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thesundaytimes August 5, 2012

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August 5, 2012 thesundaytimes

While trying to spot Blue Whales in the waters off Trincomalee, you may be pleasantly surprised by schools of playful dolphins instead. Go on safari in Yalas nature reserves and spot Sri Lankas endangered native leopards (above) and elephants (right) cooling off in lotus ponds.

PARADISE AT PEACE
It is once again safe to enjoy Sri Lankas rich wildlife, idyllic beaches and ancient ruins
Huang Huifen

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

MONEY Licensed moneychangers are few and far between in rural areas such as Trincomalee and Yala. Make sure you have enough local currency Sri Lankan rupees (100 rupees is about 95 cents) to last through your trip. Otherwise, you will have to settle for hotels unfavourable foreign exchange rates on top of a 3 per cent commission charge. Contrary to usual travel wisdom, carry big notes. Moneychangers in cities such as Colombo and Kandy will offer a better rate if you exchange big notes. Do have clean, crisp notes. Torn ones will most likely be rejected. TIPPING Tip at least 10 per cent of your bill for meals at restaurants or for spa services. For bellboys and hotel staff, the rate is from US$2 (S$2.50). A tip for a driver or guide is US$10 to US$40 a day. SERVICE This tends to be slow. Expect to wait at least half an hour for food to be served, and 10 to 15 minutes for your bill or change to arrive. In hotels, it may take at least 20 minutes for staff to get you what you request for, such as an extra towel. MOTION SICKNESS Expect to spend up to five hours on bumpy roads each day when getting from one destination to another. The sea can get very choppy during the whale-watching tour. Pop some motion-sickness pills before you go. THINGS TO BRING Mosquito repellent to minimise the risk of contracting malaria. Sunblock to protect your skin, and a pair of sunglasses.

2012 AUGUST SERIES

t was once a paradise lost. But now, Sri Lanka is paradise regained. Think pristine beaches. A thriving wildlife scene. And no more civil war to worry about. Little wonder then that tourists are flocking to this teardrop-shaped tropical island in the Indian Ocean, off the southern coast of India. About 856,000 tourists visited the country last year, making it an all-time record high. All these just two years after the end of decades of civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sinhalesedominated government. But peace has come at a price for the tourist, that is. Do not expect a cheap holiday in a country which is a rough tourist gem emerging from the war and the devastating 2004 tsunami. Prices, generally quoted in US dollars, are soaring amid growing demand from droves of tourists. Despite the high costs, my Sri Lanka idyll was worth every cent. My eight-day holiday ranged from visiting ancient palace ruins to wildlife adventures, including going on safari and spotting dolphins in the ocean. My journey started in the capital of Colombo where two friends and I took a six-hour car journey with our driver/guide, Mr Gamini Jayasinghe, or Jaya as he asked us to call him (+94-777-293-686, [email protected]), to Yala National Park, home of Sri Lankas endangered native leopard. We arrived at our hotel, Chaaya Wild Yala, at dusk in time for a two-hour night safari tour (US$55, or S$69, www.chaayahotels.com/chaayawild.htm). This night safari makes Singapores famed Night Safari look a tad, well, tame. We set off in an open-air jeep through dense, dark forest using night-vision goggles and an infra-red torch to see. We were warned that it was rare to spot the leopards at night, but we were lucky. About 10 minutes into the safari, I saw a pair of eyes in the bushes less than 100m away. Is that a leopard? I whispered. Indeed it was. The leopard flicked its tail and blinked. Then another pair of eyes appeared next to it. The eyes moved closer and a staring match between man and beast ensued. Fear replaced excitement. Could these ferocious creatures become agitated and attack us? But eventually the two leopards became disinterested in human flesh slathered with mosquito repellent and disappeared into the bushes. What a night we also saw an elephant, a civet cat and some buffalos. Tigers for punishment, at the early hour of 6am the next day, we were up and ready to embark on another safari tour, this time with Yala Leopard Safari (+94-772-424-525, US$50 for a four-hour tour including admission to Yala National Park). Our guide was Mr Amarasiri Subasinghe, who has been working as such at Yala for more than 20 years and counts documentary crews from Discovery Channel and BBC as his clients. You might have expected a safari veteran like him

