Sri Lanka, the pearl of the Indian Ocean

[Guest]

I have finally worked at a place for one year with out taking a single day off, been saving my cash and dreaming about what to do with it.

I am taking my lovely girl to the paradise island of Sri Lanka or Ceylon for those of you who drink tea.
We are going there mainly for the surfing and to get our first taste of India and to put some money back into the coastal areas that were devastated by the tsunami.
I am quite interested to know what the cannabis situation is over there as I am looking to pick up funky equatorial sativas while I am in town.

I believe that the geography of Sri Lanka is perfect for growing weed as it is equatorial, covered in high mountains, and just a stones throw from southern India.

I have seen photos of the tea growing areas and it is so lush you could just imagine how good the smoke is.

I am under the impression that cannabis has been legalised for medicinal purposes, mainly for use by ayurvedic practitioners.

There is also the under lying issue of the ongoing civil conflict that has been going on and off over there for ages. To have a war you need funds and I assume a good way of getting funds would be to crop cannabis. I do not know if this is the case in Sri Lanka.

I am not so interested in purchasing smoke grown in India and imported but true strains of Sri Lanka. I want to go to where it is grown and get my seeds from the source, bring them home and cross it with my head stash and or just keep them to breed with the seeds I will get in Papua New Guinea in January.

So has any one been. The areas we will be in will be Arugam Bay, Trincomalee, The south coast, cultural triangle and tea growing areas.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kov]

Heh, I lived in Sri Lanka for a couple of years, hard to believe but true. Thing is it was back in.... heh nevermind.

...but I still remember the sweet smell of herb at the parties!

No idea what's the situation now, but I can tell you to just go, and have your eyes and ears open, for the people are friendly there, when approached humbly.

You're in for a treat, Trincomalee beach at sunrise! Suth coast, further away from tourist activity! Paradise on earth.

Damn I'm jealous!

Write about the trip someday.

rgds, kov

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the quick reply Kov.
I cant wait and I am sure I will put a full trip report up for the world to see.

 

[Thai Flowers]

Hi,

i have been there about 3-4 times and to be honest not found anything to write home about,....yet
The same with south India, althugh i know there are quite a few good ibl's from down there. I travelled India quite a bit back in Blah Blah Blah....but didn't find any powerfull Satays there in Kovlam, Kerala, Blah, blah and it wasn't though want of trying believe me...
Even Here in Thailand the mid range quality is much better than that i have found in both the previously mentioned places, and in the last 3 years i have found many mid to good quality "Strains" but only 1 really good type which has all the qualities, good smell, power, only a few seeds, blah, blah.
I have been on journey's just to look for seeds all over the S.E contient and to be honest the best seeds/weed i found was from the border of Loas/Cambodia, big flowers, great smell (haze), full powered trippy buzz whch lasted for 3 hours from 1/2 gram.

Hope you Find something to tell us about, as im sure there must be good weed there...
Oh and be carefull as its not safe there these days to "Blaze" in public, as i am awear that Loas is the only "safe-ish" place to smoke,....and that is becoming something that is trying going to be stamped out.

Peace.

 

[Guest]

My trip.

My trip.

After getting a new computer I thought that it would be a good idea to down load all my photos and give you guys a but of a trip report.

Sri Lanka was an excellent choice for a one month holiday. It was easy to navigate, cheap and the people were quite friendly towards me and my girl friend. Not such a weed friendly place but it was always available if one looked hard enough.
We started our trip with a hired driver to go and see the ancient sights in the central and northern areas of the country.


Monkeys are common all over Sri Lanka

There are a few ruins of cities and Palaces plus massive Buddha statues all over the
place. The people here are deeply religions either Buddhist or Hindu with a small Muslim and Catholic communities. They are always praying or lighting incense or giving small donations to others even when they have basically nothing to give. There spirituality appeared very deep and sincere.

 

[Guest]

We spent about 3 days touring these places. Checking out the sights but none was more inspiring than Sigiria, an ancient fort/palace built on top of a huge rock surrounded by jungle as far as the eye could see. It was pretty inspiring to sit at the top of this place and to think that this had once been a palace and you were in the company of ancient kings. The only problem with being up there was the 2000 odd steps back down.





We then went to Kandy visiting a touristy spice garden along the way. They had some local remedies made from cannabis at insane tourist prices but no actual plants growing at that time of year.



Above is the view across Kandy laake to the Temple of the Tooth. The temple is where one of Buddah's teeth is kept.

