Thailand

After my 8 hour over night bus to Colombo leaving at 9pm arriving at 5am

1 hour bus to Colombo beach hostel at 6am wait until 6pm sleeping on the hostel sofa

1 hour bus to the airport transfer

2 hour bus to the airport for 9pm (as it was the last bus to the airport)

I finally arrive for my flight to Thailand!

It was a long wait for my flight at 2am. Once I got on the plane I was seated next to a monk whom I chatted to for hours as he was very excited to practice his English with me. He told me he was from Sri Lanka and was flying over to Thailand to visit the temple 2 hours from Bangkok. We talked about his family and my family, he had 2 brothers and 1 sister, all his family were Muslim but he was the only one who decided to become a monk at the age of 9! He told me that he loved to teach and learn from people and that was a main reason he was a part of the religion and culture, so he can gain a true understanding of himself and to grow from the differences of others. So he was very excited to sit next to someone who was from the western world. I asked him lots of questions one being about why the robes were all different colours of orange and he said it was because of the different types of monks. However, he liked to look at it as if the colour was a symbol of autumn with the changing of the leaves relating to the changes of the world and how as a monk you learn and grow from the adaptation of change. Even though he spoke very little English I was fascinated with the stories.  

Bangkok

The flight took 5 hours arriving at 7am, I dragged my tired self through passport control, panicking a little to find the transport to the hostel after that but managed to somehow communicate with 2 old French men who spoke no English that we should share a taxi to Koh San road to cheapen the cost, the journey took 2 hours due to the traffic! 

FINALLY ARRIVE AT HOSTEL AT 10am where they then told me I wasn't allowed to check in until 2pm, I was absolutely shattered!

Thankfully I met a Scottish guy and a Danish guy and they took me to the 7/11 to have one of the famous cheese and ham toastie with a strawberry fruit shake. The perfectly toasted processed crap warmed me up after my long crazy journey.

Since I couldn't check in until 2pm I managed to tag along with some British people and we decided to venture out and walked around the crazy Koh San road. It was a lot smaller than I had imagined, full of clothes, jewelry, pad Thai, salons, even a Boots, McDonald's and Burger King. When I first arrived the tourists were nowhere to be seen but as we were walking through they slowly began to wake from their hungover states after their busy nights perhaps watching ping pong shows, ladyboys, eating insects and drinking alcohol out of buckets.

Later that evening I still hadn't slept but I didn't want to miss out so I forced myself out for dinner, there was about 10 of us from the hostel, we went to eat at a magic show street food restaurant we sat on the plastic chairs outside eating off the plastic tables. I shared a Thai red curry and a chicken and pineapple dish with the Scottish guy because we both wanted a mixture of foods. The Thai red curry was milder than I expected perhaps because it being in a touristy area, but still tasted great not as thick as I hoped but still full of flavour. The sweetness of the pineapple complimented the chicken very well making the dish mouthwateringly sweet and sour. The magician was actually pretty impressive stumping us all with his card trick, that included all 10 of us! 

This was also the night that I tried scorpion, I was actually pretty nervous about this, but to my surprise it actually tastes pretty good!. It had a chicken flavour but doused in a tub of oil and fried for what must've been hours because it was solid as a rock to bite into, I started with the pincer  then worked my way to the head and belly which got a lot softer. Obviously not the best food Iv’e tasted in the world but not the worst.

I left to go to bed not long after this, I was shattered after only sleeping 6 hours in 48 hours. The next day the group of us from the hostel ventured 20 minutes in a taxi to another part of Bangkok to go to their weekend market called Chatuchak and it was HUGE! Easily a full day of exploring there from a mix of food, Thai to paella, antiques, clothes everywhere, this place was packed full of variety! We had the most incredible yum yum I have ever tasted. For anyone who doesn't know what yum yum is it is like a donut but so much better. Instead of being coated with caster sugar it is lathered in gorgeous icing sugar!! Check out the size of these guys!

I also tried a Dragon fruit shake, which is a luminous pink colour unfortunately the colour didn't quite match the flavour and it was quite bland. However always interesting trying new fruits that you don't get back home!

We stayed for a good few hours, then I needed to head back for my overnight bus to my first island Koh Tao.

If I am honest I struggled with Bangkok, probably because being in a busy city and a road like Koh San road when you've hardly slept is crazy! 

Koh Tao 

I love Koh Tao! Yes, it may still be full of tourists and less cultural but I am a water baby and this island was full of activities associated with the water, especially diving!! This island has been named the cheapest in the world to learn to dive, so as a traveller on a budget this was the perfect place to start. I wasn't actually going to do it to begin with as I have always suffered from ear infections having once perforated my ear drum, but after speaking to the doctor there and the staff they assured me that I would be absolutely fine, explaining that they never take on people who aren't fit enough. So if you are in fear to dive because of your ears don't let it stop you because it won't affect you, you'd have to be pretty unlucky if it does. 

