Month: February 2019

A lazy day on the beach:Pasikuda

Wednesday, 6th February, 2019

Today we did not have an alarm to wake us up, however I was up early thinking I would be able to see the sunrise as we are on the eastern coast. Alas the sun rose on the right hand side of the beach behind our resort and I could not see it properly so I went back to bed…….


By the time we woke up properly the sun was quite high in the sky and it was shining brightly. We were out on our verandah just watching the waves as it was quite blustery this morning – the red flags were fluttering widely in the wind so no way would we get into the water.

On our way to breakfast, we were made aware that a crocodile was lying along the water embankment just basking in the sun. We immediately grabbed our cameras to shoot some pictures – this croc was really huge – but he just lay there, most probably debating with himself whether we would go in for a dip or not! Now we understood why there was fencing along the waterways in the garden and park …….

Breakfast at the Amethyst Resort was a very pleasant experience – we both chose the Sri Lankan breakfast with coconut and rice flour roti, scrambled egg with herbs, fresh papaya juice (in a jam jar!), fresh fruit platter and a coconut sambal spread.

When we went back to our bungalow, the bedroom was already cleaned and bed made up – what really was so attentive was that room boy had strewn flower petals on our bed – so sweet!

After breakfast, the pool boy brought us two sun beds and towels on the beach in front of our bungalow – oh what a luxury! Anyway as we had eaten such a big breakfast, we decided first to go on a walk along the beach – without knowing it we walked some 4.5km – and when we got back we decided to take a dip in the ocean. For me, the waves were quite high but Gerry assured me that they were not dangerous……


It was an easy morning spent on the beach but when it got hot, we moved our sun beds under the palm trees and in no time we both fell asleep!

Between swimming in the pool, making ourselves cup of teas, reading, catching up with our social media and lying around, we got through our leisure day…… it was time to get ready fo dinner at the hotel and we were quite ravenous. We were the first guests to come to dinner but apparently there were only a few of us staying over. Gerry has his Sri Lankan beer – Lion and then ordered grilled swordfish while I ordered a glass of mango lassie and the typical Sri Lankan rice and curry with chicken and we even had dessert – of course vanilla ice cream for Gerry while I tried the Sri Lankan buffalo curd with honey – just heavenly!!

Back in our room, we organized our stuff and packed our luggage as tomorrow will be an early start and Indika would be coming to pick us up at 8am.

ps 8February, finally we get onto the Wi-Fi so I can do some posting……

From Forest to Beach

Wednesday, 5th february, 2019


I could not sleep due to the pelting rain on our tree house corrugated rooftop. It rained constantly all night and sometimes we also had the monkeys clambering over the roof. So by 4.30 I got out of bed and decided to try and finish my blog entry and with any luck add some pictures. The only place to do this was in the bathroom so as not to wake up Gerry. Well I did finish Sunday’s entry even though I could not get all the pictures added in. I will have to do that when we have a better Wi-Fi service.
The alarm went off at 6.30 so I showered first and washed my hair which was still greasy from the head massage I got yesterday during the Aryuveda massage! Of course Gerry had to first have his smoke but that was good as both of us could not fit in the tiny bathroom!

When I went outdoors on our verandah, the rain had created quite some mist and due to this we lost sight of our big boulder rock of Sigiriya – yesterday we could see the people walking up the side of the rock but this morning the great big boulder was hidden by the mist. Again, we won’t be climbing this rock today – and we had planned to do this early in the morning before driving to the east coast. We had ordered an early breakfast as Indika was going to collect us at 8.30 am.

Our breakfast was a really healthy one – fresh fruit, rice flour pancakes (two filled with a fried egg) and coconut rice chappatis. While we had jam, we did not touch this as we also had a local concoction of coconut shreds with honey and cinnamon- so tasty on the rice pancakes and chappatis!

We were ready to go when Indika arrived and the room boy carried our bags down to the car. He’s used to doing this as he practically ran down the stairs……. while we took a step at a time!

