Oman

Stories from Thousands and One Night seem to come true in the magic country of Oman. Clear nights full of stars, mosques that shine in thousands of colours, evergreen date palms and ‘Wadis’ as far as the eye can see. The hospitality of the people is admirable. On plenty of occasions we were invited for a “khawa” (traditional Arabic coffee) with dates and during our first night out with the car, a nice policeman offered us a room in his house to spend the night.From the majestic capital Muscat we drove with our rental car to the Harbour-City Sur, continued towards the turtle nesting beach of ‘Ras al Jinz’ before ending in the orange coloured desert dunes of the Sharqiya sands. We drove through mountain chains and rocky deserts, while enjoying the perfect quality of the roads. A glance into one of the deepest canyon of the Arabian Peninsula, the Jebel Shams, reminded us how small we really are. The only difficulty that we encountered in Oman was the fact that there are almost no hotels in the cities and if there are, they are really expensive. Nevertheless, we managed our way around the country and were amazed by the breath-taking views on our way.

Next Stop: The Islamic Republic of Iran :)

Sri Lanka

Our next destination was Sri Lanka. Our dear friend Philippe came to join us for 2 weeks on our journey. Estelle profited from this opportunity to pay a short visit to her pregnant sister (and her family) in Frankfurt. The timing was very fortunate, because during Estelle's stay, her sister gave birth to a lovely boy, Fenno (Congratulations Izzi and Domi).

Meanwhile, Philippe and Jean-Marc discovered Sri Lanka, the self-proclaimed 'Wonder of Asia'. The small island offers 8 UNESCO World Cultural Heritages and is quite easy to tour, because there are regular buses to most of the cities. Those local jeepney buses have quite amazing speakers, that allow you to enjoy the local music at full volume during the often hour long rides. During the drive, you get very easily in contact with the local people, because there is often not one centimetre space between you and them. Furthermore it gets never boring because the suspension of the vehicle makes you shake and 'dance' throughout the whole way. Quite an experience :)

From the capital City Colombo we took one of those famous jeepney buses along the scenic sea shore road towards the old Portuguese/Dutch Fort 'Galle'. After enjoying the sunset and some very tasty food, we continued to the small beachside town 'Unawatuna' (loved by the Russian tourists).
From there we continued to higher grounds towards the famous Sri Lankan tea plantations and a village named 'Ella'. Here we hiked to the Little Adams Peak to enjoy the panoramic view over the mountain side.

Claimed as the most beautiful train ride in the world, we tested the railway between Ella and Kandy. The views are remarkable and the ride is not that bad, provided that you got a pre-reserved seat number.

From Kandy we took the bus to the cultural triangle to visit the caves of Dambulla, the rock fortress in Sigiriya and the ruins of the ancient royal city in Polonnaruwa.
Here we got the chance to do an elephant safari in the Kaudulla National Park. During the summer heat, hundreds of elephants come to this lake to cool down, take a bath, eat and drink and enjoy time with their offspring. An amazing experience!

The last few days we relaxed in Kandy to process all those new impressions and take a run-up for the upcoming travel in the Middle East.

The Portuguese started to build the fortified city of Galle but the Fort reached its peak during the Dutch occupation in the 17th century.

Galle is the biggest preserved fortress in Asia built by European occupiers.

Not far from Galle is the relaxing beach of Unawatuna. Its mound-like hill forms the eastern protective barrier to the Galle harbour.

In 1864, the railway system was introduced by the British occupants to transport the famous Ceylon tea and coffee to the shore of Colombo for exportation.

The humidity and cool temperatures of the central highlands is the reason why Sri Lanka can produce tea of the highest quality.

The view from Little Adams Peak.

The climate change and the rise of temperatures have a not negligible effect on the tea production.

The royal city of Polonnaruwa was the capital of the Polonnaruwa Kingdom.

The Polonnaruwa Vatadage is believed to hold the Relic of the tooth of the Buddha. It is said
that whoever possessed the tooth relic had a divine right to rule the land.

It is prohibited to take a picture with the back turned to the Buddha, so no selfie with this statue.

According to Buddhist literature there are 6 different types of Stupas.

In Polonnaruwa, the Stupas are Bubbulakara which means bubble shaped.

Inside the Gal Vihara rock temple are the carvings of three Buddhas in a single solid granite rock.

The whole archaeological area in Polonnaruwa was far from being overcrowded. We met only two other tourists during our visit.

Mother and daughter on their way to the water.

Because elephants can't use their hands to apply sun cream, they use grass to protect themselves from the burning sun.

The elephant rips out bundles of grass and shakes it with the help of his trunk to get rid of the insects and the mud. The birds next to the elephant pick up those insects and eat them.

Elephants always travel in groups. Around the Kaudulla National Park Lake there were 8- 10 'families' of elephants that bustled around the water.

Even if the elephants seem peaceful, they would probably attack you if you would approach them by foot.

A predator with its prey.

After an exhausting safari, there's nothing better than a cool sundowner.

 

The caves of Dambulla hold a remarkable set of statues and ceiling paintings related to Gautama Buddha and his life.

Not only humans enjoy the good view on the nearby hill.

The lion rock in Sigiriya is one of the best example of ancient urban planning.

The view on Sigiriya from the neighbouring rock.

Since more than 2000 years (and still today), monks occupied the neighbouring rock and its surroundings.

Meanwhile in the freezing cold Frankfurt a new life saw for the first time the light of the day.

No sorrow, no jealousy, only peaceful sleep.