So I was told by some fellow travellers on my way here to not get a taxi to the main area but to hitch a free ride with one of the diving schools, you may have to sit and listen to them talk about what they will offer but if you aren't interested just say no and hop off where the small town is right there. I was however informed by my friend Emma (the girl whom I travelled with at the beginning of my trip) to dive with Big Blue which wasn't a disappointment. I was convinced and comforted by a dive instructor called Lily, a beautiful french lady whom later became my instructor for the next 4 days. 

So diving course began, first day was mainly in the pool and classroom learning the basics, then after the 2nd day of the exam we were qualified and on our way to diving the big blue ocean! We did 4 dives and saw parrot fish, Christmas tree worms, butterfly fish, red tip grouper, batfish, clownfish, jellyfish, triggerfish a squid inking and so many other fish, was absolutely incredible to view life under the sea like that in the tropical heat.

I was going to do my advance which was another 2 days but I decided I wanted to enjoy the last couple of days relaxing and exploring the island. If I wasn’t planning to meet my friend Holly in Phuket I could’ve easily stayed there for weeks, it is such a cosy little chilled island! My last couple of days mainly consisted of chilling out on the beach, kayaking and of course eating. 

Kayaking at sunset

There are numerous food places on the island which can be quite pricey and I did spoil myself on some days for example twice at a amazing restaurant called Barracuda where I ate a Thai Salmon dish with homemade peanut satay. The salmon was placed neatly on a bed of noodles which were doused in the beautiful sweet chilli type sauce with the satay on the side. The combination of all those flavours were incredible, the salmon was perfectly cooked and the noodles soft enough packed with sweet and sour flavour and the peanut satay was a thick, well prepared sauce, you could tell they grounded the peanuts and combined it well with the spicy chilli. My friend there bought the barracuda, basically the delicacy on the island, she let me try a bit and once again perfectly cooked white fish, nice and meaty and was actually more flavoursome than a lot of other white fish. 

Dish at Barracuda

I washed this down with a variety of beers, one being the classic Chang beer. I have heard that the making of this beer is not consistent, whereby the alcohol levels to each bottle varies. One minute you could be drinking a 2 percent beer, the next an 8 percent one, but this could all be rumours as I said before in my first blog, never truly listen to a traveller! The other was Leo beer, both beers were refreshing and easy to drink.

I also fell in love, in Koh Tao, with a very beautiful cute Thai girl. She was the child of of a restaurant owner that we ate at and she took a shining to my big blue dry bag and would constantly empty all of it on the floor! She then constantly wanted to be sat on my lap and we all played games with her. One thing I love most about Asian people is that they are extremely family orientated, especially Thailand they bring all their family to work with them, in most jobs in the UK it wouldn't be considered normal to bring your child to work with you every day so it is really interesting seeing the different cultures in that way.

I was very sad to leave Koh Tao, but extremely excited to go see Holly!

Sunset in Koh Tao 

Phuket

17 hours, 10 hour ferry and 7 hour drive and a very nice shuttle bus driver who dropped me slap bang outside the hotel in which I was to meet my fellow best friend HOLLY who had flown over from Scotland! I was sooooo exhausted but soooo excited to see her!! I also had my first hotel and hmm I was so excited, tv, air con and a proper duvet! I burst the door open to holly and her friends and as standard I jumped on the wee one! We dumped our bags and headed for the rooftop pool. For the 2 of us to stay it was £10!! Crazy!! 

Afterwards we wandered around looking for a good deal to go visit Koh Phi Phi and the islands surrounding it (just a warning don't book it in Phuket, it is way more expensive than in Krabi!). Anyway, managed to get a tour and well it did not disappoint! We had the perfect day, clear blue skies, crystal waters that were perfect temperature and great company! We managed to get at the front of the speed boat and stayed there the entire journey! We were on our way bumping through the waves for an hour until we reach the first destination monkey beach which at that time of the morning had the tide in. At first I was a little confused as to why we stopped and then I looked up and there were monkeys everywhere hanging off the trees the crew on the boat threw food for the monkey which they miraculously caught without falling in the water.

Monkey's climbing on the rock

We went and visited a lot of incredible beaches around the Phi Phi Islands but I think the highlight has to Maya beach, where the movie The Beach was filmed! It was INCREDIBLE! White sand, crystal clear waters enclosed in a huge rock cove and if you walk through the little bit of woodland and over a slightly rickety bridge you come to a gap in the rocks which revealed the sea again and a giant beautiful rock. I just couldn't believe how clear and blue the waters were, it was just incredible and I'm not going to lie I had the songs from the movie in my head the entire time! 

Maya Beach

Unfortunately the day after this trip I came down with a really rotten cold that made my body ache for days and I couldn't taste food which is HELL for a food lover!! I spent a good few days feeling sorry for myself! I still tried to eat food even my favourite, mango sticky rice but no such luck! It sucked knowing that I was with my friend but couldn't spend a lot of time with her! I still tried to eat, one was sharing a meal with Holly which included pad thai, chicken and cashew and spring rolls! I wish I could tell you how they tasted but unfortunately I can't here however is a picture to show how amazing it looked...