Indika also suggested that we don’t do the Sigiriya Rock climb as it was still raining and the trip could be quite hazardous – he proposed that when we leave the beach, he could make a detour back to Sigiriya, weather permitting, prior to proceeding to Kandy. With this plan in mind, we arrived round 12 noon at the Amethyst Beach Resort in Pasikuda.

Luckily, as the hotel is not busy at all, we were given a beachfront bungalow and we could check in immediately. We were greeted with a string with sea shells – ever so hospitable……

Note the shells on a string on Gerry – mine is hidden by his huge body…..

The view from our room is just heavenly and it is so relaxing to hear the crashing of the waves. This is normally a bath tub temperature beach – the water is so shallow that it heats up very quickly inside the reef. We were lucky that by the time we reached Pasikuda, the rains had stopped and the sun came out and temperature was well over 28 Celsius. We made a date with Indika that he would pick us at 5.30 pm so that we could have an early dinner as we would be skipping lunch.

After settling in , we walked around the beach and enjoyed the view. This is so good to have such a break. By the time we walked back to our bungalow the clouds gathered again and it started raining.

At 5.30 we were ready to be picked up by Indika and by this time it was raining quite hard so he suggested we do not go too far and only went down the road to another hotel complex – The Calm – and we were able to have an early dinner. However this hotel was just as empty as ours…….

Gerry went for the local beefsteak – which was as tough as leather!!! But he had been warned and I went for the typical rice and curry which was elegantly served!

Sri Lankan rice and curry with dhal, chicken and vegetables

Gerry and his local beefsteak and me with my rice and curry


My culinary work of art




We were back in our hotel quite early so we could check our mails and catch up with our social media. My niece, Danica chatted with me through Messenger and she told me that down south there is a “Maltese” village built after the Tsunami by funds donated to the Maltese Red Cross and actually 3 members had come over to build 26 houses in 3 months. This place is Tangalle and is on the way for us from Yala to Galle so I have to make arrangements to stop over there.

And tomorrow we are promised a sunny, though somewhat blustery day – good enough for us to relax on the beach !

On the way to Sigiriya

MonDay, 4th february 2019

This morning we had our breakfast at 8am as Indika would be picking us up at 8.45 to start our 3 hour road trip to Sigiriya where our main goal is to climb the rock boulder on which one of the Singalese kings built his palace and landscaped gardens back in the 5th century AD. However the rain was our game breaker today plus the fact that today was a National Holiday – Independence Day – hence no way we wanted to climb some 1,500 steps hewn into the rock wall…..

But we had enough on our agenda for today. In Habarna, we would be going on a traditional Sri Lankan boat trip on the lake close by and then visit typical farming home followed by a ride on a bullock drawn cart still used by the villagers in this settlement and finally a safari trip in the National Park to spot some wild elephants.

On the trip, we stopped for some refreshment and this time we had fresh fruit juices – pineapple for me and papaya for Gerry and that would keep us going for a few hours. When we arrived close to Sigiriya we diverted to Habarna where we could book the various activities.

Our first activity was to take a boat trip on the waterlilly filled placid lake. Luckily for us it had stopped raining and the sun came out for a little while. Together with Indika, we were paddled across the lake till we came to the shoreside where authentic farmer’s mud brick shacks stood. We made our way between the puddles to one of these homes where we were greeted friendily by the family, a brother and sister and the sister’s friend. The shack comprised two rooms onto one side with seating along the side and a woven palm roof while on the other side there was the kitchen with fires going on – no electricity, only oil lamps. We were greeted with herbal tea and then were shown how to make rice and coconut chappatis. Both Gerry and I tried grinding rice to flour and shredding coconut after the lady of the manor had broken open a coconut and we drank the coconut water.

After our walk around the village, it was time to get into our safari Jeep and head towards the National Park for our elephant drive. Luckily it was dry again so we could stand on the back side of our Jeep and observe the elephants. This is so great! There were different herds just minding their own business and munching away at the tall grass. We were not the only ones driving in Safari jeeps – but everyone so quiet as we observed and shot pictures. Our ranger was very quick in spotting wild birds as well including eagles, hawks, peacocks and bee eating birds.

