Sri Lanka 2023-Back in Lucky's Country

RB · Aug 26, 2023

drron said:
Their small mullet looked like our bream not mullet.
And congrats to Mrs RB for a fantastic photo. Very jealous.

Agree about the appearance. Seems they have red & grey mullet. Plenty of recipes suggestions for their mullet curry online! There are still guys delivering fish on their motorbikes & they play their own distinct music to let the locals know they are on their way. The fish are chopped up on a board mounted on the back of the bike & then weighed

RB · Aug 27, 2023

Teal Cottage Wilpattu National Park.
A nice place to stay & will be excellent when completed. We had a comfortable air conditioned room and the staff were excellent and friendly. Food was fine although the chicken in the night meal was a bit on the bony side. An excellent breakfast followed a bird watching walk with Lucky to the adjacent lagoon where the fishermen were busy with their nets.
The pool area has an unfinished deck but looked amazing and the partly finished upstairs rooms and rooftop dining and bar will have amazing views over the lagoon & surrounds.

Basic but comfortable air conditioned room

Our dinner

Middle bowl had some spiced pineapple

Jack fruit in the hotel grounds

Local fishermen

View of lagoon from unfinished upper deck- we walked along the bank on the left

Will be a magic pool area when complete

New rooms will have lagoon views

The upper dining area will also overlook the lagoon

RB · Aug 28, 2023

Throughout our trip we saw plenty of water canals and work to improve the farmers access to water. I thought these couple of articles make interesting reading

Sri Lanka’s Reservoirs and Irrigation Canals | AmazingLanka.com

Ancient Irrigation – Lakpura LLC

Anuradhapura to Mannar
Mannar – Travel guide at Wikivoyage
More good roads despite Lucky taking secondary roads to give us a better look around. As always, slow but well behaved traffic and plenty of police out and about. We stopped to give a lift to a nice hitch hiking policewoman trying to get to work in the next village-she had been waiting for a bus for more than an hour and other cars had been ignoring her ( I think Lucky thought it was a good omen to give her a lift) . Plenty of military bases ( a constant throughout) and we enjoyed a break at a army welfare canteen. The Sri Lankans often erect quite elaborate walls at major traffic intersections. Also saw our first fish farm on this day. The entry into Mannar is spectacular as you join the island along a very low, long causeway plenty of salt flats and boats.

One of the more major intersections-very little traffic on this day

Another of the water channels

Long causeway heading into Mannar

RB · Aug 28, 2023

Agape Hotel Mannar
2 night stay & we were upgraded to a suite. A large quiet room, with good air conditioning, comfortable bed, bar fridge and patchy wi-fi (long way from office). The onsite restaurant (Robin’s) had well cooked and very inexpensive food. A tuk tuk driver even went to get us beer when we miscalculated our thirst one night! This was a very friendly spot and the staff & other patrons all made us feel very welcome - one Sri Lankan family were back for a visit after they had relocated to Norway.

RB · Aug 28, 2023

More Hotel Agape

Not fine dining but suited us fine

Receipt from the night before- at the time around $7 Aussie. The north was generally cheaper than the south for similar style meals

RB · Aug 29, 2023

Around Mannar
Not a huge number of physical highlights but a very interesting spot to visit. It’s a Tamil town (language & signage) with an 800 year old Boabab tree believed to be from Arabian times, the Thalaimannar Pier that used to launch a ferry to India, and Adams Bridge (also known as Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu). This is a chain of 16 natural limestone shoals, between Pamban Island (also known as Rameswaram Island) off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu. India, and Mannar Island. There is still some disagreement about the origin of the "bridge", but the Hindu legend that it was created so that an ape army could cross to Sri Lanka and rescue Shri Rama's wife Sita seems the most interesting. There was a lot of salt farming to take a look at and we visited a home brew shack that was making wine from Palmyra palm oil - we tried a sample of course! We ate off the street a for lunch at the Weligama Hotel & Bakery (they were not used to tourists or females as customers) and had take away vegetarian products from another bakery another day. Fantastic food.

"Street dogs" of Mannar-Lucky told us these donkeys are only found in a couple of villages

What is left of the pier

As close as you get to the lighthouse

A Sri Lankan patrol boat

RB · Aug 29, 2023

More of Mannar
Adams Bridge access area-very flat & pretty featureless from ground level

The local brew after some hard work

Not sure the brewing industry is very regulated

This is typical of the roads around Mannar-salt industry is very important

Interesting business name-Weligama is actually in the far south near Galle. Very good food & popular with the locals

RB · Aug 30, 2023

Mannar to Jaffna
We stayed off the main highway again & were in town by noon. Sparse traffic on good roads, many rebuilt after the war. We saw another fish farm and close to Jaffna there was a wind turbine complex (certainly conditions to suit while we were there). Again there were long causeways with water either side of the road and plenty of salt flats. Our progress at one stage was stopped by a very colourful & loud Hindu ceremony. We marked our arrival into Jaffna with a visit to Rio Ice Cream - a bit of a tradition for tourists who flock here generally after visiting the nearby temple - and we discovered why after trying it out!

