Last hoorah in Colombo - Galle Face Green

Up until the day before we were to leave Tissa for Colombo, I had no idea where to go in Colombo (except Galle Face Green) with our luggage and how to get to the airport. Our flight to KL from Colombo was only at 11pm. We wanted to leave Tissa early and anyway the car that we rented was only meant to take us to central Colombo. One option was to leave our backpacks at the Left Luggage facility at Fort Railway Station (apparently there is one but I could not vouch for it as we did not get to use it) and then kill time at Galle Face Green before getting a cab. But Rohan came to the rescue. He got the driver to take us to Galle Face Green, wait for us there and then take us to the airport – all for an additional Rs2,000.

The drive from Tissa to Colombo was uneventful, except that Irf was complaining of nausea and was feeling a bit under the weather. The quickest way to Colombo was via the highway which was relatively deserted compared to the coastal road. We stopped at a rest area on the highway for lunch. The toilets were super clean, as was the general common areas. We had lunch there and Irf immediately knew what he wanted when he saw Pizza Hut. He had a mini vegetable pizza (with lots of mushroom). I generally avoid Pizza Hut like the plague but that pizza that I tasted in an obscure Pizza Hut branch on an unknown Sri Lanka highway was on a whole different level. It could be the fresh ingredients used or the fact that it was freshly baked.

After what seemed like years in the van, especially with all the traffic starting from the suburbs of Colombo, we reached Galle Face Green at around 5pm.  This is a half kilometre promenade right at the centre of Colombo.  In the evenings when the sun is no longer at its fiercest, locals and tourists alike flock here to relax, take a stroll and hope to see the perfect sunset. Another famous activity that can be enjoyed here is kite-flying. The sky was full of colourful kites of many shapes and forms and flying them was a breeze (no pun intended) due to the wind in the open space. We bought one for Irf from one of the few vendors for around RM15 - a falcon, no less. A cheap amount to pay for seemingly endless entertainment.

Having a tough time deciding which kite to buy

A kite runner in Colombo

After a while, it got more crowded. The locals were coming in droves, enjoying themselves on the beach or eating from the many food stalls/kiosks. We were getting thirsty and tired and I remembered that the Galle Face Green Hotel was just next to the promenade. We don't usually pop over to 5-star hotels to quench our thirst but this hotel is an iconic landmark built in the colonial era and I really needed to go to the toilet. We sauntered into the lobby, asked around and eventually found ourselves at one of the best seats at The Chequerboard - front row for sunset viewing.

The steps leading from The Chequerboard to the beach

Seated on wicker chairs between the colonial structure of the beautiful hotel and the crashing waves of the Indian Ocean, I thought it was the perfect ending to our Sri Lanka trip. Never mind that we had to pay more than RM100 for 3 mocktails. As if that was not enough, a bagpiper dressed in a kilt appeared out of nowhere, accompanying a uniformed concierge to the flag pole for the flag-lowering ceremony. It was done with such pomp and grandeur, with music from the bagpipe in the background.

Sun going down...

...and down...

It was soon time to leave Colombo for the airport. We bade farewell to the Ceylonese capital and at the airport, Irf had another pizza. So that's Pizza Hut for lunch and dinner in one day.

All in all, we had a great time in Sri Lanka. There were no theme parks and no Disneyland/Legoland but there were animals to sight, lakes to navigate and ruins and forts to explore. Unfortunately Irf brought back an unwanted "souvenir" - his first food poisoning and diarrhea in his life. It could be the pizza at the airport but I was just glad that it started when we had reached Malaysia. I took that as a stroke of bad luck, definitely not something to deter from taking kids to Sri Lanka.

Yala National Park - A game of Spot the Leopard

Like most other people, our stay in Tissa was purely for one reason - a safari at Yala National Park. When we were arranging for our accommodation in Tissa, Rohan of Shangri-Lanka Village offered to arrange a jeep for us for Rs5,500. Adding the price of the entrance fees to the jeep hire, I found that the price was cheaper than full packages quoted on tour agent's websites. So we decided to take up Rohan's offer, and save ourselves the hassle of arranging our own safari package.

You can choose either a half-day safari (morning or afternoon) of a full day one. Ours was a morning half-day safari  but that meant a very early start of 5am in the morning. It was still pitch dark and as I groggily walked towards the gate, I wondered again and again (after other early morning starts for Borobudur, Angkor Wat, Bagan and Luang Prabang) why I kept on putting ourselves in this kind of ordeal. The jeep waiting for us was a 8-seater Toyota, more than comfortable for the 3 of us. Irf continued his sleep in the jeep despite the chilly wind in the open-air jeep - it always pays to bring a jacket/blanket on early morning tours.

