Flashpacking Sri Lanka & Thailand – October 2003

Amanda at Heatrow Wine and Brandy at Heathrow ensured that our flight was a breeze. Andy at Heathrow Andy managed to sleep most of the way, not surprised in our upgraded business class seats!! We are both so excited… 6 months away, fantastic!

We arrived drowsy and hot. Januka (our tour guide) greeted us with a big smile and took us to a lovely beach hotel in Negombo. We dropped our luggage and walked out of our patio door onto the spectacular golden beach. There were wild chipmunks and geckos everywhere which was lovely. We sat on the beach, drank beer and looked at the breathtaking views.

We were pestered constantly by the beach traders offering us all kinds of materials and food. I saw a nice sarong which Andy bought for me. The starting price was 1600 Rupees, Andy offered her 400 and stuck to it. Nice One!

Its so hot and humid here, its like being in a Sauna, how anyone can eat curry for breakfast beats us! The food is incredible – finally a real Indian curry, and woooaaa what a difference. The tastes and smells explode around the restaurant. Its a buffet, so the dinners are spent trying a little of everything and enjoying it all. The powerful scent of frangipani flowers are everywhere, making us feel that we are certainly in the tropics. Lovely

Anuradhapura. (that’s a city!) Temples !!! Crikey!!!! millions of them. In order to see them we had to take off hats and shoes and so our feet were about 10 layers thinner by the end of the day and ended up medium rare!

We saw the oldest documented tree in the world. Its 2257 years old and held up by scaffolding. Apparently the Buddha was enlightened while sitting under its bow. Each flag wrapped around the temple was a prayer. The Tamil Tigers unfortunately wanted to destroy the tree and the temple, luckily both survived but 80 worshippers perished in the attack. Monks feeding the wild monkeys were everywhere, and the ethos of their religion is certainly felt, harmony with nature and its creatures. this is my kind of place. Lots of school children were there, immaculate in their spotless white outfits.

Off in the car again to an amazing hotel in the middle of a tropical jungle surrounded by wild monkeys and geckos. We had a bed the size of a football pitch! Ding Dong!

Sigiryia (another City!!) We climbed a 500ft high rock that had a 5th century palace on it. Knackering, but worth it. It took 17 years to build and was only lived in by the king for 7 years!! darn inconsiderate if you ask us!

Polonnaruwa in the afternoon for another million temples, each quite amazing, but you can see too many. They were rebuilding a few Stupa’s by hand with Bamboo scaffolding and elbow grease. When we checked out we were left with this message… I think the room boy expected a tip but we rearranged the letters to say thank you! Well we need to save our pennies.

The Malaria pills have the got the better of us making us feel quite sick. Januka therefore cancelled our days visits and took us straight to our hotel in the mountains 1800ft up. We could touch the clouds with our fingertips. An amazing view and our first taste of Arrack on the balcony. We wandered around in the grounds where Andy found a huge leech attached to his ankle. He jumped sky high while I watched laughing hysterically. We then saw a baby python trundle across our path. Enough wild life for one day, so we headed back. At night we sat absorbing the lovely night view and cooling heat, watching huge bats swooping past us an arms reach away taking the insects from the lights. Lovely.

Still can’t get over how many stray dogs there are and how its normal for cows (and Buffalos) to wander everywhere unwatched. Even in the cities the cows do there own thing walking through the heaving traffic undisturbed. Januka explained that animals like to visit their friends just like people do!

Everyone either moves about in Tuk tuks or on little tractor engines and its amazing how smiley and friendly they all are. The buses are king of the road, and if you hear a loud horn behind you, you know to get out of the way. We saw one chap with a table, 4 chairs and a bed frame all piled on his head walking along the road. Januka told us that he will keep walking until its all sold, then return home for some more (and we whinge about OUR jobs!!) Rural life means living in old mud huts and washing in the nearby river… sure makes us appreciate our lives at home although we’re not ready to go back yet!

Bats in the trees. Kandy. Straight to the botanical gardens, like Kew gardens hothouse but in the open. Very beautiful. Public toilets were a bit of a worry though… to be avoided at all costs. We found that this was the place to be if you were an “illegal couple” (not married). There were huddles of couples everywhere stealing some secret time together away from unapproving eyes.

