Greeted him by saying Ayubowan. And asked as politely as I could if there was a toilet we could use. He was most eager to help, as was his colleague on the balcony who yelled directions down at me. So we went off in search of the toilet. We walked between two of the monastery buildings and saw the toilet block at the end. Just on the other side of an open area in which 8 monks (from about 6yrs old to about 19) were playing cricket. They seemed quite pleased to see us and were chatting to us while we took it in turns to use the facilities (or hold the door closed). Emily was about to join in the cricket game (at the request of the monks) when the ball broke and play was stopped. Ah well. Nearly playing cricket with some teenage Buddhist monks while using the temple toilet is certainly not something that happens every day.

So back to the bus (which was now full) and off we went.

This was certainly not the most fun that Emily has ever had on a bus. She didn’t actually throw up, but instead spent about 4 hours feeling like she was about to (which might actually be worse), Lauren’s knees had locked into place since she was standing for the entire four hours (as was I). The bus started off full and then got more and more crowded. The road that this bus took wasn’t as bad as the one we’d come in on on Friday. So that was some relief.

We got back to Avissawella at about 7:30. Exhausted. But happy!

Ella is in the Hill Country near Bandarawella and Badulla. I’ve been through Ella before but never stayed there. Emily and Lauren fancied visiting it and so did I. So off we went.

On Friday after school we got an AC bus from Avissawella to the Ella Junction. It was about 5 hours. Amazing bus trip. The bus snakes it’s way up through the foothills to the spine of the Hill Country. From Haputale you can see for miles back down through the foothills and out onto the plain beyond. Amazing.

At Bandarawella the bus got very, very packed full of people. I wasn’t entirely sure how the three of us were going to manage to get off the bus. But I put my faith in the conductor and the people around me. The guy sitting next to me checked where we were going. The guy behind let me know when it was nearly our stop. The conductor seemed to know what was going on and managed to find my bag at the front and throw it and me off the bus. Emily and Lauren appeared behind me, both with their bags. I’m still not sure how it happened. But it did.

We found a three wheeler and then after a few false starts found the Rock View guest house in Ella. They knew we were coming and knew that we’d want dinner when we got in. We were shown to our room. Biggest room I’ve ever seen. The bathroom was about the size of the room that Lora and I shared when we first got to Avissawella.

Dinner was laid out for us. The two boys who worked there served it all up and chatted to us. They were really lovely and seemed quite surprised by us.

Dinner was rice and curry. There were 9 dishes (I think). Rice, dhal, breadfruit (a bit like jak), caramelised aubergine, green beans, potatoes, papadams, pumpkin, chopped green leaves, chicken. The food was really good. Lauren and Emily were quite surprised. This food was tasty. Really tasty. The food that they get at their house is full of chili and not so tasty. But this was food that had very little chili in it, but still had immense amounts of flavour. Wow!

I’ve eaten a lot of food in a lot of different places in Sri Lanka. This was one of the best meals I’ve had.

On Saturday morning we got up for a breakfast of toast, eggs, fruit, tea. It’s the standard western breakfast. And it was great. Made even better for the view of Ella rock that we had. And we could see part way through the Ella Gap. Which is a gap through the mountains that lets you see down to the plain below.

We watched cars, bikes, buses, three wheelers, people wandering up and down the road. We chatted to the boys who worked in the guest house. We eventually decided that if we were going to go out for a walk we should get our stuff together and head out.

I’d been feeling the sun at breakfast so I put suncream on and a hat and my sunglasses.

We headed out. We went to the station first to book our train tickets to Kandy for the next day. But we couldn’t book since there were no more first class seats available. We’ll just have to come tomorrow and buy second class tickets and hope we can get seats.

We wandered back through town and went in search of Little Adam’s Peak. This is a short(ish) walk from Ella. Go along the road, turn right just past the flower shop that’s near the 1km post, walk through the tea plantation. There you are. How hard could it be?

So we walked along the road. Didn’t see any flower shops. Didn’t see the 1km marker either. But had a lovely wander. A lovely chat. It was very nice to be out in the sunshine and fresh air and getting some exercise. I really do do a lot of walking back home and I miss it when I’m here.

