2016 My backpacking trip to Sri Lanka - Galle

With great enthusiasm I bought the flight ticket on 7th June 2016, will land at Colombo in the morning 15^th of Oct 2016. 

 Was being informed that I might not reach Sinharaja on the same day as I landed. The reasons is because I choose public transport as my mode of traveling. I looked at the sri lanka railway map network. I looks worth to go to Galle. So Galle is my first destination and it can be reached within a day

Galle

Galle pronounce as Gaar Lah or Gaul is situated on the southwestern tip, 119km from Colombo, Sri Lanka. This city is facing laccadive sea, Indian Ocean Due to the locality it was the main port on the island for the sea routes that connect Asia with Mediterranean.

“It had gained importance in the Indian oceanic trade network at least by the fourteenth century. The Moroccan traveller Ibn Batuta who arrived in Sri Lanka in 1344 A.D. states that he was entertained at Galle by a Muslim seafarer named Ibrahim. He further states that Ibrahim had a residence at Galle.

The Chinese junks that came through the straits of Malacca on their way to Malabar or the African coast and ships from the Middle East plying to Malaysia or the Far East touched at the Port of Galle for purposes of trade as well as for repairs and replenishment of food and water.”

I extracted the paragraph from here 

In year 1505 Lourenço de Almeida a Portuguese explorer and military commander accidentally after a storm, the winds blown him to Sri Lanka coast (Galle). It was the first contact for the people there to have white people.

“So alien were the Portuguese that the Sinhalese chronicle Rajavaliya described them when they built a fort at Colombo in 1517 as "exceedingly fair of skin and beautiful. They wear boots and hats of iron, they rest not a minute in one place, they walk here and there. They eat hunks of white stone (bread) and drink blood (wine) and give two or three pieces of gold and silver for one fish or one lime. The report of their cannon is louder than thunder when it bursts upon the rock of Yugandhara their cannon balls fly for a gawwa (a gawwa roughly equals 6.5km, so this distance is an exaggeration) and shatter fortresses of granite."

I extracted the paragraph from here

Galle is a world UNESCO heritage site. Being a port with various people stopover that uses the sea route of Asia~Mediterranean and also having the foreign invaders (portugese, Dutch and British), Galle is rich with the blend of the local Sinhalese culture and others as well.

On 26^th Dec 2004, the 9.0 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean near west coast of Sumatra triggered huge massive waves swept inland as far to 5 kilometers over Galle. This has destroyed the coastal fisherman villages and even a train with 1700 passengers.

Accommodation

http://wikitravel.org/en/Galle

Budget range

• Paradise Hostel Galle offers probably the cheapest accommodation in Galle starting from 1500 LKR. The hostel is a beautiful converted home with high ceilings, lawn for sunbathing, free internet, coffee, wifi and laundry facilities. The hostel is only 1.6km from Galle Train station and is about 200m from the Mahomodara hospital - Bus no. 383/2 or Bus no. 388/1 (get down in front of the hospital and take the lane to the right till you see the hostel signboard). It is run by Krishan Jayasundara. Address: 9/1 Bope Cross Road, Mahamodara, Galle. Ph: +94 71 143 8533 +94 71 58 58 785 ph:+94 777 73 73 27 or facebook.com/ParadiseGalle/
  Pizza Hut and Supermarket are just 10 mins walk from the hostel.
  

I stayed in this room.

Bathroom attached

I am the only guest, but they laid so much food on the table for me. The house rules is eat what you afford to eat but not allowed to take away. I am glad that I have a tough stomach cause they cut the fruits overnight.

• The Yellow House Inside Galle Fort, in Parrawa Street, next to the Buddhist temple. Basic room with outside bathroom. Mosquito nets. No wifi. 1300LKR.

• Dutch Villa In the corner of Parrawa Street, inside the fort. 1500 LKR.