Kandy is a great place just to hang out. The prices are cheap, the people are friendly and the surrounds are just beautiful. Situated in a lush green valley at about 600 metres altitude this city of 600000 was just perfect to wander the streets and markets, hang by the lake, eat great food and just enjoy.







Rice and Curry is what we ate breakfast, lunch and tea. The price ranged from US$1.50 to US$3.50 for a big bowl of rice, one meat curry, 4-5 veg curries, sambal and pappadams. Street food could be bought for as little as 10-15 cents. Beer averaged around $1.60 for a longneck (about 700ml) and bottled water was 40c for a litre. You could also buy coconut arrack which is a sweet tasting spirit for about $3-$5 for a 700ml bottle I think.

 

[Guest]

One of the best things about Kandy is definitely the botanical gardens. Over 150 years old. These gardens had been established by the Colonial Brits and they did a mighty fine job of it. We went there on 3 separate occasions. The amount of beautiful tropical species was mind boggling.




Above a rare palm. Below a giant Javanese fig tree.



Sort of looks like Ganja.






I love Bamboo

 

[Guest]

After getting sick of the rain in Kandy we decided to catch the train out to mountainous areas on the eastern side of the island. Sri Lanka has 2 wet seasons. As we were there in July the south and west sides of the country are monsoonal while the east and north are hot and very dry. This switches around later in the year.



The train ride would have to be one of the best in the world. I must admit I haven’t been on many train rides in my life but this was just crazy. For about $5 us we bought seats in the observation carriage of the train. The seats were located in the very back of the train with the seats facing backwards and extra large windows every where giving you a unobstructed view of the many valleys, rivers, bridges, tea plantations and just beautiful scenery that we passed through. The train ride took about 7 hours until we arrived in our destination of a sleepy little village called Ella.

Shots I took from the train.





Ella sits at about 1000 metres right at the edge of the mountains with its view of the eastern plains and its relaxed village life style its major draw card. We spent a few days here climbing to the top of hills, chilling , drinking fresh tea and hanging out at the very flashy hotel drinking beer, watching cricket and world cup soccer on their TV and admiring the perfect view of the pass and the plains below.







From Ella we hooked up a driver to drive us the 4 hours or so down the pass and to the coast at Arugam Bay. The van only cost about $35.00 to hire and was an excellent bargain.

The east coast is a very hot, dry area with large areas of jungle and not many people. A few k’s out of town we came a cross a herd of wild elephants just hanging about 100 metres from the road. It was pretty cool

 

[Guest]

This whole area was totally devastated in the boxing day tsunami of 2004. Towns were wiped of the map, families wiped out and every thing was basically fucked up. As you approached the coast you can see the damage along way inland as there is no high ground in the area. Driving through Potuvil and then through to the bay you can see what must be some of the poorest people in the world. The main road is as bad as any tracks I have seen in the Northern Territory of Australia, debris lies everywhere and while some people have been accommodated by charities and such in one bedroom houses. The majority of the people are living in tin shanties drinking salty bore water and just barely getting by with the ominous threat of the looming civil conflict that has been taking place in this area very visible. Young soldiers with AK47’s, armoured cars, barbed wire and fortified positions with heavier machine guns are every where.

At Arugam Bay itself not much is different. The trees on the beach have all been snapped of about 5 metres up. A few destroyed boats still lie on the sand and about 100 new boats donated by charities lie unused on the sand. Many hotels have been rebuilt but there are some blocks of land just lying there, nothing happening.
The surf is the reason that people come to the Bay. Its remoteness (8 hour drive I think) from Kandy keeps the mainstream European tourists away. The surf breaks are all right hand point breaks. The waves roll down the sharp reef making long beautiful waves up to a couple of hundred metres long. The waves are not Indo or Hawaii or Australia but they are fun and consistent. The size very rarely gets over 5 feet and the wind is normally offshore from dawn to around 11am when the heat of the land brings in the cooling sea breezes and makes the beery afternoons bearable. The only problem is negotiating the crowds in the water and the surfers from Israel and France who just didn’t have a clue about manners and dropping in on people left right and centre. This caused small flare ups but generally every one was very peaceful.
In the hotels and guesthouses marijuana is freely available, music pumps from the stereos , beer is drunk and every one is very happy. Marijuana cost about $10 for an ounce of long seeded sativa buds. The stone was energetic and relaxing but not to overpowering to prevent reading, talking or surfing.






