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Sri Lanka 2015 Sri Lanka 2015
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Ride Tales Post your ride reports for a weekend ride or around the world. Please make the first words of the title WHERE the ride is. Please do NOT just post a link to your site. For a link, see Get a Link.
Photo by Hendi Kaf, in Cambodia

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Hendi Kaf,
in Cambodia



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  #1  
Old 1 Jul 2015
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Sri Lanka 2015
April 2015, ten days off: what to do?
Asia almost become our religion, so I start looking around...

We find some very cheap flights to Sri Lanka and at the last moment even a friend decide to join us, so Sri Lanka...

04/10/2015

We land in Colombo and we go to Negombo where we will take the bikes for hire, Honda XR 250









Dambulla, golden temple







and then to Sigiriya, where we have a special guest in our room

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  #2  
Old 1 Jul 2015
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11/4/2015















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  #3  
Old 2 Jul 2015
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After visiting the Sigiriya rock, we move east until we reach the coast at Trincomalee









12/4/2015









Then we continue south, where we are supposed to take a dirt road that will take us back to the center of the island ...







We miss the intersection and we continue along the coast, and then on the main road





and we see our first elephants...





We still have a few hours of light, so we decide to follow a ring itinerary that allows us to cross the park and rejoin the road that we had missed:
no choice was ever more right, quick and easy dirt road in spectacular landscape







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  #4  
Old 3 Jul 2015
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13/4/2015

Polonnaruwa, visit to the archeological site



It starts raining a lot and we don't know how to continue: we would destroy cameras and phones for sure.
While we are under the tent of a kiosk that sells fruit, comes a policeman on a Tuk Tuk:
"how much do you want to rent us your Tuk Tuk for a half-day?"
"but I can't, I have to work here, who will drive?"
"easy, we are Italians and we invented apecar, we will drive"
with 15 USD we solved the problem and continue the visit on the glorious Bajaj ...























so we return the Tuk Tuk and we decide to stop here another night





in the meanwhile the rain stopped, so we allow ourselves another visit to town





14/4/2015

We move toward the center of the island, along a beautiful dirt road















lunch break ..





and we arrive to Kandy, where we visit the temple in the evening



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Old 6 Jul 2015
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15/4/2015





We leave Kandy and we carry towards the hills area, plenty of tea plantation













But we found rain once again..







when it becomes too much, we stop under a canopy where some locals are organizing a barbecue ... obviously we become the special guests ...







before dark we greet our new friends and head to Haputale, but we still find a lot of rain and we arrive a few hours after dark

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  #6  
Old 8 Jul 2015
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16/4/2015

In the morning we dry all our wet stuff in the sun



in the meanwhile we take a walk







then we leave...the clearness of the early morning soon leaves room to the fog













just before Ella we make a detour to a tea factory





We find it closed, but we make some new friends...









then we stop in Ella for lunch, before descending from the hills







rain again...





We ride along the road through the national park, but we have no luck and we don't meet any elephant





we reach Tissamaharama, where we book a half-day visit to the Yala national park for the next morning







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Old 8 Jul 2015
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17/4/2015

Visit to Yala national park, by jeep









the presence of two leopards brings too much traffic

























too much traffic: if you want to visit a national park in Sri Lanka, I suggest you to opt for one of the least popular, not Yala







after the visit, we continue on the south coast



a bit of rain, as usual....





we reach Mirissa: very touristic, but those restaurants on the beach have their own reason to exist:-)









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  #8  
Old 11 Jul 2015
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Just to say i have silently followed your rides ,but now is the ten days up already?
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  #9  
Old 12 Jul 2015
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Thanks for posting the pictures - Sri Lanka has always been on my list and now it has risen close to the top.

Matt
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  #10  
Old 12 Jul 2015
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Great photos, it looks really good there, thanks for sharing

Wayne
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  #11  
Old 13 Jul 2015
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Bugger - another destination just got added to my list! Great photos - thank you
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  #12  
Old 13 Jul 2015
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18/4/2015

A day ride to Galle



















and back to Mirissa for a half day of relax...























for dinner, same as last night :-)





19/4/2015

Last day: next night we have our flight back to Italy

On the coast heading north







After crossing Colombo, we are finally back to Negombo, where we give back the bikes and enjoy the last hours of relax before flying











Bye bye Sri Lanka...

and thank you to all here on the forum...
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  #13  
Old 13 Jul 2015
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Great photos!

I had no idea that they had wild elephants in Sri Lanka. Just checked on wikipedia and they say Sri Lanka actually has the highest concentration of the endangered asian elephant. Very cool.
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