An Trip to Lampang

I just came back from a ten-day official trip to Lampang Province in Northern Thailand. Our office brought a team of archaeologists, historians, and the like there to an excavation in a rock art site, and basically I just hung around.

Not exactly a pleasant experience being in the mountains as I'm not an outdoor person. Ugh, the mosquitoes feasted on me, I probably need a blood transfusion now.

Anyway, aside from complaining incessantly (which must've driven my colleagues nuts), I also had the chance to visit a village, talk to a few people there, and checked out Lampang's old houses and temples.

Here are some photos... I experimented with black and white in this trip.

The Waves of Hikkaduwa

We arrived in Hikkaduwa, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, at nearly midnight after a 16-hour drive. We were quite pleased with our hotel because it was right on the beach, the sound of the waves practically lulling us to sleep.

The next day we of course put on our swimming shorts, lathered a thick layer of sunblock on our faces, and headed to the beach. Gosh, the golden sand is immaculate! The beach front is quite wide and long... it is just endless sand, sand, sand. Hikkaduwa is a famous surfing beach, so it was waves galore too.

We played in the waves, which were strong, along with the current. I can swim quite well but I was still not comfortable in the waves. If you don't watch out they can in fact send you screaming for your life like you're inside the washing machine, which happened to Ms C and me several times. It was fun but exhausting (and dangerous).

So we lounged on the beach, under the shade, and drank beer. We watched several surfers riding on the waves. No, we were not brave enough to get a surfing lesson.

As it is a surfer's destination, I expected Hikkaduwa to be filled with surfers who go on endless drinking binges and parties. But it was pretty quiet there, and far from being overwhelmingly crowded. The atmosphere was just right for relaxation, in fact.

In the afternoon, while in an internet cafe, the manager of the place told us there had been a tsunami warning after a strong quake hit Sumatra. In two minutes the cafe was emptied of its patrons, who were all tourists.

Ms C and I waited another ten minutes because we had still to update our Facebook profiles and tweet about our wonderful vacation. What can be more important, aber? Tsunami what?

The manager had to shoo us away from the cafe, urging us to go back to the hotel and wait for evacuation instructions from the hotel staff.

On our way to our room the other hotel guests were rushing out, lugging heavy backpacks, and hailing tuk-tuks left and right. We were still undecided on what to do. We felt it was too soon to evacuate (we were told we would have two hours to flee once a tsunami has been confirmed).

We took precautions eventually when we realized everyone had left!

We quickly packed our bags and hopped on a tuk-tuk. The driver took us to a hilltop Buddhist temple, about two kilometers inland. Surprisingly, the temple grounds were practically empty. I don't know where the other tourists went...

We tried to get in contact with the travel guide (who was already back in Colombo) but the SIM card we bought did not work. A Sri Lankan family that was also taking refuge in the temple helped us call our travel guide, who then kept us abreast of the tsunami warming.

About four hours of waiting on the temple grounds, our kind travel guide told us that it was safe to go back to the hotel.

The next day, we went to the fort of Galle, half an hour by bus from Hikkaduwa. The old town of Galle (pronounced like gall in gall bladder) was put on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1988.

The Portuguese founded it in the 16th century, and then in 1640 it fell into the hands of the Dutch, who eventually handed it over to the British in 1729.

We walked on the fort walls, enjoying the sea views together with joggers and other tourists. There was a lighthouse and a tall clock tower, and several bastions. Venturing into the streets, we stumbled into a couple of Christian churches, a mosque, government buildings, and some old mansions and museums.

It's easy to get lost in its streets and gawk at the old houses. There are lots of hotels and jewelry shops within the town walls, but the overall feel of the place is just old-world charm (as opposed to blatant commercialization).

We had to drive four hours the next day to reach Negombo. As our flights were in the morning, we needed some place near the airport, so to Negombo we went. We had a few hours on Negombo's beach, enjoying our last Sri Lankan curry and rice, and watching the sunset. We bought some souvenirs in the evening.

Seven days in Sri Lanka is very short to see the amazing country. Nonetheless, we experienced its heritage sites, old towns, tea plantations, and beaches in such a short time.

