Off season boons

Would you travel outside peak season? I’m here to give you some really good reasons why you might like to consider doing it. Unless of course, you are one of choir. Travelling during peak season has its perks for sure – the snow is dumping 3 feet overnight, the surf breaks are clean, fat, barrelling waves, the cities and towns are alive with shops/restaurants/museums all open. All that fun and lively-ness also hits the hip pocket, sometimes brutally. All of that is justifiable and I’m by no means suggesting that anyone should travel only in the off-shoulder season. But often, the same places can be just as beautiful, just as festive, just as fun, off-peak and for a fraction of the price.

I’ve done a lot of travel in the off season. As a student and when I was working on minimal salary, it was the most affordable way to travel. Wanderlust is a terrible thing! Europe in winter is so beautiful. If you can’t afford to ski, grab a sled or toboggan. Sipping on hot chocolate or mulled wine while perusing markets is a cheap way to soak in the local culture and atmosphere. Get up close to Monet’s water lilies without having to stand on tip toe in a crowd 15, 20 people deep. Airfares are probably the biggest cost in travel and again, it’s much cheaper going during the off-season, plus you increase your chances of getting two seats to yourself!

Recently we came back from Costa Rica. It is a place that is so beautiful in its lushness and simplicity that I am embarrassed by my inefficiency in trying to describe it. We went in the ‘green season’. It’s called the ‘green season’ because the landscape is so dense, vibrant and green from all the rain. The rivers and waterfalls are flowing over-abundantly. We went in June and we had perfect weather every day (except for one day where it rained until 11am and the rest of the day was perfect). There were no crowds, service at restaurants was not quick (admittedly) but imagine what it must be like when there are crowds! We had whole beaches to ourselves which was fantastic for errant and erratic frisbee-throwing. The surf was fantastic and even more so without having to battle for a wave and worry about some numpty dropping in.

Accommodation was also so much cheaper. The hillside apartment with sea breezes and views over the ocean was actually affordable (no second mortgage needed). We stayed in a 2-bedroom villa right across the road from one of the best beaches, with a kitchen and pool for US$60 a night. We hired an ATV for the week for a 45% discount from peak rates.

Sure you may have to plan a little bit more and take into account that some things will be closed. But I’m sure that unless that museum/art gallery/restaurant is the sole reason for your travel, you’ll be able to find something else wonderful and magical and fantastic to do. Go on and do it! You won’t regret it.

 

Tuk tuk riding 101

We arrived in Sri Lanka after a 15 hour journey at midnight (5.30am back home). The transit through immigration and customs was fluid and we had to laugh at the duty free stalls – one side was your customary perfumes, cigarettes, alcohol; the other side was all about white goods… because you just never know when you might need a 400-litre fridge when you’re travelling around.

I was super pleased with myself for arranging our hotel driver to meet us at the airport because it didn’t look that there were any taxis available at that hour, and he knew exactly where our hotel was. In a city as big as Colombo there are literally hundreds of accommodation options. The USD30 we paid seemed like a small price to pay for the peace of mind, particularly a mind that was surviving on a few hours of sleep and the imminent jet lag.

In we piled into a Prius hatchback, 2 bags, a backpack, surfboard, 3 tired bodies. But that tiredness soon evaporated as we hit the empty streets and flew down the freeway towards Colombo. A few kilometres out of Colombo we hit a traffic jam – at 1.45am. What the??? People lined the streets, along with decorated elephants, parade floats and other vehicles. Our driver explained that it was a Buddhist festival.

We reached the hotel and fell asleep promptly.

The next day we decided we would head into the Old Town and visit the Pettah Markets. Tuk tuks are ubiquitous and rule the roads, or in Colombo anyway. Our first venture in a tuk tuk was jointly terrifying and exhilarating. As we careened through the traffic in a little 2 stroke vehicle, I could not help thinking that it was like real life Mario Bros. At each red traffic light, they weaved and jostled for pole position before taking off in a chorus of straining gears. While I squealed in the back seat, the tuk tuk drivers traversed the roads fearlessly, judging gaps in traffic to the exact, death-defying millimetre.

Most are metered. Those that aren’t mean that you just need to check the price with the driver. And make sure you bring lots of small notes with you as the drivers don’t have a lot of change. We did have a lovely driver who didn’t even charge us to go around the block back to our hotel in the hottest midday heat. We insisted on paying him and gave him lots of isthuti (thanks). Such is the generosity of the Sri Lankan people.

Tuk tuks are super cheap and a very efficient way to travel. Some of them even have roof racks and big boot spaces. We grabbed one of these to travel from Mirissa to Galle. A particularly wise decision when we easily weaved our way through traffic when we hit the traffic on the outskirts of Galle. One of the funnest ways to travel and very memorable.