Arugam Bay had the most chilled out feel of any where I have ever been. The mix of travellers was incredible with surfers young and old from all over the world chilled out loving life. We spent 2 weeks there and with out a doubt they were the best 2 weeks in Sri Lanka. Every morning when the local mosques did their 5 am call to prayer people would rise for the early surf and it was smooth cruising from there on.




Only had one incident in the bay when my girlfriend was attacked by some locals on the back of a motorbike. They drove up to her and clocked her and sped off. The trip to the local police station the next day with my other half was the biggest waste of time I have ever seen. We spent 4 hours telling and retelling our story to the piggies. Eventually they said that this should be expected to happen to girls walking at night on the street. The only thing that I enjoyed about the whole experience was the nice ganga plant growing out by the toilet at the station. A copper tried to tell me that a seed must have fallen from when they were burning some confiscated hooch. The plant was about 2 feet tall and was staked and protected from goats with a sort of cage with a few pieces of wood and had been freshly watered and what looked like goat shit had been place around the stem. It kept a smile on my face for a while.










The rest of our trip was a sort of let down from what we had experienced in the Bay.
We went white water rafting at Kitugala where the film Bridge Over The River Kwai was filmed. Chilled by the fire place in Nuwara Eliya and spent a few more days chilling in Kandy. Overall Sri Lanka was an incredible adventure. I rate it as about a 7/10 as far as destinations go. The people were extremely friendly, the prices while not Vietnam cheap but were very decent. The food was superb. Good cheap accom could be found for between $3 and $10 per night for a double with and ensuite. There were plenty of places that were much more expensive than this. I wish I had spent more time there. I have a lot of places on my list of destinations but I am sure I will be back one day at Arugam Bay.

 

[dbuzz]

very inspiring and beautiful pictures!!! thanks for posting. looks like one hella time.

 

[mriko]

hmm, will have to make my way overthere someday, yum ! thanks for sharing !

Irie !

 

[kov]

Wow, thanks for bringing back some fond memories KUH_DE_TAH. Very nice read, makes me want to return to this beautiful island some day.

So, you had no problems with the years long but current unrests between Tamils and Sinhala's?

rgds, kov

 

[Guest]

Kov

No problems with security. The situation was quite tense on the Northern Plains and the East coast. Our plans for Tincomalee were shelved by the hartels and bombs. We missed a bomb blast in Andophpanura by a few hours but didn't find out until a few days later. On the east coast every ones ID's were recorded and our bags were searched and van was given a good going over. We found it hard to get a van to go to Arugam Bay as many people thought it to dangerous. Yala national park was closed because Tamil Tigers were hiding out in there. Have heard that some people have been turned away from visiting the bay and that there have been a few murders of muslims by hindus in the area. It gets pretty hard to work out what the fuck is going on over there at the moment. I was kind of glad that we were there when we were as when we got back it seemd that the whole conflict steped up a notch with land and sea battles just to the north of where we were staying.






On the way back we stopped off in Hong Kong. That is one crazy city. My gf took me to her favourite seafood place out on an island. It was very tasty.

 

[Limeygreen]

Thanks for all the beautiful landscape pictures and report on the country, looks like a wonderful place to visit.

 

[redrider]

Man it is beautiful there...

 

[Mad HattersWrld]

good post thanks for the bump redrider

 

[naga_sadu]

Hi,

i have been there about 3-4 times and to be honest not found anything to write home about,....yet
The same with south India, althugh i know there are quite a few good ibl's from down there. I travelled India quite a bit back in Blah Blah Blah....but didn't find any powerfull Satays there in Kovlam, Kerala, Blah, blah and it wasn't though want of trying believe me...

If oyu're talking about the South, have you been to Thekkady? Palakkad? Munnar? Top Station??? ?? ?

 

[redrider]

Con mucho gusto

Con mucho gusto

good post thanks for the bump redrider

Your very welcome, next year a plan to grow some of the Sativa from SRI Lanka here in the Colombian highlands. I hope to find something interesting.











Peace from Colombia

 

[naga_sadu]

Sweet pics, redrider...!! Many thanks for sharing....!!

 

[Guest]

Your area looks beautiful Red.

What is your elevation.

Naga I cant wait to finaly make it to India. My mother (ageing child of the revolution) invited me to go with her on frequent fliers at the end of september to spend 2 weeks in the south but she broke a rib and we had to cancel the tickets and we lost the points aswell. I will get there but I don't know when. Big things are happening (economy) in India and I really want to see it before it really transforms.