By the time we headed back on foot it was time to have a lunch break and Indika took us to a typical Sri Lankan restaurant where we had rice and curry. The couple who ran this restaurant were so humble and pleasant especially as we could see that they had prepared the lunch with great love and pride and served with a sincere smile. And that at only 700 rupees per person (€15,oo) and it included fresh fruit juices and a plate of fruit and buffalo yoghurt with honey.

With our bellies full, I only wanted to have a siesta – I was glad that we had done our Safari before lunch as otherwise we would have our full stomachs jostled all around!!

Indika, then drove us to our next overnight destination which was only 45 minutes away. We drove deep into the thick forest on a one lane road. On the side of the road there was shock wired spanned most of the way – this was to ward off elephants from crossing onto the road – well I wouldn’t want to be out and about at night.

In no time we arrived at the Thick Forest – our overnight stay was to be in a tree house! By then it had started raining again and but from our verandah we could see the great rock of Sigiriya and we could see a long row of people still climbing towards the top of the plateau! We are hoping that tomorrow would be a dry morning so we can go on this expedition early in the morning……..

Anyway once we had checked in, the owner brought us some tea on our verandah – oh it felt so colonial! We tried to catch up with our social media but because the Forest was between the great big rock and the mountain, there was quite some interference with the reception!

Well we had asked Indika to book us an Aryuveda massage for the evening and he came to collect us at 6pm. While I have been on Aryuveda treatment in Kerala, India as well as in Holland, it was Gerry’s first experience. He behaved well and actually quite enjoyed it.

By the time we got back to our tree house it was ever so dark and Indika had to drive so slowly just in case we ran into an elephant…….. we decided not to shower in the evening so that the oils could continue doing their healing work overnight……

Tomorrow we will try again to climb the rock of Sigiriya- let’s hope the rains will stop!

Anuradhapura: first city in Sri Lanka

Sunday, 3rd february, 2019

“Ayubowan” – that is how the Singalese greet each other: meaning May you live longer and have a healthy life”

We woke up to a magnificent day! Sun was shining and temperatures were well above 25 degrees at 7 am. We went down for an early breakfast and were surprised to find out that our hotel was situated on the beach – no grand building but more or less trendy – and we had our breakfast outside on the terrace facing the swimming pool and the beach.

    Indika arrived on time and we were off to our first destination: Anuradhapura. This road trip would take some 4 hours driving first north along the coast and the lagoon and then inwards.

    However, we first drove to Hamilton Fort which was situated on the outskirts of Negombo – originally built by the Dutch in the early 1600’s in order to protect their trading post and then used by the British who also canalized the waterway between Colombo and Negombo. Nowadays, Hamilton Fort is a prison.

    After about driving for nearly 2 hours through villages lining the road and along the coast, we asked Indika to pull over somewhere where we could stretch our legs and get something to drink. This is not a country where you find fast foods restaurants along the highway – only small enterprises and stalls selling local produce; coconuts! The first stall, according to Indika, did not have good coconuts (apparently he could see from the colour….), but the second stall seemed to have good coconuts! The stall was manned (or should I say, womanned?) by a little old lady who had enough strength and energy to hack the coconuts so that we could first drink the water and then scrape out the coconut flesh! What a nutritional break!

    Enjoying our nutritional break!

    Back on the road again and this time we drove till lunchtime when Indika brought us to a restaurant serving a local buffet. It seemed to be a lunch address for many of the private chauffeurs taking their clients here. Well it was a good time to have lunch which consisted of a buffet of local Singalese food, as it had started raining. All the chauffeurs went to separate part of the restaurant to have their lunch there. I guess they get their lunch free as they bring their guests here.

    Our rain shower did not last long and when we had finished lunch our guide to the sacred city of Anuradhapura was waiting for us together with Indika. Kosala who is a historian student, was very informative and he explained that his tour would take some three hours. I looked at Gerry to see whether he was up to it to get so much history and culture, however although we asked to limit the tour to two hours, Gerry’s interest we finally ended up spending more than 3 hours………

    The citadel of Anuradhapura, the first capital, founded by King Pandukabhaya and the seat of the government for centuries is symbolic of the Golden Era of Sri Lanka. This city is the longest continuously inhabited city in the world as it’s been lived in for more than 3000 years.

