Singapore and Sri Lanka - two spectacular additions to our trip

Singapore

On 13th April 2023 we landed in Singapore where we would spend a few days, on our way from the Philippines before going to Sri Lanka. We were so lucky because JJ, Rory’s cousin kindly let us stay in his apartment while he was away on holiday. It did mean we didn’t get to catch up with him which was a shame, but we really loved his apartment and the area Tiong Bahru.

We had a busy couple of days but most of our time was spent testing out the food in the different Hawker Centres. A Hawker Centres is food court often open aired (they often looked like multi-story car parks) where many food stalls can be found, the stalls generally specialise in one or two dishes and are priced reasonably. We absolutely loved them and have conclude that the food we had in Singapore was the best of the whole trip. Most of the time we ate lots of different types of dumplings, or pork noodles, with the best being some dumplings from the Chinatown Hawker Centre which were like Bao buns but fried on one side (mind-blowing!)

Whilst in Singapore we travelled using the metro which was so clean and efficient. We visited many areas including Little India, the Arab quarter, Emerald Hill Road and the Marina where we had drinks at the iconic Marina Bay Sands rooftop bar which has amazing views of the city.

We also went to the Gardens at The Bay and visited the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. The Cloud Forest is an impressive domed conservatory which features a 35-meter-tall man-made mountain which is covered in lush vegetation and has a waterfall flowing from it. Apparently, the world’s tallest indoor waterfall! A few times a day they spray the conservatory with mist in order to keep the climate right for the tropical plants. We also visited the Flower Garden which is split into different areas and shows plants from distinctive regions of the world.

On our last day we hit the beach and went to Tanjong Beach Club where we met up with Phil (Rory’s close friend and our wedding MC) who happened to be spending the weekend in Singapore with his girlfriend (great coincidence). It was lovely to catch up with Phil and to meet Andy and we had such a fun lunch with them.

Although our trip was as a whistle stop tour, (Rory’s first time here) we both really loved Singapore and would happily come back, although the weather was certainly temperamental (humid, hot and some torrential rain).

Sri Lanka

We arrived in Sri Lanka late at night but fortunately had a pre-arranged driver who picked us up and drove us 90 miles south to Galle which we were eager to get to, as we had planned to spend the next two days watching the Ireland vs Sri Lanka test match. Our guesthouse was located close to the cricket stadium, just outside the beautiful fortified old town.

We spent the next two days watching the cricket from the club house, chatting to lots of Expats and didn’t even need to pay for tickets.

On the second evening we met up with Tom and Sarah. Tom is a school friend of Rory’s who recently moved to Sri Lanka with his girlfriend. We had a lovely evening having drinks and dinner in the historic Portuguese and Dutch style old town.

We spent the next few days a little further down the coast on the beach, where we did body boarding and ate some wonderful vegetarian curries. We decided to only eat vegetables or fish in Sri Lanka and we certainly didn’t miss having meat as the curry’s we had were amazing. For most meals we had a minimum of 6 small bowls of different vegetable curries. These were often aubergine, beetroot, green beans, jackfruits or pumpkin, all served with rice and Roti bread. We moved further south around the coast to Hiriketiya beach, next to the more known Dickwella beach.

Hiriketiya is a very beautiful little bay filled with surfers. We had a delicious meal out at the popular Smoke & Bitters restaurant which has been set up by an English girl and had the best selection of cocktails.

Our next stop was Yala national Park. As Sri Lanka is pretty small (similar size to Ireland) we ended up getting drivers around the island as they were very affordable and much safer than the buses which sped around the island like lunatics. Sri Lanka has many national parks however we choose to go to Yala as it has the highest concentration of leopards. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up seeing a leopard, but we did have an amazing time driving around in our massive open sided 4x4 and saw lots of elephants, spotted dear, crocodiles, monkeys, peacocks, hornbills, bats and storks.

After Yala it was time to leave the heat (35 degrees) and head north into the hills. This is the part of Sri Lanka we were most excited about as had heard the tea country were stunning; we were not disappointed. The weather was much cooler here particularly at night and in the late afternoons we had a couple of hours of pouring rain.

While staying in the hilltop town of Ella we hiked to the famous Nine Arch bridge and Little Adams Peak and visited a tea factory which was very interesting. Throughout the area we saw women picking the tea in the fields with big bags on their backs, apparently their delicate hands are better at picking than mens. We then learnt about the process of sorting and drying the tea into different grades and were told that the heavier darker colour tea was more premium.

Whist in Ella we did a cooking course which was a lot of fun. We made an amazing selection of vegetable curries, dahl and roti and were surprised how quickly and easily they came together. The food in Sri Lanka uses a lot of fresh coconut milk and is much lighter than Indian curries. We also got to try a local breakfast of hoppers and curry. Hoppers are a thin bowl-shaped pancake made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk, often served with an egg in the middle. Very yummy but actually hard to come by as the batter needs to be prepared the night before and stirred in the night.

Our next stop would be the town of Nuwara Eliya which is also in the tea country and was reached via train. This train line which runs between Kandy to Ella is famous for being one of the world’s most beautiful and it didn’t disappoint.

As we got closer to Nanuoya where we alighted the train, we noticed a huge amount of vegetable patches and men selling bags of freshly picked vegetables from the train tracks. The climate was clearly perfect for tea, fruit and vegetables, we even saw strawberry which grow all year around.

Nuwara Eliya was Rory’s favourite place in Sri Lanka, with its beautiful vibrant tea fields, cascading waterfalls, English style buildings and colder climate. The locals call the town little England, but it actually seems more Scottish. It even has a golf course and an old-fashioned post office with a red post box at the front and most of the tea plantations were named after cities in the UK.

We ended up spending a lot of time at the Grand Hotel where we had high tea on one day and then cocktails and a game of snooker on our second night. The Grand hotel was the former residence of the UK governor to Sri Lanka in 1830’s but has since been developed into a historical hotel and has hosted guest such as Queen Elizabeth 2 and Sean Connery.

After a few days we continued the beautiful train journey north to Kandy going through the tea fields and mountains. We just spent one night in Kandy and had a very good Indian meal and Hoppers made for breakfast by the kind guesthouse host before travelling to Polonnaruwa in the northern centre of Sri Lanka. We spent the day cycling around the ancient ruins of Polonnaruwa which used to be the capital of Sri Lanka. We saw lots of interesting temples and loads of cheeky monkeys!

The next day we headed back west towards Sigirya. Whist driving, we passed an Elephant which had come out of the jungle to cross the road! Sigirya is known for its ancient rock fortress, commonly known as Lions Rock. We didn’t actually climb the rock as the entry fee has recently been hiked up significantly but climbed the nearby Pidurangala rock which is much steeper and gives amazing views of Lions rock and the surrounding jungle.

Later that day we got a tuck- tuck to Dambulla rock temple which is filled with hundreds of gold Buddha status and beautiful painting on the walls. They are extremely well preserved and really amazed us.

We then headed back towards Colombo for our final couple of nights in Sri Lanka. We stayed in a very nice hotel which had a great rooftop infinity pool looking over the sea and the city and we had a wonderful meal on our final night at the Shangri-La hotel before saying goodbye to Asia and heading back to Europe.

Sri Lanka was an amazing experience, and we loved our time there. Although it wasn’t on our original list of places to visit, we were so glad we went. The people were so friendly, the food was unbelievably delicious, the scenery was stunning with such a variety of landscapes and the country was really easy to travel and very affordable. We are keen to go back and next time spend more time travelling the north of the country which is less touristic and will hopefully see a Leopard!