Our guide messed up and we ended up missing the classic train we were supposed to take to a cute backpacker hub on the souther edge of Sri Lanka’s Hill country.
We had to do a lot of waiting around, then sat in a stuffy train – BUT it had the most gorgeous views (and no that is certainly not me leaning out of a moving train like that!!)
When we arrived in Ella I could see why it is considered a tourist town – there were toursists everywhere! But I have to say the town was so so so cute.
I wished we had been here for 2 nights!
We walked around a bit and then went to a restaurant for a snack – and there on the menu was “Quebec poutine”. Of course, I could not resist.
And luckily I didn’t, bcs it was so good!
We had dinner that night and then chilled in our room that had incredible views.
The next day we had a fun day. We did a short hike to visit the iconic Nine Arches Bridge.
Then we did another hike to Little Adam’s peak.
I have to admit I was very hot and grumpy here too! We went back to the hotel to shower – and Rob took a little dip in the pool!
We had to take a little tuk tuk up and down to our hotel. Then we stopped at a beautiful waterfall…
We then drove to Yale National Park for another 4 our safari. I was pretty done by the end of it lol (FYI the comfort level of a safari in South Africa was quite different than here:)
The elephants are also much smaller – although that still did not stop one from charging the truck in front of us so we had to quickly back up!
When we finally got to the hotel (and our really nice room! – with the most unbelievably huge bathroom!!) I found a cute swing and curled up in it. We also took a nice swim in their beautiful pool before heading to another nice meal.
We spent the morning visiting the Botanical gardens.
To be honest, we walked around a bit and then headed to a cafe on the property so we could chill, lol.
There’s only so much touring around I can do.
We headed up in the mountains where we stopped for lunch and then visited a tea factory.
It was pretty cool to see how essentially some things have remained the same for many many years.
Afterwards, we went to Nuwara Eliya – it is known as “Little England” and it did feel like we were back in early 1900’s. There was a roaring fire going at night – it was definitely cooler. We spent two nights here and simply relaxed and chilled!
Our driver/guide went and spent some time with his family since we said we were totally find to chill on our own!
It was a relaxing day. We walked around town, napped, had a relaxed lunch, sat outside and read and talked, and Rob played some pool. We needed that bit of down time!!
Before heading out to our next stop – Kandy, we stopped to visit the Cave (Rock) temple.
It was super hot – but going in the caves was pretty refreshing.
We then headed to Kandy – and stopped for lunch along the way (we had to tell our guide that it is ok not to fill every second of everyday – we want to relax too!)
We arrived in Kandy and visited the world famous temple of the Tooth – which is the main attraction in Kandy.
We found a little cafe to sit in for a bit which was nothing special but we wanted a place to sit while we waited for the Traditional Cultural Show.
The show was interesting – lots of dancing, “gymnastics” and fire dancing and breathing (which I found personally disgusting – taking all that lighter fluid in your mouth!!)
After the show, we checked into a really nice hotel and had a dinner. Pretty much every dinner is buffet style at the hotel- and I can’t say I mind. It gave us lots of variety and we knew was safe to eat:))
We were happy to leave our strange hotel and headed on the most adventurous day.
It started out with doing “the short and easier hike”.
I had hurt my foot somehow a couple of weeks earlier so doing a ton of hiking was not high on my list of things to do. Plus the heat!
So we climbed the famous pidurangalarock and got the view of the sigiriya lion’s rock rather than the other way around.
The hike was hot and enough steps, and had some crazy tight squeezes and climbing rocks and balancing acts. Not my fave to be honest – but we did it. The views were very pretty.
After we did the hike, then had a cart ride and boat ride before visiting a traditional Sri Lankan home where we helped make lunch. It was very reminiscent of an experience we had in Cambodia with the kids – and like that experience – it was one of our best meals.
We then headed on a 4 hour elephant safari!
Do you think we squeezed enough in the day?!?!
At the end of the day, Sandu suggested we head to a traditional spa for treatments and even though it was one more activity, we thought it would be a great way to relax.
No pictures here but we did a traditional massage and then did this hot oil dripping on our foreheads kind of massage – the oil was a bit too hot for Rob lol. But it was still really relaxing overall
It was, but we were exhausted when we checked into our hotel and had dinner!
Finally trying to catch up on our trip! (Slowly but surely I’ll get there).
After Dubai, we flew to Sri Lanka for 11 nights.
We arrived in the evening and our guide, Sandu, who would be driving us around the county met us there.
He basically picked up up and took us to our hotel for the first night. It was dark, so we could see a thing, but our room was comfy, and we had our first of many buffet meals:)
The next morning we saw we were right on the water which was pretty. We had a traditional Sri Lankan breakfast – lots of curry and Daal (exciting at first but then we started to crave less flavour:)
The first day we drove to the country’s first capital: Anuradhapura.
There we visited several temples (too many to name), and Sandu explained the signitifance of the stonework and carvings.
I wish I could tag each picture with all the details, but a collage will simply have to suffice.
All I can say is that it was hot – and being barefoot on the red brick and pathways was extremely hot – especially for Rob lol!
It happened to be our anniversary that day too… Sandu took us a bit early to our hotel – which was supposed to be amazing – with a pool and everything.
We got there (starving bcs somehow we had skipped lunch – we quickly told him we wanted to have some lunch in future) and the hotel was the strangest things ever.
It was huge, in this beautiful natural setting. Gorgeous room, but the hotel had this Indiana Jones feel to it.
And it was completely abandoned. We couldn’t find anyone!