We reached the ticket counter for the National Park at 5.45 am. There were already 20 other jeeps parked there, with the drivers/guides queuing up to buy tickets.  There was a basic coffee shop, an information center and toilets but I read that the conditions of the toilets were terrible.

Dawn was breaking by the time we were driven for the 5-minutes journey to the entrance to the Park. Another queue - and soon at 6.am sharp the gate was open and the jeeps went their separate ways along the many dirt tracks in the vast park.

Entrance to Yala National Park

Irf in the open-air Jeep

Many of the more expensive packages offered a guide who could tell you more on what you are seeing but I don't think that it's necessary if you have a driver who knows where to look for things. In our case, Rohan has assured us that ours would be good enough without a guide. In  a way, he was. In fact, I think he has bionic eyes. Here are some of the animals that we saw:

Wild water buffaloes - an endangered species

Elephants and a water buffalo going about their morning wash

Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) -
another endangered species

Spotted deer - the source of the leopards' lunch
and dinner

One of the many peacocks that we saw

Crocs were in abundance

Wild boars

Indian mongoose

As excited as we were to see the above animals in their natural habitat, the king of the park was undoubtedly the leopards. Yala National Park has one of the highest leopard concentration in the world and it is for this reason that Yala is the most visited national park in Sri Lanka. Alas, the leopards are an elusive animal and sightings of them are not guaranteed. So whenever there is a whiff of a leopard being spotted anywhere in the park, news of this would  travel around amongst the safari jeep drivers/guides through phone calls. This resulted in a mad scramble amongst the jeeps to get to where leopards could be spotted.

We found ourselves in one such situation. Our driver received a phone call on his mobile phone and instantly turned into a race-car driver. The drive became a very fast and bumpy one and soon we were joining throngs of other jeeps waiting in a queue to get to the spot where a leopard has been spotted. I would want to tell people that yes, I did see leopards on the safari in Yala National Park.  But I guess I have to be honest - for I could barely see the form of the leopard, let alone the spots. It was supposedly sleeping on a branch of a tall tree. But A's eyes were better than mine and he managed to capture this shot...

At least I could say that I was there when this shot was taken...

Peak hour at Leopard Central

We couldn't spend a long time at that spot as more jeeps came and were waiting for their turns. It was a bit chaotic and I couldn't wait to get away and to be among peaceful surroundings once again.

Later, we were also brought to a "rest area" by the beach with toilet facilities, the only place where we were allowed to leave the jeep. It was more like an abandoned place than a rest area - and I soon discovered why. During the 2004 tsunami, 47 safari visitors and guides perished on or near the very spot that we were standing on. All that is left now are ruins of a bungalow, with only the foundation and some tiled walls/floors. A steel monument was subsequently built. Amazingly, none of the animals in the park died - evidence of how strong animal instincts are.

Overall, we went on the safari for about 3 hours. By 9 am, even Irf had had enough and I was already visualising the bed in our hotel room. The driver started to head towards the exit and soon we were speeding away towards Shangri- Lanka Village for a proper breakfast and to continue our sleep.

Serendipity in Tissa

From Galle, we moved on further along the coast towards Tissamaharama (i.e. Tissa for short). Our ride, a minivan arranged by Shangri-Lanka Village, was comfortable enough and the driver friendly. After 2 days in Galle Fort with only a short venture outside to the turtle sanctuary, it was fascinating to see more of Sri Lanka. This was a country that was embroiled in a 26-year civil war until only recently and was partly ravaged by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. It was sobering to know that many villages in that part of the country we were travelling in were wiped out. Family members were lost, houses gone in seconds. A train on the very same service that we took from Colombo to Galle was derailed and wrecked by the waves near Hikkaduwa, with a death toll of more than 1,700.

Today, travelling along the costal route past sleepy villages, there was no evidence of the country's past disaster. The only disaster I could see was in the form of a group of tourists taking the term "tourist trap" to a whole new level. Sri Lanka is famous for its stilt fishermen and we had asked the driver to stop us at any beach where we could see the fishermen in action. He did - but the only action taken by the fishermen there was taking Rs2,000 from the gullible tourists just for the latter to sit on the stilts and be a "fisherman" for a few minutes, with pictures taken of course.

Stilt fishermen in Sri Lanka....

...doing a lucrative business

After the coast, we past wide and open grasslands, wind turbines, paddy fields full with egrets, boundaries of Bundala National Park and makeshift stalls selling buffalo milk curd with palm treacle, apparently a specialty in that part of Sri Lanka.

One of the many curd and treacle stalls lining the
road leading to Tissa

After more than 4 hours on the road, we arrived in Tissa. Before taking us to our hotel, the driver made an unplanned detour just before the lake to show us one one of the most amazing spectacles I have seen in my travels. We stopped near a huge rain tree, on which countless equally huge pelicans were nesting. More amazingly, the tree was shared by colonies of roosting bats hanging upside down from the branches. Irf couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the bats. And neither could I.