How cheap is this!

Fountains in a park on a very hot Colombo day

Hoppers!

Mt Lavinia

Service….que?

This post is a nod to John Cleese’s magic and brilliance of Fawlty Towers.

How many Sri Lankans does it take to change a light bulb?
8.I kid you not. There was a power outage on a main road outside Matara after a bus had crashed through some houses’ walls, taking out a major power line, before coming to an abrupt halt in someone’s front garden. There was one person up a ladder looking unremotely like he knew what he was doing, with a serious SERIOUS lack of occupational health & safety awareness. I’m not sure he was even wearing shoes. It only took 7 hours before the power came back on. In the meantime, we were starting to sweat – not from the heat, but from concern with how our beers were going to stay chilled.

We asked how long the train journey is from Kandy to Ella, a particularly beautiful train trek through the tea plantations. Our driver’s face breaks into a half smile and he shrugs casually, as if he is apologising for the state of his country’s train service. “Six and a half hours,” he says. There is a slight pause. “But sometimes it can be a whole day because the train has to climb up the mountains. Sometimes there is a landslide.” Great. I am filled with confidence.

I decide that like most things in Sri Lanka, there is no real urgency to anything, not even if it means throwing an entire city’s population, or a hefty number of tourists, into disarray due to delay.

I can’t be sure if some people working in the hospitality industry in Sri Lanka have absorbed their nation’s colonial background too much; so much that they now model a standard set by Basil Fawlty. Maybe it’s just those who work at one of the outlets around the beach areas. Maybe they got too much sun. Maybe they have been hypnotised by the amount of flesh (see my first post) on display. Yet, I found it difficult to accept the fact that it took FOR-E-VER to get any service, and a further eon to actually be the beneficiary of our order.

Me: Hello, Could we please have 2 teas with milk and one coffee.
Waiter: 2 teas with milk and one coffee.
Me: Yes. Perfect. Thank you.
5 minutes pass. 10 minutes pass. 30 minutes pass. Don’t tell me there’s another power outage.
Waiter [approaches our table]: Sorry madam. The other guy did not understand your order. You want 2 teas with milk and one coffee yes?
Me: Yes. Please.
A further 20 minutes pass before we get our two teas with milk and one coffee.

I finally understand how Bruce Banner feels before he morphs into The Hulk.

I know we’re meant to be on holiday, but the saying “on Sri Lankan time” makes me shudder and my face contorts like I’m agonised. Before heading to Sri Lanka, I knew that things might be a bit slower than what we’re used to. But I wasn’t prepared for just how much slower. I kept wondering what Gordon Ramsey would have to say if he saw how half these kitchens ran – you’d get an episode consisting of a soundtrack of bleeps and it’d make for a very short series.

In the end we adjusted (as you do when travelling). We brought snacks for our 8 year old to tide him over or ordered for him first, and we partook of the Happy Hour(s) menu which ran from 5pm to 10pm. Gold. Ordinarily this would be a costly exercise, but when mojitos, the local Arrack Attack cocktails and a raft of other spirits are only AUD$4, why would you not? The irritation from terribly slow service is numbed and all is right with the world again. If only Happy Hour was 24-7.

The good, the bad, and the ugly – Our Sri Lankan adventure (sponsored by chocolate creams and Marie biscuits)

I start at the end in a hotel by the beach in Bentota. By anyone’s standards, it would seem a great way to end a month of travelling semi-backpacking-style with an 8 year old in tow. 

Except that I should have known that we are not the type of family to enjoy staying in a 100+ room hotel, with a pool as warm as a bath, and full of western tourists with too much dimply, wobbly flesh squished into too-tiny swimsuits. The ladies reminded me of strings of sausages where their bikinis tied off bulging flesh – yes I know that probably sounds terrible, believe me it was and I do not exaggerate.

It was a painstaking 36 hours of awkwardness where I wasn’t sure if I was meant to avert my eyes or openly stare. I took my cue from the senior hotel staff and took the former option. Unlike the seedy touts standing at the edge of the hotel on the public beach leering at half naked bodies. 

I’m happy to say that this was not my total experience of Sri Lanka, a country that is at once ancient yet innocent. For a small island, it was surprising to discover the different geographical and topographical features, the co-mingling of cultures and religions, a musical cacophony of sounds with the ever-present bus horn. It was like being blindfolded and being fed something, to find that you were tasting the most delicious morsel ever. It is a beautiful country, an intriguing country, an enchanting country. We were challenged physically, mentally and (what I was most unprepared for) emotionally. 

So began a month of creating some happy, lovely, wonderful, tiring, bad, breathtaking moments.