Sigiriya and Arugam Bay

HeyA?!

Last week I was in holidays ! holidays soooo needed ^^

……

Arugam Bay is a real piece of Paradise. And if you are a surfer, then you do not wish to be somewhere else. The tropical white sand beach, with perfect blue water, palm trees everywhere, and just as I like it when I want to resta?? reggae music on the beach with an unlimited source of ice cold beer.

The waves are simply perfect. A nice and long right hand break, going parallel to the beach, and which can be divided in 3 category : big for the advances, medium for the intermediates, and small for the beginners .

When you succeed your take off, you have the wave for yourself for 2 to 3 hundred metersa?? Simply magic.

My plan in Buy sinequan generic name Where to buy amaryllis seeds Arugam Bay is pretty simplea??A?A? Rest, surf and rest, and surf againa?? Minimum of 6h per day in the water, and when Ia??m not ina?? I am sleepinga??

Ia??d finally not be lucky with the beers, as a major power cut, which lasted for 4 days, had all the fridges in the village off, resulting in an end of the cold beer stock. That is alright, it is a good way to save money.

Ia??ve met some people while I was there, with whom I could chat a bit. The place is 90% full of Australians who come here for a week to get the waves. Then there Is some English, and finally some French People. It was nice to share our interest into this sport. But I was a bit disappointed to see the spot was over crowed and that in the water no friendship spirit was there, you had to fight to get a wavea??.

After 7 days sleeping and surfing, I had to put myself in a night bus to reach Colombo, arriving at 4am I must change for the Bus toA?Puttalam then the one toKalpitiya. After 15h in shitty bus I finally get back to Palagama, starting straight my working day, ready for 3 weeks in a go until my next days offa??

from the beginning:

I could take my monthly 6 days, plus, offered by the direction, 2 days for the annual staff trip, giving me 8 days off !!

The staff trip only lasted one day, but what a day !! The plan was to go toA?Sigiriya (Liona??s rock).

At 4am, all Palagama staff (25 people) got into the bus, ready for 5h driving to reachA?Sigiriya. As it was sooo early, and I was soo tired from this too short night sleep, I was expecting everybody to be quiet and sleep in the bus. But those guys quickly proved me wrong. I was about to witness what really is a staff trip in Sri Lanka, what does it mean and how much it is important.

As soon as the bus started to move they began the party. Percussions, stereo music at maximum volume and people singing and dancing like crazy. a??Hey guys, it is 4am, seriously, where do you get all that energy ?a?? Well, I couldna??t try long to find an answer to that question, I just fell asleep ^^

After an hour or two sleeping, I finally gave up. I am too tall to find a comfortable position to sleep in a bus, and I start to fear my ears would bleed as the speakers over my head are so loud. Ia??d better focus on my staff and share their joy. The spirit of the party will not get down until we get to our destination.

Finally arrived inA?Sigiriya, it is almost 10 oa??clock and the sun already burns hard. I feel very lucky to be here on a days where no tourists at all are here to invade the site. Ia??ll be discovering this national treasure only with my staff, giving us a quiet and silent feeling of the place, putting us back into history.

SigiryiaA?was built byA?KingA?Kashyapa in 477ad. After stealing the throne from his Father, he had the mad idea to build his palace on the top of a huge rock in the middle of a wide plain, giving him a strategic and well protected position, with the ability of seeing his enemya??s coming long before they could start an attack. He was fearing and expecting an attack from his brother who fled in India. Wella??. He was right to be scareda?? the bother came back, and after an epic battle where the kinga??s soldiersa?? cowardice left him alone and unprotected in front of his brother, he finally took his own life, and the brother took the throne.

The place is really amazing. First it is difficult to understand how they could get on the top on the rock. There is almost no stairs, only few steps carved in the stone that only help a bit to climb it. But they built a whole palace on the top of it, made with thousands of bricks.

And the most impressive thing is definitely the entrance of it. The king had a gigantic Lion head built (giving the place its name, a??Sigiriyaa?? Liona??s rock), his jaw wide open, making the people enter the place by passing through his month. Unfortunately only the Lion paws remain.

We spent 3h there, going all around the palace, the gardens, and the museum. As we were getting to lunch time, everybody started to feel very hungry. So we got back in the bus to find a nice place to picnic.

As soon as they were back in the bus, the party started again, but this time at another level. I could quickly understand what would be the rest of the day and the evening. They started again to sing and dance, and play music, but this time the crate of 9 big bottles of Brandy was leading the party.

By the time we could get to a big wide lake for picnic, they were all drunk. Of course they were all taking good care of being sure my glass would never be empty. Giving me a little problem. I had to keep my head working well, for 2 reasons. First I was (with two other guys) the only to know how to swim, and those drunk fellows really wanted to swim. Responsible of them, I had to organize with my 2 other colleague a security area, and keep an eye on them, so the day would not end in a drama.

And second, my plans were a bit different from them, I was not to come back in Palagama with the bus at the end of the day. My plan was to leave them in a train station and find my way to get into the other side of the Island, on the east coast, to the best surf spot of the country, inA?Arugam Bay.

After a good swim and a??. Half drunk, I finally left my colleagues, in a small train station. I had 5 hours to wait before the night train could take me to Batticaloa. Then from there, at 4 am I could take the bus to Arugam Baya??

The day has been very long, waiting 5 hours seating on a small bench, with the brandy messing in my brain, and few hours bent in the train. I am in an awful condition when I get to Batticaluoa. Soo tired, my head is hammering. I find my way to the bus, which is of course over full, so I cana??t get inside. Ia??ll have to stay outside of it for the next two hours ^^ One foot on the first step of the bus, and one hand holding the bar, I have to keep that position, and never lose it or Ia??d fall on the road at an almost 90kl/h speed. Well at least the morning fresh breeze wakes me up a bit.

InA?Arugam Bay, I quickly find the hotel where I booked a room for the week. The only idea I can think of, is getting in my bed and sleep. It is only 8am, and Ia??ll have to wait until 1pm to get my room, ok, no worries, I crash myself on the beach and fall deeply asleep.

See you soonA?

Juliena??