    Buddha visited this city three times in his life time and spread his teachings. For this reason, this city was the hub of Buddhism and some of the oldest temples can still be admired here as they are still in use after having fallen in disrepair when the citizens had moved due escape invaders and then after the plundering, the city was taken over by the jungle only to be rediscovered in the early 19th Century by British archeologists and historians.

    As you can see from the above pictures, there is still sincere devotion being expressed by the locals who are mainly dressed in white as a sign of purity and respect. Offerings of lotus flowers and other gifts are left on altars. Kosala took us to visit the stupa (temple) after we had taken off our shoes and I had covered my arms with my shawl. I was so impressed with the purity of the devotion showed by the congregation and it really touched my heart.

    We were also visited the shrine around the Banyan tree under which Buddha shared his knowledge. Apparently this is the oldest tree taken from a cutting which was brought over from India so many years ago! Again we had to show reverence and take of our shoes. Entrance to this area was heavily guarded and there were two entrances – men and women being separated. My shawl was wrapped and tied up by the female guard but she did with a genuine smile.

    The city of Anuradhapura is surrounded by man made lakes with dykes around them and are the oldest in Asia.

    By the time we were finished with our tour it was getting dark and our interest was saturated so we called it a day and said goodbye to our guide and Indika drove us to our guest house where we were staying for the night.

    Luckily we could have our dinner at the guest house too and we were well taken care of. In front of our spacious room, there was a communal veranda and here we spent some time with other travelers who were staying over till it was time for dinner.

    By the time we had our dinner, we were totally exhausted and just managed to catch up a bit with our social media before heading off to bed.

    Tomorrow, Indika wants us ready by 9 am to start our drive to Sigiriya.

    PS – again problems with putting up pictures due to the weak Wi-Fi………

    Goodbye Maldives, Hello Sri Lanka

    Saturday, 2nd february, 2019

    Today is our travelling day and luckily for us we had all the time to get on with our expedition without any stress!

    The resort had given us a schedule as to how our departure was to take place:

    11.15 am luggage pickup from our beach villa, 12.00 am vacate villa, 13.15 transfer per speedboat to Male airport and 16.00 check in Emirates flight to Colombo, 18.05 arrival in Colombo

    Our speedboat left on time and it was fully loaded with tourists of all nationalities- all with a healthy tan and returning most probably back to a cold climate!

    It was not busy at all at Male’ airport so passport and security control did not take long. However having lunch at the departure lounge was no great success – we had to resort to Burger King which instantly gave me heart burn……

    The flight to Colombo was only an hour and 5 minutes and again we had no clear skies so I couldn’t take any good pictures

    Once at Colombo airport arrival, the immigration and customs procedures were less strenuous than on the Maldives and in no time we were outside trying to find our chauffeur from Olanka Travels. Also something else I had to do was get some local cash from an ATM. However when I did get the cash, apparently I had miscalculated – I thought I was getting the equivalence of €150,00 in Sri Lanka rupees but I had misplaced the decimal point and only got 3000 rupees for approximately €15,00 ……and I used to be a banker – hahaha!!!

    Anyway we were met by Mr Indika, a pleasant and polite young man who will be looking after us for the next 17 days! Obviously, the first thing that Gerry wanted to do is have a smoke, so Indika parked us with our trolley at a smoking area while he got the car.

    By the time we were on our way to Negombo which is only half an hour away, it had gone pitch dark and being a Saturday evening, traffic was quite heavy! So it took us about an hour to get to our hotel and by that time it was well after 9pm. We dropped our luggage in our room and went exploring to find another ATM and a restaurant. We found the latter which was recommended by other guests who had just finished their meal – Mr Crab – a seafood restaurant and just in a few words, we had the most delicious sea food platter in the past week!

      Back at our hotel, it was a quick shower and off to bed as Indika will be collecting us at 8.30 am tomorrow morning.

