The final leg of our am-Asian adventure has begun! It’s been
just over 3 years since we left little, old Ireland as a couple of bright eyed,
young travellers – I was, myself, an Asian virgin at the time (I expect the
blog to get a few disappointed Google hits for that one), while Aisling had
been around the block already a few times, as I’m sure you can imagine… Since
then, we've visited 17 different countries and made ourselves a lovely home and an even lovelier group of friends in Hong Kong. But, the time has come to return
from whence we came, and more importantly, time to bump that list of countries
up to an even 20!
Our first major stop of the trip (and country number 18) came with the town of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka, where we would be spending
Christmas. We had a few brief pit stops here and there though before we actually
reached that point, so this first entry will just be a case of getting there;
seasoned with fleeting visits to Bangkok, Negombo and Kandy – all of which were
mere trickles in what we hope will soon become a gushing flow!
Having said that, don’t be fooled into thinking that these
interim stays were just annoyances to endure. We had about half a day in each, so plenty
of time to fit in a few memories before it was time to move on. First up was
Bangkok; a city we always love to visit.
I know I usually berate capital cities, but BK is one of the
few exceptions to the rule. It’s a main
travel hub here in South East Asia, so we've passed through a fair few times
and are always happy to do so. Even this time around when we left Hong Kong, we
could've got a connecting flight straight on to Sri Lanka, but as we were going
to be in the neighbourhood, we decided to spend the night. We had almost a full
day here in total so plenty of time to fit in a trip or two to Pizza Company
(our fave), a bit of street shopping on the Khaosan Road, and a little mystery
adventure too… And I do mean mystery in the literal sense, as we donned our
pipe and magnifying glass to solve ourselves a murder!
Look it up! We can’t recommend it highly enough. They've
only been open for 6 months but it’s already the top attraction in Bangkok on
Tripadvisor, which is where we found it.
You’re basically put into a room where a murder has been
committed and by examining the contents, finding hidden clues and solving
various puzzles, you must unearth the murderer and find how to get out of the
room yourself (which we did, with just two minutes of the hour left to spare!).
It’s based on the idea of the Japanese escape games, try one for yourself
here:
The whole thing was very well set up and there are
apparently a number of them around the world; definitely something to look up
for any future trips. We had booked our appointment online but almost didn't
make it in time as Bangkok was at an absolute standstill due to national, anti-government protests.
It was much easier to enjoy the spectacle on the way out
when we didn't have to worry about getting through the traffic in time.
That evening, (after giving ourselves plenty of time to get
to the airport) we flew to Colombo, and from there made our way north to the town
of Negombo, our next mini-stop. We
arrived in quite late, so we just spent the night, and then went for a wander
around the next morning through some small villages to get our first taste of
Sri Lankan life.
And they put in a solid first impression – the people seem
very nice and friendly, even the tuk-tuk drivers, who are usually the lowest of
the low! Everyone was waving and saying hello, asking where we were from and
offering any help, and not in a “I’ll help you if you give me money” kinda way.
We didn't have long in town before we had to catch a bus to Kandy, and luckily
we got seats right up at the front before the bus became packed to capacity.
(We also learned the definition of Sri Lankan capacity...). Still, it was a great experience, and a great way to see a pretty
diverse range of characters.
After about four hours, we reached Kandy, and again, just
had time to get settled, have some dinner, enjoy a good night’s sleep, and then
up the next morning for our final bit of travelling to Sigiriya! Phew! We’ll be
back to Kandy again though for two days, so we didn't mind our initial stay
being so short. Another bus, another piece of luck to nab two front seats, and
three hours later, we were finally there! As we would be spending three days
here for Christmas, we decided to splash out on a fancy place, so enjoy our
first (potentially risqué) video diary, from our very own jacuzzi!
So, that’s the first part, and hopefully the hardest part of
our journey done! Even though we had quite a lot of travelling to do, it was
still an enjoyable few days. Here’s to our next stint of staying still in
Sigiriya!
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