Hello everyone!
I’m terribly sorry for the hiatus of Beautynomics, as when I came back from my trip, I couldn’t find myself moving on without blogging about this trip!
Now as you see, as much as I want to maintain more than one blog for my other stuff, I just find myself unable to, and regretting not documenting fun trips like this! So from now on, Beautynomics will not be JUST a beauty blog anymore, but it will focus more on my life, and how I find beauty in it. You’ll definitely get to know more about me, and it will still be mostly about makeup as I really love makeup and skincare, but you will also see food posts, travel posts, and just random crazy posts! *smiles*
Going back, early this January, as I was dead beat from the bazaar season, I was also very excited as ( let me just reveal ) my friends have booked us a trip to Sri Lanka on January 2012, and I think it was booked during February of 2011? Really crazy right? The reason behind that was, my friend Kats, who is a real bargain hunter in terms of seat sales ( we share the same passion for traveling ) , chanced upon an Airasia sale, and she just picked “Colombo” ( Sri Lanka ) out of nowhere and just asked us if we were game. OF COURSE! My group of friends from college are just too game for anything that we’re so easy to talk to, no matter what the destination was! Last year, it was Cambodia, and I’m glad to have survived it despite my thinking that I’m a city girl. As the days drew near to our Sri Lanka trip, I was actually getting nervous so as what to expect. Is it more challenging than Cambodia, in terms of walking? Too many questions, that just caused me to overpack lots of baby towels – as I have read that it’s scorching in Sri Lanka!
If the Philippines is the Pearl of the Orient, Sri Lanka is known as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. (I reseached it! Haha! ) It’s right below India, and about 45 minutes away travel time to Maldives. It was part of the Silk Road, has a really rich history (recorded!) and culture. It is also one of the important places in Buddhism if you want to trace the history of the said religion. Sri Lanka means “venerated (Sri) land (Lanka,) and almost everyone is a Buddhist here, with a minority of Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. One of Sri Lanka’s old names is Ceylon, in which I would read about it from history, and even romance novels! Ceylon was famous for its tea plantations, as they produced ( and still do ) one of the best teas in the world. Oh wow, so much to see there, don’t you agree?
Overpacking – Sophie Style
So a week before my trip, I really, really thought so hard about what to pack! I researched about the weather and it was hot – so I was encouraged to bring the most comfortable clothes – jogging pants, and my airy blouses from Bench ( I LOVE them, I can wear them everyday! ). It was a Buddhist country so conservative clothing was encouraged (goodbye, shorts) – so my getup for this trip was loose top, jogging pants, and a really comfortable pair of rubber shoes that I borrowed from my..baby sis. Hahaha! I also brought the hat that I previously bought in Cambodia. Oh, I love that hat!
I also brought with me tons of medicines for headaches, fever, and for allergies, and also packed a big bottle of insect repellent, as it was written in Tripadvisor to do so.
I didn’t bring alot of makeup – I didn’t see the point – just a concealer, pressed powder, a lipbalm, and a powder blush. My toiletry kit, on the other hand, was really heavy – soaps, shampoos, sunblock and all that jazz! I also overpacked with wipes! I neeed wipes for travel! I think I brought with me 4 huge packs!
I was close to 13 kilos after packing all these. Goodness gracious.
Well without further adieu, let me tell you our story about our trip to Sri Lanka!
How We Went There
Well, there is still no direct flight from Manila to Sri Lanka ( or if there were, it must’ve been expensive so we wouldn’t consider it anyway ), so we booked a flight to Kuala Lumpur when Cebu Pacific had a seat sale, then flew to Sri Lanka from Kuala Lumpur, via Airasia. Airasia is a new airline that has really low-priced seats that lets you fly to really good destinations, even to France or London! I love this concept as I dream of traveling the world, but I would not be able to do it with exhorbitant plane ticket prices! So thank you, Airasia! You’re making my dreams come true one trip at a time!
We spent a few hours at the budget hotel near the airport in Malaysia, Tune Hotels ( also owned by Air Asia, I believe ), as we arrived there around 1 am and our flight wasn’t until 6am. The rooms were really inexpensive, but really, really small! I didn’t even get to sleep, and just rested there til the clock ticked three thirty am, and started taking a shower. It was a blur, as everyone was just so tired and it was just such an ungodly hour, so all I could remember was we were already at the airport, waiting for our flight. Sri Lanka, here we come!
