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December 13, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

tatio – Of Mandarinfish and seahorses that only come out at night

11th Dec 2010, Malapascua, Philippines

9am for the first dive. We headed towards Lighthouse, the site of hull of a Jap WWII wreck, just 10m deep. We didn’t get a chance to do the dive sites at Gato Island, which was 45 minutes boat ride out. There needed to be at least 4 of us before they could take us there. Nevertheless, the next best alternative at the Lighthouse was a pretty good one. After all, we were getting one bangka boat to ourselves, with a 2 DM to 3 divers ratio.

Dive 4: Lighthouse. Hard corals, long dive since it was only 10m deep. Dive 5: Deep slope, which is a semi-wall dive, my favourite kind. The sheer amount of nudibranches spotted was enough to keep me happy all day. A moray roaming the slope was icing. Dive 6: Lighthouse (night). We returned back to Lighthouse for a dusk dive, ready to spot the elusive mandarinfish, a colourful fish that shies away under hard coral. They come out only at night, and since they fit into the palm of your hand, you can imagine how hard it is to find one in the water at night. Our DM Jojo was the hero, finding a mandarinfish almost immediately at the beginning of the dive. Additionally, he also found plenty of seahorses, a first for me in over 50 dives. Crabs, hermit crabs, cuttlefish and more boxer shrimps made up the night party.

Dinner was at one of the beachfront restaurants. Dishes were around the 150-300 range, fairly reasonable. There was an absence of local type eateries here in Malapascua, since most of the food is home cooked for the family. I had adobo, which is any mean cooked with vinegar and what seems like soy sauce.

December 12, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

Dalawa – Thresher shark spotting

10th Dec 2010, Malapascua, Philippines

At 430am, we were up and about, getting ready for the pre-dawn dive, in order to catch a thresher shark sighting. The dive location is Monad Shoal, a sunken island, on whose plateau the trhresher sharks regularly hang out. They come out from the depths to this plateau to get cleaned by the cleaner fish, before going back down. It’s one of the few places to see threshers, characterised by their long dorsal tail fin that grows to almost half their entire body length.

We were hoping we’d get lucky. There’s a 55% chance of seeing one this time of year, according to the Evolution Dive owners, Matt and David. Our DMs were Jojo and Julius, both born and bred on Malapascua island. The conditions that morning at 5am were unfavourable. Morning torrents and choppy waters. We’d be cursing if we don’t see the threshers today; as it meant we’d have to go out again tomorrow morning in the cold rain to try again. We hear stories of divers who come here and dive for a week daily without ever spotting a thresher shark.

We weren’t disappointed. A huge 2m plus thresher was in the vicinity and swam round in circles, at one time turning towards me and coming within a few meters away. Stupidly, i forgot to bring down the underwater camera, and only had it passed to me later, by which time I only got fleeting shots of the shark. Ok, I’m content. Mission accomplished. Thresher shark spotted.

The next couple of dives saw us spotting various local stuff like a frogfish, pairs of banded boxer shrimps, lots of lionfish. Dive 2: Lapus Lapus. Dive 3: Bantingi.

In the evening after the dives, did a loop around the village that sits behind all the dive resorts. It’s my first Filipino village experience, and it delivers. Despite the resorts catering to the dive crowd, life in Malapascua remains simple. Children play in the sand, neighbours crowd outside a house, peeking in to watch the television in the household. Videokes abound too, you can hear the singing (wailing!) from the villagers belting local and foreign chart toppers. Malapascua’s changing though. More resorts are popping up, structures are being built as I was there, no doubt to capture the increasing tourist dollar. Come to Malapascua now, before it’s all gone in 10 years time =)

And the highlight, besides the sharks, here’s a video of the Malapascuan village kids dancing away, the last shot in the vid sees one kid pulling the other’s pants down =)

If you don’t see the Youtube video, go to the original source : http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

December 11, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

isa – Mactan to Malapascua

9th Dec 2010, Malapascua, Phillipines

AirPhile Express’ A320 fleet flies out of Changi Terminal 2, Singapore, its first international destination to Manila and Cebu City. Armed with cheap promo tickets, off we go, T, ZJ and I to Cebu. The destination? Malapascua Island, off the northern tip of Cebu. The agenda? Thresher sharks.

