Wrapping up Sri Lanka: Unawatuna to Negombo

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Bryan Keith

alternatively titled: It’s All About the Food

The closest thing I had to a guide book in Sri Lanka was one page of a website written by Yulia, a Russian woman who writes in English and is married to a Sri Lankan. The page is called The Ultimate Guide to Sri Lankan Food: 50 Must Try Dishes. When I first arrived in the country, I was sort of using the page as a reference to get some names of dishes and see what I recognize. After a couple weeks in the country, without even trying, I realized I had made it more than half way through Yulia’s list. It was only during my last week in Sri Lanka that I really started making an effort to find dishes on Yulia’s list that I hadn’t tried already.

For example, why bother ordering biryani when it’s a pretty standard rice dish in so many South and Southeast Asian countries? It was on Yulia’s list so I tried it one evening in Aluthgama:

chicken biryani by bryandkeith on flickr

Surprisingly good.

After the biryani dinner Yulia sent me on a fun expedition to track down homemade toffee. Did I find kiri toffee?

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Sri Lanka: Unawatuna and Galle

Posted on March 10, 2022 by Bryan Keith

My longest stop in Sri Lanka was the ten days I spent at the beach town of Unawatuna. I took long walks each morning, went snorkeling most days, visited the UNESCO-listed city of Galle, and celebrated my birthday. Unawatuna is a small crescent-shaped beach with lots of places to stay set a bit back away from the beach.

IMG_20220111_063407 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Tangalle to Hikkaduwa: Sri Lanka south coast snorkeling report

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Bryan Keith

Oops, in Sri Lanka I was doing a good job of writing these blog posts while the information was fresh in my mind. Now I’ve been back in Turkey about a month, but I still want to write about the end of this trip. I knew before I went to Sri Lanka that the snorkeling wasn’t very good, but I brought snorkeling gear with me and used it as an excuse to hang out at the beach a bit at the end of my bicycle tour. If you’re into surfing or kite surfing, that’s a better excuse to hang out on Sri Lanka’s beaches than snorkeling. Many locals say that the 2004 Christmas tsunami destroyed Sri Lanka’s coral reefs, but Aja, the friendly owner of the Green Turtle Snorkeling Center in Polhena, told me the reefs were in poor shape even before that disaster.

My first beach in Sri Lanka was Tangalle, and my first glimpse of the ocean was this, locals painfully and slowly hauling in fishing nets:

Pulling the fishing nets in. It seemed like hard work. They'd often try to get foreigners to help them. When I arrived a man approached me and asked me to help, I just laughed and said, "no way". I had been cycling all morning in the sun and just want by bryandkeith on flickr

A young man came over and tried to get me to help them. I laughed and told him I’d been riding all morning in the sun, and the only thing I wanted to do now was rest in the shade and drink a mango juice. It was a good call as an hour later they were still at it pulling in the net. The young man came back, this time trying to sell me marijuana.

My first snorkeling in Sri Lanka was at Paravi Wella Beach in Tangalle, busy over the New Year holiday:

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Sri Lanka off the bicycle: scooter rental and elephant safari

Posted on February 18, 2022 by Bryan Keith

My original plan for Sri Lanka had me going up into the mountains a bit after finishing the Cultural Triangle part of my tour. Unexpectedly my bicycle was destroyed, and the cheap new one that I bought, well, did not like going uphill. Seriously I use the small chainring even on flat roads! It’s an effort in the easiest gear to go up short, moderate grades. There is no way I could pedal that thing up into the mountains.

As an alternative I based myself in Wellawaya and rented a scooter for two and a half days. My first day was a short shakedown ride to get used to the scooter and make sure I was ready for a long day in the mountains. I only climbed to about 300m, but I did get views of the mountains that I’d explore the following two days.

IMG_20211222_150204 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Bicycle touring Sri Lanka: Sandunpura to Wellawaya

Posted on February 8, 2022 by Bryan Keith

Even though I headed south away from what’s considered the Cultural Triangle, I continued to visit cultural sites. Don’t worry this will be the last blog about old stone Buddhas and old stupa (we hope). I knew, however, that I wasn’t getting away from potential elephant danger right away. At this point in the trip I was still rather scared of forested areas. I was much happier seeing cultivated fields:

IMG_20211220_085933 by bryandkeith on flickr
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