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A few clips of my time on Nusa Penida Island

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Bali, Indonesia

I bought the same flight Grant was on to Indonesia. I thought I would be spending more time on Sri Lanka but decided to spend some of my last few days of my trip exploring islands and beaches.

When we stepped out of the airport we were hesistant to walk out into the madness that was the crowd of eager taxi drivers waving us over. We made our way to Kuta to spend one night before headed to Caggnu.

Kuta- super touristy and party scene. We walked down the main strip where the bars and clubs were going off - the music was blasting. It was a fun night but that was all I needed to see of Kuta! We also ended up staying a night here after Caggnu as it was easier for us to get a bus to go on our separate ways. All the market vendors were SUPER aggressive. One guy basically wouldn't let Grant leave his shop . Grant kept telling him he'd come back because he had no money on him and the guy said if he didn't come back he would kill him .... we were happy to leave Kuta.

Caggnu

A few beaches over is Canggu. We stayed here for 2 nights. Trendy restaurants, with avocado toast and smoothie bowls, trendy clothing and home decor shops line the streets.

After being in Sri Lanka, India, and myanmar the last 2 months - this was like reverse culture shock. This place was filled with expats, digital nomads, and people on vacation. We definitely embraced this different side of traveling - the easygoing beach life and all the happy hours ! I got a massage and a (much needed) pedicure.

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Similar to Myanmar , I found Sri Lankan's so warm, welcoming, and kind. The sites to see in Sri Lanka aren't as crazy spectacular as some of the other countries I've traveled in but it was the people here that made my experience great. This is a note from a man I met at the train station in Colombo. He helped me figure out how to get in the train station at 430am to wait for the train. He helped me get to the airport too!

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Open water scuba certification

Grant and I reached Nilaveli and I decided the same night we arrived to get my open water scuba certification. I had just enough days to complete the course before I had to head back to Colombo. My instructor, Corey, is from Canada. After his separation from his wife 4 years ago he's been traveling all over the world. He was super nice and thorough. The best part was that I was the only student .

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Food in Sri Lanka

I really enjoyed all the food I ate in Sri Lanka -- lots of coconuts, lots of curries, and lots of spicy. Yum!! Here are some of the things I tried :

Rice & Curry - The most popular dish in Sri Lanka. Rice is served with a handful of different curry dishes. I never really knew exactly what I was eating, but it didn’t matter because it was always so tasty.

Dhal Curry - lentil curry ( homemade from couchsurfing host)

Coconut Milk Rice ( homemade from Couchsurfing host)

Coconut Sambol - Holy crap this is delicious! Shredded coconut, lime, chile, and onion.

Crab Curry - When Grant and I were up in Jaffna we knew we wanted to try the crab curry. It didn’t disappoint!

Jackfruit Curry & Jack Fruit Seeds I had heard of this dish and I HAD to try it. The mother of the family run hotel in Nilaveli was carrying a jackfruit and I asked her where I could

Vadei- street snack. Fried balls of lentils

Vegetable Roti - street snack. The shape of these triangles reminded me of mini crunch wrap supremes from Taco Bell! Another street snack that is filled with spicy potato curry mixture.

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Sri Lanka 

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Civil War & Tsunami

My time spent in Nilaveli (East Coast) has allowed me to learn about both the Tsunami and 26-year civil war from a family who lived through both. A mother, father, and their 2 sons run the hotel I stayed at and their 2 daughters have a restaurant next door.

The Civil War (1983-2009) was a fight for a separate state by Tamil people from the Sinhalese majority nation. The parents don’t speak too much English, so their son, Subas, was the one who I was mainly talking with. He can remember that one day the army came and demanded they hand over their keys to their truck. Another time there was a meeting at a school nearby and his dad had planned to run away into the jungle. He just missed the army, by 5 minutes, who came to take away men from the village to help fight. The whole family left to live in India for 2.5 years during the worst part of the war. They returned to Sri Lanka leaving their father behind, who ended up staying for a total of 4 years. He said women and children were safe but it was too dangerous for men during that time. When they came back their house was still there but everything inside was gone. They had to start over.

