Wild Things

Horton’s Plains National Park—a silent, strange world shrouded in mist at 2400 meters in the shadow of Sri Lanka’s highest peaks. It’s a windy, drizzly ride up through the rain forests and the chance to see the stunning views are looking bleak as the weather. The shock of the park entry fees further dampens our moods—over $60US!! Sri Lankans enter for 40 rupees per person while foreigners pay 1,675—more than 40 times the local price. We soldier on and fortune smiles on us as the clouds clear leaving a perfect, sunny day for our hike. We make the 8 km. hike to World’s End, so named for the dramatic end of this plateau which suddenly drops 1000 meters to the valley below! Ok, it was worth 60 bucks to get to the end of the world.

As we leave the cool hill country scenery and head to the south coast we are reminded that we are very much still in the tropics as the heat climbs rapidly by 15 degrees centigrade in just a couple of hours. We head well off the tourist track to the little-visited national park of Yala. Not Kenya or South Africa, but it does offer the opportunity to see an array of elephants, reptiles and birds... a veritable, virtual National Geographic magazine!

As we head along the beach resorts of the south coast we are reminded of the damage and huge loss of life caused by the 2004 tsunami—everyone seems to have a tale of loss. Many of the hotels and resorts have not been repaired and as a result tourists have not returned. Unawatuna is one of the exceptions and we made our base here for a couple of days as the water was clear and calm and the Happy Hour drinks were two for one. Even here, there are hardly any tourists to be seen. Most locals feel it’s due to the Tamil Tigers battling the Sri Lankan army in the north but the world economic climate has had some effect too.

Stilt fisherman use a pole firmly embedded in the sea bottom, close to the shore. When the sea and fish are flowing in the right direction the fishermen perch on their poles and cast their lines. Stilt positions are passed down from father to son and are highly coveted.

Back to sightseeing in the fort of the city of Galle, built by the Dutch in 1663. Most people visit as a day trip from Unawatuna or other beach resorts as we did although a number of boutique hotels have been opened to lure visitors to stay longer. After a $10 iced-coffee on the veranda of one of these we agree the city has lost it’s mojo and since we still had ours, we move on.

Five species of sea turtles lay eggs along the coasts of Sri Lanka—the green turtle being the most common. Others include Oliver Ridley, Hawksbill, Leatherback and Loggerhead. The largest reach 2 meters in length and can live over 150 years. We visited a turtle hatchery whose aim is to protect turtle eggs from predators and release babies back into the sea as early as 5 days from birth. Sandi holds a tiny one almost ready to be escorted to the sea.

Tacky tourist photo of the day.

So beautiful.

After a day on the beach in Bentota we board a flight to Bangkok to begin the Southeast Asia leg of our journey. To date (January 29) we are in Chiang Mai planning to head further north (but not before we get Thai massages) to the Golden Triangle where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. We expect to be in Laos in about 10 days.