...I KNOW delicious right?! Imagine looking at that in the flesh whilst very hungry! The other was a chinese super spicy soup to try to clear my sinuses but it didn't seem to work much apart from lose the feeling in my tongue but it did warm me up a treat, can't beat soup when you're ill!

Seriously spicy chicken soup to warm my ill body up

After 4 days in the hotel Holly headed back to Bangkok and I decided to treat myself to an extra couple of nights in the hotel to recover. I was glad I did because then I was able to leave to travel to Aonang feeling more energized.

Aonang

Once arriving in Aonang I checked in and slept as much as I could, however I still wasn’t able to taste the food but that did not stop me from eating. I was finally able to try my favourite mango sticky rice, made up of fresh mango, sticky rice covered in condensed milk, sweetness heaven!!! It is kind of like rice pudding with mango but not really, it's a tough one to explain as I think it is a love it or hate it kind of dish! If you have a sweet tooth you will love this dish!! Check out the link below to make it yourself!

Mango Sticky Rice Recipe 

Take away Mango sticky rice

I met an Irish guy at the hostel and we both decided to visit Railey Beach together. We traveled over from Aonang to the very secluded Railey beach on a wooden curved shaped taxi boat. Once we arrived we hired a kayak and paddled around the island to another beach where we bought chicken satay from one of tiny wooden boats. We then decided to head back to the main beach as we could see a storm brewing, and WOW did it hit us! Thankfully we were on land when it really struck, we ended up sitting in a wood shack café, drinking mango lassies and playing with the adorable new born kittens.

Railey Beach

Unfortunately I didn’t explore much more of Aonang as I still wasn’t feeling so great, and a couple of days later I headed to Koh Lanta.

Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta or 'The Beach', as our little family group there called it in relation to the film (I will explain the reason for this a little later). 

I randomly bumped into a girl I had met back in Koh Tao called Megan and we basically stayed together for the duration of the time I was there meeting many more people as it went on. 

I stayed in a place called Jackie's which was a small restaurant/hostel run by a mad Thai guy, he was brilliant if not a little ruthless as well. He also had a dutch guy working for him who showed me around the place that they had just built and showed me to my room, which was a 7 bed dorm. The owner made sure to put me in the bed around the corner and told me that this was enclosed bedroom area and to treat it as my home. He was so welcoming and would hug me whenever I was telling him I was staying an extra night. For the first couple of nights I had the 7 bed dorm to myself as it was low season, but slowly it built up, but to a nice comfortable amount. I mean I couldn't complain it was £2.50 a night!

Our nutty very friendly hostel owner

One of the days I decided to hire a scooter and explore the island. I had heard that the national park was a good place to visit. I made friends with three Canadian girls and we all decided to venture out together. We drove along through what started out as local shops which then lead up a huge mountain jungle area, the temperature dropped quite dramatically and we did get hit by rain, but with the tropical weather it changes very quickly.

Continuing down the road we stumbled across an elephant in the trees. At first I was extremely shocked to see an elephant in the wild, but then as we drew closer we noticed it had been chained to the tree by its ankle. You could tell the elephant was distressed as it kept stepping back and forward and swinging its trunk. We stopped for a little while to try to get a better understanding of what was going on and we discovered that it was used as an attraction for an elephant ride through the jungle. The people running the company spotted us and came over to try to sell it to us, but we told them we were definitely not interested and that they should let the elephant go and take it off the island and back to where it belonged. Unfortunately this fell on deaf ears as this is the peoples way of living and they are uneducated in the treating of animals, however I do find it barbaric. These animals are not a show for money and I really urge people not do elephant rides, especially in the south of Thailand. Even if they claim to be sanctuaries please just do your research before going ahead. Usually the ones that are more pricey tend to be ones that nurture these animals and they tend to be based in the north. Anyway I don't want to pry on any one I am just expressing my feelings towards the events I encountered, and how I want people to be aware.

Arriving at the national park we had a wander around the beaches and up into the forest area before we then decided to head back.

On our way back on the scooter we had to be careful of dodging the dozens of monkeys that piled up on the road, which was pretty hairy as its not your usual traffic.

Before we were to head back to the hostel I had been told to stop by for a visit at Lanta Animal Welfare. It was a foundation set up by a dutch lady who went to Thailand for a holiday, she saw how the animals were treated and how malnourished they were and wanted to take action. She quit her job and put all her savings with some help into setting up the welfare. The lady herself gave us a guided tour of the building from the operating room where a little pup was being operated on as we were there all the way to the different enclosures for the different breeds of dogs and cats. Their main intake of animals are cats and dogs but they have had a variety of other animals rock up which they also take in.

