Road Trip

We hired a driver for our trip southward from Karpaha Sands on the east coast to the DoubleTree in Weerawila near Yala National Park– about a 5hr drive. After a quick two-night stay at the DoubleTree, we hired a second car to bring us the remainder of the way to Villa Don Hendrick in Tangalle.

Villa Don Hendrick is a beautiful, peaceful, stunning place. We’ve been here now for six nights. The villa is about ten minutes outside of Tangalle, just past some rice paddies and only kilometers from the beautiful south coast beaches. As I write, I’m sitting on the veranda of our bungalow enjoying the blue skies, peacocks and the hum of the ceiling fan. I have a cold soda, and the bushes and palms are rustling in the wind. If I’m lucky, I’ll see one of the resident monitor lizards making its way across the lawn, just as earlier this morning, we had a lovely tree frog sitting inside of the wardrobe.

Both of our drivers, from Karpaha and then from Yala, were so kind. They took time to stop along the way and show us something or teach us something we didn’t know. (Well, that I didn’t know).

Sights and adventures:

I hadn’t thought about it, but drying rice in such a humid climate could pose some challenges. We saw rice paddies that were soaked in ponds of water and others that were dried out for harvest. To fully dry the rice, men piled mounds of grain onto the hot concrete of the road, taking up a stretch of one lane, leaving the other lane for traffic. Traffic adjusted as if there was construction ahead, cars, motorcycles and trucks sometimes taking turns to pause, then pass in the single lane, sometimes just passing head on at the same time. Sri Lankan driving is always an experience in itself.

I also learned that the tree houses and platforms hammered roughly above the fields were elephant lookouts. The loud blasts that we were sometimes hearing were firecrackers to scare the elephants (and marauding monkeys) away.

We got a look at a cobra crossing the road as we drove through a rural neighborhood with small shops here and there. We stopped at a family shop to pick up some soda and use the bathroom. I had a small quandary about procedure once I got to the ladies toilet, as you can see. I was mostly worrying about aim and my legs giving out. I would be quite embarrassed to miss, but all was well and I departed with a sense of accomplishment. I feel like a pro.

And I almost forgot the roadside fire-roasted corn on the cob. Our driver insisted on buying us some and likewise bought a heap of bananas.

Now, to the most mortifying part of the journey. I thought the bananas were for us. No, these were to be elephant bananas. Imagine, all of my elephant experiences in the wild, the sum total of my adventures, have been with the huge, sometimes-not-always-in-a good-mood African elephants. (We’ve had our share of ears out and the annoyed head shake. I even foolishly got close enough to be trumpeted at in our early camping days in Kruger). But now, we have bananas in the car and wild elephants on the road. My god, I almost keeled over as one approached for its banana treat!! Hand feeding a wild elephant— how many exclamation marks should I add here!?! As I’m staring at the knee of this big ele just a meter from my window, panic! The bananas got chucked out of that car window so fast— to add to the embarrassment, the plastic bag went with the bananas. I was having none of it. Sorry, buddy. I felt terrible afterward. Poor ele. I’m going to pick up every plastic bag I see to do penance. And no more panicking, as I’ve been instructed by Richard. Breath. Remain calm. Many of the eles here are used to being fed. Though it’s still foolish to approach these guys on foot, as we saw some people do, getting out of their tuk tuk and walking casually forward toward the first ele on the road. Good grief—that just has bad outcome written all over it.

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At the DoubleTree, we rested and caught up on email. I mulled over my elephant experience and enjoyed dosas for breakfast and sunset drinks on the rooftop. During the day, when everyone else was away on safari, we swam and lounged and had the pool to ourselves– it’s an impressive bit of water, artfully spanning the length of the entire hotel, complete with a swim-up bar and shady trees. A big monitor lizard wandered out of the plants one morning and headed toward the pool. We thought he’d swim, but instead he got just poolside, pooped and left. Not sure how to interpret that… Once rested, we continued on to our next big destination: Villa Don Hendrick in Tangelle

Our drive from Yala to Villa Don Hendrick was much calmer. We saw huge fruit bats hanging together in the trees resting. (Can you see them in the feature image at the top of this post? Of course, it looks like I just took a picture of random tree branches and bushes, but there are big beautiful bats hanging upside down in those branches.) There were the water buffalo and rice paddies. The cows. The dogs. Richard said he’d opt for his own bungalow if he heard me say “I see!” to the driver one more time. (Think high-pitched enthusiasm.) Needless to say, I have emphasized my “I see!” exclamations recently. 

🙂