Backpackers delight

Now we are in Ella, backpacker haven where there are more smoothie bowls, yoga mats and ayurveda spas per capita than we’ve ever experienced, and this is also where all western tourists apparently were hiding as we hardly met any previously.

I am very happy about the change in the culinary offer (no offence rice and curry - but after 10 days it is very nice with a jackfruit burger on rye bread with hummus…) We also have a homestay with sheets, good wifi and water in the showers - love it! :)

Unfortunately health has been better, as the 3 small stomaches have checked out to different degrees, my sinuses are out of order - but Justus is still going strong.

All respect to Kiara who climbed Ella rock (9 km) with toilet breaks approx every 200 m.

There are stray dogs everywhere - this size they are hard not to pet though.

Top of Ella rock!

Start of highlands in Haputale

Now Anna has taken over the keyboard again. 

We left the big animals and hottest temperatures behind us and travelled up ( both in terms of altitude and when you look at the map.)

In Haputale we found a very basic but genuine homestay where we joined the birthday party for the daughter in the house who turned 8. Total sugar overload. 

1 dollar haircut. 

Haputale is famous for tea. Step one: hand picked tea leaves. Please note the workers’ resting room. 

Up at Lipton’s seat

Shortcutting through the tea fields on the way down

A factory visit where there were some room for improvement regarding SHE, and Justus was thrilled about the flashbacks from his consulting days.

Birthday party!

Even our underwear could enjoy the view.

Early morning hike where we got a private guide. Hundis.

Merissa

Merissa

Hello, Junia here! We are now on our way to Haputale in a car with a driver who is dads friends friend;) After Unawatuna we went to Merissa were we lived in a beautiful place. We had fantastic neighbour kids and the people we rented the house from were amazing people. They were also amazing cooks and the food we ate at their place was unbelievable. 

We came to Merissa around lunch time and they had already prepared a bunch of different pancakes which we instantly fell in love with. Alma had unfortunately gotten fever the day before so she wasn’t really feeling it but the rest ate the food like hungry wolves. Since Alma was sick, mom stayed home with her when the rest of the family went to town the same day.

In town Kiara and I stopped for an ice cream which was delicious and dad stopped for an iced cappuccino at a cafe named Capybara that he still said might be the best coffee in Sri Lanka;) After our little snack we went to the beach and did the most amazing thing ever in my opinion. We rented boogiebords! We flew over the waves for over an hour until our time was up but that might be one of the best experiences we have had in Sri Lanka so far.

After that we went home and when Alma heard what we had done she also wanted to to it so the next day when she had recovered from fever we did the exact same thing but for more than two hours, it was really fun! Before we went to the boogiebording that day Kiara, dad and me went on a whale safari. It was not that fun tho since the crew wasn’t felling it and first made dad pay more than he was supposed to and second, ignored when their friends called from the other boats saying that they saw whales. We did see dolphins tho which was pretty fun.

 After the boggiebording we went home for a surprise, a bunch of kids were playing outside our home and they wanted us to join. It was really fun playing with them and we taught them a lot of Swedish different games for example, ”under hökens alla vingar” and ”banankull.” We will miss those kids very much, but I think dad will miss them most. He bonded with one boy like they were old friends and that was really fun to see.

The next day Alma of course also wanted to see whales so she and dad went out on the safari again since dad missed the wales the day before and had missed the king cobra the year before. The crew was really feeling it this day which was really fun so dad got his money back and they saw bluewales! Alma came home really happy that day which was amazing since she hadn’t been feeling good the days before. After this we said goodbye to our lovely hosts and amazing neighbours and were on our way to our next adventure. 

Tissa

Tissa

After Merissa we went to Tissa were the house definitely wasn’t as good as the one before but still okay. They did have a pool tho which was a plus point at first but when all the kids cut themselves with blood over there hole legs it wasn’t as fun anymore.

We came around lunch the first day and since we were pretty tired we just did a chill day by the pool and went in to the city for dinner. Lunch we ate at the restaurant by the house but it could definitely not beat the food we ate at the place before! 