When she was showing us around she told us of all the stories of the animals. She said that they tend not to keep them all in the welfare, releasing them after they have been spayed. However a lot of them get adopted by people from around the world, mainly Europeans, Americans and Canadians in which they get volunteers to courier them over to their new owners. Now, one of the stories which has stuck with me the most was one which had only happened a couple of days before we arrived there. There were three German shepherd puppies, six weeks old, who were rescued by a man who saw someone put the three pups into a black sack to throw them off the cliff into the sea. 

One of the puppies that was about to be thrown in a black sack alive and in to the sea

The other two puppies

It was horrible to take in that story when I was looking at these three gorgeous clumsy puppies playing around in their pen. She told us that most of the time the locals don't know what to do with these animals and the only way out they seem is to dispose of them. She did however conclude that the locals are now gaining a better understanding for the animals and how to treat them, which is a positive light.

The company I learnt is donations only, they have tons of volunteers from vets all the way through to just caring and cleaning out the animals enclosures. All these volunteers come from around the globe to help out. Check out the website below if anyone is ever interested in going to visit, donate, volunteer or even just to see what it's all about:

Lanta Animal Welfare Info

Back at the hostel for the last few days I was in Koh Lanta I mainly relaxed and soaked up the sun, sea and beautiful sky line. Every evening at 5pm we would go to the small shop, pick up a cold beer or two, either Chang or Singh, and group down on the beach to watch the sun set show, its ever changing colours and glow which looked like it melted into the water. 

Afterwards we would all get our 50 baht (90p) street pad Thai from a cute little Thai man outside the small shop. He would always keep asking us if it was up to a good standard as he was just starting up for the high season. We told him it was absolutely delicious, which it really was, you could really tell that he had worked pretty darn hard to perfect the dish. The couple of times we went it felt like we had our own personal chef! Served on a blotting sheet and with chopsticks this was probably the best pad Thai I have eaten yet! The crunch of the bean sprouts, the softness of the noodles, and the combination of the sweet and crunchy peanut flavour just explodes in your mouth. This dish is by far my favourite savoury dish in Thailand, as well as chicken and cashew, and well maybe Thai green curry as well! Ah who am I kidding, I love it all! Although I must admit after 3 weeks of it I was ready to part with it slightly.

Another thing I was pretty glad to part with was Hong Thong. A cheap whisky which tasted more like a spiced rum, which I love. However no, never ever drink Hong Thong, it has the 'I don't taste like Whisky even though I am Whisky' look but it is deceiving, the next morning was horrific! So just be warned its sweet taste in the night will not be so delicious in the morning! It does create fun nights though!

Now relating back to why we called it 'The Beach' (back to the first sentence to Koh Lanta). The reason for this was because it was low season, there were only a small group of travellers on the island whom were of all nationalities, and they hadn't been interrupted by a flock of tourists! We all had an amazing time partying and chilling out together. Thankfully unlike the movie the locals were extremely friendly and would bend over backwards for us. I distinctly remember one night where we went to a bar to listen to some live music, our hostel owner's friend had a pick up truck and said he would drive us there for free. So about 15 of us all clambered on to head to this bar, only to discover when we got there that the live band weren't playing! But the guy was really nice and drove us all back with no charge. I am surprised we are all still alive having 15 on a tiny pick up truck!

It is really hard to explain the connection of the group, some people we only met for a couple of days but the vibe with everyone made it seem like we had known each other for much longer! I was only supposed to stay for a couple of days but ended up staying a few days more. To meet amazing people from all walks of life on a tiny Island in Asia definitely made this experience special for me making it incredibly hard to leave but was a perfect way to finish my trip in Thailand.

Sri Lanka

So now we step back in time to when I first started my trip on September 11th 2015 leaving Heathrow airport for the island of Sri Lanka.

I can not even begin to describe how bloody nervous I was! I mean don't get me wrong the excitement was there but as it drew nearer fear started to kick in! Especially having Sri Lanka as my first country, it was so unknown to me. I had read, watched documentaries about India but knew nothing about the complete separate island south of it, only small information I had researched on the Internet. 

However to make life easier this was where I was to meet Emma, the girl I had travelled Europe with and the girl I hadn't seen for 10 months because she had already been gallivanting around the globe. When we finished interrailing we both had discussed that we absolutely loved traveling together but we could totally rock doing it on our own. Of course it would still be incredible to cross paths with your best friend in an awesome country! 

So 10 hour flight, 3 hour taxi journey costing £10 and I arrived at my hostel in Colombo.

The heat was intense, the smells so varied and strong, and I wasn't prepared for how green this island would be, this place really hits your senses!

Colombo

Fruit was the first thing that I tasted in Sri Lanka, the incredibly sour taste of passion fruit, whacked my tongue. I couldn't even really remember what passion fruit tasted of i hadn't had it in so long! 

Then there was bananas, half the size of the regular banana you get at home and a thousand times sweeter! 

