Back in Negombo

20/8/11

   Spent most of the day online updating the blog nice view tho. The hotel guy took me back to his place for dinner which was nice having a family meal.

21/8/11

Been looking forward to this day, heading up into the mountains hehe. And it is nice up here, some of the roads are ruff but a lot are pretty good really. Road up to Ella which is a bit touristy but you get that. There was a lovely waterfall on the way up, also had a few ooohhh that looked cool, stop, turn around, go back, take a photo, some times stop there for a while to enjoy the view, moments.

This was my Hotel in Ella nice place. Had avocado pear for breakfast, they have a tree.

 Water buffalo.

22/8/11

  This is trekking country so I did the obvious and armoured up and just went riding in the mountains all day, I did come across some rain at one point but as it was still early ish I turned back and went a different way. The roads where all pretty good until I started getting lost then found some really bad ones, one went thro a quarry, had to stop all the traffic when they rolled the big boulders down from the upper levels lol. 

  Of course is it getting lost when you don't actually have a fixed destination, no real plan of where you are going?

23/8/11

   Started heading out toward Kandy and enjoyed the a bit of rain towards the end of the day. I ended up stopping in a Village called Kithul Hakuru, there is a river with lots of hotels along the back which I think are mostly used by Sri Lankans for wedding. I'm quite happy I stopped here as I found a little restaurant next to the hotel I stayed in which made the best Veggie Curry I've ever had, it was mainly this lemon/lime chilly stuff than was great. The lady and daughter who ran the place ended up giving me some of it to take with me lol, she said it should be ok to eat for about a month.

24/8/11

   Woke up to rain, mmm and it rain pretty much all day, oh well had to put the wet weather liners in the gear. The roads where pretty bad at times, mainly for oil/diesel, at one point there was a trail of diesel by the smell of it was on the other side of the road, oh and by trail I mean it covered the whole of the other lane and flowed over to the left on some corners. I'm guessing it was a truck with 44 gallon drums on the back but some didn't have lids, so all the ups and downs it was worse but also on the ruff stuff could be bad.

  Spotted a sign for the film location for the Bridge over the river Kwai, so turned around and went and had a look. An old guy had put out the sign it sounds like he was the jungle boy from the movie and put the sign up to get a bit of extra money.

   Kandy is a bit touristy but well you get that. I did meet an English and States guy well looking for a place to stay, then court up with them again when I still hadn't found somewhere and they where being taken to a place so tagged along to see it.

25/8/11

   Rode back to Negombo via some back road, did rain too much but saying that I had to put the covers on the bags for a while, unfortunately I didn't secure one of the pannier cover properly and when I stopped at one point it was not there and as it was a long ish stint I didn't feel like going back on the off chance I saw it. Oh well will have to sort another way of securing the last one lol.

  Had a nice break at one roadside stall when the rain got bad and got to watch an elephant get walked down the road, he was a big old one (he looked old), and it means finally I've seen something that buses slow for, he probably even gets the right of way. Was definitely a nice day.

These kids came to talk to me at one road side stall.

   Strangely enough Negombo seems a bit better this time than last time, still people ripping you off all over the place but I just don't go to there shops anymore. May help that the 2 guys I meet in Kandy got the card of left for them about this hotel and have ended up coming here for a few days before flying off.

26/8/11

   Didn't do much just writing the blog and catching up on Internet stuff, as I have discovered that I can use my phone as a wifi router meaning I can use my laptop all the time now, and Internet is cheap on the Sim card I have here

27/8/11

Decided to stay here a day longer and get my washing done. Will head into Colombo tomorrow to get the Indian visa.

Well i plan is to head to Chennai from here to buy a motorbike and get some mail from Aussie.

   Enjoy your life.

In Sri Lanka on a rental bike

3/8/11 to 7/8/11

   Eat lots of Indian and Chinese all very good stuff, not surprising as that is what Penang is famous for. Been to all the movies I wanted to see, including Harry Potter again, this time the whole movie.

Penang through a log

Chinese food stalls

The rental bike and view from Penang hill

 

  Walked around town quite a bit, to the fort and different temples. Also rented a scooter ans went for a ride around the island, was a nice ride with great scenery good roads, shit bike but hey you get that.

8/8/11

   Court the over night bus up to Kuala Lumpar, which was cold as always but actually managed to sleep a reasonable amount which was nice and unusual. Went to the supermarket and got some Anchor butter, cheese, bread and had my favourite toasty sandwich which was lovely

 Malaysia is starting to have a major diabetes issue, I'm guessing it's the lack of green leaf veggies, but as you can see there are some very big people here.

9/8/11

Getting very excited about going to Sri Lanka, definitely ready to get back on the road hehe I'm getting sick of this holiday lark need to travel again. Did very little all day as I have no money left.

10/8/11

Spend the last of my Malaysian money on McDonald's for breakfast, yes it is shit but I didn't have much left and it was the option I picked. Flight was easy got to Colombo Airport about 07.15, nothing exciting on the flight. Did stuff up a little from the airport tho, I got a bus into Colombo that dropped me at the train station so decided I would head to Negombo. Meet a keen windsurfer on the train so headed to the Place he said was good, once there I meet a women who had travelled with said man (Jack) for a week and also found out it's closer to Negombo from the airport than to Colombo, oh well didn't worry me.

11/8/11

Changed hotel as the one I went to first was a lot, also organised a motorbike for $14 a day. Got a Sim card lucky too as there doesn't seem to be much wifi here in Sri Lanka so far.