Nesting pelicans...

....and roosting bats near Tissa Wewa

We were again acquainted with the beauty of (the completely underrated) Lake Tissa or Tissa Wewa the next day. After our safari in Yala National Park, we had a couple hours to spare so decided to walk to the lake. It looked near enough when we were being driven to the hotel and anyway the hotel staff assured us that it would take 10 minutes. So we walked and we walked and obviously it took more than 10 minutes, probably 30 minutes. Despite the busy 2-lane road with tuk-tuks, buses and lorries, it felt like a walk in a village with roadside stalls selling fruits and freshly caught fish and locals hanging out at the roadside. I nearly gave up until, turning around a bend for the umpteenth time, I saw slivers of the lake.

Tissa Dagoba - originally built around 200 BC

An evening in rural Tissa

We had not planned for any activities, only a walk around the lake. That all changed when a boat approached us and we were asked whether we wanted to take a boat trip to "Bird Island". I was not at all keen thinking that it was another tourist trap but Irf, perhaps seeing all the birds flying around the lake, was so excited with the idea. The boatman quoted Rs1,000 per adult (free for kids) for a 1-hour trip and as the boat was clean and came with lifejackets, the 3 of us ended up in the boat.

It turned out to be one of the best things we did in our Sri Lanka trip - minus the crowd. We saw colonies of nesting black-headed ibises and cormorants including their hatchlings peeking out from the nests, egrets chilling out on the back of wading water buffalows, more pelicans and herons. One hour on the lake and I was turning into an expert in birdwatching.

Black-headed ibises

The egrets using the water buffaloes to catch fish

Sunset at Tissa Wewa

The boat ploughing through a vast 
expanse of lotus plants and flowers

Birds and bats changing shifts

Our boat trip ended in the dying light, with orange and pink streaks in the sky. It was Rs2,000 (plus generous tips) well spent, definitely a much better choice than giving it to the "stilt fishermen". The experience proved that the unplanned are often more rewarding. Perhaps it was fitting that we encountered those serendipitous moments in Tissa. After all, serendipity is derived from the word Serendib, an old name for Sri Lanka.

Eating in Galle

Galle abounds in family-family restaurants and cafes and there were even several halal restaurants. The only problem that we had was to choose where to eat. It goes without saying that most of the restaurants within the Fort were primarily catered for tourists but unlike many of the tourist-targeted restaurants in other other towns/cities, the food offered here were really good - partly contributed by the fresh ingredients used.

1) Pedlar's Inn (No. 92, Pedlar Street)

We had our first dinner here. Ravenous after the train ride from Colombo, we were there quite early and managed to grab a quite corner on the patio. The place could get quite busy so its best to time properly.

The best pizza in the whole wide world,
according to Irf

Ordered grilled tuna and chicken curry between A and I, for what is a trip to Sri Lanka without trying the curries. Irf had the Pizza Margherita which he managed to clean off the plates all by himself. Dinner for the 3 of us cost Rs4,300 (approx. RM130) which I'm sure was expensive by overall Sri Lankan standards, but then again everything cost more within the Fort's walls. Our subsequent meals cost less than this (probably because we became more cost-conscious) but it's safe to say that a decent meal in the Fort for 3 people in a comfortable surrounding would be around the RM100 mark.

2) Crepe-ology (No. 53, Leyn Baan Street)

As the name implies, this place specializes in a variety of sweet and savoury crepes. It also offers wraps, salads and finger food and it's the perfect place to have lunch. You would have to go up a flight of narrow steps from a shop on the ground floor. We sat at a table on the cozy rooftop terrace but there's also an air-conditioned room (complete with a play area for toddlers)  if you've had too much of the heat.We did not need the air-con as the refreshing chillers on offer were more than enough to cool us down. The best feature of the cafe as far as Irf was concerned was its Mac n' cheese.

Hummus for lunch - not exactly
Sri Lankan, I know

3) Heritage Cafe (No 61, Pedlar Street)

Located at the corner between Pedlar Street and Lighthouse Street, the 400-year old building used to be a bakery. We ended up here on our 2nd day after  20 minutes of walking around looking for the best place to have dinner until we got to the point of I-don't-care-but-I-need-to-eat-now. Don't let the candle lights and the dim lighting deceive you. The place welcomed families and there's a wide variety of food to choose from the menu, from authentic curries to nasi goreng. Dining in the courtyard garden was a good way to unwind after a long and hectic day.