Breakfast done at 4pm! (Time difference and all)

The hostel we stayed at was called Colombo Beach Hostel, so guess what, a 2 minute stroll to the beach, over a live train track which you had to judge pretty well when to cross. A few of the guys that were at the hostel were already there waiting to watch the sunset and well it wasn't a disappointment

Unfortunately that night I struggled with the heat, jet lag and I couldn't see my ankles with how swollen they were! It did take a week or so for me to full adjust to the differences! A lot of funny emotions but I was on top of the world knowing that I was actually doing this trip for real now! 

Weligama 

2 hour train ride sat inbetween a mother and her son on a 2 seater costing 46p!

1 and a half hour on the loudest colourful buses I have ever been on! These buses were the regular buses we took around Sri Lanka. They love their music so were going to bellow it loud so the whole world could hear, definitely a change to the quiet, reserved buses you get in the UK! 

Click below to get an idea of what kind of music we watched and listened to on the buses.

Sri Lankan Music Video on the buses

Arrived at Raja's Guesthouse! One thing you need to know about Sri Lanka they only have hostels in Colombo & Kandy, the rest are Guesthouses! If you decide to travel this country, to make it cheaper I would try latch onto people! Weligama was the first time I met Emily (from the UK) & Calle (from Sweden). Emma had met them a few days previously and we all ended up staying together for 3 weeks! We always tried to stay in family rooms to lower the price and tried never to pay more than 1500rupees / £7 altogether. 

So back to Weligama, it is a small beach town south of Sri Lanka just below Galle. It one of the surfers paradise in Sri Lanka, and home to the best banana muffin I have ever tasted! All I can say is they love sugar over here, remember me saying how sweet the bananas were already, well they dump a whole load more sugar on top of their cakes. If you love sweet things like me it just melts in your mouth. For Emma it was just too sweet, so I had to eat hers!

This was also the first day that I tasted Sri Lankan curry.

Curry and rice - dhal (lentil) curry non spicy

Side dish of pineapple, lime, tomato, chopped spring onions, ground salt

Side dish of chopped vegetable & potato curry, which had a slight spice to it.

Poppadums - thicker and more of a crunch than back at home, you could tell they had been freshly made.

The combination of sweet and citrus complimented the daal and the kick of the spice, enhanced the flavours, put it all on countless amounts of poppadums and you have the perfect dish! Very happy with my first taste of Sri Lanka.

This was also the place Emma and I tried to surf for the first time, with no instructor...well I basically paid to be beaten up by waves. 90% of the time was spent battling the waves rather than actually riding them! Although I must say the waves were especially tough for a beginner! I think I tallied standing up on the board as twice in 1 hour haha! Ah well there is always Indonesia for that! 

Back at Raja's Guesthouse they bought some strong arrack which is a distilled alcoholic drink made from made from either the fermented sap of coconut flowers, sugarcane, grain (e.g. red rice) or fruit, depending upon the country of origin. Sri Lanka have become the largest producer of the coconut arrack. The drink is best mixed with ginger beer. However compliments well with lemonade, Coca-cola or soda water and lime.

Click here to read about Arrack

And WOW it was strong, especially if it's the first alcoholic beverage you have consumed that day, after the 3rd, 4th glass it definitely softens out, we had it with coca cola & sprite. The night consisted of us dancing and singing Sri Lankan folk songs with the locals who worked / lived at the guesthouse.

Tangalle

Yet another beach paradise, however this time I don't think we could've got any closer to the beach! 

Lunch time: Fresh fish & Chips slap bang on the beach

We only had the one night stay here before we headed north for the national park, so we decided to explore the local town. Walking along the seafront we noticed torn down buildings and fishermen sorting out their nets in worn down shacks. This is when we suddenly realised that this place still hadnt fully recovered from the tsunami that hit on Boxing Day 2004. It was so strange to see a town that was so beautiful and quaint that was once ripped apart by this disaster and how after so many years on still hadn't fully recovered. Just shows the mass difference between countries and how some can easily repair from disasters like this and how others have it tougher.

Once back at the guesthouse we asked the owner how life had been in Tangalle since the tsunami. He said that now tourism is picking back up and they have managed to repair a lot but it has taken a long time as their was so much destruction. He then went on to tell us his events of that day in 2004. 

Christmas was high season in the south of Sri Lanka so all the hotels and guesthouses were buzzing. He just completed the night shift at his guesthouse and so went to bed. He awoke to water at his feet, he had wondered if it was one of the water tanks that had blown but when he put his hand in the water and tasted it, that's when he realised it was salt water. Managing to get out of his bedroom the first thing he thought was that he wanted to try to get to his parents, he swam to where they lived which was about 200 metres away but then he came face to face with a python and wasn't able to find a way to get past it. 

He lost 9 members of family that day. 250 people died per 100 square metre. Not only had he lost his family, his entire guesthouse was destroyed. The whole town was destroyed and he recounted seeing dead bodies everywhere. I asked him how he managed to survive and he said because he was a good swimmer.

