Rest day 1 in Jaffna

April 7, 2025

Last nights dinner was a little different – we had asian egg noodles with a side dishof chicken (or more like chicken nuggets). It was a lovely change from rice. The chicken pieces were nice and boneless with a batter around them. The place also did pizza and burgers so it was‘that’ sort of place that specialises in western type food. We could have got some french fries but nah wecan have that when we get home!

Brekky this morning supplied by the home stay was dhosa (large flat pancakes) with noodle cakes and 3 sauces/condiments – 1 coconut/lime and a little chilli, another was dahl and the other was a type of broth. Nowone thing I am really struggling with is actually eating this type of food. I watch everyone (locals) eat and they expertlybreak the dhosa or whatever they have intopieces and successfully dip it or cover it in the condiments provided all using1 hand – me I have to have a spoon and both hands to get anything remotely on my dhosa!

Another thing we have learnt while here in Sri Lanka is that anything touristy is reallyhard to find on your own unless you have a guide! We do have a Lonely Planets Sri Lanka book, albeit outdated, but it is more background information source about towns we are going through. And as I read it and it lists activitiesand shops, museums, temples, shrines, little places of interests etc – there is no ‘effin way you will actually find it! So when we started planning this trip and I looked into Jaffna one of the places to see was the Keerimalai Mineral Springs and I thought that might be great to see. So that went on my list of 2 things– the other is a tea plantation tour (although that I am not sure about that after reading an ABC article about the exploitation of tea plantation workers and allour big tea producing companies turn their backs and say they have the certification (that it is legit and workers are paid legit wages etc) but there is no auditing although they say they are blah blah blah).

We left straight after brekky this morning and joined in the busy throng that is theoutskirts of Jaffna. I never thought I wouldsay this but the drivers up here are somewhat different compared to Negombo and Colombo. There is no respect for anyone at an intersection! It is really cut throat and lets just say that I am now known locally as the ‘bitch of Jaffna’! Oh yeah they got me on a real menopausal day today, whew! I am surprised I am still allowed in this country!

It was hard the first few kilometers – you had to have your head on a swivel! Basically we have a problem with what is comingon our left side – so those that are merging in with traffic are just not lookingor in some cases will not pass in front of Neil but decide that I am ok to cut off– yeah they obviously don't know that you NEVER cut off a menopausal woman! LOL the first one – gee he got a mouth full and if he learnt 1 English word it was the F word as it came flying out of my mouth. Don't get me wrong I am not aggressive on the road but I do demand respect and if you see me coming and I am 1m from your tuk tuk you do not start reversing expecting me to be able to clearly pass you as the tuk tuk on my right is also pushing into me as he wants to turn left! I had nowhere to go and just banged my hand on the back of his tuk tuk and started ‘effin and a blinding away at him that what the heck was he doing – lets just say he was shocked!

LOL– the next one well was just pure pig ignorance on the car drivers side – firstNeil passed him and be began to merge without looking again and Neil was about 30cm alongside the car before he reacted with an “oi” (yeah that is all Neil could comeup with!) the driver looked at Neil but kept coming slowly still not looking behindhim to see me (I am on Neils wheel not too close though) but I start pulling out to the middle of the lane, lucky no car was behind me, and I am now over takingthis car looking at the ignorant bastard yelling way more than an ‘oi’ at him morelike a WTF are you doing!

Crikey it really irks me that they do this, most of the time we can avoid it and we know it is going to happen but just sometimes they start to move as you are overtaking them and you basically can't do a thing. Funny driving here!

Anyway before riding to the mineral springs I thought that maybe this place is not necessarily opened to foreigners to swim in as it is associated with the temple and it the mineral springs are suppose to have healing qualities etc – on a side note it DID NOT heal Neils flatulence which I was seriously hoping it would!

We did check on Google reviews and yes foreigners can go there and swim. So we decided to go on the bikes and made the23km journey to the top of Sri Lanka to Keerimalai! Not officially the northern most point but close enough and on a very clear day maybe you could see India?

Believe it or not there is a ferry that costs $45000 rupees to go to India – when we foundout I looked at Neil and he said no we will need a Visa! It was just a fleeting thought that crossed my mind momentarily!

It is a tiny town unlike the busy places we have been in. The temple is nice

And we park our bikes (20 rupees each bike) and go into the mineral springs – Neil inthe male one and me in the female one. Wetook videos respectively

As you can see they are both empty and the female one is alot smaller and has way higherwalls. I was the only one in it the entiretime (15-20 minutes). Neil had a few visitorswhile he was there. Reading the Google reviewsthey all said it was spiritual ... mmmm not sure on spiritual but most definitely relaxing. Would have hated it if someone else was there chatting away!

The water is spring fed and clear, but definitely did no put my head under (neither did Neil which surprised me as usually he does that sort of thing). It was refreshing in this heat as despite thecloud blocking the sun, it feels alot warmer today as there was no breeze.

Coming back home we took a different road and as per usual got lost! Well actually you don't get lost here thanks toGoogle maps, but what you do do is take the wrong road. You see on Google maps they distinguish the A road from the B road from the local road but in reality they are all the same when you are actually on the street, there are no street names, you cannot see the road numbers (if they are A or B roads) and if you come to the intersection and the A highway turns right the road to your left and in front of you also look like the A road so it is very natural to just go with the flow and keep going and it is not until you check Google maps that you realise you are off course. Alas you only have to take the next right and you will be back on course again! Or you can do what I said I was going to do when I get to an intersection and that is close my eyes and hope for the best! LOL just joking.

On our way back we did come across this marvellous Hindu shrine – not sure if the 2 are together or are independent of each other but we loved the monkey one!

We stopped of for some lunch and naturally had the tourist tax added to our bill –for 6 curry roti triangles and 2 teas that came to 800 rupees. Usually the roti are 50 rupee each and the tea100 rupee each so 500 rupee tops. But we don't query it as by now I am all menopaused out!!!

Between there and the 8km back to our accommodation I managed to drink a 750ml bottle of water as the curry mix was that salty that it made me thirsty!

Tomorrow we will just go visit the fort and the market place rather than a long ride like today – we cycled 47km all up!

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