March 19, 2025
Cycle day 2 - Moratuwa to Bentota
Moratuwa to Bentota = 46km (Total distance on this trip so far = 103km)
Weather = last nights low was 23 degrees with todays high 31 degrees. Cloudy with no winds. It rained heavy around 2.30pm - the most rain we have seen for quite a while after our long hot summer!
Accomodation = Villa Happy Home = 4500 rupees ($24.09 Oz)
The place we stayed at doesn't serve breakfast so we had a papaya and halved it and picked up something in town as we cycle thru.
We found this bakery aptly named I think! So here is Neil sitting in Neil Bakery.
We didn't really know what we were ordering but they looked nice! We both had a plain bread bun (which did have a tad sweet taste to it) and I had a sweet bread stick covered in sugar - oh that was lovely! Neil also had the plain bread bun but he had a jam filled sugared bread turnover type thing!
We think we will do this when brekkys aren't included in our accomodation - have fruit at the accomodation and then find a bakery within 5km as I don't think I could go much further on just eating papaya! We will have bananas tomorrow so that should add mileage before needing a sweet bread bun!
So our ride today was a short one and slowly we began to see less and less built up crowded towns and by the end of the day we were riding through the small towns where the only major traffic was in and around the town center. It was good riding and we are beginning to see alot more buddas and shrines alongside the road, we have also seen a few mosques as well. It is not always easy to get a photo of these things or get access to take a photo as you really have to pick your spot to pull over!
Saw the usual crazy things today - a small herd of cattle just casually strolling on the road. We have seen quite a few individual ones but not a herd.
seen a few of the below - behind this motorised contraption is a small trailer.
We had left this morning at 7am so we were making good time and as I said before pulling over for a break can be difficult but today we found it easier maybe because the traffic is less and less the further you come away from Colombo (although I think as we get closer to Galle tomorrow we will be getting more traffic!) We stopped outside what we though was an abandoned building but I think it is a temple of some sort as I watched a guy ride in and take 2 sort of mild canisters.
It did have an interesting design on its gate entrance!
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So by now despite the slight decrease in traffic it is incredibly loud with all the beeping and tooting at each other. I did try my bicycle bell but that just got drowned out (note to self - next time we come to a place like this I am going to invest in a loud horn so I can play with the big boys!) We decided to try our luck on a back road that ran parallel with the highway. And it paid of, it was like riding on a bike path!
We got to see some luxury apartments in the building process. There were a few western hotels along here as well. They all sort of follow the same concept - a heavily gated entrance to a very unassuming walkway and then (and I can only imagine the following as I haven't followed my sisters advice and acted my appropriate travel age!) maybe the hotel reception is a bit more grander and welcoming. Unlike Aussie ones which have a grand entrances.
Eventually our road/bike path comes to an end and we have to get back on the highway again. Now here is something you don't see everyday ... a dead person! I kid you not! Riding along and there are people milling about waiting to hail down a tuk tuk or the bus or waiting to cross the road (yeah good luck with that one!) and this is normal all the way along this highway. We have seen lots of homeless and seriously under nourised individuals pass by as well or are sleeping tucked under some shelter. What I saw absolutely shocked me and then shook me. I saw what looked like a piece blue tartan on the roadside and as I passed I looked and saw there was a body lying there and I could see by the way it was lying on his back with his legs and arms just laid out and his mouth open and head to the side that this poor guy was dead. Later on when I asked Neil he said he thought the guy was asleep and I said no he is dead as his body is severly emanciated and homeless or not that is not a sleeping position a person takes! What is worse is that everyone was ignoring it, a guy no more than 20m from him was chatting on his phone. I suppose this is Sri Lanka where empathy for each other is not high or on anyones list!
Back onto our ride, as we get closer and closer to Bentota we begin to see more tourists and western people like ourselves! (but clearly travelling in an age appropriate way - gosh Sharon you are going to rue the day you asked me should I be doing this cycle touring in this type of country at our age!!!)
Lots more grander type shops, heaps of jewellery shops and supermarkets are more frequent.
We were early to Bentota for our accomodation so we got some bottled water at the supermarket and some ice cream to cool us down.
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We decided to find a bakery and get some plain buns and take them to a public park that we found on google. So Neil goes in to the bakery and I wait outside looking at the vege shop.
We then go down to the beach and it is nice, a few in swimming. It is a pretty spot and plenty of people out and about enjoying it before the rain I suppose.
We have our lunch under a tree in the shade. Neil gets out the bakery buns, again not knowing what we are buying but thinking they are just 2 plain buns packaged conveniently together well I just found my new food love - they are 2 plain buns sandwiched together with a mock cream!
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I did do the appropriate thing and seperated the 2 - 1 with all the cream on it and the other as a plain bun to use to make a banana sandwich out of it.
Bananas are cheap here - roadside and no tourist tax on it they are around 200 rupee which is $1 per kilo and papaya is 400 rupee which about $2 per kilo.
We make our way towards our accomodation and have to wait for the passenger train.
We find our accomodation in a back road in the jungle somewhere and it is unmarked and we have to ask someone and they ring the owner and he comes over. We waited about 5 mins and he rocks up. Takes us into the house and we are the only ones here. We think he charges us more when he converts it to rupees - Booking.com gives it in American dollars with all the taxes and so we convert to roughly know how much to pay in rupees. He quotes some outrageous price and then says local tax. Local tax my arse! So we pay 4500 rupee. It does include air conditioning which is nice and we have a hot shower.
So he goes and leaves us be which is great! But then I go to the toilet and WTF it is filthy! I crikey the man bashing really poured out of my mouth! You know our Negombo accomodation has spoilt us as now I judge all our accomodation on that - Negombo was run primarily by the woman but her husband helped out as well with cleaning and serving breakfast. So I was annoyed that the toilet hadn't been cleaned since they last user as there was piss all over the seat and then shit and piss under the seat and on the bowl edge. So I had to clean the seat, under it and the bowl edge just so I could sit on it. So we found some serviettes to wipe it down with water and then I see there is no toilet paper again! last night was the same so Neil went down to ask for some. Today he went into another room and grabbed some from there! See why Sri Lankan men think they can do hospitality I just don't know!
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1 month ago
once we had our showers and also took advantage of the warm water to do our laundry while in the shower! we settled in for the afternoon and then it poured with rain for about 30 mins and then just light rain. It is passed now.
Tomorrow we are in Galle for 2 nights and I shall be giving tonights accomodation a bad review on booking.com
Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 1,469 km (912 miles)
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Loved the beach, that looked really nice.
Fancy of all the places on the planet you guys find a bakery named after Neil lol 😂
Well done guys, really enjoying looking forward to my morning reading of your adventures in Sri Lanka ❣️
1 month ago