I couldn't believe the stories, I mean we all heard about it on the news, but sitting around a table right where it happened and listening to a man who had experienced this. It felt raw and incredibly heartbreaking. 

You could tell by looking at the now rebuilt immaculate guesthouse, he had worked hard, as I guess he had no real choice but to pick himself back up and get on with life. Feels so wrong to say that but that's the harsh reality out here. 

Dinner time we wandered along to the restaurant of the guy who had shown us the guesthouse in the first place. He was the tallest man we met in Sri Lanka, this may be an odd thing to say but everyone over here is a lot shorter than back at home, so it took us by surprise especially Calle who was 6"1.

The food here was probably the best we had eaten over the time we were in Sri Lanka.

It consisted of (recipes attached):

Fried green beans - Bonchi themparaduwa  / Bonchi Thel Dala

Eggplant/Aubergine curry

Dhal curry

Ala Hodi

And rice of course!

What I learnt with Sri Lankan food is that the curry's are practically the same but each place that we ate at had their own twist on the food so it is hard to determine exactly whether these tastes match the one's in the links I have attached. They like to be spontaneous with their spices and what they mix together in each dish. However you will never be disappointed with the flavours and spices, and because you eat with your hands you can mix all the little dishes together with the rice to make explosive flavours of goodness. Also I am not one for spices but they managed to balance the spices well so it doesn't over power the flavours.

Udawalawe

5am, its time to go to the National Park of Udawalawe! We barely slept, it felt like Christmas knowing that we were going to see elephants!

From the left: Me, Calle, Emily & Emma with our jeep

Sunrise

Safari Ride

 This was it, I couldn't quite believe it i was going to see elephants in the wild! Since I began telling people about my trip around the world and the specific countries I was to visit, people began to tell me more about these beautiful animals and not to go on certain elephant treks because of how poorly they are treated. So this was going to be even more special because they are in their natural habitat.

And they did not disappoint, because out of the bushes came 4/5 of them, and 1 baby elephant (which unfortunately I couldn't quite grab a picture of as it was hidden behind the bushes and didn't show well in the photo). We learnt that the male elephants wander alone and the female and babies stay in a pack.

Male elephant

Female elephants, One teenager, one mother and a baby

Buffalo

Attempted selfie with an elephant

We then parked by a lake area, and suddenly out of nowhere we heard loud squealing noises, we wondered what it may be, then we saw a stampede of buffalo's on one side of the lake and a baby buffalo on the other side. The baby buffalo looked as if he had been separated from the pack and we clearly had arrived at perfect timing as they had finally found each other. However the river was infested with crocodiles which was stopping them from being reunited. The baby tried to make its way across but by the loud squealing didn't look like he could, so that's when the big buffalo of the pack decided to edge his way into the water, behind followed the mother it seemed and another buffalo. They every so slowly made their way across the deep river, they finally managed to get close enough to the baby buffalo for it to latch onto its mothers tail and be taken back to the other side. As soon as it reached the dry land it went crazy for it's mothers milk. It was incredible, just like we had sat and watched a David Attenborough documentary only a million times better.

Ella

After our 5am start at the safari we then took a 5 hour journey on 2 buses further up the mountain. I was feeling very tired but not for long when a group of school kids clambered onto the bus in their bright white uniforms, it baffled me how they manage to keep them so white when everywhere is dust and dirt. After all were tightly squeezed on the bus they all dumped their bags on our laps as if it was normal then would continue to stare at our every move the whole of their journey in fascination. It was quite comical and sweet to watch their big eyes, their gawping mouths and sudden roar of laughter.

Sri Lankan buses never close the doors when you get on, they will always be freely open and a lot of the time people hang out of them. They have no fear, we all came to the conclusion that across South East Asia, they never question: What if? They just do it anyway. As the road started to wind up the big mountain, I suddenly started to feel a little unnerved, as the road began to thin out and there were no protective barriers just a sheer drop. I do remember however feeling at ease when we went round one of the bends and were faced with a stunning cascading waterfall that fell into mist and monkeys climbing through the ever growing and vibrant green trees, it was as if we had stepped into jungle life half way up a mountain. The excitement grew as we came once again into civilisation arriving in Ella.

The sun sets up here were just as beautiful as they were on the coastline, yet as soon as the sun left there was a definite chill in the air.

Up the next morning to explore the area, we had heard of a famous 9 arch bridge that you could only reach by foot with the train tracks as your guide. Jumping from the train station onto the track felt very strange. From how overgrown it was we didn’t believe that it was active but seeing the locals fixing the tracks we thought that it must be, soon enough the distant sound of a train whistle confirmed it and it wasn’t long until it past by us. 

We then approached a tunnel which confirmed to us that once we go through we would be close, felt pretty nerve racking going through but reaching the other side and finally seeing the bridge was incredible. The drop was much bigger than I had imagined, and the greenery had started to grow over the beautiful stoned arches making it appear even older. 