12/8/11

 Went for a ride up the coast to Chilaw to see what traffic is like here and what the road are like, they seem OK nothing to bad.

 Temple on the way to Chilaw

Chilaw beach, no one was swimming and you can see why when you are there. This is a much nicer beach than Negombo.

Did find out that Negombo is one of those tourist ripe off places where a 60 cent bottle of water is 90, a Sim card can be $3 to $5 depending on the shop keeper instead of $1 in other towns, I got the $3, and food is at least twice the price it is everywhere else (that I've been so far).

Finding the Pulsar to be a nice bike, easy enough to ride and made in India mmm interesting. If I cannot find a good enough Enfield I may consider getting the Pulsar 225cc.

13/8/11

I took the back ish road to Anuradhapura as I had done the coast road yesterday, was pretty ruff but all good. The buses don't seem to slow for ruff patches here like they do in Vietnam, and I think this is a introduction to what India will be like. I do feel sorry for the passengers in the buses, but then they should get motorbikes and they wouldn't have to suffer so much lol. The last 40km was very bad mainly because they are widening the road and re surfacing it, it will be lovely in a few months.

A nice piece of road.

14/8/11

  Went out to the Buddhist relics at Mihintale which was great, you get an awesome view from the top of the hill. 

I don't understand, the steps here where very small and the people are normal height ish, but at Angkor Wat the steps are huge and the people are short.

Was a bit of a walk up the hill but the view is worth it.

A monks meditation spot, very nice of the monkey to rock up when i took the photo.

  Also stopped at a little road side stall for a drink on the way back which turned into a take photos of each person there thing while drinking/eating fresh coconut. Also travelled around the town a bit to find a cheaper place to stay, which I did. 

 The coconut juice was lovely.

   The only thing is I went the wrong way out from the new place to stay when heading back to get my bags. This did mean I got to go for a ride around some beautiful farm/village areas until I finally found the way back to town. I had done a huge loop around the town and come in on the road I had come in on the day before, but loved it all.

15/8/11

   Went to the Sacred city which was really nice, no Angkor Wat but then that isn't really surprising I don't think I'll get anything quite like that until South America. Got a lot of photos tho and missed a few things because I didn't get a guide, one of the problems with travelling alone is that the guide costs the same for me as they do for a group of 3 or more so I don't get them when I should some times, this means I cannot always find some of the ruins lol.

There are lots of locals here.

As you can see not quite Angkor Wat but it is nice.

Lots of monkeys chilling out.

The twin pools

This is the size of my feet.


16/8/11

   Headed out for Trincomalee on a bad road for mot of it, there wasn't too much traffic on the road tho so was happy about that. When I got to Trincomalee I didn't really like the look of the city and thought the coast south would be a bit nice so hung a right and went off down the coast.

   The further I got the more I though this may have been a bad move, there where four to five bridges still being built one had to take a ferry to get across the river, the others where temporary bridges. This of course meant the road where also being rebuilt and still mostly in a bad state. All this damage, and there is a lot to building as well, is from the Boxing day tsunami which hit Banda Aceh as well. They seem to have rebuilt there a lot quicker than here in Sri Lanka.

 the guy on the side has a little motor to drive this, and there where more vehicles when i come to this side of the river, 40hp i think the motor was.

   I got down to Trikkandimadu and had decided I was going to have to ride down to Batticaloa for a place to stay but a few km out of town I stopped to get some more water and a man there said that I should head to Passekudah for the night, I'm happy to change plan and it was closer so I headed back up the coast to what turned out to be a great place.

They call them Cabana's here not bungalows, and i think this is the 61st hotel I've stayed in lol.

17/8/11

  Went for a walk along the beach and there is a lot of construction going on here still. Went for a ride in the afternoon and was surprised to see a sign near one military camp that said danger mines in the area.

I meet a Local man call “father” by all the locals at the bar next to where I stayed and he said the mines actually course a lot of problems after the tsunami as they where swept all over the place and people who where coming to identify they bodies where getting blown up. This meant the government had to put a stop to people coming in to identify the dead (41,000 according to the monument) and they had to go through and de-mine the area before collecting the bodies, meaning it took weeks for some, really bad stuff.

Had a bit of rain at the bar this night, this mans shoes floated away lol.

18/8/11

Was going to head south but got a bit drunk last night as it was “father's” 46 birthday and we ended up having a few to many lol. But he did take us out on a boat the next day to where the reef is regrowing which was really cool to see, and surprising at how quickly it can grow. There is quite a bit of fish around as well, we (the English couple I meet the night before) tried to give father some money for the trip but he wouldn't take anything, so I decided I'd buy him some beers that night at the bar but after 2 nights there drinking he did show up lol, he must have needed some sleep.

 This is father and if you come here look for him he is a lovely man.

19/8/11

I'd meet another man who told me the world wind surfing championship was on in Arugam Bay near Pottuvil so headed down there to see what it was like. The road was very good it has obviously been rebuilt first, which seems to be the case with Arugan bay as well as it has more tourist places ready for people to stay in, in fact it is a bit like Negombo but with a nicer beach lol.

  It looks like the man got it partly right, there is a surf competition on, I'm guessing it's one on the tour they do as I don't know anything about surfing and am less interested in surfing than wind surfing.
  Well that is a big post from me and has taken ages to load all the photos this last one is the view i have had to suffer well doing this, the light means you cannot see  the waves coming in on the beach but they are there hehe.

  OK enjoy your life, as I'm about to go for a swim and body surf.