More Sri Lanka - Colombo, Sri Lanka
Colombo, Sri Lanka
After the two weeks of working in the heat at the farm we decided to go into the mountains where the climate was much cooler and much nicer. It was a long day but the train ride was beautiful. A few days in Ella served us well but we did long for a beach and hot weather again and so we found a tiny village called Kirinda. Little did we know that we would end up staying there for over a week and build a bar out of mud for a local camp site with our new found skills and knowledge, getting fed local home made food daily for a total of £40 spend to live. Kirinda is on the South East coast of Sri Lanka and far, far away from any tourists or anything close to the 'normality' of the west. The perfect place to stay. So we spent the next week teaching the locals how to build with natural resources, took a trip to Tangalle prison to visit one of the locals' friends, took another trip to Ella to do some promotional work and built a mud bar. The nicest thing about the time that we spent in Kirinda, apart from the time we spent with the locals, was not the work we did and how we helped contribute to their business development, but that they suggested we name the bar and so now Khalahl eco bar will be shortly ready to open. Khalahl eco bar:. Khalil (my name) and Ahl (Johannas name) are put together. However the bar was only half built when we left because both Johanna and I had to leave to take our flights out of Sri Lanka so we are hoping that we have taught the locals well enough so they can build with confidence on their own. Who ever knew that this was how my time in Sri Lanka would end but unfortunately it is now my time to leave and rejoin with my friend back in Thailand for a few days before I continue my journey through Asia.
Yes I did finally sort out what I would do after Sri Lanka and it certainly isn't India. I did have a flight booked and an amazing farm tourism development volunteer placement lined up until I went to Sri and decided that India is the last place that I want to go alone. Especially seeing as I would have to take a bus for several hours into rural India away form Delhi. No thank you! So I am now sorted to go off to the Perhentian islands in Malaysia to conquer yet another volunteer project focusing on garden landscaping and looking after a tourist resort. Then after that I will head to Indonesia to conquer my inner self through a 10 day silent meditation retreat; a vipassana. No talking, no eye contact, no nothing. Just you, yourself and your inner journey. Such a perfect time and place to do this. Afterwards I will reward myself with a trip to Australia to see my beautiful friend and One Step Further partner, Laura, with who I will spend Christmas before heading down to Sydney to meet my friend that I am forever meeting around the world, Nicole, to spend New Year in the city that has been on my bucket list for a long time!
I am now ready to start my epic migration which because of stupid timings of flights and buses will take me about 3 days to get where I need to be. Long. So it is back to Thailand where I sit now and wait for a bus to Koh Phangan. Sri Lanka..I miss you. I forgot how rank, smelly, disgusting and touristy Bangkok (and the rest of Thailand) is. I like being the only traveller and maybe since being in Sri Lanka I have changed my perception of Thailand again. I like being the odd one out that people are so interested that they talk to you on the bus and ask where you are from. I like being the one that because you are so different (and the only white girl sleeping on the floor in the corner of Colombo airport) you get invitations to come nd stay with people in their homes, at the farms, in their hotels and what ever else they may have in their life. Commercial travelling..no thank you. But I have committed to my friend for a few extra days in Thailand so I will enjoy while I am there, for sure.