My plan for the day was to drive west from Weligama to Hikkaduwa on the south-west coast. This meant passing so close to the coastal town of Galle (also known as Galle Fort) that it would be silly not to stop in and look around. Galle has, at various times, been colonised by the Portuguese, the Dutch…
Month: April 2017
Sun, surf and Slovenians: Weligama waves
I left you on the road to Weligama, a town on the south coasts hugely popular with surfing enthusiasts. I shall reprise my story: I had been driving since breakfast and, as the hour hand crept past one o’clock, I started to scan the road for places to eat. It was Sunday and I was…
(You can stand under my umbr’) Ella, Ella, Ella
Ask anyone in a Sri Lankan travel agency where you should go for unspoilt nature and great hiking and they will inevitably tell you to go to Nuwara Eliya. Ask any traveller who has been to Nuwara Eliya and they will invariably tell you they wish they had spent more time in Ella. Both are…
Kandy
Kandy, although the name sounds like a Las Vegas exotic dancer or one of the lesser known Kardashians, is actually a culture-rich town in the middle of Sri Lanka. Perched in the hills and encircling the idyllic Kandy Lake, Kandy is most famous for the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, which curates a tooth…
Carpets, places of learning, city gates, dates and rose petals – just another day in the medina of Fes
A colourful post from Susie B, clearly enjoying the Fes-tivities. Source: Carpets, places of learning, city gates, dates and rose petals – just another day in the medina of Fes
Dambulla rocks!
I left Colombo in a rented Suzuki Marati equipped with a motor from a go-kart – it only accelerated when gravity-assisted. At least this time the rental contract was legitimate! My plan was to drive to Sigiriya – also known as Lion Rock for reasons that will become clear – and, from there, to perform an anti-clockwise…
Sundowners and spaghetti trees
This post finds me in Colombo – the capital city of Sri Lanka (well, actually that was four weeks ago. I’m now on a sofa in Wiltshire, UK, but it’s better to write like its current). The first thing that struck me on reaching the city was its relative order and cleanliness in comparison with…
Chennai
Throughout my time in India, whenever I told people I was going to visit Chennai (formerly Madras), they had the same reaction: “Why on Earth would you want to do that?!” Chennai is unbearably hot and humid for most of the year and doesn’t have a great many tourist attractions to distract from this punishing…
Anamalai – a back to school story
After the horrors of my previous hotel, upon reaching Coimbatore, a swelteringly hot city in central Tamil Nadu, I checked myself into a 4-star place as curative pampering. The concierge helped me with my bags and I offered him 50 rupees to thank him for his trouble. At this point, he came out with an…
Ooty-rageous accommodation
Ooty was my destination upon leaving the leafy paradise of Wayanad. My “no frills” bus journey deposited me in the centre of a bustling hill station with brightly coloured buildings. Higher still than Wayanad, the air away from direct sunlight had a strong goose-pimpling effect which presaged nights on the cold side of chilly. Rant…
Wayanad suits me to a Tea!
To complete my time in Kerala, I had booked a couple of days at The Jackfruit Tree, an off-the-beaten-path serviced villa nestled in the tea plantations high in the hills in an area called Wayanad. In order to reach the villa I took a train to Calicut, a large coastal town in northern Kerala (where The…
Alleppey – Waterworld without Dennis Hopper
I arrived at Lovedale Lakeside Homestay thinking I had booked myself into accommodation in Alleppey, a greatly frequented tourist location in Kerala renowned for its ubiquitous houseboats and charming waterways. I hadn’t. I was still some miles to the north of the town but this administrative error turned out to be a boon, for the place…
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