Crikey, if I don't finish writing up my "diary" of my trip to Sri Lanka soon I'll forget what we did - and that is the point of this online diary business - well for me at least. It's to write down my memories so I can revisit them later should I wish! Trouble is, I've been away again and only got back last night. Now don't be thinking all this travelling was planned - mostly it wasn't - but "circumstances" happened and I feel like my feet haven't touched the ground since I retired, even if it was mostly of a pleasant nature! Oh well, hopefully it'll start calming down a bit from now on!
Anyway, our last evening in Sri Lanka was spent in Unawatuna where the beach was just lovely (although sadly we only got to spend one night there)! In fact one of my comments back to the travel agent was that it would have been nice to spend maybe another couple of nights there just to relax a little after what turned out to be a very fast-paced trip! I hope they take that into consideration when they are planning the next trip - I think people might appreciate it!
This was the day those of us that wanted to got to get up before the imps and pixies to go out whale "hunting". I have never seen whales in the wild before so I dutifully got up, got dressed in the dark and was on my way to our rendez-vous point by about 5 a.m. The trip organizers had thoughtfully put out sea sickness pills for anyone that wanted them "just in case" and since I didn't know how I would feel after about five hours on a boat out at sea I thought I would take one! It honestly didn't take too long before we came across a pod of dolphins (they were playing with the boat almost immediately), and then a group of pilot whales, which are much smaller than the blue whales we were after but just as fun!!!! But guess what, we lucked out! Now I don't know if we saw four blue whales or, more likely, the same two several times but boy were they impressive! My pictures weren't very good unfortunately and I felt that I was spending too much time trying to get pictures and not enough just breathing in the thrill of being so close to the world's biggest mammal - so I put my camera down and just enjoyed the moment!
When we got back to "base camp" we had a couple of hours to clean up before we headed off to our final destination of Galle - a pretty coastal town built by the Portuguese and then Dutch from the 16th and 17th centuries. Unfortunately this was the one time on our trip that it actually peed down rain so the tuk tuk ride to Galle was a white-knuckle event. The traffic and heat was horrendous, the rain torrential and what's more it was International Women's Day so there was a march also taking place made up of young girls all wearing t-shirts saying "I am the voice, not the echo"! Very appropriate!
In the end the rain stopped and we got to visit Galle and do some shopping before going out to a final, very good evening meal.
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| Galle |
The next morning it was again up early and off to the airport. Our guide did ask if we wanted to stop and get pictures of the famous Sri Lankan pole fisherman, but when he explained that the legitimate fishermen were out there before dawn and that "our fishermen" were just locals trying to make a buck out of the tourists with the photos we gave it a miss!
So then we headed straight to the airport for my eleven hour flight back to Zurich. As I flew over the various landscapes I took the same picture out of the plane to show the different "seasons" we were flying through!
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| Leaving Sri Lanka |
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| Over southern India I think |
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| Somewhere over Turkey I think |
When I landed in Zurich and turned my phone back on I got a "welcome to Turkey" message - I just hope they didn't charge me for data roaming! Anyway, I spent a very comfortable night at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Zurich airport before catching the train the next morning for my three-hour journey back to Geneva. We hit a snow storm somewhere around Berne - boy was I suddenly feeling cold!
When I got home we got a pretty heavy snow dump over night, which was somewhat unexpected, but happily the sun came out later in the day leaving the world looking a prettier place altogether!
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| Tuesday morning |
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| Wednesday morning - now that's much better! |
Aren't whales fascinating? I remember Jamaica having tourist fishermen as well.
ReplyDeleteThey were indeed fascinating although I actually think I preferred the dolphins and their "showing off" for the tourists. And I suppose poor people will try to make a buck where they can right!
DeleteWhat an adventurous spirit you have!!! I am so glad you are enjoying your retirement as I am enjoying reading about it!!
ReplyDeleteI have always loved travelling but every time I think "that's enough, no more long haul for me", someone says "oh you HAVE to go to ….." (that is the nature of these trips I guess) and I'm off again. At some point I either won't want to go or won't physically be able to I guess so at least I will have lovely memories and stories to regale (or more likely "bore") my grandkids with!
DeleteWhat a lovely trip - although I avoid group travels for the reason that we like a more sedate pace and definitely would have appreciated a few days at the end to relax. Sri Lanka looks very interesting - maybe in our travel future! I did wonder where you had gotten since your last post but figured you were out enjoying your retirement.
ReplyDeleteActually I was in Italy for four days. Long story - another blog post I suspect!
DeleteGlad you had a wonderful trip. Sometimes I'll ask for a window seat when flying, but here lately I've been booking aisles seating since you tend to get more leg room.,, as long as you don't trip the attendants.
ReplyDeleteThe eternal dilemma huh? I usually base it on how many times I think I'll need to get up to pee but the bulkhead seat killed two birds with one stone!
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