We were moving on to Sri Lanka next but as we had to transit through Kuala Lumpur we decided to take advantage and spend a few days in the city. With five nights in the big city, we took our time hitting the major tourist sites. The Petronas Towers, the highest twin towers in the world, which we visited at night, were extremely impressive. Approaching them from the garden side, we took in a water and light show at the fountain before walking through the ultra expensive looking shopping centre to the front of the towers for the real impressive view. Packed with tourists trying to get a selfie, we tried ourselves but it's very difficult given the height to get the full towers in the shot.

We spent a day travelling a bit out of the city to the Batu Caves, one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India. We climbed the 272 steps in the heat to explore the temple at the top. Another site on the list was the Thean Hou temple - apparently 2km from our hostel but in actual fact it was a 6km walk. We needed to start walking a bit more though in training for base camp so it wasn't a problem. At the temple, we partook in the Chinese fortune telling practice, Kau Chim - lifting up and then dropping a handful of long sticks into an urn, the one that is sticking out has a number which then opens a drawer with your fortune. Val was a bit skeptic about hers. See pics of both predictions in the gallery. We did cheat a little on the way back and avoid some of the walk however and took the monorail part of the way. In our defence though, Val had never ridden a monorail before, and it had air con! Between Jalan Alor, the food street in KL, and China town, we got some great cheap food. On our second last day, we came across a dim sum vendor in China town with a delicious variety of steamed buns/dumplings for next to nothing - we ended up visiting three times!

Not too pleased with the prediction regarding travel - see in the Gallery

Whirlwind tour of KL complete, we departed to Sri Lanka. We had two weeks to explore the country, and with Vals friend Neasa joining us for a holiday, we were very excited :) Sri Lanka is a gorgeous country where we have had some of the most spectacular scenery yet! Our first journey wasn't quite so good however... the train we were taking to Kandy wasn't reservable nor was it the newer Chinese style trains so we found ourselves squashed in with all the locals in third class. Val managed to squeeze into a seat while Rob stood sandwiched between several Sri Lankan's. No air conditioning, we were in for a hot six-hour journey! The breeze from the open windows unfortunately didn't make much difference but the train did empty out slightly at stops along the way and Rob eventually managed to get a seat. It may have been a bit uncomfortable but compared to Indonesia it was so cheap and hassle free! A six-hour train journey cost us €1.15 each! Aside from our transfer back to the airport, we travelled 532 kilometers around Sri Lanka at a total cost of €7 each!

Hard to tell, but the overcramped conditions of the Sri Lankan trains!

Neasa arrived the day after us to Sri Lanka. We spent a few days in the city of Kandy, catching up, adjusting to Sri Lanka and checking out the sites. On advice from a friend, we visited the Temple of the Tooth in the evening for the ceremony. We weren't really sure what to make of it however. There were monks playing traditional music and big crowds queuing to see the casket which seemingly holds the tooth. We got a brief glimpse at the casket, it did look to be beautiful, but we just weren't allowed stop long enough to form a true impression. We followed queues to various rooms of the temple and wandered through. We left a bit underwhelmed, feeling like we missed something but just didn't know what. We took a half day out of Kandy city to visit Sigiryia. Rather than climb Sigiryia itself, we climbed the nearby Pidurangala Rock. It offered the same stunning view as Sigiryia but had the added extra of a view of Sigiryia. Our tuk tuk driver escorted us on the hike and seemed to enjoy putting his photography skills to the test!

Sigiryia with out tuk tuk driver

Next stop in Sri Lanka was Ella. We tried to book 1st class seats a few days in advance but all were sold out so we were just going to have to chance our luck on the day with second class! But we had a strategy in place which surely couldn't fail - Rob was going to stay back and wait with the bags, Neasa would work her way through the crowds bagless and get onto the train quickly and Val would try put the smaller bags through the windows to save seats! Fool proof right? When the train pulled up, we were stood at the first class carriages so had to move down the track which delayed us, the windows were closed so Val couldn't put bags through. Neasa did get onto the train but by the time we made it down to the correct carriage all the seats were taken! Nevertheless, it all ended quite well. It was the more modern Chinese train - huge difference from our first train! Val and Neasa sat in the open doorway of the train, taking advantage of the breeze and the best view of the countryside. Rob sat behind on the luggage so all in all not too uncomfortable. The scenery for the six hour journey was spectacular. Leaving Kandy the train ascended higher through the tea plantations of Sri Lanka. The landscape is so green with tea bushes lined along the hills, busy with tea pickers fulfilling their day's work.

