Another 5 hours train through the mountains brought me to famous Kandy. This time it was way harder than the previous time: I was still standing in the coach, it was raining hard, as usual doors were kept open, and I had to share the ride with another group of young men singing loud and dancing hard. First hour was actually good, I enjoyed their songs, but it turned into nightmare because they never stopped over the 5 hours ride. I was standing, with no way to move because of the extremely dense crowd, very cold air was flowing inside the cabin and the guys turned their songs into screams. Yes, next time I will switch to 2nd class!
I was full of expectations, Kandy being one of the most famous places in Sri Lanka for his cultural and religious sights. I arrived under heavy rain, and as usual I had to walk for about 1 hour to find a decent place to stay. I wanted to take my time as I planned to stay for 3 nights in Kandy. I found a pretty good deal, bargained hard and had to pay for the 3 nights.
Day after I woke up early to start visiting the area but rain had continued non stop over night. There was no way to walk around, so I waited in my room. It lasted for 2 days and 2 nights. On my third day in Kandy, sky gave me a truce: few hours of sunny weather, so I could walk around the lake and roam in the beautiful city streets. Rain again.
I was surprised by how Kandy becomes a ghost city minutes after sunset: all shops and restaurants close around 7pm, and streets are no longer illuminated. It's a bit creepy to walk around after that hour!
So finally, and unfortunately, I was unable to properly visit Kandy, since I spent most of my time waiting for a thinning.
I continued northbound and stopped in Sigiriya for the night, where I got lost in the jungle by searching a guesthouse. I finally realized I was walking in the wrong direction for about 2 hours, and guess what? It was 1pm, 35 degrees and I carried all my luggage on my back.... Happy times!
Sigiriya is a very tiny city (few houses actually), but amazingly quiet. Main sight here is a big rock with lot of religious spots. As soon as I saw the rock I realized I will have been unable to climb it, knowing my dizziness problem... But fortunately rock is also beautiful from bottom, specially at sunset!

I continued towards north and Trincomalee where I spent two days chilling on the beach, swimming and eating delicious seafood. I had the chance to go for an early morning sail to watch dolphins. I woke up at 4am, and by 5 we were in open sea meeting dozens of wild dolphins swimming around the boat. Some even made crazy jumps to greet us!

Today I have reached my first month of travel across Asia and my third week in Sri Lanka, which also coincide with the end of my travel on the island: tomorrow I will leave towards Trivandrum, India for my work and for a few days only.
I am leaving the country with a global good feeling. On one side I was lucky to be around during low season, because of cheapest opportunities and less tourist around. On the other side, low season also brings bad weather, specially in the mountains.
Surprisingly, I didn't found a country too much polluted by tourism (again..low season). People here keep living with their own way of life not trying to act, look or think like western people.
Sri Lanka is poor country: most of people have no current water, telephone, internet access and private cars. Sri Lanka is very rich country: most of people have amazing landscapes, great climate, good and healthy food and over all: most of them are among the nicer people I have met during my past travels.
Thanks to all the Sri Lankan I met on the road, special thanks goes to Sampah and Maeish from Tangalle, and Nilu from Arugam Bay.




Some travel facts about Sri Lanka:

Total stay: 3 weeks, 22 day.
Total distance covered: 1265km
Cities where I slept: 12
Longest stay: 3 days in Kandy...
Highest point: Nuwara Eliya, 2000m
Lowest point: many, 0m
Hottest point: probably Galle, around 37 degrees
Coldest point: certainly Nuwara Eliya, 3 degrees
Greatest experience: Sharing tuna and arrack with local fishermen in Tangalle
Worst experience: train ride between Nuwara Eliya and Kandy
Words learned in local language: 1: fish.