Fried squid with butter rice - the exotic sounding
vegetable turned out to be petola

4) Poonie's Kitchen (No 63, Pedlar Street)

I was adamant to try this place after reading the reviews on the net and anyway I was craving for something light and healthy for a change. This is not the place to go for rotis and curries, but more for vibrant-coloured salads, fresh juices and not forgetting the quirky decor. This courtyard cafe is accessible through a set of double doors in MimiMango boutique. With a koi pond, vases of heliconias, mismatched rustic furniture and turquoise colour theme,  it's one of the prettiest cafes I've seen. Food-wise, the selection for us was quite limited. The salad looked too healthy for A and they ran out of prawns when we were there. But the drinks were fantastic, especially the pineapple, guava, gotukola & mint juice which was served in a huge glass jar with a lemongrass straw.

Pink heliconias as table centrepiece

Tomato, feta and basil on wholegrain toast

On top of the food from the above cafes and restaurants, there were also the obligatory lashings of ice-cream and for that we had Dairy King Homemade Ice-Cream and Pedlars' Inn Gelateria to thank for.

Ice-cream pit stop at Pedlars' Inn Gelateria

The fairy tale-like shop that is the Dairy King

Suffice to say we stuffed ourselves silly in Galle, but gutted that I did not get to try Sri Lankan crabs.

Things to do in Galle with kids

We were in Galle for only 2 nights. Some would say that 2 nights are more than enough but travelling with a kid meant we had to space our activities and hence we had limited time to cover the things that we wanted to see. Here are the things that we managed to see/do:

1) Galle Fort

Built by the Portuguese and fortified by the Dutch, Galle Fort is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It goes without saying that this is the main attraction of Galle. Walking the atmospheric streets of the Fort is part of the attraction so staying within the Fort is highly recommended. We stayed in Mango House which was as central as you could get.

Seafood restaurant near Pedlar Street

Walking around the Fort and along the ramparts is one of those things that you have to do in Galle. More of that here.


2) Turtle sanctuary

There's quite a number of turtle sanctuaries in the areas surrounding Galle. Finding one that has a genuine objective to conserve turtles is the hard part. I have done some research prior to the trip but I couldn't find any info on the best place to visit. We ended up going to the Sea Turtle Conservation Project and Hatchery in Koggala, and that was purely based on our tuk-tuk driver's decision, which I knew was not a guarantee on the authenticity of the place.

We did this trip after resting from our walk at the ramparts. The hotel arranged for the tuk-tuk and we were charged Rs1,500 for 2 hours. I thought it was quite steep but Irf had set his mind to see turtles and I did not want to let him down.

Our tuk-tuk arranged by the hotel for Rs1,500 for 2 hours 

The turtle sanctuary charged Rs 500 for entrance (free for kids). A guide took us around, explaining the different breeds of turtles (5 out of 8 turtle breeds come to Sri Lankan beaches) and also on what they do for turtle conservation. There were posters on the features of the different breeds and a few turtles could be seen swimming in small concrete pools. Baby turtles were kept in basins, waiting for the right time to be let out to the sea. Our guide even took out a baby turtle and put it on Irf's hand (much to his delight) - on hindsight I'm not sure whether that was the right thing to do but he probably does that to all visitors. Small pools and petting zoo-experience notwithstanding, I'll reserve my judgment on whether this passed as conservation or cruelty to animals.

Irf learning about different turtle breeds

His highlight of the day

The turtle conservation project in Koggala

3) Beach everything

Galle's location ensures that there's never a shortage of beach-related activities that you can do. Swimming in the sea, sunbathing, beach-combing - the list goes on. We did not get the chance to spend a day relaxing by the beach, something that I regretted. We did ask the tuk-tuk driver to stop at a couple of beaches on the way back to the Fort from the turtle sanctuary.

In some areas, the sea seemed bent to unleash its full wrath with crashing waves and all, while other areas were protected by reefs. Apparently Unawatuna and Jungle Beach were the safest for kids to swim in, but again there was no time for us to check out these places.

Robinson Crusoe's crib

No superpower involved - only reefs

4) Watching the sunset

Our tuk-tuk driver dropped us in Galle Fort somewhere near Flag Rock. It was 5.30pm on a Saturday evening and the locals and tourists were out in droves taking strolls and waiting for the sunset. We sat on a (wide) ledge of a stonewall. Watching a Sri Lankan sunset could well be one of your epic travel tales but you would need luck on your side which - alas - ditched us that evening.

Waiting...

...and waiting. In the end, the best shot that Irf got was of
some clouds

5) Bat-watching

Ok, this would not pass as an attraction per se but Irf was so taken by it that I thought I would just include it here. And it's free entertainment for kids! On our first evening in Galle, just an hour after we arrived, we walked towards the sea near where the hospital was. There was a huge tree and it was not long before we discovered that the tree was a roost for hundreds of bats. In the fading light, we saw bats swooping high and low, some so low that I thought Batman himself was coming for us. That corner of Galle would forever be etched in Irf's mind as Bat Territory.

So that's Galle in a nutshell for us. Go now before it's discovered by more people!