We saw some great views. We took some photos. We made a friend. Well. Not a friend exactly. But there’s a separate post coming about him. We saw the 3km marker and knew we’d gone too far but we were thoroughly enjoying the walk and had nothing to get back for so we kept going.

Walking through tea plantations. Saying hello to the locals. Not giving the kids rupees or pens or chewing gum. We saw some guys near a Hindu Kovil cutting down a tree. It was a massive operation that involved rope and pulleys and people sitting in trees and lots of men wearing sarongs and flip-flops and not a hard-hat or steel-toe-capped boot in sight. They were doing a rather marvelous job but we decided that continuing to walk along that road and under said tree was probably not the best option. So we headed back to see if we could actually find the place we were looking for.

And we did. Turns out the turnoff was next to a flower shop just past the 1km marking. Not quite sure how we missed it on the way up, but it didn’t matter.

We then got lost trying to find the right path up to the top of the peak. But that just meant we had to scramble up through a tea plantation to get from one path to the higher one that was going the right way.

It thought about raining for a bit. Drizzled slightly. Then gave up.

The views from the top were amazing. Apologies that my camera is not nearly good enough to do it justice. We lazed around at the top for a while eating biscuits and just relaxing. What an amazing country!

Then walked back down again. There was a little tea shop within the tea plantation and we stopped there for some cool drinks. The family who ran it were a Tamil family who probably worked in the plantation. Tamil plantation workers do not have the highest quality of life of people in Sri Lanka. Things are getting better for them, but still, the conditions there are generally not good. So it was very nice to see a family who were running a drinks stall to make legimate use of the tourists. Rather than simply begging for money (which many others in the area were doing) these people were working for it. And we were expecting that the prices would be hiked up quite a lot given where we were. But they weren’t. Things were more expensive there than in other places, but I have been ripped off to a much greater extent in other places.

We made it back to town and found a somewhat western style cafe for lunch. Mmmmm burgers.

Then back to the guest house to rest, read, and work up the energy for dinner.

We met an Aussie guy who has been living and working in China as a primary school teacher. It was nice chatting to him.

Sunday morning after breakfast we headed off to get the train.

Bought tickets. The train was a few minutes late but not much. We didn’t really get seats. We found two seats across the aisle from each other, which Lauren and I got. Emily wanted to sit in the doorway with the wind on her face anyway so she was happy enough.

We settled in for a long but quite magnificent train ride. This is the third time I’ve done this trip and I really love it. Granted by the time you’ve done 6 hours on the train the final hour is looking tedious rather than enjoyable (and that’s the bit coming in to Kandy so is the least picturesque anyway).

But we had fun. I gave up my seat for a pregnant woman at one point so spent my time either sitting with Emily in the doorway or standing in the aisle.

There were two birds that made it on to the train and were having a hell of a time trying to get off. But the whole carriage helped. We switched off the overhead fans to avoid unpleasant accidents and then tried to shoo the birds out through the doors. It worked eventually, but the poor things might have been a little confused to find themselves outside the train quite a way away from where they got into the train.

We got to Kandy. Had a quick dinner. Headed to the bus station. I put Lauren and Emily on an AC bus to Avissawella and I got a three wheeler up to my guest house. On the way I got a call from Emily. They’d been told to get off the bus and get a Colombo bus to Kegalle. Which they didn’t want to do. It was now after dark so I told them to come straight up to the guest house and we’d get them a bus in the morning. I don’t really mind hanging around at bus stations after dark (I don’t like it but I’ll do it if I have to). But I’ve done this before. A lot. I didn’t feel too comfortable with sending them out to wait at Kegalle and try and get buses from there. And more importantly, neither did they.

So we all ended up at the guest house. I called the school to tell them that they’d be in late but would be there as soon as they could. They called their host family to tell them they’d be back tomorrow.

By 9am the next morning they were in the English Activity Room at the school. Pity we’d rushed. There were term tests going on and nothing for them to do till 11. Ah well.