24 Feb - 28 Feb 2011 Kandy

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
(i) The Hotel +94812235585 kandycenterin@gmail.com
Adequate twin room for LKR 1,500.- or US$ 13.50 per night.
(ii) The Olde Empire Hotel +94812224284
Nostalgic twin room with a great communal balcony for only LKR 890.- or US$ 8.- per night.

(i) Click below for an interactive road map of The Hotel in Kandy and for directions:

(ii) Click below for an interactive road map of The Olde Empire Hotel in Kandy, which we would recommend, and for directions:





Exploring busy and noisy Kandy which still retains the living traditions of its sovereign kingdom era and learning (i) that Buddha’s holy molar tooth, the traditional symbol of Sinhalese sovereignty and an object of supreme devotion for many Kandyans, which is kept and safeguarded inside the famous Temple of the Sacred Tooth (admission: US$ 10.- per foreigner), measures at least three inches, unlike any human tooth ever known, (ii) that Kandy’s Maligawa Tusker, the strong male elephant who carries this remarkable tooth during the Esala Perahera, must fulfil a couple of peculiar physical requirements (e.g. all seven parts of the elephant's body, namely his four legs, his trunk, his penis and his tail, must touch the ground when he stands upright), and (iii) that Robert Knox, a British traveller and captain in the service of the British East India Company, observed already in 1660 CE about the proud aristocratic Kandyans: “They make no account nor conscience of lying, neither it is any shame or disgrace to them, if they be catched in telling lies; it is so customary...”
“I don't mind being called a liar. I am. I am a marvelous liar. But I hate being called a liar when I'm telling the perfect truth.”


Hiking Kandy's countryside and visiting three different 14th-century CE Kandyan village temples: (i) the rustic little Embekke Temple aka Embekka Devalaya (admission: LKR 150.- per foreigner), dedicated to Kataragama, famous for its fine pavilion with intricately decorated wooden pillars full of peacocks, entwined swans, dragons, dancers and horsemen, (ii) the Lankathilake Temple (admission: LKR 200.- per foreigner), an imposingly solid-looking structure with a very atmospheric shrine, built on a huge rock outcrop and founded in 1344 CE, and (iii) the Gadaladeniya Temple with its pronounced South Indian appearance - an appropriate foretaste of what is to come: our next trip to the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.



Passing successfully the final hurdles of the incredibly bureaucratic steeplechase of purchasing two Indian tourist visas: (i) to queue up and to identify the right forms and meta-forms in a chaotic service wasteland with the pompous name India Visa Application Centre VFS Global, (ii) to find a functioning photocopier in their neighbourhood since the India Visa Application Centre VFS Global couldn't provide a copy machine, (iii) to remember nonsensical details, to invent lies and to write down oodles of irrelevant information from our old and expired passports, e.g. our fathers' birthdays, our non-existing home address, some fake donor’s fictive residential address, (iv) to pay in cash the non-refundable visa fee, plus service fee, of LKR 5,244.- or US$ 47.25 per person, (v) to queue up again and to supply two passport photos per applicant, numerous photo copies of our passports and piles of completed forms, (vi) to overcome the wary receptionist, to find the visa officer of the Assistant High Commission of India and to make a plea about our requested duration of at least 126 days for our upcoming tour to India, (vii) to bridge the communication gap between the Assistant High Commission and the rather inflexible and incompetent India Visa Application Centre VFS Global, (viii) to queue up again and to submit our precious passports exactly ten days, seven personal visits and a dozen of phone calls after the first hurdle (see above), and, at last, (ix) to pick up our mechanically damaged passports, equipped with the sticker of a valid 126-day double-entry tourist visa for the Republic of India, the world’s largest bureaucrazy; namaste Incredible India, (x) here we come!

"They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
for trying to change the system from within.
I'm coming now,
I'm coming to reward them…"



Taking the Ravindu Travels express bus from Kandy to Negombo (LKR 111.- or exactly US$ 1.- per person for the 3-hr long, very scenic ride) and thereafter the S.L.T.B. bus no. 905 from Negombo’s bus station to our beach hotel north of Negombo proper for LKR 12.- per person.