There's really more reasons for me to go back there, particularly visit more of their old capitals and kingdoms as well as enjoy the beaches in the east, which I heard are much better than the ones in the south.

Oh, if there's one reason to go back to Sri Lanka, it's really to experience again the people's hospitality and warmth.

It's funny that several times Ms C and I were mistaken for a Japanese couple. When they learned we are Filipinos, some of them would say "kumusta?" or "salamat" or "pare". These are the guys who have worked with Filipinos in the Middle East, who have somehow picked up a Tagalog word here and there.

In a lot of ways, Sri Lankans are like Filipinos. Like us they are generous with their smiles, they are curious and they like to talk, and they have a good sense of humor. Maybe that's why it was easy to feel at home there.

Driving through Kandy and the Hill Country

Let me touch briefly on Sri Lankan food before I talk further about our trip. I don't care so much for food whenever I travel. I mean, I don't choose my destinations based on their cuisine; that doesn't make sense to me.

So I was not exactly excited about Sri Lankan food at all. They have a lot of curries, of course, but I find them watery compared to Indian curries. When I tried Sri Lankan rice and curry they usually come with several side-dishes of fried vegetables, or some mushy type of, I don't know, some legumes or vegetables.

A couple of times we had Sri Lankan breakfast consisting of string hoppers (essentially rice noodles) that we mixed with some fish curry and mashed vegetables. Didn't enjoy those.

I don't know, these things are not for me. I'm not adventurous with food. I, in fact, brought crackers from Bangkok just in case I didn't find anything palatable in Sri Lanka. The rest of the trip I ate fried noodles and rotty for most of our meals. I know, shame on me.

So moving on... from Sigiriya, we drove south through Kandy and the Hill Country. Our travel guide was a bit unclear about the total travel time to the southern coast, our destination for the day, so I didn't expect we were going to drive 16 hours, from about eight in the morning to midnight.

We stopped by Kandy (founded in the 14th century), the last kingdom of Sri Lanka. It is a popular Buddhist pilgrimage site for its Temple of the Tooth Relic.

The traffic was heavy when we approached the city because it was just a few days before the Buddhist New Year. Throngs of people were all over the shopping district. It was insane just trying to find a parking lot, after which we walked to the lake to quickly take a few photos.

And then we were back in the van.

We drove higher into the Hill Country, famous for its tea estates. Tea is one of Sri Lanka's biggest exports, along with garments and coconut products. We drove past hills and hills of tea plantations and we eventually stopped by a tea factory to see how tea is processed. Most of the processing is done mechanically.

All this tea thing did not interest me so much because I'm not a tea drinker, but it is clear that tea is a major crop of the country and tea processing gives employment to many people.

We finally reached Nuwara Eliya, a hill station used by the British as a summer retreat, much like Baguio in the Philippines. The temperature is a bit chilly up there, as is the rest of the Hill Country. A golf course snakes through the city.

The commercial center was again filled with people doing their holiday shopping. There are a good number of colonial cottages in Nuwara Eliya that you would expect to see in England but not in Sri Lanka. (That's our amazing travel guide, Shane in the following photo.)

And then we drove further south. That felt like forever! The narrow highways were winding down mountains. It was very scary for me because, one, there were many cars and trucks owing to the holiday, and two, we were driving in the dark. Fortunately, our travel guide is used to driving through that stretch of the highway so all went well (but I was seriously nervous).

Our last 90 or so kilometers were through a brand new highway connecting Colombo and Galle. It's apparently a new highway, hardly used so far. Also under construction is a highway connecting Colombo and the airport. Anyway, it was a breeze driving from Colombo to Hikkaduwa, which we reached at around midnight. My next entry would be about our tsunami scare in Hikkaduwa.

Climbing Sigiriya

We left Colombo before sunup to head to central Sri Lanka. Our destination for the day was Sigiriya, an ancient capital (5th century AD) built by King Kassapa I. During the king's reign of eleven years he built a fortress at the top of the towering rock. After his reign, the complex was used a Buddhist monastery.