We were so so hungry, but no one was around.
We finally found someone who worked there (one of the only two guys we saw lol) and we were able to get two cokes – but no food until dinner.
Luckily we had purchased these yogurt/chocolate covered dated in Dubai (which I really don’t even like) but desperate times call for desperate measures. We snacked on them and the coke.
Dinner was truly bizarre.
We sat poolside, and they served us (we think they must have gone to pick something up bcs there was no working restaurant anywhere!). No options – just served chicken fingers. And no cokes left in the hotel (we had both of them earlier on lol).
We laughed at the crazy anniversary memory we were making.
And hoped we came out alive. lol.
The next morning was similar – we were fed breakfast – which had a nice selection – but no choice and then I can’t say we were disappointed when Sandu came to pick us up (and we shared with him that we need to tell the travel agent that this is not the place to send clients lol).
Here’s some snaps of our anniversary evening:) Happy 16 years McHottie!
I knew going to the mosque would require me to cover up (arms, legs to ankles, head) and in this heat, I was not looking forward to it
Luckily while shopping in the Dubai Mall the other day, I headed into Lululemon to get a pair of capri pants that I loved. The salesperson only had full length in my size. When I told her they were different than what I asked for, she responded “yes I know. They are better”.
I ended up buying them. And good thing bcs I ended ups wearing them:)
Our guide (We hired a guide for 1 day in Dubai (yesterday ) and to take us to Abu Dhabi. I always find it so so so worth it to have a guide as they can give you so many details and you don’t waste time figuring things out. We headed out to the mosque first to try to arrive before the crowds.
We had been to the famous Mosque in Casablanca, Morrocco several years ago, and it was impressive. But, I have to say this one blew me away.
I’ll let the photos speak for themselves (and sorry uploading ends up messing the order up)
We then went to the Royal Hotel and then the palace. The Palace was stunning. Again, seriously impressive!
The city itself if pretty beautiful too.
We then went to the Yas Marina Circuit where they have the formula one race. Rob is a huge F1 so this was on his must see list. We went into the W hotel where you can see the race from their viewing rooms and restaurants . It’s a fun hotel and you can tell would be a great place to view the race!
We headed back to our hotel in Dubai and went to have lunch in the Dubai marina/beach area. It was only a 10 minute walk – but when the temperature is 46+degrees celsius in the evening – 10 min is long enough!
We had arranged to have a guide today to show us around everywhere.
We went to a few markets, saw some super fancy hotels, the museum of the future, the Dubai Frame…
We went to the Mall of the Emirates and checked out the indoor ski hill:
We headed over to the Spice and Gold Markets (souks)
Then lastly, we headed over to the Burj Arab – the world’s only 7 star hotel and we had high tea at the top of it in the Skyview restaurant.
We headed back to our new hotel (we changed hotels so we could get the vibe in different areas!)
We went for a walk along the marina – and when we were sufficiently drenched in sweat from the 42 degree celsius scroll, we headed back:) Our view from our hotel:
Back in February we decided we wanted to take a big trip. We didn’t know where, but knew we wanted to be away for 3 weeks.
Although summer has never been my preferred time to travel away, we knew that 3 weeks would work for both of us this summer.
We toyed with different ideas, but got stuck on where.
Rob mentioned he always wanted to go to Dubai so I googled what are good places to visit along with Dubai and came up with Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
We researched it all – and it sounded amazing! Aside from being super hot, everything else sounded great!
And so here we are…
The day before we were offered an upgrade for a not so totally unreasonable price.
It may have ruined us for flying for good though:)
We headed to the airport, and enjoyed a very pleasant 12 hour flight:)
The Dubai airport is very impressive, and we drove by a few landmarks right away.
We knew the jet lag would be pretty real so we decided to book 2 nights at the very famous Atlantis Palm ( you can get some great rates when you travel to Dubai in the summer bcs it is very low season bcs it is so HOT!!)
The Atlantis is impressive – including its aquarium. We watched some fish while we waited for our room and then headed to the pool and kiss relaxed.
We stayed at the hotel for the rest of the evening. It is very reminiscent of Vegas.
The next day we were still in chill mode – and the heat was pretty intense.
We went to the hotel aquarium in the morning.
We had lunch reservations at the Burj Khalifa – the second tallest building in the world.
An incredible view (this was from the bathroom!)
After lunch, we headed to the Dubai Mall. It is seriously impressive. It is divided in two: Fashion street with all the high end shops and then a more regular mall – but massive.
We then watched the fountain show and had dinner on the promenade at a Lebanese place. it was really good.
Well at least this blog gets some love when I travel! I had a life coach conference in Nashville to go to the weekend after Gabe’s graduation.
But before I got to head out to Nashville, I headed out to Montreal for a quick trip.
My brother and sister in law are leaving to lead our church’s mission in Denmark for a few years, so my brother went to spend some time with my mom and sister. I decided to go bcs it is rare we are all together!
We just hung out, went for a nice dinner, and hung out some more.
We took a few pics too – although they are not the best – they serve the purpose of getting us all together.
I returned from Montreal and then headed out to Nashville.
I got to meet some of the people who have taken my Advanced Training in Nervous System Resilience and Connections, and connect with other coaches who were in my Mastermind last year. Such an amazing group of entrepreneurial women!
We headed out to Nashville and listened to some music, danced, checked out the boots, ate some Southern food and had a great time.
We also go to eat some amazing cookies the next day and meet a famous country singer (who I didn’t know, but my friends did and were excited!)
It was so nice to connect with everyone, but it was good to be home!
