The Hikkaduwa Mini-vacation

Beaches, palm trees and sunshine, well maybe too much sunshine. So was our weekend in Hikkaduwa. Hikkaduwa is about 2 hours south of Colombo by train, probably get there faster by car. It caters to two types of people, surfers first and foremost and then German's.
We were able to stay at a nice guest house that totally surpassed our expectations. Guest houses are a cross between a room for rent and a hotel. This one had just recently opened and everything was new to include a rain shower head in the bathroom, king sized four poster bed, hot water, a/c, free wifi and breakfast served on the beach all for a tidy sum of less than $34USD per night (Everything except for the breakfast is pretty much unheard of at most guest houses). Mind you this wasn't the Hilton and there is no TV, radio or carpet but its sole purpose is a place to crash after a day on the beach.

Thankfully our guest house was right on the beach, but just about all of them are. Hikkaduwa is one BIG guest house, they are there one after the other with colorful names, of course I can't
remember a one.

On our first morning out we walked along the road then went through a beach access road to the beach. While walking we came across some fishermen waiting by their big wooden boat.
They waved us over and asked us to help move it up the beach. So we both turned around
and grabbed the outriggers and lifted and pushed backwards when the shouts of the men
reached a crescendo. I wish I had pictures of the fishermen and their boat, but we didn't
take many or any photos. I was breathing rather hard when we finally got the boat to a point where it wouldn't move any further,

Aaah, the beach. After the tourist filled beaches of Berewula and the man crushing waves
of Matara we found the perfect medium. Long expanses of mostly uncrowded beaches as
all of the (German) tourists are hiding under shady cabanas.
My goal was to boogie board and there are two surf breaks, one was for the surfers as I found
out through much intimidation by one of them as I rode the waves (Tried to crash into me a few times on purpose) so I relegated myself to the other surf break where surfing lessons were being taught. Not as much fun as the other surf break but wasn't going to get clocked by a surfboard either.

We visited a rotti stand that there are many of here in Colombo but this one served banana chocolate and pineapple coconut rotti's. Would help is I had a picture but we didn't take any! DOH!

You know I couldn't find one picture of what we ate via Google, tag people, tag! LOL
We both enjoyed vegetable rottis and a desert rotti, Chris banana and chocolate, me the pineapple. With drinks it was all under $6USD. Great deal! And a yummy and filling one at that!

We enjoyed a long conversation with a Brit traveling through Sri Lanka while at the rotti stand.

Nights were punctuated with fireworks and star filled sky's with the occasional tourist bus driving dangerously fast down the narrow main road.

We returned on the 11:20 train to Colombo with many, many German tourists.

I should and will blog about the train ride.

Catching Up and Crying Cricket Cat

I really need to catch up on my blogging, way behind! Promise to write an update soon.
This Friday I have to work a new schedule, 12:00PM to 4:00PM, can we say YUCK!
But probably makes for a good opportunity to write a long blog post about our trip south to Hikkaduwa.

It has been getting much hotter here, I thought it was my imagination but the sun has just beating down lately.

Did I mention our older cat, "Cricket" has a habit of crying when we go to sleep, or just sometimes in the middle of the night? I'm no cat whisperer but it doesn't sound like she's in pain, it sounds like she is trying to wake us up and feed her. I have darted out of the bedroom a couple of times only to find her sitting in the living room looking at me, or sometimes running under the dining room table. I don't think there has been a single night she hasn't done this! Wait, one night. I sprinkled some cat nip on her scratch toys and that seemed to have kept her quiet all night.

Scenes from Kandy

I had meant to mention a few of the things that I saw in Kandy, but as time goes by, so does my recollection, except for one thing or should I say furry things? That would be monkeys!

Kandy is famous for its elephant orphanage and Temple of the Tooth as mentioned earlier, but one thing they have that Colombo doesn't is monkeys. There are two types and honestly couldn't tell you much about them, except they do seem to leave you alone. I didn't try feeding them.

I also saw very colorful birds and a about a 1 1/2 foot water monitor (Lizard) at the lake,

I was approached by one tout while walking around the lake, but he knew that I knew what he was up to (Try to talk me into a tour etc) and turned right around and left me alone.

On our way back from Kandy we saw a huge elephant being walked down the main road (Actually called The Kandy Road) on its way to Colombo for a festival at the end of the month.

Train Songs

While riding the train to Hikkaduwa we started naming all of the train songs we could think of.
The challenge was for whoever guessed a song to have the other try to guess it with as few clues as possible. We both had some great stumpers.
The songs had to have either trains in the title or mentioned in the song.
Here are a few we came up with.

(Under duress I had to publicly announce that Chris completely whipped my behind in this game coming up with most of the songs for almost 36 hours +)

Plain White T's - Hey there Delilah
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Taking care of business
Cat Stevens - Peace Train
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
Berlin - Metro
Arlo Guthrie - City of New Orleans
Molly Hatchet - Train Train
Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison
Kenny Rogers - The Gambler
Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGhee (Written by Kris Kristofferson)
Greatful Dead - Casey Jones
Blondie - Rapture
Jethro Tull - Locomotive Breath
Crosby Stills and Nash - Marrakesh Express
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Midnight Special
Gladys Night and the Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia
The O'Jays - Love Train
Marshall Tucker Band - Can't You See
Rod Stewart - People Get Ready