In 2004 Sri Lanka suffered its worst natural disaster that took 35,000 lives. Subas explained that many locals were up early, including his dad who was out at the beach. He was able to come back to get his family to higher ground. He explained that about 50% of those who died in that area were tourists, the majority probably were sleeping in and had no idea what was going on outside. At that time an adequate warning system didn’t exist. Subas returned to their home to find that it had been completely destroyed. Again, they had to start over.

It was surreal to hang out with this family and to look at them and their home that has gone through so much. They were the kindest people and so helpful during my stay. The mom was the sweetest little lady and she kept smiling at me and pinching my cheeks. I saw her carrying a jackfruit and mentioned that I wanted to find jackfruit curry and she ended up making curry for me!

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King Coconut

I’ve seen a whole lotta coconuts on this trip. I haven’t been getting any mainly because I only like the coco water when its cold. Coming to Sri Lanka, I discovered a different coco - the King Coco.

Different from the Green Coco, this yellow coco is only used for its water. As a result, the ones that grow here are mainly free growing & organic.

For me, the water has more flavor which I really enjoy -- even when room temperature. The inside does not have much meat and can’t be used to make dried fruit. Instead, it’s more of a thin gelatin like layer that’s easy to scrape out and eat!

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Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil

We happened t arrive about 15 minutes before puja (worship) . During that time we watched people praying at the different shrines. People were doing certain gestures while they prayed. Before we entered, I watched a lady praying with a coconut before smashing it on the ground.

Bells started ringing and all the people were lining up. One man was playing the drums, the other was playing an obo/ clarinet type instrument. So much was going on and we just sat and soaked it all in. We had no clue what was going on. People were going back and forth from the main shrine to the smaller shrines. We later found that they were taking down the sheets they have up covering the shrines of the different gods.

We stayed for a good while before stepping out. We were determined to get some information on what we watched before we left. I walked up to a group of 3 men sitting down.

They were super friendly and helped to answer our questions. What we watched was the puja or worship. It takes place multiple times a day. These men are retired and go to puja twice a day, morning and evening. We asked about the coconut thing and he said it was tradition, as well as the holy dust people rub on their foreheads. We had seen people getting on the ground and doing different gestures and they explained it was different yoga exercises. For all temples on this trip there are strict rules for the ladies to cover knees and shoulders. This temple had a rule for men- nothing above the waist to show respect to the gods . his was funny for me because I'm used to having my knees and shoulders

There are 4 main religions in Sri Lanka and there are higher concentrations of these groups in certain areas of the islands . When I asked about this for the city of Jaffna, one of the men in his broken English, started saying "Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity ... all one ..all one". This was refreshing to hear.

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Jaffna, Sri Lanka

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Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil Temple

We happened to arrive about 15 minutes before puja (worship). During that time we watched people praying at the different shrines. People were doing certain gestures while they prayed. Before we entered, I watched a lady praying with a coconut before smashing it on the ground.

Bells started ringing and all the people were lining up. One man was playing the drums, the other was playing an obo/ clarinet type instrument. So much was going on and we just sat and soaked it all in. We had no clue what was going on. People were going back and forth from the main shrine to the smaller shrines. We later found that they were taking down the sheets they have up covered the shrines of the different gods.

We stayed for a good while before stepping out. We were determined to get some information on what we watched before we left. I walked up to a group of 3 men sitting down.

They were super friendly and helped to answer our questions. What we watched was the puja or worship. It takes place multiple times a day. These men are retired and go to puja twice a day, morning and evening. We asked about the coconut thing and he said it was tradition, as well as the holy dust people rub on their foreheads. We had seen people getting on the ground and doing different gestures and they explained it was different yoga exercises. For all temples, on this trip, there are strict rules for the ladies to cover knees and shoulders. This temple had a rule for men- nothing above the waist to show respect to the gods .

There are 4 main religions in Sri Lanka and there are higher concentrations of these groups in certain areas of the island . When I asked about this for the city of Jaffna, one of the men in his broken English, started saying "Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity ... all one ..all one". This was refreshing to hear and also the first time I’ve heard someone express this belief on this trip. 

