After leaving my “Holiday Inn” room early morning from Badulla, I took the train back to Kandy and then on Polgahawela where I transferred to the night train to Batticaloa. It was a good day for the train ride since it was raining so much.
In the morning, I took a 4-hour crowded bus ride up the windy coast to Trincomalee. I was glad to get a seat by the window even though my knees were jammed up against the back of the seat in front of me. Fortunately, this is my only long-distance bus ride. The drivers are constantly jerking and braking the bus as it rounds the corners, passes slower vehicles, and honks its way up the highway.
After arriving at Trincomalee, I headed further north along the beach road and spotted a sign for the Suraya Guesthouse. It turned out that not only was the sign new but the guesthouse near the fishermans’ beach was also new. My room was very clean and neat for 4,000 rupees per night with A/C. I tried the fan-only option, but it was just too hot and humid so an extra 1,000 Rupees got me the needed A/C. Here is the view of the beach area near the guesthouse. It is a fishermen's working area.
This is the ruins of a guest house that was hit by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.
After checking in, I took the local bus to a beach area called Uppuveli which was popular with Westerners. Here there were a few fishing boats and several beachside guest houses that featured shaded cabanas and western food as well as Sri Lankan food.
After getting a mild sunburn under this shaded lounger, I returned the 6 km to Trincomalee by bus.
The downtown area was fairly small with few restaurants as I headed down to the public park including a pleasant sandy beach. On the way back I stopped at the local market.
I discovered a fruit drink and ice cream shop where I had an avocado shake followed by a fuda ice cream float. It was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with red and green jelly pieces that had sunk to the bottom of the rose water sweet drink. Both were very tasty.
Throughout this trip, I have been able to stay away from eating meat other than fish and shrimp. Some of the vegetable curries are very tasty that range from beets, lotus, beans, onions, pumpkin or squash, okra, and some other unknown vegetables. Some are very mild and some are so spicy I get the hiccups.
After staying here for two nights, I caught the early morning train back to Colombo.
I have recently uploaded all of my travel videos to YouTube now that they allow longer uploads and you may want to see my travel adventures there. That link is
https://www.youtube.com/c/huntforgold.
If you do go there, please subscribe to my video channel since it will help me eventually get some income there and help with my future travels. Fewer people are using DVDs so I am transitioning to streaming my travels on my YouTube channel.
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