Off to Pinnewalla and the famous Elephant Orphanage. About 40 elephants here. One only had 3 feet as the 4th had been blown off by a land mine. He hobbled along and was last into the river. The site of them all in the water was quite amazing and we just sat and watched them for hours. Tropical elephants Elephant bath time Elephant

In the evening we were driven to Colombo – the Capital. We needed a huge rest before our flight to Bangkok. View from our hotel

After a fantastic nights sleep in an enormous bed we drank posh tea, eat posh cakes (well Andy did) and sat by the pool drinking beer and people watching. The tour hotel billed us for our stay – $336 !! ahhh that’s about 2 weeks worth of money, not 2 days! A frantic few hours calling people resulted in the bill being dropped to $162… better.

The evening was spent at dinner with a Sri Lankan family friend. We went to an amazing restaurant and eat wonderfully fragrant curry. Andy’s belly was enormous …. hee hee.

Again sat by the pool resting before our night flight to Bangkok. The evening was spent in the hotel lobby knocking back the brandys and people watching.

Cor, a long night. Long long wait at the airport, with unfriendly military like staff… didn’t like it. Lovely flight though. Arrived at Bangkok to a weird small and relaxed feel. Threw ourselves into a taxi that took us at light speed and we were amazed to find that the hotel took us in at 7am!. Look at our view! After a sleep we ventured out into the big city. Its hot, wet, dirty and smoggy…. but its BRILLIANT! There is just so much going on, tiny little stalls selling weird things to eat and various Buddhist artifacts and in the same place huge department stores selling Armani. We have no idea what we we were presented with for lunch. We didn’t know whether to eat it or take it home and plant it… but it tasted great… well certainly interesting anyway!

It suddenly got very dark and rainy and looked exactly like a scene from Bladerunner. We took a Tuk tuk ride home which we enjoyed so much we asked him to go round again! (kids hey?!!)

Had a couple of cocktails in the hotel lounge and peeled with laughter at the live singing act.

Slept through brekky so out at midday. Tourist bits today. Straight to the Grand Palace How glittery! every building is either covered with gold or reflective tiles… quite spectacular. The map was truly pants so we just wandered about from one amazing temple thing to another. We then walked to the riverside through tiny wooden stalls selling all kinds of fruit and yukky meat type things – daren’t look too hard, but it all smelled wonderful – strangely enough. The river was thriving. We just sat and watched it for ages.

Longtail boats which were just that, with car engines plonked on the back, whizzed up and down the river. On to Wat Po (although everyone said it was shut!! do they think we were born yesterday!) and gawped at the HUGE reclining Buddha.. what a whopper! very impressed. A totally insane tuktuk took us to Khao San Road – the traveller haven. It heaves with travellers, stalls, guest houses, bars and basically anything you can think of. We sat and people watched and drank beer and eat noodles. Andy even used chopsticks! we loved it… Walking past all the food stalls was a real treat. Each one had its own delicious aroma and everything looked so fresh and appetising. The streets were immaculate – amazingly enough, only the air is dirty here. We were loathed to leave.

Walked for ever today. Passed little town houses (well shacks really) and a palace with a moat that had monitor lizards, huge fish and turtles in. It feels so safe walking around this city – even at night! Couldn’t find the market anywhere,…. It certainly wasn’t on the arrow that the map told us.. Until, eventually after asking loads of people, we worked out the arrow was pointing beyond the map.. we were literally miles away. Der….

Tuk tuk ride later we arrived at Chatachuk market – a whopper of a market held at the weekends. As soon as we walked in the door we were lost. It simply went on for ever with thousands of tiny stalls selling everything. I suppose the nastiest site other than the public toilets (oh my god!) was the cock fighting.. but we expected all manner of nasty animal things and it wasn’t too horrid at all. There was a huge tropical downpour that had all the locals running for cover. We walked in it, glad of the cool off and the chance to move more than a few feet every 10 minutes.

Walked back to Khao San Road in the evening passing lovely lit temples. Walked up and down this amazing street, there is just so much to see with something crammed in every inch of spare space.

Kanchanaburi. Lept on a bus in Bangkok’s south bus terminal (bit of guess work needed here) and headed 2 hours south west on a lovely air-con bus. A tout cycled us to the river guesthouses all geared up for travellers and we found ourselves on a fab (but basic) bamboo raft house on the river Kwai with our own hot shower and pet cockroaches. It was great.