So, I was a lucky girl as I didn’t have a seatmate right beside me, and I was assigned at the exit row, as I invited my friend Marion to sit beside me as he was sitting alone on another spot as well. We dozed off, despite the really dementia-inducing sound of a wailing baby (I’m sorry to be inconsiderate, I didn’t have enough sleep, and I didn’t need that during the morning – it turned out that that wailing baby was seated right next to my friend who was seated at row 30 goodness), and we made it thru the flight. We were getting excited, as the view from the plane was quite stunning -beautiful forms of greens and mountains! Sri Lanka was really waiting for us!
As we arrived, we were greeted with a surprise. Yes, the airport was really pretty with those shiny, white, marble-looking floors, but what surprised us even more was the Visa section. We were to pay $25 for visa, as it is called “Visa on Arrival” in other countries. We’ve never heard of it or we didn’t know of it from our research about Sri Lanka online, but we found out at the counter that it was implemented for the first time, this January 2012. Oh lucky us, goodbye $25! Oh such a small thing. We quickly forgot about that, had our dollars changed near the exit, and met up with Roshan of Chami Tours, our designated tour guide/driver for the entire trip. We hired a private service van that would help us go to the places included in our customized itinerary (my friends arranged it), and it proved to be really helpful as I didn’t get to see alot of cabs here in Colombo ( a city, ) even much more in the provinces!
It was a good two or three hours drive from Colombo for our first destination, Pinnawala.
As soon as we reached our destination, we were famished, so we sat down, and ordered food.
But don’t be fooled as this is not an ordinary restaurant.
Sure, it has really, really delicious fries ( Sri Lanka surprisingly has really delicious french fries, and I also got addicted to their ketchup! ), but, who would ever think that this restaurant…
would have a breathtaking view like this?
Yes, we are at one of the elephant orphanages in Pinnawala. As Sri Lanka is home to 5000+ elephants, you can just see them from place to place. We even saw a troop cross the street, and it was such a cute sight to behold! Pinnawala is a well-known place in Sri Lanka for its elephant orphanages, and you can see alot of them there!
The smell wasn’t so pleasant, and there was poop everywhere. ( did you know that they “recycle” elephant poop into paper there? how cool is that!) But all of that is forgotten with all the majesty of just the way elephants are, being one of the biggest creatures in this world. Such commanding presence. Such glorious sight. They took my breath away ( no pun intended ) , and just how cute baby elephants are!!!
As much as we wanted to stay, we had more stuff to do as we had a jam-packed itinerary thanks to my travel-savvy friend Katz!
As we were headed to our next destination, errrr …our car service broke down. Did I tell you that it was scorching hot at Sri Lanka? It is just like Manila, but I can say it is hotter! Imagine being stuck in a heating van for an hour. Well, I wasn’t moving as I was preserving my energy! I was melting like a candle! oh nooo!
Anyways, as it was only one activity for the day, we had a backup van fetch us and proceeded to MPS Village in Dambulla, our accommodations for the night.
It was more of a beautiful garden with a lineup of rooms, and the view was really stunning-
the view in front was just lush greeneries and a mountain
and the view by the balcony is a beautiful, beautiful serene lake that I’d like to spend all my mornings with. Muy romantic. Very old world charm.
room interiors. pretty spartan, but it was okay!
With a garden-resort type of accommodations, it was understandable that there were animals roaming around the greens such as squirrels and cats, and insects were present as well. So our rooms had this “kulambo” ( net-like thing that protects you from insects ). Pretty spartan room, but we were able to sleep well in it. There is something about in Sri Lanka that made us sleep like babies during all the nights we spent there. Haha!
Well, we were able to have a really good night’s sleep at MPS Village, and I really loved the sound of morning there. It was more of animal sounds – some crickets, and some cat sounds, and I was able to have a silent moment in front of the balcony just gazing at the beautiful lake, and the lush greeneries. It felt really serene there. I was just amazed with the beauty of nature that Sri Lanka has, this early, and I can’t wait to see more.
Well, stay tuned for my part two of our Sri Lanka adventure! I have more tales to tell!
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