A Ceylon Odyssey

I’m usually known to procrastinate specific things in life like exercise, collecting on finances and making phone calls among others, but I feel most guilty when I delay writing travelogues. From personal experience, I feel that the memories and trivia are most fresh within the week of returning from a trip, making it the opportune moment to pen it down for memory’s sake.

It has been over two months to my trip to the island nation of Ceylon, and I’ve only got down to penning it down today.

Milan and I had been planning to travel together for almost over a year. The Calcutta monotony was getting to her and I was sick of the Muscat humdrum. We had planned an entire Thai sojourn early in the year, which I had to bail on because of a work trip to Bali (a little bit of a #sorrynotsorry situation, but she was most understanding.)

After weeks of debating over how unfair it is that us Indians get visa-on-arrival into such few countries, and the fact that December in South East Asia could be quite the nightmare, we settled on Sri Lanka. I went there with very low expectations, as the image in my mind was that of a country torn by war for many years and natural calamities, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The island so close to my home country is nothing like what I had pictured – but instead a treasure hiding in plain sight.

In 2014, I was very fortunate to see a fair bit of the world, in bits and slices. After Indonesia, Croatia, Poland and the Czech Republic, what I was looking for was mostly a leisurely trip spent lazing on the beach or strolling through the forests, greeting elephants and turtles. I flew a red-eye Oman Air into Colombo, while Milan had a lengthier route to take – but thankfully we got there at exactly the same time. Our pre-booked private transfer which came with our local driver, Nimal was on time to pick us up, and we set off from the capital city to the coastal town of Bentota, stopping only briefly for breakfast, Red Bull stock ups and picture spots.

In around three and a half hours (more, on weekdays), we journeyed 62 kilometres and arrived at our plush hotel, which would be our home for the next five nights – Vivanta by Taj, Bentota. It is truly a picturesque property located on the finest stretches of pristine white sand beaches of Bentota. On being greeted with a warm ‘Ayubowan’and fresh white and yellow Frangipani garlands, we were shown our sea-view room and proceeded to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the afternoon in our private sit-out verandah. We spent the rest of the day exploring a bit of the hotel, lounging around the pool area and watching the horizon turn orange as the Sun set into the Indian Ocean. This is how vacations should be J

Ms. Belvedere and Ms. Grey Goose on vacation.

Next morning, we filled ourselves with some delicious buffet breakfast, slapped tonnes of sunscreen on and got on our way to the small coastal town of Hikkaduwa, around 48 kilometres from Bentota. A part of the Southern Province, it is renowned for its beaches, marine life and general hippy culture. We were there to snorkel and dive to see much of the expansive coral reef and maybe even introduce Milan to PADI scuba diving with Poseidon Diving Centre. After the introductory video, we snorkeled for a good hour or two and I realised that it would simply be too much to snorkel, do the underwater practice session and the first dive in one day – so we decided that we’d do the dive certificate the next time when we were on site on a resort and had more time on hand.

While floating lightly, face down guided by our very ripped snorkel-guides, we met Rosie the resident turtle who gave me a start by turning fast and being very close suddenly – but soon we were friends; I was feeding her seaweed which she munched on happily looking at me through her wise eyes. I really want to mention the visibility here – even standing on the beach, one would be able to see huge schools of transparent fishes with yellow stripes shifting through the water. And once you were closer to the reef, it was a real underwater party! SO many colours and species all together with the occasional crab and eel – I haven’t seen anything like that in my life yet, and I couldn’t help wishing that I had a GoPro. Needless to say, we almost needed to be wrenched out of the water (results of the Sun on our backs for around four hours would be visible soon – but more on that later.)

We dried up, I had an incident with a rather clingy crab, made faux sand castles and before we knew it our stomachs were rumbling. Milan had read about a really famous place to eat on the Hikkaduwa stretch called ‘JLH’ – abbreviation for Just Like Home. Armed with instructions from our snorkel guides, we walked on the beach, and through some seriously dangerous terrain to finally reach sustenance! A couple of margaritas, mango daiquiris, shrimp salad, fish fingers and fried pineapple fritters with honey ice cream later, it was almost evening – we were stuffed to the brim and ready to go back to our hotel.

It was to be a really special evening, as we were bringing in Milan’s birthday and here I have to mention the excellent hospitality of the Vivanta by Taj chain. I only had to go up to them and say that there was a birthday and whether I could pay for a cake to be brought in at midnight…I was respectfully shooed off and said that “Everything will be taken care of”. While we were getting quite wasted on Long Island Iced Teas at the bar ‘Tease’, the clock struck twelve, and lo and behold – a cake appeared, along with a photographer. While both of us don’t remember much of what happened next and who took the pictures which we found on our phones the next morning – it was some beginning to a birthday!