We headed straight for the notorious bridge about a 20 minute walk up the river. What an awesome sight. Although covered with tourist trapper stalls and touts it still had a very powerful presence. Dinner next to it on a floating restaurant almost killed Andy off. A nasty chilli was hidden in his curry and on spitting it out we had half an hour of gasping, tears, red face, swollen lips and stinging gums and throat! Back home to catch the sunset.

Well we now know why our room is only four pounds a night! Not soundproof and a big river at night is hardly quiet! god only knows what was scratching and splashing about underneath us. Spent breakfast sipping tea and watching the ants hunt for sugar on our beaten up old wooden table. Sat outside our room, taking it all in , watching the world go by on the river.

Walked round the town for ages getting our bearings. Went to the war cemetery – very sobering, that had over 6000 of the POW’s who worked on the bridge over the river Kwai and the death railway. Had a totally pants meal after visiting the war museums. We are still having trouble spending more than 10 pounds a day. Even with beers and food and room. Its no wonder people stay out here for months.

Chore day today. Did the laundry, got money and drank beer – what a chore. Found the best food place in the town and stuffed ourselves silly (cost six quid!!) On the walk home came across the biggest bug in the world, two geckos fighting on a banana leaf, cicada noises that were so loud we couldn’t hear ourselves think and butterflies the size of birds. Fantastic!

Up at 7 for a day of activity. First, elephant rides in the jungle up in the national park. They took us into a river and through a little town with houses made from Bamboo and Banana leaves. Kids were running everywhere shouting “Hello!” lovely. Andy decided he wanted to steer so leapt of the seat and on to the elephants neck!. Then off via truck to the river for Bamboo rafting. It was beautiful drifting down a river thick with jungle either side. After a lunch of noodles (what a surprise) we went to a very pretty waterfall, then on to Hellfire Pass. Here the POW’s cut through a huge rock by hand, they were starving and sick and worked round the clock, obviously hundreds of them died and this is now a memorial to them. V sad. We then saw one of the original engines and went on to look at the original Death Railway and rode it back to Kanchanaburi and over the Bridge over the Kwai. This was cool. We passed through thick jungle and fields of Tapioca, corn and Sugar Cane. The evening was spent with 4 fellow travellers drinking beer, eating fantastic Thai curries at Apples restaurant and discussing stories of travels. They had been away for 10 months so had a lot to tell. very Nice.

Time to move on. Mozzy bite count Amanda 41 – – Andy 8 Great! Heading south so off to the bus station. Bus couldn’t take us south so we had to head east to the train that would take us south – great.

Bus dropped us off in the middle of no-where so we had to use our common sense, the rough guide and the sun to head us in the direction of the train station. We walked though a huge market and passed though stalls of fried insects! Obviously we both ordered up a couple of plates of fried locust and maggots and happily munched as we walked on (yeah right!!!) Everyone gave us very funny looks, we don’t think this town is terribly well travelled by westerners. After more luck than judgement, we arrived at the station with 45 minutes to wait for the train. (Quite an experience buying train tickets from people who don’t speak English)

We sat and people watched and eat snacks. The lady on the snack stall was overjoyed that we spoke English and practiced her one English sentence on us ‘You are very welcome here, very good looking, lovely people’ (or something like that) Bizarrely the Orient Express turned up….. that was a lovely sight. Shame we weren’t getting on that one.

Ours appeared (we had to ask several people which one was ours), it was heaving. We were the only white people on it we were the star attractions! As it turned dark, we had no idea when we were there. We soon discovered that the place names didn’t have lights and people just went on their knowledge – nightmare.

I asked the girl sitting opposite. She knew very little English and so sign language told her that we had no idea which town was ours. She and her mate found this incredibly funny and I was very worried that we would end up the butt of their jokes rather than Phetchaburi! Eventually we pulled up to a station and she gestured that this was ours! Phew! We got off, found a truck taxi and asked him to take us to the only guest house mentioned in the guide. Crikey!!!!

it was on the river which had flooded so we were walking over planks to get to the accommodation. Our room was tiny, no sheets on the beds, had cracks filled with paper. The shared toilets were mozzy heaven, no toilet paper and a pants cold shower. All this luxury for 3 quid!

The feeding room could have been lovely. It was all colonial wood looking out onto the river. We ordered a very basic dinner, me noodles, and Andy had some nasty meat type thing…… and went to bed very thankful that we had sheet sleeping bags! and a stash of bog roll!