From Anuradhapura over Trincomalee to Batticaloa

The day started very promising, without rain all evening and not looking like it would rain soon. 

 

The first breakfast Sri Lanka style

Due to these conditions we decided to drive straight to Trincomalee. The road is brand new and as not as much traffic as the ones along the coast did.

People in Sri Lanka use their bicycles not only to  travel faster but also as a mean to transport goods, like wood in this case.

They actually ride the bike when it's loaded

Nice trees along the road

We have seen all kinds of animals on the road, from dogs to monkeys but, to be honest I wasn't expecting to see a deer crossing.

Seeside in Trincomalee

Besides cows enjoying the soft sand near the waves crashing downs, there was no one else there.

Lunch

On the way to Batticaloa we meet this pal chilling on the wire.

Preparing the rice fields

Max. allowed speed in Sri Lanka

We saw a lot of fisherman drying their fish right beside the road, you're very lucky that the internet doesn't transmit the smell of it :-)

Today we got stopped by the police for the first time.

Several sorts of rice in the supermarket

The most part of the signs along the are unreadable for us.

Dinner

On the way to Anuradhapura

We got the bikes without gas and got our first driving experience searching for a gas station. I have to say, that it is true that the traffic in Sri Lanka is chaotic but it's a chaos with system, cautious and respectful.
I share the idea that this cautiousness, already saved one of us, several times from having an accident.

While the bikes yesterday all worked fine, today morning we got some issues and needed to go back to the rental, to correct some electrical problems.

Ricardo and Miguel trying to get the bike to start on the wrong side of the road :-)

Nothing serious, but we lost around two hours of precious day light

One of the numerous churches in Negombo

 Now, I've people using stuff to keep pigeons and oder birds away but this was the first time I saw something to keep lazy taxi drivers from sitting on the walls :-)

 
According to the shop's owner, he was forced to take this "extreme" measure to keep the waiting drivers away.

Local tool production

Tool exposition

There are a lot of cows near and on the road

 

Today we had lunch at a 5* Michelin restaurant near the road.

Buffet

The part about the hats was new for  me

Hotel for the night

Team completed

The rain woke me up once more this morning and lasted again until noon. I don't understand hype behind air conditioned, I prefer to sleep with my windows open and tonight it was so freezing that I had to stand up and get something to dress.

The rest of the group arrived with some delay today morning and we went to pick up the bikes. While waiting for them I got bitten by this beast.

Aedes albopictus

For those who don't know, this is the mosquito responsible for transmitting dengue fever, so now I'll have to wait the next couple of days and check if I get any symptoms. 

Miguel wandering if the bike is big enough for him :-)

Rocky e Renato

Ricardo

The team

Them we went to have lunch

Traditional curry

eating traditionally :-)

  

Negombo

I arrived in Colombo at 2:35am, not the best time in the world to get into the unknown. To my surprise it was dry when I got out of the airport but it didn't take long for things to change and at the hotel I had to take of my shoes to get to the door as the ground was covered with at least 3 inches of water.

After spending 24 hours without sleeping I was glad to finally be able to jump in my bed.

The day started the same way it ended, with heavy rain, in this case a good reason to remain a little bit longer in bed. The night was very short but regardless of being Sunday, there's loud work activity coming through my open windows and after a while I decide to stand up and get some breakfast before it's too late. Fortunately the Guest House I'm staying in has a covered area which allows us to have breakfast outside without getting wet.

When the rain stopped in the afternoon I went for a walk and try to have a look at the bikes we'll pick up tomorrow.

There's no way you can walk around ;-)

The guy drove me back on his tuck tuck

and then lunch

View from inside

Prawns Fiesta in Coconut

followed by a walk at seaside

and a Coconut on the way back

Travel plans to the monsoon

Here we go again :-)  finally...

A new journey is coming ahead.

It all started with an invitation from a friend, his idea got immediately my enthusiasm. I checked if I could get holidays, which I did and started to prepare for the trip.
The first thing I take a look at, when I plan to travel by motorcycle, is to check the weather conditions at destination. Apparently, people that live in places where it doesn't rain so frequently, like this friend of mine, don't seam to care so much about that :-)

When  I saw this graphic I got, well... let's say, a litle bit concerned about whether this is really the best place to go to this time of the year but my friend was so positive about it that I thought, why not? Let's have a look at the go to Sri Lanka and "may the sun be with us" :-)