Welcome to Sri Lanka, after a long 10-hour flight from London with Srilankan airlines we arrived in Colombo. Srilankan were not the most comfortable flight and not the best food but easy enough and direct. A short drive through Colombo via there new Lotus Tower and we arrive along the sea front at our hotel. This trip is slightly different to our others as we had family with us for the first part so the hotels were significantly higher end then we would normally stay, but wow you can see where that extra money goes.
Our first hotel was Galle Face Hotel This beautiful Colonial building striking from the front and even more striking inside. As you walk through the reception door you are greeted by a host of smiling faces beautiful architecture and native dress.
There are many high rise building being built over looking this seemingly small but impressed building. Somehow amongst the huge high-rises it still exudes an air of, I’m a little special, which it is. This hotel has a special place in Colombo’s history with the likes of Richard Nixon, Harrison Ford and many others gracing it with their presence. Why stay at the Shangri-La, we haven’t but have heard it is amazing, when you can stay somewhere as special as Galle. The room is grand in keeping with the building itself, we had a road view room but was not a big deal as we were exploring or at the pool.
The veranda area was beautiful with a nice area to relax or sit around the pool down by the sea. There is one and only one downside to the hotel, we were informed that China are heavily investing in the area and are currently re-claiming land from the sea so there is a lot of work going on as you look out the back of the hotel.
Breakfast had everything and it was my first chance to experience the world famous hoppers! Getting used to curry for breakfast (continental was available) took a little getting used too.
The first day was wet, really wet, but we didn’t manage to snap one of our favourite pictures. We had time to get a little relaxing by the pool before relaxing, eating and drinking at the hotel veranda bar.
Outside the hotel there is an open patch of grass where there are small local stores selling local food, snake charmers, kite flying and many other local festivities.
This patch of grass is significant because in the war it was lined with cannons to defend Colombo and inside the Galle face hotel you can still see a cannon ball that crashed through the building itself. A short 25-minute walk takes you in to the heart of Colombo where real hustle and bustle begins, it was absolutely packed.
There is a local market there which made for an interesting walk through the business district, train stations and old government buildings.
Today was the day we were climbing the 7km up Adams peak starting from Dalhousie.
It was an extremely early start of 4.30am to do the 4-hour drive to the base. We were out of season and were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to climb, after do some reading on the internet. No need to worry we were fine, in fact, it was amazing. There was no one around, we must have walked past five other groups the whole time, and from what I’ve read peak season its one long queue the whole way up.
The scenery is breath taking with wild boar, monkeys and hornets nests. The not so popular creatures were the leaches from the bushes, don’t stray from the path and you should be fine. The walk itself on the whole is fairly straight forward it’s a very long series of steps winding their way around the mountain, which at times gets very steep but with a little rest your up and going again.
It is great to be walking through a rainforest, the path is clearly laid out you can make your own pace grabbing as many of the millions of photo opportunities available.
By the time we got to the top it had clouded over; can’t always be lucky. The temple was a little underwhelming, but check out the pictures, we got some greats shots before the clouds came over. Doing this trip from Colombo is definitely do able but it’s a very long day so be prepared but it is well worth it.
The route to the mountain took you through tea country which we didn’t see on the way as it was dark, there were ladies out painstakingly picking the leaves by hand gave them a wave and got the brilliant Sri Lankan smile and a friendly wave back.
Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle Resort Wow wow wow, possibly the grandest place we have ever been we had our own butler! You enter through a beautiful archway and over an indoor pool to be taken to the seating areas overlooking the ground and the pool, it is just stunning, almost to the point of shock at how beautiful it was. Tucked in my shirt in, hid the flip flops and sat down.
We were taken to our room through the most beautiful grounds to a room that was perfect, with a spacious balcony with a relaxing bed, an amazing bathroom with free standing bath. The room was perfect.
The hotel itself was very quiet and peaceful with a lovely pool overlooking the beach. We were only half board here and the food and drinks were extremely pricey so be warned before you buy your afternoon beer. After coming from Colombo getting on the Tangalle beach was the vision of Sri Lanka we had in our mind it was stunning, the sweeping sand and swaying in the wind palm trees, it was the picture perfect version of how we imaged Sri Lanka to look.
