Sri Lanka - Galle and the south

We spent quite a bit of time in a semi-rural area near Galle. The 10 of us had hired a house, complete with an infinity pool overlooking rice paddies, a Danish couple who were the hosts and a cook, housekeeper, gardener, maintenance man and security guard! The house overlooked a paddy field and we were lucky to see the rice being harvested. In the mornings and the evenings the purple faced silver monkeys passed through the garden. Very special! We travelled into Galle a few days via tuktuk and travelled up the coast another day. Everywhere there were reminders of the 2004 tsunami - ruined houses, memorials and monuments.

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Sri Lanka - Yala

Yala national park was another part of the trip I was looking forward to. It is the main reason I spent a huge amount of money on a new lens for my Olympus OM-D. Not only had the view finder failed meaning I was shooting blind, but on the way to Yala the lens hood fell apart. If I could, I would be tempted to waltz into Olympus and dump all my gear on their counter and demand a refund. However I made do.
We went on a safari the morning after we arrived and saw crocodiles, monkeys, peacocks, solitary elephants,water buffalo and nmerous birds. Brendan was keen to go on an evening safari too in the hope of seeing some of the other a animals - particularly a leopard. Allan and I went with him. As luck would have it we did see a leopard, well... we spied some leopard spots in the undergrowth, but it caused huge excitement and a major jeep traffic jam!


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Sri Lanka - The Highlands

I have fallen way behind on my blogging! The Highlands were a highlight of the trip. The market gardens are amazing. All sorts of colorful vegetables are produced there. The tea pickers are paid a pitiful amount of money so they make do with what they have. Meanwhile we swanned around in the hotel treated like royalty. Allan even had a massage. We stayed at two hotels in the area and both were lovely. One was full of history. The other was new with the most magnificent view of the plantations and valley. One highlight was our walk though Horton Plains which meant a 5am departure. We were sad to leave.


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Sri Lanka - Kandy

The trip to Kandy was interesting. We passed a number of Hindu processions. I've seen these things in photos but it is extraordinary to pass one in progress and hear all the trumpets and shouting.
Kandy was going to be a highlight of the tour. The Perahara is a 10 week festival and each night the most amazing parade takes place, getting bigger each night. We were there for the second last night and luckily had seats. The sad part about all of this is that my camera failed just before we left for Kandy. The Electronic View Finder has malfunctioned which means that although the camera still takes photos I can't tell in advance what I am taking a photo of! Many of the photos of the parade you see below were simply good guesses and a little cropping afterwards. I am very lucky that we also have a photographer on the tour and he has lent me his "spare" Nikon 7000D when I've needed a camera.




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