• Rampart View Guest House (tel. 4389566, 37 Rampart Street) The rooms at the family run have a shared balcony overlooking the ramparts at the southern end of Galle Fort with the Indian Ocean beyond, and it has a small roof garden. The rooms are clean, with air-con, and the owners are friendly and helpful. The breakfasts include lots of fresh fruit, bread, eggs and good rich tea.

• They have only two en suite rooms at Mamas 76 Lleyn Baan st,Galle Fort, but the best roof terrace in the fort.morning fresh local food served by a willing local family, fluent english speaking ex tour guide Jerome runs his own business. V. good value. [www.mamas-galle-fort.com] $44/night

• Thenu Rest(tel. +94-91-224-6608 / +94 77-3584156, 12 Hospital Street) have four well equipped clean rooms with traditional four poster double beds with hanging net curtains. Two of the rooms have air conditioning and the other two have fans. All rooms are well equipped with electric hot water showers. The main guest bedroom has a large balcony overlooking the main street and two of the other rooms have internal balconies overlooking the terrace. The guest house is located near the ramparts at the southern end of Galle Fort close to the Light House near the beach with the Indian Ocean beyond. The owners are very friendly and helpful. They also provide Dinner and Breakfast. The breakfasts are either continental or traditional Sri-Lankan and include lots of fresh fruit, bread, eggs and good rich tea and coffee.

15^th Oct 2016
I loaded my luggage into the car, locked up my house at 1.40pm.

I have 16 titanium screws.. NO I did not had an accident. It was due to severe scoliosis - abnormal curvature of the spine.  After the ops I am much more healthier.  This is the amount of luggage I traveled with for my solo back packing holiday.    

Went for a mamak lunch nearby. Parked my car arrived at the putrajaya sentral train station at 4pm. Transit train ticket to KLIA2 cost RM9.40. It was my first time board on this train. Gives me the feel of prestige and cozy travel. Sat at P5 since 7pm watching the daily normal scene of an airport after a long walked after I dropped in my bags.

The plane take off from KLIA2 as per schedule.

Finally I touched my feet on Sri Lanka ground.

I work in a bank in Malaysia.

I spend the whole night in the airport.  I was amazed they came back from the foreign land with such a big fridge.

I am blessed to be given a special “private” VIP airport transfer to Paradise Hostel Galle. Miles and miles of country-side scenery after we left the airport. I doze off most of the 3hrs journey.

Wildlife in Galle through my eyes?

 I just spend about 3 hrs  at the guesthouse garden to have this.

 

I walked around the town and all these caught my attention.

Railway station and bus station are just next to each other

shells for salesI walked around the town and all these caught my attention.

To see their culture, I would walk and  see what they sells.

There is a very famous spice shop near the bus station.  You would be amazed that there are so many flavor of spices in this small shops.  

Very fresh Vanilla 

Fisherman Village

Fisherman Village

First time in my life to see such a big tuna fish.

You  would not want to miss Galle Fort  - the UNESCO site.   It was first build in 1588 by the Portuguese 

The skulls symbolize that death of this person is cause by epidemic - Malaria 

Cultures

This is a hawker that sells drinks.  I was shocked that she use a basin to packed rice and sambal. This is their food supply for the day.

Culture shock for me.  Newspaper as tissue.

Mosque

This is a clinic,where the doctor from the nearby hospital do their private practice

How to materialize Sri Lanka Here I come ..

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Notes:- There is once people drop me a message - “Your blog looks stale- no update for months. Are you doing well? Do you have any side affects after your scoliosis surgery?”. Thanks for your concern. I am doing very well. I am more healthier than before. A much more happier person compare to before.

I leads a very busy daily life. I am officially employed in a Financial Institute working as a database administrator taking care of production environment. My job sometimes required me to work long hours. We do applications rolled out, system maintenance during our customers are sleeping. So there are times I work while you guys are snuggling in your comfortable cozy bed. My spine that are braced with titanium screws and nuts have no complain even though someday I need to abstain from bed due to work throughout the night. I also do swimming at least 3 times in a week to ensure that my back muscles is strong to enable me to continue enjoy quality life.

