Sri Lanka: tea, trains and temples

Our first day in Sri Lanka was rather hectic as we had to organise visas for Joanna and Andrew, i had to find a bank which does cash in advance and so we were running around from our arrival in the morning till the afternoon. But as soon as everything was done we sat down, ate something and planned our next steps. As Colombo the capital wasn´t really our favourite place to be we bought tickets for the next morning to go to Kandy, a nice little town further to the east and a wonderful train ride away. 

The trains in Sri Lanka are the best way to travel, it´s slow, but the landscapes are one of the most beautiful a saw on my journey. The trains are really old and slow, but that really makes the journey, they are the ones where all windows are open and the doors too, so you can enjoy the wind in your hair and the excitement of standing or sitting in the doors seeing how the train slowly moves deeper into the mountains.

In Kandy we had a very weird couchsurfing experience and decided to head to Adam´s peak the next day. It is known for the Sri Pada, the "sacred footprint" a rock formation near the summit. In Buddhist tradition it is held to be the footprint of Buddha, in Hindu the one of Shiva and in Muslim and Christian tradition the one of Adam.

Unfortunately my kidneys began to hurt so much again that i hardly couldn´t walk and so i decided to stay in the train and head directly to Ella, a nice little town surrounded by tea plantations and mountains, which sounded like a good environment to relax and get well.

Indeed it was a good decision and despite of having to say goodbye to Joanna and Andrew it was nice to be alone again. My days were very simple filled with easy morning walks, light and healthy food and a lot of sleep.

Like this i was ready and fit to leave the mountains after 4 days and head to the beach where i spend my last week in Unawatuna, a small town at the beach. The beach, sun and some surfing made me feel better instantly and with the good mood coming back to me i met nice people to hang out with. I also met the Canela boys again, 2 days before they left in direction of Mauritius. This is the best about travelling, you meet some people again on your way and you instantly feel like meeting a family member again. They know you, you know them, the normal small talk is not necessary and you go straight to the deeper conversations and get to know more layers of the other person.

But then the day arrived and I headed to Colombo to take my flight back to Germany. It was a weird feeling, but I tried not to think about it too much. I enjoyed the last crazy bus ride that took about 4 hours, the last crazy sweating all over and the funny music videos they played on the bus. To ensure a save travel and brakes that work the bus driver ´s assistant donated 3 times 2 rupees to a Buddha temple and prayed for a smooth journey. It´s nice to see this little rituals, and secretly you also pray for getting there alive ;-)

But of course, I never had a doubt, everything was fine and I arrived on time to  check in.

Alone standing in the queue was kind of hard for me as I was surrounded by Germans all complaining about the smallest things. It is sad how people just think they are on top of everybody else, you can feel their egos growing bigger and bigger demanding to be treated as if they were more special than others. Luckily I had really nice women sitting right next to me and so I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I will find people that share my interests and views of live all over the world and also in Germany.

One more time I closed my eyes to fall asleep with a big smile on my face feeling excited to see my family again so soon.