Fish Farm

RB · Aug 30, 2023

RB · Aug 30, 2023

Chetti Villa Jaffna-2 night stay
Less than a year old and over a 100 sq m for the 2 of us, this beautifully designed villa sits behind big walls and double locked gates in suburban Jaffna. It is a two storey arrangement and very comfortable with a few quirks. There were 2 air conditioned bedroom upstairs, comfortable bathrooms, good washing machine, a cleaner every day and superb food delivered to the villa. The lack of air conditioning in the downstairs living area, ordinary water pressure and a few hidden step traps were the only downsides. There was a beautiful garden area which had been lovingly designed and nurtured and the finish on the house was exceptional. Overall a very good option.
We could order whatever we wanted for breakfast and dinner and nominated a time. The food arrived via motorbike and 2 staff did the table setting. After we had eaten they re-appeared and cleaned up!

Plenty of room for the 2 of us

Downstairs sitting area

Bedroom upstairs, laundry behind the door in the cenntre, kitchen/dining at back right

Washing machine & spare fresh drinking water

RB · Aug 30, 2023

Chetti Villa continued

Toast invariably served underdone in Sri Lanka

OZDUCK · Aug 30, 2023

I am enjoying the tour very much so far. My wife was at the optometrist the other day and he said that he was in Sri Lanka 'early this year'' and felt that there was tension about due to political problems and felt a but unsafe. He was not keen to return. I gather he only did 4 or 5 hour day trips from Columbo. Did you notice anything like that? It certainly hasn't come across that way in your photos.

RB · Aug 30, 2023

OZDUCK said:
I am enjoying the tour very much so far. My wife was at the optometrist the other day and he said that he was in Sri Lanka 'early this year'' and felt that there was tension about due to political problems and felt a but unsafe. He was not keen to return. I gather he only did 4 or 5 hour day trips from Columbo. Did you notice anything like that? It certainly hasn't come across that way in your photos.

Certainly didn't feel unsafe at all. I understand things have been very difficult economically & politically ( I am not sure it has ever been very good) but certainly the locals we spoke to all had a positive attitude to life. I would think Sri Lanka (where we went) would be as safe as anywhere we have travelled. Mrs RB regularly went walking by herself early in the morning and stray dogs were her biggest worry. We walked various streets after dark with no concern (wallet always in back pocket) and never gave physical safety a second thought. The people always engaged when you met and either spoke or gave a friendly smile. We spent a couple of days in Negombo at the finish at it was the same as the rest of the country.
There certainly still economic challenges. The fuel rationing was still in place and everyday costs are very difficult for the locals. Building costs have skyrocketed with Lucky telling us the costs of house doors has more than trebled. Along the beaches there are many shops/cafes/bars that are closed and some hotels/resorts are empty.
As a visitor we found no shortage of food, medicine and general consumer goods. I had to visit 2 doctors (sciatica) and received excellent prompt care. The more tourists they get, the quicker the country recovers.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the report!

OZDUCK · Aug 30, 2023

Thanks for the thoughtful reply and I am sure that I will enjoy the rest of the TR. A trip there may be on our minds. My wife's ancestors - mainly Dutch but also some French - lived there for over 2 hundred years from around 1670 to 1900. There is also a strong suspicion that there was some 'intermingling' with the locals,

RB · Aug 30, 2023

OZDUCK said:
Thanks for the thoughtful reply and I am sure that I will enjoy the rest of the TR. A trip there may be on our minds. My wife's ancestors - mainly Dutch but also some French - lived there for over 2 hundred years from around 1670 to 1900. There is also a strong suspicion that there was some 'intermingling' with the locals,

Certainly plenty of variety of style & class of travel available. We certainly enjoyed the Cultural Triangle on our previous trip. The rest is pretty dictated by the prevailing monsoons. We really enjoyed the north & it is certainly distinctly different. I wouldn't travel other than by using a driver & their vehicle- the buses are still the out there road users & I feel people self driving in 5 wheelers are just wrong with the risk/reward equation.
No comment re the intermingling!

RB · Aug 31, 2023

Around Jaffna
The geographical layout of Jaffna with it’s plentiful water means that driving around is a bit disjointed and even slower than the rest of Sri Lanka. The fort was originally constructed by the Portguese in 1619 but the Dutch and the English have had some influence in later times. Certainly different to all the forts we visited earlier in the year in India and no sign of the need for protection from elephants! I think we were the only non-local visitors while we were there but there were good numbers and quite a few people were celebrating their graduation from the local university. Jaffna Fort | Jaffna, Sri Lanka | Attractions - Lonely Planet

Traffic is pretty orderly

RB · Aug 31, 2023

More of Jaffna Fort

Some of the signage

A very strategic location

A very proud graduate that we met & had a yarn to

RB · Aug 31, 2023

The next morning we had the priviledge of joining what seemed like thousands of Sri Lankans on their once in a lifetime pilgrimage to the Buddhist and Hindu temples on Nagadeepa Island. Quite a drive out to the ferry with more causeways. The crowded old boats that take us on the 15 minute ride out there were an experience complete with life jackets for all! Lots of people wanted a chat and had a smile for the rare tourists that make it to this incredible place.