Sri Lankan Adventures continued

It is only the third day of our tuk tuk adventure and already our grand plan of doing daily updates has failed - after 8 hours of bone rattling tuk tuk travels, a shower and bed have been the only thing on our minds. So i will now try and remember everything that has happened in the last 48 hours to give you a snap shot of our Sri Lankan adventures.


Saturday morning saw the chequered flag raised (literally) and it was all systems go as 20 brightly decorated tuk tuks with even more oddly costumed passengers took off north from Colombo. Amongst the enterage was a big bird and Kirmit the Frog, various superheroes, cross dressers and of course the Chilli Express kitted out in our red capes and various chilli accessories. The poor residents of Sri Lanka did not know what had hit them - the expressions on the kids faces were a mixture of terror, followed quickly by amusement and then unbridled enthusiasm as they waved us on. Our first challenge was to locate a fort in a coastal town north of Colombo where we had to find our route map for the day. After a few wrong turns, some quick u-turns and directions from a couple of friendly locals we found the fort and were back on the road. Each day of this trip we have to cover, on average, 150 kms (in a vehicle that likes to travel around 35 km/hr) and we are also given a series of challenges to complete in that journey - some locational based, others involve interaction with unsuspecting locals. Day 1 of the challenge involved Brendan managing to talk his way into the kitchen of a Sri Lankan restaurant to make his own rotti (easy 20 points scored there) and we also had to get ourselves "invited" to lunch by a local family. This challenge proved a little more...challenging! After a knock back from a guy who clearly thought we were insane, we were crossing a large bridge when we saw a huge gathering of local families down by the water. Another quick u-turn and we found our way town to the waters end where we were soon mobbed by excited children trying to figure out what the hell these crazy foreigners were doing crashing their family picnic. We bought with us a bunch of colouring pencils and pens to give out to kids and they worked a treat- any reservations and shyness went out the window and we soon were being escorted by a group of kids over to where their parents were setting up for lunch - Bingo! What followed was 1.5 hours of hilarity, slight awkarness at times, but followed by many smiles, some english lessons and the best fish curry we have ever had. Mission accomplished. The sweet relief of finally making it to our hotel was only topped by diving into the inifinity pool overlooking the Indian ocean.

On Sunday morning we left the mid west coast and headed north through the Wilpattu National Park where we would eventually camp by an area called the Giant's Tank - a huge dam in the North of Sri Lanka. Our challenges for the day were to visit a church, a mosque and a temple and find out when the buildings were built, collect a bag of rubbish from the national park and...wait for it....challenge a SOLDIER to a push up competition. The military presence in Sri Lanka is still very strong so there was certainly no lack of soldiers to approach but the rather large guns they all carry was rather off-putting. As we headed north the roads became narrower and the we said goodbye to bitchumen to bump our way through dirt and sand tracks at an average of 10km/hr. Wow, I am going to need some serious chiropractor work after this trip! The national park was beautiful - it was such a juxtaposition from the Palm covered landscape that we had seen on day 1. It almost felt like we could have been somewhere in Africa. We were told that this is one of the most heavily populated areas in the world for leopards and although our wildlife spotting was limited to a cheeky monkey and a variety of birds, it wasn't hard to imagine that behind the tree line was a family of leopards and elephants watching these tuk tuks bounce along and wondering what the hell was going on. Just as we left the national park we were stopped at one of the many military check points that we had encountered on our route and passports and papers had to be dug out. Seizing the day, we dusted off our miming skills to explain to a group of soldiers that we were doing a race around the country and we had to do a push up contest. Before we knew it, one of the young soldiers eagily stripped off his shirt and it was the Sri Lanka v Aussie Push Up contest of 2012. Let's just say that Brendan did a valiant effort and I will try and get the video up here soon. Priceless! We eventually pulled into our camping site around dusk, just in time to see eagles circling over head. After a camp shower and some food it was off to bed to recover before the next day of bone rattling tuk tuking.

Just before I end this, here are some quick observations on Sri Lanka so far. The people are incredibly friendly and willing to help a stranger, no matter how odd they may look dressed up in chilli costumes. Smiles come easy and are freely given by all and the kids are simply gorgeous. The food is amazing. Sri Lankans really know how to use their chilli but not just to add heat, but to really flavour the dishes. And finally, driving a tuk tuk is A LOT OF FUN.

Ok, must run and enjoy our first rest day by the pool. Stay tuned...more adventures to come.

 //Kate