Wow! What a trip! There's so much to say, it's hard to know where to begin...
It was an exhausting journey getting there, which included: a mishap with our lost driver to the airport (he was supposed to pick us - 3 families- up in Al Ain and he was in Abu Dhabi instead); a 3 hour plane delay; a 4 and 1/2 hour flight; too much time spent waiting in check-in lines, McDonald's, customs, and immigration; and a 5 hour drive from the airport to hotel (traffic is bad!) After spending all night and most of a day travelling, we were cranky, hungry, and tired!
But once we arrived at our quaint hotel on the beach, which had 3 rooms set up side by side with huge attached terraces outside, enjoyed some delicious sea food for dinner, indulged in Sri Lanka's national beer, 'Lion,' and cooled down in the swimming pool conveniently located right outside our rooms, we were officially chilled out and on vacation!
We tried to make the most of our days but quickly realized that driving anywhere in Sri Lanka takes FOREVER! The infrastructure is not set up to accommodate the traffic and the driver that we had (bless his heart!) didn't seem to know where he was going half the time. We would ask him how much further it was to our destination and he almost always told us 1 hour, even after we had asked him the same question an hour ago. I hate to think how much of our trip was wasted sitting in a van!
We spent a couple of days lounging around the beach and pool and the other days sightseeing. We went to see a waterfall in the mountains, a Medieval Fort in Galle, and went on a safari in Udawalawe National Park. The kids of course had a wonderful time since they had friends to play with at all times, we were able to relax and enjoy each other's company, and amazingly all 13 of us made it back in one piece- and are still friends! Lol!
There were literally hundreds and hundreds of pictures taken between all of us so it's hard to just pick the best ones but here you go:
Swings!
Here we all are before leaving beautiful Sri Lanka...great vacation, great friends, and memories to last a life time!
It was an exhausting journey getting there, which included: a mishap with our lost driver to the airport (he was supposed to pick us - 3 families- up in Al Ain and he was in Abu Dhabi instead); a 3 hour plane delay; a 4 and 1/2 hour flight; too much time spent waiting in check-in lines, McDonald's, customs, and immigration; and a 5 hour drive from the airport to hotel (traffic is bad!) After spending all night and most of a day travelling, we were cranky, hungry, and tired!
But once we arrived at our quaint hotel on the beach, which had 3 rooms set up side by side with huge attached terraces outside, enjoyed some delicious sea food for dinner, indulged in Sri Lanka's national beer, 'Lion,' and cooled down in the swimming pool conveniently located right outside our rooms, we were officially chilled out and on vacation!
We tried to make the most of our days but quickly realized that driving anywhere in Sri Lanka takes FOREVER! The infrastructure is not set up to accommodate the traffic and the driver that we had (bless his heart!) didn't seem to know where he was going half the time. We would ask him how much further it was to our destination and he almost always told us 1 hour, even after we had asked him the same question an hour ago. I hate to think how much of our trip was wasted sitting in a van!
We spent a couple of days lounging around the beach and pool and the other days sightseeing. We went to see a waterfall in the mountains, a Medieval Fort in Galle, and went on a safari in Udawalawe National Park. The kids of course had a wonderful time since they had friends to play with at all times, we were able to relax and enjoy each other's company, and amazingly all 13 of us made it back in one piece- and are still friends! Lol!
There were literally hundreds and hundreds of pictures taken between all of us so it's hard to just pick the best ones but here you go:
Our beautiful hotel
Restaurant and bar
The walkway down to the mostly deserted beach
Every morning we were served fresh local fruit, fresh squeezed juice, eggs, bacon, sausage, (pork, yay!) toast, and tea/coffee. We could get up whatever time we wanted for breakfast and they cooked it for us fresh!
Here's a good example of driving in Sri Lanka where drive on the left side of the road... in this picture it looks like us and another tuc-tuc (taxi) were passing someone. See those motorcycles coming toward us? They should have been on the right hand side of us, not the left. Terrifying! But we never saw a single wreck, somehow!
The waterfall was like something out of a movie!
Our brave friend, Lee, jumped off the top!
The kids jumped off smaller rocks
The Galle Fort was built originally by the Portuguese in 1588.
The view from the fort
A guy at the fort had some charmed cobras
and monkeys to entertain the kids
And on our safari we saw...
Many, many elephants in the wild...even a 3 week old baby!
Monkeys!
Water buffalo
Spotted deer
And lots of cool birds
Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians all coexist peacefully in Sri Lanka. There were tons of Buddhist and Hindu shrines and temples.
You had to take a boat out to visit this Hindu temple
Sri Lanka lost 35,000 victims in the 2004 Tsunami. Up and down the coast, every few feet sometimes, there were gravestones to mark the deaths. This was a memorial erected to honor the lives lost.
Here is a picture of our driver for the week (Daniel, maybe? His English wasn't great)
Lion- the beer of champion!
One night after dinner, some of the hotel workers played bongos and sang in traditional Sri Lankan style.
Our hotel had a sea turtle sanctuary, where they rescued and incubated eggs to be hatched and returned to the sea when they were strong enough. They also treated injured adults.
Here are the babies we were able to release one night
Very cool experience!
Here we all are before leaving beautiful Sri Lanka...great vacation, great friends, and memories to last a life time!