      Ps – it’s difficult to download pictures so I will have to do that another time – WiFi facilities are quite close to nihil especially when doing my updates in the middle of the jungle…….

      Scuba diving, catamaran sailing and a wonderful last evening on Bandos Island

      1st February,2019

      Our last full day on Bandos Island and this morning the alarm clock went off at 6.45 am as Gerry had his scuba diving session at 8.30 and he needed to have his breakfast well on time. After a leisure breakfast, we were back in our hut and ready to go to the diving centre which is only like 50 meters away from our hut.

      There were about 9 divers and a few instructors – luckily for Gerry, he had his own buddy instructor with whom he had his first dive yesterday.

      While Gerry was way, I spent some time relaxing under the trees on the beach, reading and at times went swimming. It was interesting watching the rest of the guests – young Chinese couples, probably a getaway trip for them to celebrate the Chinese New Year. They tried all sorts of water sports activities: water scooters, kayaking, and riding the water banana. Another group of tourists that attracted my attention were 5 young (posh) French ladies who were really enjoying themselves having pictures taken and getting in and out of the water and finally settling down on the beach beds drinking cocktails! They reminded me of the ladies in Sex and the City – Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York and Miranda Hobbs!

      Chinese on vacation
      French version of Sex and the city
      More Chinese on vacation

      As you can see from the above pictures, it was not really a sunny day – loads of clouds and quite blustery. We were told that this is unusual weather for this time of the year as normally it’s bright blue skies with temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius and the sea is as calm as a shimmering mirror.

      By noon, I expected that Gerry’s boat would be returning from their diving expedition. It was going to be a busy day for Gerry as we planned to go catamaran sailing in the afternoon.

      Anyway, finally the boat berthed at the diving centre jetty and Gerry had great stories to tell. He had seen load of fish, mainly stingrays and also sea turtles and as he had his water camera with him was able to take some great picture as well as videos.

      After a quick lunch, we were back at the water sport centre and our catamaran was being prepared for us. Actually Gerry wanted to rent a sailing boat but these were all out for maintenance so he was offered a catamaran, which he had not yet ever sailed……. well we had our skipper with us and although Gerry did most of the sailing, Hicham, our skipper, gave him valuable tips especially as there was quite some wind and we had to manouvre between the reef. It was a really great experience and I enjoyed it immensely – who knows, perhaps at my old age, I will be taking up sailing? Mind you, we had a lot of scrambling around on deck as we changed sails and getting sprayed with warm ocean water was just fantastic!

      Getting initiated in the art of sailing a catamaran!

      We sailed all around the island and along some huge Australian yachts anchored just off Bandos Island and then sailed further where we saw new man made islands being developed. What we understood is as the water level is rising, some islands will be left to submerge, while new islands are being created to be higher than the expected sea level rise of maximum 2 meters. Incidentally the international airport at Male is actually built on a man made island and is safe from any expected sea levels.

      By the time we got back to Bandos, we were quite tired – most probably due to the adrenaline that pumped through our veins and jumping around on deck.

      And then it was time to relax on the beach and watch the sunset – it was the best one we had in the past three evenings as we’ve had cloudy weather most of the time. We did manage to see the sun in it’s full glory but then lost it again behind the clouds. By that time, we were quite ravenous and made our way to the restaurant for our last evening.

      Once again, we enjoyed some beautifully tasty food and of course we could not resist the sweets bar! Anyway to,orrow we are off to Sri Lanka and then we are back to a “normal” way of life as we won’t be staying in resorts but down to earth hotels and bed and breakfasts as we travel around the “pearl” in the Indian Ocean.

      By the time we got back to our beach hut, I was quite ready to call it a day, however when we opened our door, a sweet smell of flowers reached us and actually I was quite puzzled……. well I just went through to the bathroom and got a real big surprise – our jacuzzi was filled up with foam water and on top it was covered with flower petals and a sweet message from our room boy, Mohamed. Then I went up to our bedroom and our bed was also decorated with flowers. It was such a beautiful gesture. These are the small attentions which makes one want to tip these staff – not like we experienced in other countries where you are told what to leave as a tip!!