We had heard that if you stand on it whilst a train goes over it, it begins to shake which for somebody who is terrified of heights I was not willing to try. I left the others to clamber all over the bridge whilst I decided to sit in the little café that sat on the edge next to the bridge. This was where I had my first try of a coconut, I was never too keen on the coconut water back at home but I knew this would taste different and I wasn’t wrong. Refreshing, light and flavoursome, not quite the taste of coconut that I was expecting, but better. I asked the owner of the café if he could cut open the coconut so I could scrape the jelly substance from inside, which was delicious and held more flavours.

Nuwara Eliya

Now if you ever get a chance to visit this place, I highly recommend taking the train it may take you a while to get there, so don’t go by time. However if you look on google you will see that it has been voted one of the most scenic train journey’s in the world. The tracks wind up the picturesque green mountainside, passing cascading waterfalls and crossing over rickety old bridges, leading up to the land of tea. Along the way you see the tea plantations grow, until the everywhere is covered with neatly aligned rows vertically going up the mountain and the ladies collecting the leaves with their big bags. Once we arrived at Nuwara Eliya we had already put our jumpers and leggings on, the temperature had dropped even more and the grey clouds of rain appeared.

“Little England” was the name the locals gave this place, researching this we could understand that they were referring to a more countryside feeling. Best described here

"Little England" explanation

Mackwoods Tea Plantation

The smell of home!

I was very excited about visiting this place, one reason was because I had been to a winery before and I wanted to see the comparisons and similarities between both but mainly because a place selling tea and cake?! This was British heaven!

We had a guided tour from the lady there who gave us an insight into how tea came from the leaf to the final product. The interesting part was that all the different flavours of tea all come from the same leaf but just the process is different and the flavours are added.

Process of Mackwoods Tea

The other interesting factor was the tasting room, back when I worked at the wine company I was the one who organised the tastings for our Technical team so seeing the layout for tea brought back memories. It was a lot clinical than I thought it would be but the layout was basically the same including the spittoon.

Rolling of the tea to bring the juices to the surface of the leaf, for about 20-30 minutes

Sifting and refining the tea

Extremely hot oven used to heat the tea to dry the tea out, temperatures starting at 120 Degrees F(50 Degrees C) and is finished off at a temperature of 200 Degrees F (93 Degrees C) to 220 degrees F (105 Degrees C)

Bags of tea ready to be packed 

Finished product & CAKE both tasted incredible, Emily, Emma and I were smiling and reminiscing about home whilst drinking away, whereas Calle just couldnt understand this, guess it's just not the same in Sweden. The only difference between the tea drank here and back home was they don't add milk to tea but actually I preferred it.

Adam’s Peak

Long craziest bus journey to the top, even crazier than the one up to Ella. Heavy rain, slippery roads so many open narrow bends and dodging other traffic. Finally we arrived and were guided to a guesthouse by a 80 year old lady called Brenda. The guesthouse sat on the top of a waterfall and overlooked Adam’s Peak, one of Sri Lanka’s tallest and most sacred mountain that we were going to climb.

After that eventful journey we decided to reward ourselves with a beer, the popular beer in Sri Lanka is Lion Lager well Lion Stout but I thought I would just go lightly this time round, as the stout is 8.8% ABV. The taste was a bit fruity, malty and very refreshing just what we needed. A nice night cap before an early rise for Adam's Peak.

Info about Lion Brewery

Woke up at 2am: torch, jumper, waterproof jacket, trainers, packed lunch, trainers on and we were off. It was pitch black, rain was falling which meant that we had to be careful of the leeches, thankfully they weren’t that bad and I managed to flick one off my sock before it reached my leg. There were no lights going up the steps, just our torches to guide the way. We were only 50 steps in and I was already starting to feel it in my bad leg but I was reluctant to let it stop me.

After 2 hours the light still hadn’t appeared and it became very difficult for us all to not feel exhausted with how tedious the trail was, step after step with no change. We weren’t alone though, other people also were venturing up to see the sunrise also the street dogs joined us they would be our guides stopping and starting waiting for us to catch up.

By this point I started to only be able to do one step for both feet at a time, but I persisted on, just taking my time. I couldn’t have asked for better people to help me through it than Emma, Emily and Calle, the encouragement was pretty overwhelming actually and made me more determined than ever to reach the top. A little time went by when we heard someone mention that we were 1000 steps from the top, we got excited a little but unfortunately these were the toughest as the steps became uneven and were practically vertical. Thankfully they had handles to grab onto to make you feel a bit more secure especially in the dark.

Suddenly we started to hear cheers from other people who had reached the top and soon enough we were there too. We had successfully made it, now to wait for the sunrise which felt like a lifetime in the freezing cold wet air. Munching on our soggy vomit tasting sandwiches the sun finally came up. Unfortunately, nature wasn’t on our side and the mist had blocked our sunrise, we were to expect this as it wasn’t the right season to climb this mountain, but the achievement of reaching the top was enough for me, it was the toughest challenge I had encountered since my operation 3 years ago and it gave me such confidence.