Neasa hanging out in the train door way

Sri Lankan landscape enroute to Ella

Ella was a nice small town, high up in the hills and surrounded with tea plantations. We spent one morning hiking to little Adams peak. A fairly easy walk, it took about 20 minutes to reach the top for a view of the country side and Ella's Rock. After a quick refreshment we started on a 7km walk to the Rawana Ella Falls. A downhill walk on a very bendy road, we were slightly putting our lives at risk - the driving habits of Sri Lankan's leaves a lot to be desired! With Rob a fair bit ahead, Val and Neasa met two Israeli backpackers along the road and continued the rest of the way together. Nearly at the end, some monkeys came into sight along the road. Having read they are harmless enough we kept going. Sadly, as we approached, a truck passed us by and ended up running over a baby monkey. Some of the monkeys stood by the side of the road, looking on sadly at the baby monkey now lying dead on the road. But things took a turn for the worse, and the monkeys started to approach us, looking angry. Confused, sad and angry over what had happened, they were turning on us! Adi, the Israeli guy with us managed to fend them off with a water bottle but it was obvious we weren't going to be able to walk by them. With Rob ahead of us and we had to find some way to get to him as his phone wasn't working. We flagged down a car asking if they would let us hop in for a few minutes until we caught up with Rob. We're not sure they understood what was going on but they kindly let us in and drove us past the monkeys to Rob. A bit sad and shaken, but safe and reunited with Rob, we made it to the waterfall, which turned out to be a local bath! While there were many tourists, there were just as many locals in the water having a good wash :)

We were all eager for a few days chilling on the beach but we decided to head first to Yala national park for a safari, as its one of the places with a reasonable chance to see a leopard. We were picked up at 4.30am the following morning and headed in search of some leopards. Unfortunately though we didn't manage to "spot" any!! We spent between two and three hours driving through the park looking for the leopards. We heard later that three jeeps did manage to catch a glimpse of one. It wasn't a wasted trip of course - as we drove around we saw monkeys, mongoose, deer, water buffalo, crocodiles (even got lucky and saw a crocodile preying on two birds and going in for the kill, but missed and was left hungry!), lizards, peacocks, eagles and other birds and had an amazing close encounter with an elephant!

Sunrise in Yala National Park

Selfie with an elephant

Beach time, we headed to Tangalle, a town on the south coast where we spent two nights doing nothing but relaxing on the beach! Both evenings we frequented a local family restaurant for dinner. While the food wasn't outstanding, the son, Namal, who acts as the waiter is so accommodating and endearing it entices you back again and again. The food takes ages to be served (the second night we even pre ordered our dinner for 6pm while we were there having breakfast but the food was still not served until 6.45pm), but we were in no rush and Namal provides packs of cards to help pass the time. A number of the dishes we tried to order were not available as they were out of ingredients but we also saw Namal hop on his bike numerous times to go to the local shop to restock so he can serve his customers what they want. Rob was even lucky enough to jump on the back with him to go to the supermarket as there were a few things we needed. Slightly scary with Namal speeding down a narrow dirt road at 60kph, having to duck without warning to go under archways, (Rob being taller than most Asians!) and navigating over a metre wide bridge lacking safety railings, it was an experience! Unbeknownst to Rob, Namal even returned inbetween with his shopping before going back to pick up Rob.

Our second, and last, night in Tangalle we headed 7km down the beach to a turtle conservation sanctuary. People are allowed visit from 8pm and wait, in hope, that a turtle will make its way onto the beach. Staff are waiting on the beach and if a turtle is sighted we are then allowed down to the beach to observe. We had heard the previous night the turtles didn't appear til near 1am so we were prepared for a long wait! But we were just settling in, reading about the various turtles when we heard two turtles had been spotted! We headed down to the beach where the first turtle was making her way back to the sea, having chosen not to nest. She slowly dragged herself back to sea, making marks in the sand similar to tractor tyre tracks. We made our way to the second turtle, who was now digging a hole in order to nest. Once the hole was big enough she started to lay her eggs and we were able to approach in small groups. It took a few minutes but we were soon able to see the eggs. The turtles can lay between 100 -150 eggs. Once finished, the turtle covered in the hole and we settled in for the wait as she rested for up to an hour before making her way back to sea. There is something really peaceful and happy about watching the turtle meet the water and be swept back to sea. It was an unexpected evening for us, which we ended up doing after hearing about it from a couple we had met in a guesthouse but it was a great rare experience.

We moved further along the coast to Hikkaduwa, another coastal town, for our last few days. We travelled out of the town one day to nearby Galle to check out the fort. Apparently, Hikkaduwa is the party town of the coast but we found it hard to find much life at night time, strolling from restaurant to bar but everywhere was pretty quiet. But we had nice lazy days on the beach, good food, drinks in the beachfront bars trying to catch a sunset - the perfect few days of chill to end our trip to Sri Lanka.

Onwards to the airport with Neasa, with our flight being 3 hours after hers, we had a bit of a wait! But we had saved a few Sri Lankan Rupees for a snack and of course there is always work to be done! Little did we know this would be the most expensive airport to date! So… since the start of our travels, we have allowed airports to be our excuse to have a cheeky McDonalds or Burger King etc. - and we quite look forward to it! But at 15 USD for a meal at Burger King we had to draw the line!!! We are on a travellers budget after all! We tried the chain “Coffee Bean" instead, but at 4 USD (the average Asian coffee costing 1USD ) for an americano, Val admonished the staff for charging such ludicrous prices! But we had a few rupees left to spend, and not ones to waste good money, we bought a big cookie at the outrageously overpriced asking price, but convinced the barista to give us two cups of hot water where we added our instant coffee sachets! hey - we’re doing this for 16 months without working, don’t judge us! We sat there happy for the next two hours, using their free wifi, and getting this delightful blog up to scratch for ye, before we boarded our plane for India!

Click here for Kuala Lumpur gallery and here for Sri Lanka gallery.

Sri Lanka via Kuala Lumpur

Rob & Val

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