Tangalle

After leaving Kandy on a rented bike, I got to Dambulla, which is a site of Sri Lanka's historic heritage. It has 5 caves with many Buddha's statues and wall paintings. Although not as much impressive as Ajanta caves in India, it's a nice place. The rituals are alive, people come to put flowers in front of the sculpture of the Enlightened One and pray silently. Then I got to Sigirya, a Mazada-style royal palace on top of 200m rock. There are some beautiful frescoes on the wall, whose character suggest that the place was more for enjoyment rather than a military stronghold.

The bike had problems, and after returning it to Kandy, I got another one in Sigirya. I continued northeast, to Trincomalee, along a virtually empty road running through jungle-covered plains. There supposedly are some wild elephants and Tamil Tigers in the jungle, but I haven't seen neither of them. The soldiers stopped me a couple of times, probably wanted to practice English. Most of the times they just smiled as I went by. Trinco is a Tamil-dominated town, on the north of east coast. There are many South-India style Hindu temples, some Catholic churches. The people have view on the conflict from a different side. The military presence is quite heavy - there are many blockposts, some parts of the beach are off bounds, access to 1676 Dutch Fort is permitted only without camera. There are nice beaches north of town - Nilaveli and Uppaveli. Since the tsunami, the tourism hasn't recovered yet, so there are kilometers of sand in coconut with practically no one around. What a getaway. I liked it there. It struck me that this is the first time I see the sun actually appears from the sea... well, Dead Sea doesn't count.

The monsoon on the northeast coast was about to start, it was easy to notice the weather changed: afternoons became gloomy, with strong wind. I went south to Batticaloa, which involved a 200 km detour, because the coastal area is controlled by the Tigers. Then, south again along the coast, to Arugam Bay, known for its great surfing waves. It's actually another quiet fishing Muslim village that became one of these touristic spots, packed with guest houses and restaurants. The rainy season started all right, it poured and poured, and I'm not much of a surfer, so I got myself on the bike and got to the South Coast, finally, where the sky is still blue. I stayed in a town named Tangalle, right near the beach. Gonna get me another of those rice & curry... they're so good, and never taste the same.