So as they say what goes up must come down, now for the decent and what a decent it was! As we had walked up in the pitch black we had seen the beauty that lay before us on our way down. If any of you have seen the film Up, it was exactly like that, the mist fogged our view but every so often it would pass and the colours of the blue sky, greenery and glistening waterfall would just appear. It would only last a matter of seconds before the mist would hide it away again. The whole journey down we kept seeing the most incredible views and came across temples and buddah statues, we also came across a booth where a monk was giving blessings to the passers by. We all stopped to receive our blessing, given an orange mark on our forehead and a bracelet. Even though our legs were shaking like jelly, the picturesque views made up for it.

The decent down the steep steps from the very top

Incredible waterfall view through the mist

Buddist Temple 

Top of a waterfall

Man cleaning himself in the shower

Blessing from a monk

Buddha

We came across lots of monkey's on our decent as well

Kandy & Sigiriya Rock 

Arrived late in Kandy, at our first stay in a hostel since we first started in Sri Lanka. On the counter I saw a leaflet for Pizza Hut and that was it, I needed that! I couldn't care less, I was so ready to have a change from rice and curry! I devoured the whole thing! 

We were only in Kandy very briefly where we met Phil and decided to all head north to Sigiriya Rock.

3 hour journey to the world heritage site and most visited historic place in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately due to the price of the entrance and being travellers on a budget we decided against climbing the actual rock itself. However there was a rock called Pidurangala Rock which was half the price and overlooked the incredible rock and the surrounding area.

The climb up to the top Pidurangala Rock

Snacks under the rock waiting for the thunderstorm to pass

On top of the world

The decent down

Now back in Kandy after a 3 and a half hour journey packed like sardines on the bus and standing the whole journey we rewarded ourselves with a KFC, once again, no shame.

We then sat on the roof of the hostel and watched the whole sky fill up with hundreds of screaming bats leaving Kandy's Botanical Garden, it happens daily at 5pm, nature is pretty incredible.

Breakfast was included and it consisted of:

Dhal (once again)

Roti 

Coconut Sambol 

Other dishes I tried were:

Kottu - chopped Roti (pancake) and mixed with vegetables, egg, meat & spices, extremely filling and they never went lightly on the portion sizes!

Sri Lankan Omelette - I had this with less spice and more onions which gave it an even sweeter touch, the best omelettes I have ever tasted, they have mastered this very well!

Arugam Bay

SURFERS PARADISE

There should be a humongous sign at the entrance of this place saying 'Welcome to Relaxation Heaven'. Admittedly this place was full of tourists but the atmosphere was so chilled and comfortable that it didn't even matter. The majority of tourists were from Israel as this was their main holiday resort. We stayed on Cabanas on the beach, eaten alive by mosquitoes and having visits from frogs in the toilet but hey who cared we were on a beautiful beach finishing off an incredible trip!

Frogs in the toilet, thought the best solution was to flush them down

Nope, worst decision!

We spent a good few days here, eating food, hiring a tuk tuk, exploring the beaches nearby and drinking a lot of arrack!

The one food i loved in this place was avocado, the sheer size and flavour of them were incredible. An Israeli restaurant sold avocado, potato, feta cheese and hummus wraps, also chicken schnitzel sandwiches. Both were such a fresh change from the curry & rice.

We also went to another guest house that were doing a buffet curry night. There was dhal, rice and coconut sambol but to our delight added extra of fried potato poppadoms and guacamole, our taste buds lit up as to our surprise it added a kind of coolness to the richness of curry! 

On our last night together we were determined that as we were right by the Indian Ocean we were going to go to try the BBQ fish that was being served in the small town.

1 large white fish for 2 people, 20 shrimps, 1 large tuna, 5 portions of chips and salad each, for £16 altogether so between 5 of us a total of £3.20 EACH! Incredible value for money for the amount we got and also a great way to try fish that I hadn't tried before that normally I wouldn't spend the money back home to try. The shrimps were meaty and had been seasoned well, the white fish and tuna was deliciously cooked, tasted fresh, full of flavour, texture was perfect! We definitely had done ourselves well with that final dish and no rice in site haha!

Now to say farewell to a beautiful green cultured country, that completely took my breath away. Although as a country you eat more rice than humanly possible and live life recklessly you were a place that challenged me in many ways and gave me the biggest confidence to now venture the rest of my trip solo! Thank you Sri Lanka, I will definitely be back to visit and would encourage anyone to venture there!  

Goodbye to my family for the last 3 weeks, my ARRACK ATTACK TEAM!! What a team we were, definitely a solid group to venture the beauty of Sri Lanka with! Thanks for all the crazy adventures...until next time!!!