Click below for a summary of this year's travels

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from Germany:


For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here

17 Feb - 24 Feb 2011 Madiha





South Asia
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Matara
Madiha/Polhena
Very nice double room (no. 6), 10 m from the high-water mark, with private sea-view balcony and internet, for only LKR 1,500.- or US$ 13.70 per night.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Beach Inns Holiday Resort in Madiha, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:








Getting some R&R at the Beach Inns Holiday Resort +94412226356, an excellent family-run hotel and our Sri Lankan home away from home, catching up on over-due admin work (travel blog, photos, financials), relaxing on the resort's two pristine private beaches, having a good time with local and international friends … and, sadly, getting one night our paradise’s phoney peace disturbed when we found an Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) gone astray on her egg-laying mission in the hotel's concreted backyard and had to help her back into the ocean: 150 years of human technology against millions of years of animal instinct - guess which of the two systems will eventually survive.

“What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?”



Becoming seasoned connoisseurs of the spicy Sri Lankan staple food Rice‘n Curry (for LKR 80.- to 120.- per generous portion), available (i) at the fixed-price lunch buffets in any hotel (the misleading name for a simple Sri Lankan restaurant) or (ii) from any of the multitude of bake shops, grocers and street vendors throughout the country as pre-packed lunch packet for take-away, and learning about the many different flavours of Rice‘n Curry which is composed of exotic spices like chili pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, pandanus leaves aka rampe leaves, curry leaves, mustard seeds, tamarind, fenugreek, garlic, coconut milk, dried fish and sambol; our favourite neighbourhood suppliers for vegetarian Rice‘n Curry: 1st Walgama Bake House and Bake Shop (for LKR 95.- per portion), 2nd A.B. Chamly's Cathu Madhu Restaurant (for LKR 100.- per portion), 3rd Ambasewana Bakery (for LKR 90.- per portion).



Saying our goodbyes to our wonderful host family from the Beach Inns Holiday Resort and enjoying a very delicious farewell dinner on the house, taking one of the red S.L.T.B. (Sri Lanka Transport Board) rust buckets from the Walgama bus stop to Galle (c. 40 km, 1 1/2 hours, LKR 45.- or US$ -.40 per person) and boarding thereafter a direct S.L.T.B. express bus to Kandy (c. 230 km, 7 hours, LKR 207.- or US$ 1.90 per person) which was driven by a lunatic driver who raced against all other buses and scraped victories on both legs (i) the scenic, but very narrow coastal road to Colombo and (ii) the picturesque mountain road without crash barriers between Colombo and Kandy, one of the marvels of Victorian engineering in Sri Lanka.



Click below for more blog posts about sea turtles
20 Feb 2014 Moalboal
22 Feb - 10 Mar 2013 Pulau Tioman
20 Mar - 07 Apr 2012 Iboih Beach
25 Jul - 29 Jul 2011 Chukai
21 Apr - 25 Apr 2009 Pulau Kapas

Click below for a summary of this year's travels 
2011 Map Konni & Matt

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:


For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon deals from Canada, please click here
For Amazon deals from the United Kingdom, please click here

16 Feb - 17 Feb 2011 Colombo

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Colombo
Hotel Nippon +94112431887
Spacious double room with fan for LKR 2,250.- or US$ 20.30 per night.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Hotel Nippon in Colombo and for directions:









Coming across another blatant example of cruelty to animals in the name of human culture when leg-shackled elephants with visible chafe marks on their legs are forced to trudge through Colombo’s crowded and noisy roads during the annual Nawam Maha Perahera, an orchestrated and uber-patriotic, all-pomp-and-pageantry procession of traditional dancers and musicians, (i) tightly controlled by a parade of the state’s all-present obnoxious police, (ii) loudly applauded by a grovelling entourage of Western bigots in politically correct white robes, and (iii) zealously blessed by the orange-clad hard-line weasels of the omnipresent Theravada Buddhist clergy, the vanguard of Sinhalese nationalism.
“Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test, consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.”