Actually I have done this Sri Lanka back-packing trip in October 2016. Friends do asked me when can we see your photos? Where do you share out your photos?  Apologize I am working on my blog in a very slow moving pace like the sloth but not in the same pace of it's laziness. hahahahahah

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Working in a big organization, they wish to prove that no one is indispensable. So yearly we are required to take mandatory block leave for at least 5 days that overlaps a weekend. During this mandatory leave the company is not suppose to contact you even for critical issue.

To fulfilled this mandatory block leave I block up 11 days of my annual leave. This year my 1^st choice holiday destination during my mandatory leave is India, however many says and warn me that India is not safe for female travelers. I then browse through the list of Airasia flight destination on what countries that could gives me the taste and feel of India and most of all must be safe for a solo female travelers. Sri Lanka surface up as my choice.

I bought the ticket and I told myself it would be a economical backpacking style of holiday. Definitely for sure I am not going to hook up any packaged holiday tours. I am going to plan the itinerary/places that I should visit according to my liking.

I centralized with the thoughts that I want to do bird watching and also sightseeing as I travel along. I Google and did my own research discovered that Sinharaja Forest reserve -Unesco world heritage surface as the top list. Unlike others popular holiday I hardly could find many share their holiday back-packing experience on Sri Lanka. To me Sri Lanka seems to be not a popular demand holiday destination, therefore is hard to source information from the internet. I couldn't find the answer is it necessary as a Malaysia to apply visa in order to enter Sri Lanka? How safe for a female to travel alone?

As the flight days is drawing near. God allow me to meet up with a few Sri Lankan. Started with HE sends a few Sri Lankan people attending the same church as I do. However I discovered that It was very frustrating communicate with them due to language barriers. These are factory worker who can only converse limited English. Then one day during lunch break at Oracle training venue @ KL, I meet a few Sri Lankan IT professional who came here for training. I told them that I am in the midst of planning my “free and easy” trip to sri lanka. I told them it was frustrating cause I could not find much information in the internet. One of them gives me his email. He told me that I can write email to ask further about his country. Yes indeed I am very grateful to this man, he reply my email. I asked him how to travel with public transport to Sinharaja. Is there any airport I shuttle bus? I hope to see panther. Where can see panther? How much monies should I budget to spent per day? Public transportation convenience to move around Sri Lanka? Is it safe for female travelers?

I started by starring at Sri Lanka Map for days and hours whenever I am free. As the days is drawing nearer with the information fed to me, I managed to draft out my traveling plan. In a very draft manner I will do a loop stopover at Galle (UNESCO heritage site), visit Sinharaja National Park (UNESCO heritage site), hopping to have a glimpse of Sri Lanka Leopard at the nearest national park near Sinharaja. Aim to do the scenic train journey of Sri Lanka tea plantation and my last stopover is Kandy (UNESCO heritage site) before fly back to Malaysia.

I face some difficulties on good information on how to reach Udawalawe from Sinharaya using the public transport. Coincidentally a Sri Lankan spine doctor who is here for his fellowship at the hospital where I use do volunteering at their scoliosis clinic came to my rescue. He gives me very details instructions. I was really overwhelmed that day as he told me that he will offer me a “VIP welcoming treat”. He will send someone to pick me up from the airport upon my arrival to my first destination. My headache on how am I going to reach Galle is being solve. Thank you very much Doctor.

Pre-requisite to travel in Sri Lanka

Regarding Visa (ETA). The following citizen are exempted from Electronic Travel Authorisation for a short visit Sri Lanka up to 30 days.
1) Republic of Singapore
2) Republic of Maldives

3)Republic of Seychelles

The fees are spelt out in Sri Lanka Online Application  (ETA)

No photos are required, we can apply ETA online with credit card. ETA approval are instantly even though they did says that it takes a few days to process. It is very important to furnish the name and passport number as in the passport else you need to apply and pay again.