Central Sri Lanka, or the cultural triangle, is abundant with heritage sites (mostly former kingdoms or capitals) such as Kandy, Anuradhapura, and Pollonnuruwa. Because we had such limited time, we chose to visit Sigiriya and Pollonnuruwa (but we had to cancel the latter for various reasons).

Four hours from Colombo, we checked in a hotel in Dambulla and drove half an hour to Sigiriya. We were surprised to learn that the entrance fee to the park alone has been increased to 30 USD since the start of April (it used to be 30 USD for ALL the heritage sites in the area!).

The ascent to the top of the towering rock fortress was through a dizzying series of twisted staircases made of stone. Eventually we reached the side of the rock face where there are frescoes, and we accessed that through a spiral metal staircase. The frescoes comprise of ladies adorned with jewels and headresses. Some of them are preserved well, retaining their vibrant coloration.

Then we descended from the 'gallery' and went through a narrow passage clinging on the side of the rock. We had to climb further up via a very steep staircase made of stone until we finally reached the lion's paws. By then we were exhausted like crazy because it was already close to noon and the humidity and heat were unbelievable. Still, we had to werq those lion's paws like no one's business.

No, we haven't reached the top yet. Through yet another series of winding metal staircase attached to the side of the rock, we climbed to the top where the remains of the fortress stand. We're talking about terraces made of bricks and some water tanks.

The view at the top is insane! The rock is surrounded by a carpet of green on all sides. On one side we could see a mountain range in the distance. The searing sun was right above us when we reached the top and there was hardly any shade to run for cover. Anyway, we still werqed it up there.

When we reached the base of the rock our travel guide informed us that the van needed some repairs. We were fine with it because we had already canceled Pollonnuruwa anyway. The van had to be towed to a mechanic and we took a trishaw back to the hotel.

Exploring Colombo

I spent part of the Songkran holidays in Sri Lanka, where I stayed for seven days. It's a country I've always wanted to visit. Since the government defeated the Tamil armed groups a few years back, tourism has boomed in Sri Lanka. I wanted to see it before it's totally overtaken by tourists so I had to act fast in booking a ticket when Air Asia opened new routes between Bangkok and Colombo.

Initially I was supposed to make the holiday alone but my friend Ms C, who comes from my hometown and with whom I also went to university (we even graduated from the same course), got on board. She flew from Chennai as she is now based in India, so I waited for her at Colombo airport for six long hours.

Fortunately, Ms C was able to arrange a travel guide (and a van) for us on the last minute (thank God for her connections). This also meant our intended itinerary had to be altered to accommodate the travel guide's schedule.

We ended up in Colombo for a couple of days. We, in fact, planned to skip Colombo as it is often deemed uneventful by many tourists, but we found out otherwise. We think Colombo is quite pleasant and charming. Its streets are clean, and with ample sidewalks, compared to some cities I've been to. *looking straight at you, Manila*

Luckily, we arrived there on a weekend so it was not that frenetic in the city center. It is also manageable to get around in, with friendly tuk-tuk drivers willing to take us anywhere we went.

We decided to first drop by the market in Pettah, abuzz with people during the weekend. As they were also about to celebrate the Buddhist New Year like the rest of Buddhist Southeast Asia, the local people were doing their last-minute shopping for clothes and housewares.

Walking towards the direction of the boulevard, we passed by grand old buildings that might date back to colonial times, or at least they look colonial to us. Colombo, though, also has a good mix of modern skyscrapers, often sitting side by side with the old buildings.

Our next stop was Galle Face, the main boulevard of Colombo. It was the height of noon when we reached the  boulevard but still there were many couples on dates and kids playing cricket. Oh, it was a Sunday. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean the beach is, despite it being in the middle of the city. There were families swimming in the water and boys playing football on the golden sand beach.

In the afternoon we went to the National Museum, an imposing old building but is underutilized as a museum. From there we explored a little lake in the middle of the city. We had to leave quickly though because we saw heavy clouds, which in a few minutes drenched the city.

A tuk-tuk brought us back to our mosquito infested guest house in Mount Lavinia, about seven kilometers from the city center. We were lucky the rain stopped by the time we reached our beach-side guest house. By then families on a weekend break have invaded the beach, with the ubiquitous cricket matches being played on its golden sands.