Taking a crowded commuter train in third class from Colombo's Kompannavidiya Railway Station to the well-organised Colombo Fort Railway Station, a busy hub for commuter rail within the Colombo metropolis (LKR 10.- or c. US$ 0.10 per person), sharing thereafter with a friendly Sri Lankan family of Malay origin a 2nd-class compartment of the local train from Colombo to Galle along the scenic southern beaches (LKR 180.- or c. US$ 1.80 per person) and surviving eventually a wild ride in one of the notorious Sri Lanka Transport Board buses from Galle back to Walgama (LKR 45.- or c. US$ 0.45 per person).

"A sip of wine, a cigarette,
And then it’s time to go.
I tidied up the kitchenette;
I tuned the old banjo.
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam.
They’re saving me a seat.
I’m what I am, and what I am,
Is back on Boogie Street."


Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:


For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon deals from Canada, please click here
For Amazon deals from the United Kingdom, please click here

14 Feb - 16 Feb 2011 Kandy

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Star Light Guest House +94812233573
Adequate twin room for LKR 1,500.- or US$ 13.50 per night.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Star Light Guest House in Kandy and for directions:









Strolling through the congested city centre of Kandy, a narcissistic bastion of Sinhalese traditions, probably the most overrated city in Sri Lanka and a nicely going production line of the country's booming tourist industry, and overhearing many funny conversations between (i) droves of Western package tourists (features: mostly frowning and visibly under stress, overweight and ugly, dressed like clowns on holiday in wonderland) and (ii) troupes of local touts and wannabe guides (features: mostly smiling and determined, fit and handsome, smart-casually dressed): “Hullo, Seirrr! Werrr are you going? - Wazzz yar cuntry? - How long you in Srrrrri Lanka? - You like Srrri Lanka, Seirrr? - Only local prize; last prize. - No, not cheahting. - Wattt to do?”
“To be a tourist is to escape accountability. Errors and failings don't cling to you the way they do back home. You're able to drift across continents and languages, suspending the operation of sound thought. Tourism is the march of stupidity. You're expected to be stupid. The entire mechanism of the host country is geared to travelers acting stupidly. You walked around dazed, squinting into fold-out maps. You don't know how to talk to people, how to get anywhere, what the money means, what time it is, what to eat or how to eat it. Being stupid is the pattern, the level and the norm. You can exist on this level for weeks and months without reprimand or dire consequence. Together with thousands, you are granted immunities and broad freedoms. You are an army of fools, wearing bright polyesters, riding camels, taking pictures of each other, haggard, dysentric, thirsty. There is nothing to think about but the next shapeless event.” 

Running away from Kandy's ubertouristed city centre, an overpriced UNESCO World Heritage Site and well-oiled tourist trap, and visiting the tranquil Royal Botanic Gardens of Sri Lanka at nearby Peradeniya (admission: a stiff US$ 10.- per foreigner), which cover almost 150 acres and are stuffed with a bewildering variety of local and foreign tree and plant species (arranged by a succession of skilled British gardeners and maintained by apathetic Sinhalese garden workers who nowadays make about LKR 15,000.- or US$ 135.- per month).



Applying for two 180-day double-entry tourist visas for the Republic of Incredible India at the bureaucratic and unfriendly India Visa Application Centre VFS Global in Kandy, paying the non-refundable fee of LKR 5,244.- or US$ 47.25 per person and keeping our fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
“Bureaucracies force us to practice nonsense. And if you rehearse nonsense, you may one day find yourself the victim of it.”

Taking the clean and fast Arundi Tours Intercity Service air-con bus from Kandy to the Colombo Fort Railway Station (c. 120 km, 2 3/4 hours, LKR 230.- or US$ 2.10 per person) and thereafter the rugged local train in third class for only LKR 10.- from the Colombo Fort Railway Station to the conveniently located Kompannavidiya Railway Station, a mere 5 min walk from our next hotel, the Nippon Hotel Colombo, situated in a down-at-heel part of Colombo inside the characterful, colonnaded 1883 CE Manning’s Mansion.


Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2011 Map Konni & Matt

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos 
Konni & Matt Travel Photos


Facing Sri Lanka
© Konni & Matt


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from Germany:


For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here