As soon as we got out of the Cebu / Mactan international airport, we were whizzed into a van, to take us direct to Maya at the northern end, where we will take the pumpboat to Malapascua. It was a 3 hour van ride, which seemed longer because of the rain, and also due to the fact that it gets dark here much earlier, at around 6. The road hugs the eastern coastline.

Here’s the view from the pumpboat. I suspect the cross-like mast is intentional, seeing that the majority of Filipinos are Roman catholics.

Dive outfit that we went with is Evolution Dive, one of the newer dive cos. on the malapascuan dive scene. And they put us up at The Purple Snapper, a 5 minutes walk inland from Evolution. Tomorrow morning, we will wake up at 4am, to go out to spot thresher sharks at Monad Shoal, since this is the only time when they come out.

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November 17, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

Sacred City of Anuradhapura

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 9
5th Nov10, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Today was a morning tour around Anuradhapura. The ruins, and more temples were spread out further apart as compared to Polonnaruwa, many of which were gigantic stupas, probably the largest in Sri Lankas. The main complex around Abhayagiri Dagaba was where a large chunk of the ruins were situated, though there were many others stupas and monasteries scattered.

Truth be told, after 4 days of ruined cities, I was having a bit of an overdose. But to dismiss the sites entirely would be erroneous. There were a couple of highlights, Isurumuniya temple was where a 6th century carving depicting a man and a woman side by side; “The Lovers”. A Samadhi statue depicts Buddha in the posture of his enlightenment. The Sri Maha Bodhi tree located in Anuradhapura, sacred as it is, was another sight.

Then comes the blitz down from Anuradhapura down south. As with all these rushed trips, it’s a matter of squeezing in as much in a short space of time. A quick stop at Negombo later, we headed down to the airport, for the midnight flight out. And that was the Sri Lanka experience, short on serendipitous events, but a whole new set of experience to add.

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November 17, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

Ancient City of Polonnaruwa

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 8
5th Nov10, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Ancient City of Polonnaruwa, that’s the name inscribed on the World Heritage List, and the next stop in the Cultural Triangle for us. It’s from a 1000 years ago, and built along the shore of the Sea of Parakrama, a huge man made reservoir (you cannot see the other bank).

The sights, ruins of temples, vatadages, palaces are spread out along the town. We go from one to another, marveling the architecture, the friezes along the walls. And it happened to be Diwali, and there were a couple of ruins of small Hindu temples in the mix. A sliver of devotees were present, paying respect at the temples.

After lunch, the van collected us and drove down to Anuradhapura, built several centuries before Polonnaruwa, and the original capital.

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November 17, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

Sigiriya Rocks!

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 7

4^th Nov10, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Early morning saw us climbing the ancient rock fortress that is Sigiriya. Originally built into a city fortress in 5AD, it was expanded, used as a palace, monastery up till 14^th century, when it was abandoned. Probably my favourite historical site in Lanka, the sprawling city is made up of 3 levels, the garden terraces at ground level, a mid-level area halfway up the rock, and the topside, where the palace remnants are located.

At the base of the Sigiriya rock are the three terraced gardens, starting out from the water gardens, with pools located on either side of a walkway towards the rock, the pools being almost symmetrical. Then comes the boulder gardens, which looked like like part of the natural landscape, with step-like shapes cut into the boulder indicating that there must have been be some structures atop. The terraced gardens are basically steps leading up towards the top of the rock.

Midway through, we pass by the Fresco, where figures have been painted and preserved onto the side of the rock, and well as the Mirror Wall, running along the side of the rock, and polished so shiny it resembles a mirror, hence the name. On the wall are scribbled ancient graffiti, poems about how visitors to the rock marveled at the wonder.

Next, up to Lion’s Mouth, the mid-level clearing, where steps leading to the top goes through what was previously a lion’s mouth, (hence the Sigiriya name, Lion’s Rock). All that remains now are the lion’s paws.

Finally, at the top of the rock, the ruins of the palace /monastery. Nothing spectacular in itself, but the view of the surrounding area was great. From the places visited, seen so far, it seems that the locals, then and now, have an eye for setting up structures on high ground, overlooking everything, on a large scale. Like this rock, Buddha statues set atop hills like in Kandy, and Dambulla. The trend was to continue later when we went up to Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura.

