If you’re wondering why I went to Sri Lanka, as I had already been a couple of years ago, it was to meet a couple of friends I had met 10 years prior traveling in Southeast Asia. There were about 10 of us that spent a week together way back then, but only 3 of us could make it out this time.
We had planned to all meet in Weligama, but after the extreme amounts of rain, not forecasted to clear up anytime soon, and the fact that literally nothing was open there, made us change our plans. After finally getting my luggage from the flight from Madrid, I took the bus to a small town to meet them, about halfway to Arugam Bay, our new destination.
Sri Lanka is not a large country geographically, but even so, there are two distinct climate regions. Weligama, in the south, was experiencing the rainy season right now, so instead we headed north, on the eastern coast, where the weather would be better and there would be more people due to high season there. Of course, after the April terrorist attacks, all bets were off as to whether there would be any tourists there or not.
We spent the next day hopping between buses, arriving in Arugam Bay after only 5 hours. Riding the buses here were a bit of a rude awakening after the comforts of Spanish and Portugese buses, but I figured I had better get used to it before the next leg of my trip in Africa.
Arugam Bay is a developing fishing village turned surf spot, and is a pretty typical backpacker beach town, before the real development starts. It was perfect really. We found a clean enough room for ridiculously cheap (room rates are definitely discounted this year due to lower tourism numbers), and set off in search of some delicious sri lankan food. And beer.
Arugam Bay is probably always a pretty relaxed place, but with fewer people than normal (apparently it was at about 50%- still people around which was nice), it was very relaxed. The first day we camped out on some beach loungers by the sea, and one of us ordered a coffee, and weren’t bothered for the rest of the day. The day after we set up camp next to a lovely pool, fully prepared to pay to use it, but no one even seemed to notice us. Same story at the beach bar with all the hammocks. No one seemed to care. It was great.
After getting our beach fill, we took the bus to Ella, where I had been previously with Marieke and Cheryl. I was desperate for some exercise, so Karina and I climbed Ella Rock, and shared the “busy” peak with about 4 other people.
After a couple of days in Ella, my friends had to head back towards the airport, and I was headed to Kandy to sort out a transit visa for India, so we looked into getting the train, which is the most popular train route in the country as it passes through beautiful tea country and national parks. All of the reservations were sold out, so we just decided to chance it, even though we were warned it would be busy because it was Sunday. When the train pulled in at 6:40am, it was empty. We all got window seats. This really showed the difference for me, as we had tried to get on this same route in the opposite direction last time in Sri Lanka, and the cars were so full it was a joke. We opted for the bus.
I waved goodbye to my friends in Kandy as they continued towards Colombo, and I headed off in search of a transit visa for India.