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to be attired in the full kit and caboodle imagine a burly man in a safari hat, khakis, ankle-high boots and with a pair of binoculars slung around his neck. The 45-year-old confounds that stereotype. He is dressed casually in a white shirt teamed with sarong and flip-flops. The animals, certainly, are not put off. We spotted our third leopard, perched majestically on a tree, about two hours into the trip. Other animals we saw included an elephant submerged in a lotus pond, wild boars, mongooses, crocodiles and native birds such as the Sri Lankan national bird (left), which is an orange and navy blue jungle fowl. While we never felt unsafe in the park, there were still stark reminders of the impact of the war on Yala. In 2007, the park was closed following several insurgency attacks. Jaya pointed to a row of abandoned barracks that were once military outposts. During the war, the Tamil Tigers would hijack night safari jeeps in the night. So there was a need for military presence in the area, he said. From safaris, we endured the windy roads up to the well-known tea plantations of Nuwara Eliya, then visited the sacred Buddha tooth relic temple in Kandy before heading to another must-do experience checking out Sri Lankas unspoilt beaches. We went to Trincomalee on the islands eastern

coast, about four hours drive from Kandy. Once a site of battles with Tamil Tigers, this idyllic palm-fringed region, which was also damaged by the tsunami, today bears few traces of its devastating past. The only reminder are tsunami warning signs and evacuation route markers. You can lounge on the beaches and watch fishermen bring in their catch of the day or hire a boat (US$23 a person from Nilaveli Beach Resort) to nearby Pigeon Island National Park (admission: 1,800 Sri Lankan rupees, or S$17) to snorkel. However, I was here for one mission: to spot the Blue Whales. At the crack of dawn, we plunged into a two-hour whale-watching tour (US$30 a person from boat operator Srikanth, +94-717-184-237). While we were told that the whale-watching season in Trincomalee is from May to August, we did not get to see any of these water-spouting creatures, much to our disappointment. But about 2km out at sea, we did spot dolphins frolicking in the deep-blue waters. Our squeals of joy and frantic camera-clicking were a contrast to the silence of nonchalant fishermen in nearby boats. Once back on shore, at dusk, we took a 15-minute drive from our hotel, Chaaya Blu Trincomalee (www.chaayahotels.com/ChaayaBlu.htm), to the Koneswaram Hindu temple built on a 100m-high rock to catch the sunset over the coastline. A sense of calm descended on us as we watched the lights from the dozens of fishing boats slowly illuminate the vast ocean. The glorious sunset more than made up for the fact that it was nearing the end of the trip and things were proving much more expensive than I had expected.

Watch Sri Lankan fishermen on stilts at Koggala when driving from Colombo to Yala National Park.

My expenses budget of US$360 was rapidly depleting. From US$2 for tips to bellboys, guides and even a supervisor that tourists must pay in order to photograph the quintessential Sri Lankan sight of fishermen on stilts, to between US$5 and US$10 for daily meals at restaurants, to US$8 for a box of tea it all started to add up. The tourism boom has driven prices skyward, confirmed Mr Sushan Peiris, the 26-year-old Sri Lankan director of Modern Voyages (www.modernvoyages. net), the tour company through which I had booked

my trip. Prices of rooms in three- to five-star hotels have risen by at least US$100, to between US$280 and US$350, he said. However, our $284 airfare on budget carrier Tiger Airways helped ease the pain. In total, I spent about US$1,626 on airfare, accommodation in mainly four-star hotels, the service of a guide/driver and daily expenses, comparable to the price of a vacation I would pay in Japan. This exceed-

ed my budget by about US$200. Still, some things you just cannot put a price on, such as our last stop which took us to Sigiriya, a 5th-century citadel and palace. This is perched on a 200m-high granite rock. Numerous tales abound about Sigiriya, including that it was once inhibited by the hedonistic King Kassapa and his 500 concubines. While most of the palace lies in ruins, the opulence of its heyday is evident in the remains of marble steps, dried-up cisterns that were once sprawling swimming pools and well-rendered frescos of half-naked women. This Unesco World Heritage Site (US$30 admission fee compared to US$15 a few years ago Central Province, Matale District, www.ccf.lk/sigiriya) was a test of our fitness. To reach the palace on top of the rock, we had to climb 1,200 steps. The last leg of the one-hour-plus climb was the hardest. Here, we each had to don a frumpy bee suit of thick, nylon overalls with a meshed helmet, and which clung to our sweaty skin. The outfit was to protect us from hornets at the top, which have become a nuisance to tourists. As I set foot on the 1,200th step, I felt triumphant. From this vantage point, I could see dense forest stretching to the distant mountains, with clouds casting shadows over the canopy. However impecunious I was then, I felt like the richest person in the world. [email protected]

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