By the time we were topside, we’re pretty much exhausted. Made our way down and took the long drive to Polonnaruwa. Did the Polonnaruwa museum for an hour or so, and a couple of ruins. The sights in the ancient city of Polo were spread all around, much like Angkor in Cambodia, and were easier to visit on wheels. Like our van. It started to drizzle a bit, and we took that as an excuse to find lodging and stop sightseeing. In actual fact, we were bloody tired.

Interlude: Here’s a list of UNESCO sites in Sri Lanka (source: Wikipedia)

Eight sites of Sri Lanka have been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage, namely, the ancient city of Polonnaruwa (1982), the ancient city of Sigiriya (1982), the Golden Temple of Dambulla (1991), the old town of Galle and its fortifications (1988), the sacred city of Anuradhapura (1982), the sacred city of Kandy (1988), Sinharaja Forest Reserve (1988) and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (2010).

Well, 7 out of 8 isn’t too bad – minus Sinharaja.

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November 10, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

Into the Cultural Triangle

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 6
3rd Nov10, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

The morning saw us sleeping in, after the long drive into Kandy. That and for once we had an internet wifi connection in the room. Firstly, did the tour around Kandy, taking in the sights. The lake is the most visible landmark around Kandy central, and opposite the lake from where we were staying, was the Temple of the Tooth Relic. A did the temple tour, but the rest of us just did the Kandy museum, plus walked around the town for a bit, dropping by the big Buddha at the top of the hill overlooking Kandy. The tourist office in Kandy was where we bought the USD 50 Cultural Triangle ticket, which covers Kandy, Polonnaruwa, and Anuradhapura, Sigiriya and some other smaller sites.

From Kandy, it was a long drive up to Dambulla Rock Caves, a UNESCO heritage site made up of a series of 5 caves containing around 150 Buddhas. It’s a separate ticket from the Cultural Triangle Ticket and costs 1200 Rp per entry. The caves were alright, but of more interest was the great view of the sunset from the top of the hill where the rock caves stood.

It was dark when we did the journey from Dambulla to Sigiriya. Stayed at a Globetrotter’s Tourist Inn (1500 Rp), which, if you ignore the mosquitoes, is a great place to stay. Unlike most of the places which were located at the edge of the road (GCSE ‘O’ Geography: Linear population!), this one had a long driveway and the rooms were located further in, off the road. Its a popular place too, in the Nov Dec months expect the place to be prebooked.

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November 9, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

Interlude: Rasai Sri Lanka!

So. 9 days and 2 kg later. Here’s a blog post about food. Rasai means Delicious in Sinhalese =) I pinched the post title from a Sri Lankan food festival promotional ad.

Typical Sri lankan rice and curry meal. Spicy and bloody fantastic too.

This is how we wash our hands, with “tissue” made out of newspapers

Rotti. plain. with egg. or those triangular ones with vege.

Spiced chick peas. kacang puteh style

Breakfast buffer. made out of dhal. rotti, and string hoppers (extreme right flour like stringy things)

Kottu Rotti! It’s like prata with meat, minced into tiny slices over a chopping board.

Waday. and Samosa. Street eats.

Plain rotti, samosas behind the counter.

Mobile bakery.

Hoppers. Plain and with egg.

Rice and curry spread

Tropical Sri Lankan fruits

Rice and Curry Hotels. Hotels here means restaurant.

Yoghurt. At 35 singapore cents for one, it’s a steal

Rice and curry set – with chicken curry!

Rice and curry. With fish!

Deviled chicken and deviled fish

Sri Lankan highland tea. and oh so English setting

Home cooked Sri Lankan meal

Fried rice

Thosai with dhal and deviled chicken

Wattalapam – coconut custard

Cream soda – local diabetes inducing soft drink

Fried noodles.

Wood apple, with chilli powder

Chilli mango slices

Heck, just go to the wikipedia page to learn more. =)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Sri_Lanka

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November 7, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

Greetings from the World’s End!

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 5
2nd Nov10, Kandy, Sri Lanka

At 7am in the morning, we made our way to Horton Plains National Park (2300 Rp x 4 for everything including entry, vehicle entry and other taxes). A plateau rising up to 4300m, the park is home to the Sambar deer, one of which we saw near the entrance. It is also Sri Lanka’s only cloud forest, rising high sea level, and covered in mist for most of the day.