The next day we started of strong with safari. We had to wake up at 04:15 which was not the best but our driver had to wake up much earlier so we couldn’t complain. We did have an amazing driver that put us in the top 3 in the line of hundred of cars that also wanted to come in to the nation park to do safari which we were so thankful for. At first we just drove around and saw a lot of peacocks, buffels, crocodiles, antilops and lots of other birds. We had a nice time, feeling wind in our hair as we were sitting in our safarijeep until our driver got o phone call. 

We were pressed backwards in our seats and flying over the savannah. We were wondering why and when every car we past by started to follow us we were really confused. It was an amazing feeling sitting in such high speed looking around untill the driver slowed down. The more than ten cars after us did the same and we started to roll in deeper to the bushes. Then we saw it, was it the long lost lepard? No, but it was something almost as amazing. Right infront of us stood the most massive animal we had ever seen (except the bluewale then.) An elephant! It was standing still and eating as every person were looking at it and taking pictures. Then it turned around and made a big dump right infront of us.

When we drove away and had been driving for some minutes we stopped and we were confused once again. Then we saw it again, an elephant! But this time the elephant wasn’t alone, it had it’s whole family with it. It was really fun seeing all these animals and even tho we didn’t see a lepard it was an amazing experience!

When we came home from the safari we first took a looong shower since it was really hard getting all the dust of our bodies. After that we did a thing that Kiara had been looking out for, for a very long time. It is called ”jullappar” and why we do it is because we don’t get our christmas presents when we are in vacation instead we get them after the vacation but the kids want to celebrate something here aswell so that’s why we do it. The thing you do is that you write something nice about every person on a paper and on the same paper you write a gift to that person that you will do together for example go to the cinema or see a football game live. 

After this we had another pool half day were we just took it easy and hung out were we lived. We did go out to eat at night and we ate at an amazing restaurant in my opinion:) The next day it was time to drive to the next place and now we’re back on the sentence I said first ”we are now on our way to Haputale with a driver who is dads friends friend.” It is one hour and 13 minutes untill we arrive and the only thing mom said about the new home is that is high up in the mountains, you can swim in a waterfall almost next to our house and that you can do a lot of nice walkes up there. The last one dos not sound as fun as the others…

Goodbye and istutti for reading this!

Landed in Sri Lanka

We are now on our 3rd day on this Sri Lankese adventure, and are getting into both the heat & jet lag but are still working on the number of Russians and mosquitoes.

The trip here took about 36h, with some additional delay in Istanbul. At least we got a small flavour of Istanbul, some fantastic kebab and the best baklava I’ve ever tasted. Fresh from the oven end literally melting in your mouth.

DIY beds, almost like IKEA!

Our first destination in Sri Lanka is Unawatuna, a beach place on the very explored south west coast. We have discovered quite a few beaches already, snorkelled with turtles, big fish and unfortunately quite a lot of rubbish. The amount of plastic both in the sea and on land is just too sad for words. 

Up on land we’ve seen monkeys, big lizards, a snake eating a frog and peacocks. On the less pleasant animal side we have mosquitoes and cockroaches, mainly upsetting the youngest family members.

People are super friendly and food is good - especially for those daring the local cuisine! ;)

Oh, the fruit…

Treat after massage at Serenity Spa

Leaving some footprints in a restaurant



Fort Galle, Unesco listed old Dutch remains

When having mosquito bites even under your foot, it’s good to have strong sisters!

Local line dancing

Tropical rainfall

Snorkling with turtles

Beach life 

Bye Thai!

Thailand now feels very far away - but the jetlag is still oh so close, 3rd day home.

Our final days in BKK we did our best to break the daily steps record (the 2024 average of some 16000 daily will unfortunately drop like an Ericsson stock once home and back at work.) We also maximised the street food intake (oh how we miss those smoothies and the food!!!) and enjoyed the 25m pool. Kiara swam simborgarmarket, 200 m.

Cycling tour

Flower market 

China town

Reclining Buddha - world’s largest 

Last night market…

Thailand treated us really well, but eventually it was time to hit reality again. As usual, it was such a luxury to spend so much time together and build memories. Planning the next trip already started…