Right, so I may be a bit biased – the artist Ian Alderman is a good friend – but if you are in Ieper/Ypres between now and the end of the year (2017), you have to visit the ‘Recovering the Past’ Exhibition at the In Flanders Fields museum. Ian has spent over 5 years with the section of the Belgian army tasked with disposing of unexploded munitions from both world wars. There is tons of it still finding its way…
Er … what sweeping views? At the look-out point on the Dambatenne tea plantation, Sir Thomas Lipton used to bring guests for picnics and to survey the sheer sweeping views below. My new friend Thomas Unfortunately, for us much of the 18,000 metre drop down to the valleys below was obscured by cloud on our visit. It cleared up a bit while we were there, but there was always some lingering cloud in the way of the best view of…
As the summer bank holiday approached and I realised we had no plans, I scanned mentally through a list of places I wanted to see or see more of that weren’t too far away. We’d been camping in Norfolk a few years back with friends, but it had rained a lot (and I mean a lot). But what I saw at the time from under my umbrella was lots of places that would be nice in the sun. And so with…
We spent 10 days in Sri Lanka in late June/ early July 2017, visiting the ‘cultural triangle’, the east coast and the hill country. Tea pickers in the hill country We really enjoyed our trip and wanted to share some of the things we learnt about the practicalities of travelling around the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’. Obviously, after a 10 day trip, we are far from being experts on the country, but the information below is a combination of…
Ella or Elle is a small town in Sri Lanka’s hill country, surrounded by tea plantations. It’s a good spot for a few days of hiking, eating and drinking tea. Here are our top things to do while you are there.1. Take in the views from Little Adam’s PeakA walk up Little Adam’s Park is about an hour and a half’s round trip from the main street in Ella. The views of the surrounding mountains and across to Ella Rock…
Sri Lanka has two monsoon seasons. From October until January, the East and the North are wet. Then from May until July, it’s rainy season in the South and on the west coast, where the better known beaches are. We visited Sri Lanka in June, which meant that for some beach time, we needed to head to the east coast. I have since heard that its not always that bad in rainy season on the south and west coast. However,…
On our final full day in Habarana, we treated ourselves to an Ayurvedic massage in our home stay, before a trip to Minneriya National Park to see the elephants. Our Ayurvedic experience involved a full body massage, followed by 10 minutes or so of hot oil dripping on our foreheads. Apparently it drips onto our third eye… And then we went into the herbal sauna. The massage was good, but the oil dripping was a little bit weird. I’m still not…
We spent our first four days in Sri Lanka in the ‘Cultural Triangle’ area of the country, basing ourselves in Habarana. Our first day was spent at Sigiriya and Dambulla. On our second day we explored the sprawling ruins of 1,000 year old Polonnaruwa. It was Sri Lanka’s capital city for 300 years from the late 10th century but was abandoned in the 13th century, as it was proving more and more susceptible to Indian invasion. A ‘new’ town has since…
We spent 10 days exploring the island of Sri Lanka, mostly in small family-run ‘homestay’ style hotels. Of the different accommodation website, booking.com seemed to work best. Here’s where we went and where we stayed: 1) Habarana – Mutu Village To explore the ‘Cultural Triangle’ area of Sri Lanka, we based ourselves in Habarana, as it is well located for visiting Sigiriya, Dambulla, Polonnaruwa and Minneriya National Park. Following a strong recommendation in an online travel discussion, I booked us…
After enjoying our first Hindu wedding in Chennai, India, we flew to Sri Lanka for 10 days to explore the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’. It was just a short hour and half flight across the Indian Ocean. Very excited to be at Sigiriya We spent our first four nights in the country in Habarana – a town in an area of Sri Lanka known as the ‘Cultural Triangle’. There’s not much to see in Habarana itself, although I did…