Another short bus trip further east along the Sri Lanka’s South coast brought us to Tangalla. With no accommodations booked our first attempt at finding a room failed but with a new recommendation we were checked into Panaroma hotel not long after. Bags thrown to the ground and it was time to hit the beach.
We left Unawatuna for the promises of quieter beaches and headed East to Mirissa. The hour long bus ride brought us along a coastal road with views of turquoise waves and lush tropical forest out our right hand window.
In Mirissa, we quickly fell into a routine of eating a cheap breakfast of roti with egg or fruit at a local hut for a meal 1/10th the price of the hotels. The extremely friendly owner is a testament to our first impressions of Sri Lanka which is that its people are some of the warmest and kindest we have come across yet, and saying a country is friendly after visiting India is a difficult thing to do.
Leaving the chaos of India behind us our journey led us onward to the tiny isle of Sri Lanka. We arrived at 1030pm and after passing through the easiest immigration yet, we were in a taxi on our way to our hotel in Negombo, about 20 mins from the airport.
It took some pulling and prying to remove Lianna from the sands of Palolem in Goa but afterwards we boarded our sleepless sleeper bus for the 12 hour trip to Hampi. Immediately upon arriving we knew this was a place quite unlike anything we had seen.
My requisite for coming to India was a promise to spend Christmas in Goa. Besides being known as a hippy hangout from the 70′s onward, Goa also happens to be India’s highest concentration of Catholics as it was previously a Portuguese colony. Having never spent a Christmas away from my home and my traditions, I wanted to be somewhere that at least acknowledged the holiday.
There are many flights to Delhi from the rest of India and while we near the end of our North India loop we have begun to get excited about spending Christmas on the beach. However, we still had one last stop in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya. Rishikesh. Getting there proved rather uncomfortable for us as we could not find any private buses from Chandigarh to Rishikesh or nearby Haridwar and were forced to pile onto a government bus bursting with passengers for the next 7 hours.
After having a rough week with our 2 day stay average starting to take it’s tole on our brains, we were starting to wish we had booked our Goa tickets for an earlier date for some much needed beach time, but unfortunately our tickets weren’t changeable.
We arrived in Chandigarh with the hopes of having a bit of a relaxation break considering there isn’t much to see in Chandigarh from a tourist stand. All those hopes were shattered the minute we stepped off the bus. Walking away after being literally surrounded by Indian men/boys to get our business for their rickshaws, I promptly had to turn around and tell the lot of them to “Please F*CK OFF!.” After a long bus ride having your ass grabbed is not a nice introduction to a city.
From here we got in a rickshaw and drove around to 10 different hotels being turned away by each (except one, which I walked away from on the account of a very apparent cockroach infestation.) When we got to our eighth hotel we asked if we could use their phone to call another hotel to see if they have room because we were tired of driving around, the receptionist obliged and called speaking Punjabi on the phone with the other hotel. After we thanked him and handed him some rupees for his help, we got in the rickshaw and arrived at the hotel he had called for us only to learn no one had called and surprise, surprise…they also had no room. After Nick used his very serious voice with the next hotel owner and assured him that we would not leave until we spoke to a hotel that had vacancy, we ended up at hotel AB’s which was $50 compared to our average budget of under $10. Although it was nice I didn’t feel it was quite worth $50, as in India $50 can generally get you a very nice place.
Waking up this morning we were well rested (on sheets that were pure white no less!) but were sitting uneasy knowing we were eating away at our travel fund. We decided to call one of our original budget options and stay the next night there.
We boarded yet another train this time in Delhi, and after falling asleep, we woke up the following morning just outside our destination, Amritsar.
