Christmas in Sri Lanka!
- Lucy and the lens
- Sep 11, 2018
- 3 min read
Patrick and I decided, for the first time ever, to spend Christmas and New Year's away from home - in Sri Lanka of all places! It was a special occasion - our honeymoon trip through India's Golden Triangle followed by two weeks exploring Sri Lanka.
Being away from home for Christmas was odd - spending it just with each other rather than family and, even odder for two people from England and Canada, it being 30 degrees in Sri Lanka rather than zero.
In this post I'll be talking about the southern beach leg of our trip!
1. Colombo to Galle
When we arrived in Sri Lanka we headed straight to the seaside town of Galle from Colombo. It would have been nice to explore the capital but we just didn't have the time in our itinerary. in terms of getting there, you can take the train but the going is slow. We knew we wanted to take the train into the hills further north (the classic Sri Lankan train ride) so we decided to speed things up a little and, thanks to a lucky encounter with a local, we were fixed up with a great-value taxi ride to Galle the next day.
Galle is a town influenced by Dutch colonialism, and as such parts of it look very European - particularly the lighthouse that stands on the coastal tip of the town. We spent a couple of hours walking around the town's fortified battlements, ending up at the lighthouse.
We actually spent Christmas in Galle, and decided the best place to be was the beach! The beach immediately next to Galle can get quite crowded, so we decided to walk along the coastline to the left of town as far as we could. It was odd seeing the tourists all crowded in the area nearest to town, followed by locals crowded in next to them, and then before we knew it we were alone. We didn't even have to walk that far to feel like we were on our own deserted island! I'm glad we were alone, because we would have got some strange looks while taking the photo below, probably!
That evening, we hunted for a place to enjoy a Christmas dinner. We settled for a place draped in glittering Christmas lights, had a tasty seafood platter and enjoyed 'street fireworks ' essentially a can full of gunpowder that fizzles sparks and made a lot of noise for a few seconds!
2. Mirissa
Our next stop was the popular beach resort of Mirissa, which we primarily visited for a whale-watching tour. There are many, many whale watching companies operating out of Mirissa, but I strongly recommend booking with Raja and the Whales. This is one of the few (or perhaps the only) ethical company in the area - many of the others are 'whale chasers', meaning they intentionally try to get as close to the whales as possible, stressing them out and having the long term effect of driving the whales further away from the area and ruining it for everyone! Raja and the Whales starts early in the morning - and I mean, early! - to avoid the boat scrum later in the day, and stays a safe distance from the whales not to cause them any stress. And anyway - it's blue whales we're watching here...you do not need to be close to them to see them - they're enormous! We were lucky enough to see a blue whale breach multiple times, as well as an enormous pod of dolphins.
After our whale watching adventure we were treated to a spectacular breakfast at our guesthouse, then headed out to enjoy the beautiful beach.
3. Matara - Temples
On our journey inland for our safari adventures, we again made a local connection with a driver who not only offered to take us over to Yala, but also wanted to show us some sights along the way!
We visited the Wewurukannala Vihara temple, the most bizarre Buddhist temple I've ever seen. Not only does it house a 160 foot Giant Buddha, but it also has a gruesome diorama of sinners being tortured in all sorts of horrific ways in the afterlife! My favourite part, though, is the 'comic strip' of Buddha's life from birth to death, which covers many corridors and chambers of the temple. Find the temple near Matara.
We also visited the Waherahena Temple near Matara, featuring another Giant Buddha (this one standing rather than sitting). For a few rupees we got a temple guide who helped put everything we saw into context - I think guides really help it places like these, in understanding the cultural significance of the place.
My next post on Sri Lanka is part brag about an amazing safari tour, and part rant about a not-so-amazing one! Find it here (if you dare)!
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