What can I do if I make a mistake in my application?

Once an application is submitted processed and payment is made, you cannot cancel the transaction and the payment cannot be reimbursed.

Name of hotel/guesthouse
In the Disembarkation/Embarkation form it is mandatory to put down Name of hotel/guesthouse. For backpacking off course we would stay in different hotel/guesthouse as we travel. Just put down the first hotel once you have landed. So it is important and necessary that you need to book the 1^st hotel/guesthouse that you going to stay.

Currency

Sri Lanka rupee is different from the India Rupee even though they are neighbor. As it is difficult to find money changers that deals with Sri Lanka rupee in Malaysia, it is best to convert MYR to USD first. You can use USD,EURO, SGD $, AUD $, Japan Yen, Korean Won change into Sri Lankan Rupee on arrival at Colombo airport. There are several banking currency exchange outlet after exiting immigration. All of them are all offering the same rate. Among them there is only one that deals with MYR however the rates is not favorable. Unless you will be at Colombo city, it is recommended to change Sri Lanka Rupee in the airport upon arrival.

How much monies you need?

The peak season for tourism is Nov till April. A decent clean comfortable room rates that used to be 2,000 rupee per night during off peak can soar up to 10,000 rupee. It is super cheap to moves around using public transport eg bus and train. A 2 ½ hrs of bus journey 100km on a public bus only cost 130 SL rupee. The three Wheeler (motorcycle taxi) is 100 SL rupee for 1KM.
Local food Sri Lankan street food meal is price around SL100 – SL250.

Mobile Phone Cards

In this new modern computer era we would like to be connected at all times. This will ensure that our loves one will able to contact us at anytime and also stay in-tune with the outside world. It is much economical to get a local sim phone card from the local mobile service provider rather than do roaming. If you are in mind of depends on the free WIFI at the public places ie hotel, restaurant, coffee house, from my experience I was there for 12 days their public WIFI is hopeless. You either need be in the common place in the hotel or have your room very near to the modem.

So it is still highly recommended to get a Sri Lankan sim card. There are 5 mobile service provider counters at the arrival hall at Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake . 

The 5 mobile services providers servicing in Sri Lanka.

1.Dialog

 2. Mobitel

 3. Airtel

 4. Etisalat

5. Hutch

They are open for service 24 x 7 ready to serve the tourist as they walk out from the departure hall. In terms of price all of them package their mobile tourist plan at different perks but selling at the same price. During my visit in Oct 2016, the mobile tourist plan with data plan and micro sim card cost LK1,350.

** source from http://www.memolanka.com/sri-lanka-mobile-operators-tourist-packages

How to buy a Sri Lankan local phone cards?

Handover your passport, your mobile-phone, the amount you need to pay to the mobile phone counter as per your choice. They will do all the necessary. They will request you to sign a contract paper of the mobile service provider. The staff will also inform you your SL mobile number. The whole process takes about 25 minutes.

Gives back to the community

Dear All,

Scoliosis is the abnormal lateral spine curve measurement of greater than 10 Cobb degree applied on standing radiograph. Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliolsis that develop during adolescent age is the most common form of scoliosis. Scoliosis cause the sufferer to have significant impact on their physical and psychosocial health.

As this abnormal spine curve progress it will decrease the chest wall. This will cause decrease in pulmonary capacity. Over time it will also leads to others health issue and premature death in additional to the expected backache.

At current we are lack of scoliosis and spine care awareness in Malaysia. The general public have no knowledge about this ancient Greek's word of Scoliosis. Jabatan Kementrian Kesihatan's routine health services for school children program only covers oral health , vaccination and immunisation. Huge emphasis are on oral health, dengue education campaign. They even do education/campaign on proper techniques for washing hands. Every new virus surface will have massive education awareness but neglected spine care and scoliosis screening. With this usually the child with scoliosis are presented late in the hospital when their curve is already severe.