The birthday day was spent at the hotel lazing by the pool with lots of food, drinks, music and books in addition to occasional cool-off dips – I cannot tell for sure, but for a second I thought that I caught a glimpse of her smiling contently.

In the evening, we undertook two hour makeup sessions with Milan’s all new Urban Decay ‘Vice 3’ palette accompanied by a celebratory completion of a bottle of Grey Goose, before we stepped out for dinner. We called in an early night because we had to be up and about by around 3 am as we had a very exciting next day in store.

While I was researching things to do in Sri Lanka, I came across an article that mentioned that the south coast of Sri Lanka was one of the very best places to see Blue Whales in the entire world. It is believed that it is these cetaceans’ migration route and with deep water so close to shore, it is the perfect hotspot for the Blues, among other mammals. I even looked up whale-friendly tour companies who could take us to sea in the hope of perhaps catching a glimpse of them, and then meekly suggested it to Milan who was as excited as I, bless her! So we drove the 98 odd kilometres to the southern tip of Sri Lanka, to a town named Mirissa and reached by around half past five in the morning.

From November to March each year, the largest animals in the world migrate through the warm, clear coastal waters of southern Sri Lanka. I couldn’t suppress the excitement I was feeling at the chance to be able to see them first hand at such close proximity. We got aboard the Raja & the Whales vessel and were handed sea sickness pills in addition to LOTS of food – the crew were very professional and made us feel at home, while soon we saw the coast shrinking away from us, sea breeze in our hair.

There is nothing on this good Earth I love more than the Ocean and it is times like these that I realise it even more – not without being conscious of its enormity and power, but it all adds to the allure. We voyaged around 70-80 kilometres into the sea (which was thankfully calm on that day) when we were all told to be silent and listen for sounds of blow holes. And soon enough, there were sightings of the small dorsal fin of a Blue Whale. I couldn’t believe my eyes on seeing the giants of the deep that I had only stared at, spellbound, on the National Geographic channel or in books. Only a couple of feet away from the boat, they looked unperturbed by our presence and continued to swim leisurely, some of them diving deeper with their fins up in the air for us to photograph.

Meanwhile, our crew got word that there might be dolphins nearby – we didn’t see any of them, but what we did get to see simply by chance was one of the most goose-flesh raising moments of my life.

Four words – Orcas. In. The. Wild.

Since the time I first watched Free Willy as a child, I have been fascinated by Killer Whales. And since I watched the heartbreaking documentary, Blackfish, I have been even more attached to their kind – campaigning virtually against cetacean captivity and telling everyone I know not to go to, or take their children to zoos or marine parks. I had no ideas that these beautiful animals swam these seas, but what a surprise it was; I couldn’t take my eyes of them. At first I scrambled for my camera and phone to record as much as I could of the trio that were hunting rays in the open blue, but then I put them away and breathed it all in. I cannot imagine how anyone would think it would be justified to keep these majestic creatures in a glass box, forcing them to swim around in circles when they were made for being wild and free. But let me not get started on that.

We napped mostly on our way back to Bentota as our Nissan sedan zipped through narrow one-lane roads dotted with palm trees and all sorts of green. As promised earlier, we had severe sunburns from our snorkeling sojourn and just lying in the air-conditioning without much movement was the most comfortable thing to do.

Note for other beach juveniles: After enhanced sun exposure, never take a shower with hot water – you’ll thank me later. Oh, and always travel with Aloe Vera gel.

We travelled through the southern town of Galle and stopped briefly for pictures of the old fort there. It was after noon that we reached and rested a bit before heading to the pool again – what can I say, we are both water babies! The evening was spent chatting about times of old, things that were, things that could be – it is amazing how time passes when you’re in pleasant company. Not to forget to mention the buffet dinner this night – those lamb chops were to die for, and Milan had a special Crème Brûlée made for her – such pampering J

The Maduganga

We had to duck real low at these bridges

Some sort of reptile in the waters

Old monasteries and temples on the islands

Those clouds!

Beachcombers, us

Traditionals Bentota masks were bought

It was soon time to head back, and as we spent the final morning in Colombo, it was easy to agree that Sri Lanka was spectacular; not only because it was affordable and often uncrowded, but because the people were so warm and kind.