      Our jacuzzi decorated with flower petals and our names cut out of reed grass (only I’m missing the last A in my name and Gerry’s name is in full)
      How nice to see our bed beautifully decorated with sweet smelling flowers and petals and our names cut out of reed grass!


      Gerry and I had quite some fun enjoying the jacuzzi but our room boy must have put in quite a bit of bath foam as when we switched on the jacuzzi, we practically drowned in all the foam that was overflowing.

      What a great way to end our mini holiday on the Maldives. We had a great time feeling relaxed and enjoying each other’s company. Tomorrow we will be catching our flight to Colombo where our private chauffeur will be awaiting us to drive us around in the next 18 days.

      Relaxed day on the beach, swimming, scuba diving for Gerry and strolling round the island

      THURSDAY, 31st January, 2019

      This morning we woke up rather late – oh how heavenly to sleep in a real bed and only hear the waves breaking on the shore – it was high tide and most of the beach had disappeared overnight but this morning as soon as I went outside, it was back again. Actually this morning Gerry was supposed to have gone for his diving introduction session at 8.30 a.m but he never made it as we got up after 8 am and we still had to have breakfast. He thought he could catch up later in the morning but apparently the diving school here is a stickler for time – Gerry could join for an introduction dive in the afternoon!

      Breakfast here is really tasty and nicely presented – all the staff are ever so polite and friendly. Both Gerry and I enjoy observing the other guests – there are a lot of Asians holidaying here and that’s due to the upcoming Chinese New Year. The majority of the guests are Russians and strangely enough there are loads of kids ………

      After breakfast we went for a walk round the island – it was supposed to be a blustery day but that was good for us as the temperature was already up past 28 degrees and it was only 10 am…….. it only takes about half an hour to walk round the island but we took different routes through the beach and gardens. We finally ended up on the beach in front of our beach hut – it was just heavenly especially when we went for our swim. If Gerry was left on his own, he would spend hours in the sea, absorbing all the minerals that it has to offer……

      As I am writing this post, I received a weather notification from Yahoo on my iPhone – blustery and 27 degrees in Male’ – so I looked up Deventer and Krimpen: light snow showers and 0 degrees

      Oh I am so thankful we do t have to face another snowstorm back home……

      Anyway back to my post on yesterday’s activities:

      After having walked around and swam a bit, it was time for Gerry to go to his diving session. This time I made sure he made it on time. I was going to be his photographer as long as he was within sight. Lucky for him, there was only one other guy taking part so it was a very special treatment session for the both of them.

      Gerry enjoyed his diving session and he did report back that he saw some black pointed sharks and some other colourful fish. Interesting is that behind the reef, there was immediately a depth of at least 20 meters and for the first dive they remained in that area. Gerry noted that these island are actually the result of volcanic activities- and the islands are the peaks. It’s a pity he did not take his action sport camera with him…….

      This diving expedition took a couple of hours, so I went back to our beach hut to catch up with some reading and writing. When Gerry came back he said that he could join another dive tomorrow morning at 8.30 am but this time they would be going out on a boat, further out in the ocean. Of course this meant setting the alarm as no way would he be able to get up on time and have breakfast before joining the group.

      As we had missed sunset yesterday evening, I thought I’d catch it this evening, however it was quite cloudy …….. but I did manage to get some good shots of the twilight sky!

      What a wonderful view just outside our beach hut!

      And the final twilight view before going for dinner.

      Dinner was again a great experience of Asian flavours starting off with the salad bar and finishing off with the sweets bar……. the only disappointing moment was when I signed off the check for our drinks – one glass of Sauvignon Blanc for me and a beer for Gerry added up to over $21,00 – my (half) glass of Sauvignon Blanc cost $14,00 and I am sure I did not have 14 sips in total…….

      Well after dinner, we first sat round in the lounge area listening to the DJ, however his choice of music wasn’t ours and once Gerry had finished his cigarette we strolled back to our beach hut. It was gone 10.30 pm and it was time for bed……. tomorrow an early start do need to set the alarm!