Sri Lanka Part Two

Hey A,
With all the excitement over my birthday I forgot to tell you about some of the places I visited in Sri Lanka.

After about six days of soaking up the sun and eating amazing seafood we headed to the hills of Kandy. We hired a driver for the day and headed to Sirgirya which is about two hours from Kandy. It's also called the Lion Rock and one of the kings built a palace and a swimming pool on top of a massive rock with beautiful gardens and caves surrounding. One of the caves has some pretty raunchy artwork inside!! Haha
The climb up the rock proved to be only a small warm up for our next adventure...Adam's Peak.

Adam's Peak is a mountain Buddists climb as a pilgrimage. We woke at 2am to start climbing at 230am so we could see the sunrise. It was seriously tough work for that hour of the morning. 5200 steps later we reached the top along with thousands of others. It was heartwarming to see the elderly being carries up and down by their children and grandchildren and parents carrying their young. It really is a family ritual for them.

Amongst the masses at the top I managed to loose the girls. I basically ran down that mountain it was that or be pestered by the locals, one in particular kept telling me to look at the sun..very strange!
So I arrived back at our guesthouse an hour before the girls so was lucky they had some super cute puppies to play with.

I think it took my body about four days to recover but it was definitely worth the hard work and the very early morning.

Only 2 weeks til I see you...can't wait!

Love E xx

Sri Lanka

Hi there,
Do you recall the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that hit Sri Lanka after a massive earthquake in Indonesia?
When arriving in the south coast area of Sri Lanka it's really apparent life here has seriously been altered from this natural disaster. Graves border the coast road with signs along the streets recalling the number of lives and houses lost.
Today we went to the Dutch Fort in Galle and walked along the shore to the lighthouse and back through the old buildings and churches. Our tuk tuk driver from Galle back to our hotel in Anawatuna spoke like it was just a few months ago how the area we were driving through had been devastated by the tsunami with the entire waterfront going under water. All the buildings we were seeing were brand new. The tragic result was the loss of 4000 lives just in Galle with tens of thousand in Sri Lanka as a whole. Our driver had been lucky and been on higher ground at the time.
Life along the coast here survives on it's fishing and tourist industry so it's amazing to see how it has bounced back even though after chatting with the locals it seems like yesterday to them.
Sadly the beaches aren't what they used to be and now a narrow shoreline remains. None the less it's still a beautiful area with some very lovely locals.
Miss you
E xx

Going Bananas over Seafood!!

Hey Anna Banana,
I'm in banana country!! It's so tropical in Sri Lanka and there are bananas everywhere so I'm reminded of your nickname.
Also so much seafood, which Im loving. I've been indulging myself with a few of my favorites including golden fried calamari, prawns and of course fish and chips.

We had heard some great reviews on a restaurant called Hot Rock which is located on the rocky edge of Unawatuna Beach. The Old Fashioned Prawn Curry is their most popular dish and I was not disappointed. A bed of fluffy rice with a sea of yellow curry with delicious prawns. YUM!!!

The seafood here definitely beats what I tried in both Nepal and India. I had grilled King Fish in Goa which was very average and the fried fish I had from the lake in Pokhara, Nepal was terrible...looking back I should have really taken a look at the lake first!!

Your pizza looks delicious, I'm excited to try when I get there (minus the olives please!!)
Love E xx