The objective here was to make our way on foot along the 9 km round trek. The route would take us to a point aptly called World’s End. This is where the trek path suddenly opens out into a 880m vertical drop into the valley below, affording brilliant views of the surrounding area and on clear days, even the sea.

The trek was straightfoward, decent walking footwear is a must. And with stops at highlights such as Baker’s Falls, Mini World’s End (a less impressive version of the above) and the flora / fauna (not much here, we also saw birds). The highlight of course was World’s End, and we spent a bit of time looking down below till vertigo set in. Well, now I can go back telling everyone I have been to World’s End. (Cue REM’s song, ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It, And I Feel Fine’)

From Horton’s Plains, we descended and passed by the Ambiwela dairy farm, where cows are bred to graze on rolling hills for their milk. These are then made into yoghurt, cheese and other dairy products. We had our fill of fresh cow’s milk, sold behind a booth set up in the parking area leading to the dairy farm. We would have been able to visit the farm too, unfortunately the factory people were out to lunch.

However, we had much better luck with Macwoods’s tea factory. This tea making establishment has been around for the last century and owned more than a thousand acres of land. We were taken on a tour of the tea factory, including the tea picking process, and the different grades of tea (Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings!) available. A new experience, since I have been seeing tea plantations everywhere but never had the chance to actually learn how the tea was made.

Dinner was at our driver’s house, near Kandy. A had joked that she would want to eat dinner at his place, and he duly invited us over. His mom prepared dishes beforehand and we very really embarrassed at having imposed ourselves at his place. The home cooked food was excellent though.

Reached Kandy late in the evening. Found a place at Sharon’s Inn, 3000Rp for the room, with a wifi connection. Probably the best place we stayed by far, notwithstanding Nuwara Eliya’s overnight stay in cool high altitude surroundings.

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November 7, 2010December 5, 2017 by Red

From the Coast to the Highlands

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 4
1st Nov10, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

So having decided to go ahead with a driver and van for the next 6 days, we planned our route to see the main sites in Sri Lanka. With a vehicle, we would be able to see more, and spend less time waiting for buses and public transport. In the end, it would add up to be cheaper to go ahead with this arrangement, especially since there were four of us. The downside would be less interaction with the populace.

So the driving route today was to follow the coast from Hikkaduwa all the way to the next big city Matara, before heading inland to Nuwara Eliya. Nuwara Eliya is 1880m above sea level, and it would be a major change from the sunny beach weather we had been having over the past few days.

Breakfast. In one of the restaurants just out of Hikkaduwa, serving a buffet of (140 Rp) of rotti, string hoppers (a noodle like dry flour staple), with some dhal and other side dishes. Basically, rice and curry, or a flour variant in this case.

During the journey inland, the altitude began to rise, and soon we were in cooler weather, passing by Rawana falls, which has a backstory that I cannot recall. Headed towards Ella, and the journey from Ella to Nuwara Eliya is punctuated with spectacular views of the hills below, the tea plantations spread across the hill slopes, and villages duly equipped with the obligatory resthouse for travelers.

Nuwara Eliya is Sri Lanka’s hill station, set up by the Brits stationed here long ago. The architecture of the houses are unlike anything I have seen in Sri Lanka so far, and most of them would not look out of place in the English countryside. It is pretty surreal, since I was not expecting little pastry shop huts, golf courses side by side with temples and mosques. The weather was also much cooler than in the lowlands, and I had to put on 2 layers and a windbreaker to keep out the cold. The city centre where we went for dinner was pretty much like any other Sri Lankan town, albeit it was much cooler. The unusual dinner dish we had was kottu rotti, which is basically roti prata with some sort of meat, in this case chicken, chopped to small bits till they resembled noodles instead of roti prata. Oh, and we had hoppers, which is like the mee chiam kueh in Singapore, except its an unwrapped bowl shaped version.

After dinner, did some strolling in the local Nuwara Eliya bazaar where I made the best buy so far! I was hunting for a souvenir Sri Lankan tshirt, with an elephant print on the front, which I saw an angmoh wearing, when instead I came across a Sri Lankan national cricket team jersey. Blue and yellow, I look fantastic wearing it. (yes, I know, my skin is thick, but we all know that don’t we already 😉 )Bargained it down to 1100Rp. The quality seems ok, I just hope it doesn’t come apart after one or two washes.

CSC = 3 (what else, the cricket jersey!)

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