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Jaffna

All of Sri Lanka culture and history is very new to me. I honestly couldn’t have pointed this country out on a map before I came on this trip. Jaffna was one of the many cities that suffered during the 26-year long civil war, which mainly took place in the North and East. A city that seems to be less traveled by backpackers, Jaffna was a neat place to explore and learn a bit more about this country. We rented a motorbike for the day to venture around.

Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil Temple  - A significant Hindu Temple. Roughly 90% of Jaffna is Hindu

Jaffna Public Library - Sri Lanka’s 2nd main public library (1st is in Colombo)

Point Pedro - Northernmost point of Sri Lanka

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Dambulla Cave Temple Up on another rock sit 5 cave temples filled with statues of Buddha and rock paintings. These are said to date back to the 2nd century.

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Lions Rock Sigiriya

A long time ago, a fortress was built on top of Lions rock for the king during the 5th century. This was the perfect place to construct a palace for a very paranoid kings. A lion was carved into the rock and people would enter the lions mouth and into the throat tunnel to get reach to the top.

This popular attraction costs $30 to visit. We instead opted for Pidurangala rock, home to a Buddhist temple, which offers 360 degree views of the surrounding area including lions rock. Once we got to the top we could see the motionless cue of people on the stairway up to lions rock. We were definite happy we chose not to visit lions rock.

On top of the rock I felt Like I was in a scene from the lion king.

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Public transportation has been extremely easy to use and cheap! We took 3 buses from Adams peak to the hatton, from hatton to kandy, and kandy to Dambulla. It was about 8ish hours in total and cost 287 rupee or $1.90! The long days of bus rides is at times frustrating. Working with both heat and humidity you are continuously sweating. Its really awful when the bus isn't moving fast or at all. We learned to get on the bus at least 15 minutes before to get a seat. The bus ALWAYS fills up and there're always people standing

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Adams Peak with Grant

Reunited !!

I was so excited to meet back up with Grant. He took a night bus from Arugam bay to Kandy and got in early in the morning. Our plan was to head south towards Adams Peak.

The train route from Kandy to Ella is well known for some amazing views. Since we didn't have tickets, we had to get unreserved tickets that go on sale about an hour before the train leaves. From my understanding, tickets for the train can't sell out for the unreserved car. If you get lucky you may get a seat but otherwise you stand . Since Kandy is a busy station, both for locals and then tourists trying to get on to go to Ella, we wanted to have a better chance of getting a seat on the train. Grant had already experienced what I read online. When the train stops people are tying to push their way into the car and get a seat as the people are trying to get off. Peter, who ran the hostel, told me there would be about 5% chance we would get a seat and suggested we go to the train station 2 stops before Kandy and get on from there.

We had time to do this until the next train from Colombo was arriving so we decided to go for it. We took a bus to the station kadugannaea about an hour away. When the train rolled on the cars were PACKED. I pushed myself into he car. I felt so squished, like in a bunch of sardines. At one point my body was bent an an angle because the lady behind me was pushing into my back.

After the train and a taxi drive we made it to area of Adams peak. We woke up at 215am and left at 245am to climb the mountain. 5,500 steps and 2.5 hours later we made it to the top. We just missed the pilgrimage season which is a good thing! Apparently people come from all over to claim the peak which houses a footprint of , depending on your religion is the foot ring of Adam, lord shiva, or Buddha. Unfortunately because we just missed the pilgrimage season, the facility to see the footprint was closed. However the views from the tops were gorgeous

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Kandy

I stayed right in the center of town. When I got in I went straight to the market to get some fruit after learning the hostel had a kitchen we could use. I was so excited to find some passion fruit too!

For dinner on my first day, Felipe (UK) and I stepped out of the hostel and it was drizzling. Within 20 feet of walking it started to thunder and pour! At dinner it was still going and the power along the whole street shut off ! Monsoon season is approaching in the southern and western parts of the island. What I've been told is that the weather can be pretty unpredictable. The days in Kandy were nice and sunny -- you would have never known it poured the night before. During my two days here the days quickly turned into thunder storms in the evening. Luckily I was able to see some of the sites and walk around before the rain came.

Temple of Tooth

A sacred temple that houses the tooth of Buddha.

Kandy lake & view point

An artificial lake in the heart of the city. To the left you can see the white Buddha that sits on a hill overlooking Kandy