The hotel once a week had a local fisherman come who would bring round fresh fish for you to buy and cook that evening. The buffet was amazing with a different theme each night. Sushi night was ammmazing!!!
We decided to walk up the road to the local town where there was a local food market. It was great to get out of the tourist trap of this perfect hotel. Within a 30 minutes’ walk you were back too real Sri Lanka with an authentic food market where the locals shopped and started at the white people.
As when in Sri Lanka everyone takes home an elephant this hotel had a local craftsman who sculpted figures to purchase is a nice souvenir. We have been to some very nice hotels but this one is up there with the best.
Whilst down in Tangalle we took the opportunity to visit the nature reserve Yala National Park where they have wild elephants, leopards, crocodiles and many more animals and birds. Fantastic trip in to the reserve, there are quite a few trucks driving around so when you do spot something good they radio to each other for everyone to see and it gets busy quick. We got to experience elephants grazing and a mother and baby bathing in the lake.
This option although nothing is guaranteed to been seen was a personal choice over somewhere where the elephants are chained or kept in small enclosures. Seeing them in the wild was absolutely amazing a huge tick off the bucket list. After keeping a close eye out for crocodiles and seeing quite a few with the help of the guide, we were given a huge treat as on the way back we stumbled across a leopard walking down the road.
We held back as not to scare it and just sat and watched as this huge impressive animal made its way along the verge before disappeared back in the bush. Great afternoon out (trip times are best early morning or dusk as the animal are most active), and luckily for us the animals were playing ball and in the right area at the right time.
After a late night drive from Tangalle back to Colombo to board a flight on to our final destination the Maldives.
One of the strangest airports to go to, you walk out of the terminal and you are on the sea. Where there would usually be taxis there are boats waiting to ferry people to their respected resort. When we arrived it was grey and raining. The first initial thought with an airport and container ships everywhere was not great, based on the high expectations we had, no fear this very very quickly changed. We jump on our water taxi that took us to our resort Centara Ras Fushi
This tiny little island with two legs of huts driving out of each end with a number of rooms on land. Our dream was always to stay in a room over the water, do it! You have to do it; it adds a whole other level to the experience. The rooms are spacious and clean with a full wall wide patio door that opens out on to your balcony.
The balcony is by far the best bit you can sit and watch the fish jump and swim around, you can relax with a drink ,if you do, don’t tell the bar as you are not meant to take glasses to your room.
The difference in blues is stunning from the shallowness bright blue of the reef to the dark blue as the sea floor drops lower. Each hut has its own set of stairs that allows you to go directly from your balcony in to the water for a snorkel. Our stairs had a few resident crabs that scurried away each time you went down and were sat happily when you got back in from your swim.
The resort itself was great if you are happy to do nothing except relax, snorkel, eat and drink which is exactly what we wanted. You could walk from one side of the resort to the other in about 5 minutes. There were many different restaurants and bars and the food was good and plenty of choice. The best bar was a circular bar by the beach on the way back to our hut.
From this bar can sit and watch a stunning sunset with a cocktail on the netting outside, keep an eye out for the reef sharks that come out to hunt that time of night, fantastic to see. The water sports are free and were good for an afternoon splashing around.
We spent most of our days snorkelling, in the morning, afternoon and early evening as the sun goes down. Different fish and sea life will be about at different times so you never know what you will see. Make sure to swim to the edge of the reef where it gets deeper as again different life lives out there, you are actually able to swim the whole way around the island if you wish. The fish are beautiful from the moment you step off the balcony stairs.
There are two sides to the island one is sandy with large rocks with hundreds of fish living around them, the other is a coral reef. The reef is a little dead but the marine life is still there, we saw sharks, a moray eel, stingrays, octopus, cuttlefish which are weird and hundreds more different types.
We decided to go out on a snorkelling trip to see if there was anything else we hadn’t seen, to be honest I wouldn’t bother you can see everything around your hut. The two things that we did see was finding nemo, clown fish are my favourite and a chance viewings of a shoal of Dolphins whilst on our way back on the boat.
The Maladies is one of the few places that you go to that has the hype of being the most amazing place and actually lives up to it. Everything people say about the place is correct. Combine Sri Lanka with the Maldives to create a perfect trip combination of culture, adventure and relaxation.