There are times the child is only presented to seek medical help when they are suffering severe back-ache, breathing difficulties, inabilities to walk/sit/stand for a long time and having gastrointestinal issue. Some are lucky cause the option of surgery is still possible, however for some due to too late, surgery is no longer an option.  

Curve progress very rapidly during their high growth spurt (12- 16yrs old). Scoliosis screening is able to detect scoliosis curve when the curve is smaller and this could avoid unnecessary life health risk to the individual sufferer and restore quality life faster.

I am a scoliosis sufferer myself since the age of 11 yrs old. My spine curve over the years progress slowly from mild to severe. It cause me also to experience all sort of physiology impact such as low self-esteem, no confidence, mild depression and not to mentioned of slight lost in pulmonary function as well as gastrointestinal issue. The truth is not all scoli patient have the curve progress slowly like mine. Some patient even just in their tender age of 10 years old they are having 100+ Cobb degree abnormal spine curve.


By undergone the Scoliosis surgery it gave me new lease of life. From this scoliosis surgery I have gain back quality life and better health. For you the feel of your back comfortably hold by a chair is norm, cause it always there. Unfortunately I start to lost it since I was 8-9 yrs old when scoliosis encroach into my body.

After undergone my scoliosis surgery, I could feel my back being hold comfortably by a chair when I sit on it. Beside comfort feeling I also feel so marvelous, great and thankful. In my journey of life I have also watch in a real life what will eventually the outcome when a scoliosian decided against surgery and reject proper medical care. This happen to my close relatives. As I ponder on this I am so grateful to GOD cause HE is very timely to send help to me.

Since then I keep telling my life stories raising scoliosis awareness hopefully my long Scoliosis life journey can inspire someone out there who also struck with scoliosis.

I am also very actively doing patients support. I also do hospital visitation to encourage and gives support to the patients and their parents. It takes a Scolio to truly understand another Scolio.

Whenever I spotted someone with “weird back”, I will tell them my scoliosis journey and encourage them to seek proper medical help cause abnormal spine curve progression can leads one to get paralyze or wheelchair bound and also premature death.

It is indeed no joke of having days of long suffering of acute pain before death arrive.

Last year I have being to some orang asli settlements to perform the same program. I also did a spine care program and scoliosis screening in a church with a scoliosis patient and her father. In that event we managed to identified a few are are having this abnormal spine curve and yet they themselves never realised that they have it. This could be due to ignorance.

I am base in Kuala Lumpur/Selangor. If you have any events that you think I could help to enhance the event by giving Scoliosis education/awareness talks and perform scoliosis screening on children do feel free to contact me.




Regards,



Chor Mun Wong

wcmsusan@gmail.com

My Scoliosis surgery has a lot of side effects on me?

I am very angry as someone spread false reports about me.
On 10^th of Sept 2016, I received a call from a man bearing this phone number +60167710134. He told me he got my contact from his friend with a scoliosis child whom I talked to at the hospital the day before.

The caller actually want to gather info from me as his friend convey to him that I had a fail scoliosis surgery. This spinal fusion scoliosis surgery that I took ended me have a lot of side-effects.

Huh! SHIT YOU xdf$%%**&&'##%6^^! . To the owner of that phone number owner. Inform your friend. I can take up a lawsuit to sue him/her for defamation and also cause others to loose faith on scoliosis surgery! Ask him/her if the surgery I undergone on 17th of Feb 2014 has make me worst than before. Would this Wong Chor Mun wear this off shoulder dress as blouse with a pair of long pants walking around on a pair of high heels from 10am till 10pm on 9th of Sept 2016? 

FYI I did  lap swimming from 7.40pm till 9pm the day before.  Think and analyse it, if ever a person are in so much of pain can he/she do all this.?  

ASK HIM/HER DID HE/SHE REMEMBER THAT I WORE THIS DRESS AS BLOUSE YESTERDAY? !!!!