A beach in Trincomalee
Seven months have gone by since our holiday in Sri Lanka, and here I am, still blogging about it. All of it is still fresh in my mind though, perhaps because of all the pictures.
From Colombo to Nuwara Eliya to Kandy to Dambulla to Habarana to Anuradhapura and back to Habarana and then off to our very last destination on the itinerary….Trincomalee, situated in the northeast.
Though I enjoyed getting to see so much of Sri Lanka from a car window, I do confess I was by now a tad weary of the long drives and sightseeing expeditions, and sitting in a van for hours made me simultaneously fidgety and sleepy. Unable to nap comfortably, my eyes simply grew unfocused and hence I cannot remember much about the landscape we traversed on our way from Habarana to Trincomalee, except that it felt hotter and drier and way less green. Moreover, spoilt by the hotels we had stayed in so far, the relief I felt at reaching the resort at Nilaveli beach was dampened by the very basic look of the place. I felt like I had been transported into the 80’s.
The young man who led us to our room mentioned that the entire resort had to be restored and renovated after the tsunami of 2004. That melted my heart and I looked around with a less critical eye. By the end of our stay, the old-fashioned-ness of the decor was part of its charm, and though we had been sad to leave every place we had been on this trip, Amu and I were saddest at leaving here. It had been a peaceful stay, lots of relaxation and delicious buffet breakfasts and dinners.
I befriended a lot of squirrels.
And dogs.
And a ginger kitty.
Rescued and resuscitated a kamikaze dragonfly.
A strange drumming sound on the roof was discovered to be packs of monkeys bounding around, picking edible buds from the trees. There were a couple of bright-eyed frogs, quite a few geckos and at least one big brown toad outside our beach hut. No pictures, alas.
At dawn on the last morning.
We checked out after breakfast and got back into our van. The drive back to Colombo was supposed to take seven hours, but we made it in six.
Mun-zooms 