Chennai, as seen on TV

My only concerns with Chennai were where I was going to sleep and where I was going to eat. I wanted to stay at the Broadlands Lodge and eat at Sangeetha, both as seen on my favorite travel show Globe Trekker. Broadlands was easy, it's listed in Lonely Planet. It's in an amazing old building that I spent over an hour exploring this morning.



Another view.



The view from the roof.



Sangeetha was harder. I had nothing to go on but the name and a picture I took from the TV. I found out that Sangeetha is a chain and that there are 18 of them around Chennai, but I wasn't sure if my Sangeetha was part of their group because they didn't use the same font for their signage. The first Sangeetha I went to told me basically where a few others were. The second Sangeetha told me that what I was looking for was not part of their group. The search was getting stupid but I decided to try one more and I think it was the right one although the inside seemed a little different. The outside is quite close, the sign freshly painted.



Sangeetha as seen on TV.



The search wasn't all hard work. I took the time to eat at each one. ;)
This is called a Mini Tiffin, basically a sampler of stuff for breakfast.



Onion Oothappam.



Pineapple pudding.



Tomato Oothappam

My flight back to civilization

Sri Lankan Airlines, Colombo to Chennai. Why is it that when I am absolutely desperate to get away from someplace that I miss my flight? The same thing happened in Hawaii last year. You might also ask 'why am I desperate to get away from tropical islands with amazing beaches that many people consider to be paradises' but that is a question for another time. Greatly looking forward to leaving Sri Lanka and having a nice afternoon flight at 14:15, I left my guesthouse at 10:18. The airport is about an hour and 30 minutes away by train, but involves a change of trains and a walk of about 2km from the train station to the airport. When it came time to change trains I found that the connection didn't leave for one hour. For some stupid reason I decided that getting a bus would be better than waiting that hour. I found a bus and after the bus driver assured me that we would leave in 5 minutes we ended up sitting around for 45 min waiting for the bus to fill. Then we spent the next hour and 45 minutes stuck in traffic. Then the hour drive to the airport, where we arrived at 13:55. The nice lady at Sri Lankan Airlines ticketing put me on a flight leaving 4 hrs later. I was worried about arriving in Chennai after dark but it was fine, no big deal. And now I can tell you how happy I am to be in India! I saw a lot of cool things in Sri Lanka and there is some food there that I will really miss, but in terms of getting back to a place where travel can be enjoyable again it's like night and day. I could go into a huge rant about all the things I hated about Sri Lanka and what I think of the Sri Lankan people but I won't. The easiest way to let you know how I feel is to tell you that now I am in India I feel like I am back in civilization.

My last few days in Sri Lanka

I set out looking for more variety in Sri Lankan cuisine. I didn't really find it but I did find a nice place to eat called Green Cabin. I had been going to their sister restaurant called the Pagoda Tea Room for Pineapple Gateau cake which is amazing. I originally went to the Pagoda Tea Room because it is where Duran Duran filmed part of their video for Hungry Like the Wolf. I ended up going back again and again for the cake. So with time to kill and being very hungry I decided to go to the source of the food at the Pagoda Tea Room which was Green Cabin. They had a nice all you can eat buffet of Sri Lankan food for about US$1.50 with the selections on offer changing daily. It is very similar to the Udupi Indian restaurant my family enjoys in Phoenix. Of course I saved room for a couple slices of Pine Gateau after my every meal.









One my last day in Sri Lanka I finally tried a lunch packet. It was really good, and it included mango curry which I had heard was good but until then never had a chance to try

Sri Lankan skies

I always thought that Arizona had the most impressive skies of anywhere I've ever been. But an amazing Arizona sky is not an everyday occurrence. Here in Sri Lanka the sky puts on a show every single day.

The search for the perfect beach

Unawatuna



Mirissa



South of Hikkaduwa



South of Hikkaduwa

Galle fort

Easily the most pleasant place to hang out in all of Sri Lanka, Galle is a fortified colonial city with Dutch, Portuguese, and British roots. The Dutch built the main fort in the 17th century and most of the important buildings inside are from the Dutch era. I stayed in an old Dutch hotel inside the fort and wandered around during the day looking at all the old buildings. The main attraction though is strolling along the fort walls at sunset. I enjoyed the evenings inside the fort so much that instead of staying just one night and then heading off to a beach guesthouse, I decided to make day trips to the beach and to be back each day by sunset.