Flight from Colombo to Male and Mihintale

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Day 17: ANURADHAPURA - MIHINTALE - COLOMBO AIRPORT - MALÉ

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Today ends tour of the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka, it is also our last day in Sri Lanka and we have to catch a flight from Colombo to Male.
Today should be a day of those "sad" we repeat in our travels, the day we say goodbye to that trip that we had been waiting so long.
But today, although we say goodbye to Sri Lanka, we will also welcome you to another place, it has not completely finished our trip to Sri Lanka, tonight we have an appointment at Negombo airport, but not to fly to Barcelona ... Tonight we have a flight from Colombo to Male, where we will spend the remaining 6 days until our trip ends.
We collect the backpacks with only one thing on the head: Sri Lanka It is an extraordinary country to which we come up with expectations that have not only been fulfilled, but have been fulfilled.
We will remember all the experiences we have lived with a huge smile on our face.
Although we know that we are now heading to paradise, we also know that we leave another paradise behind, perhaps with a different concept, but that we would have stayed much longer ...


We also take with us the people we have met in this trip to Sri Lanka. We can never forget Wasanthi, M. Manualanthan ... all those people with whom we have crossed the road and have given us so much, without asking for anything in return ... We take with us an incredible country, Sri Lanka.
At 8 in the morning, after having breakfast for the last time at the Anuradhapura hotel, the Gamodh Citadel Resort, we check-out and we will start to Negombo airport, although we will make a last stop before.
We can't leave Sri Lanka without knowing Mihintale, Mihintale, the cradle of Buddhism in the country and the place where "everything began" ...
From Anuradhapura to Negombo airport it takes about 6 hours or so, depending on traffic, so we expect to arrive there in the middle of the afternoon.
We had thought about going to the center of Negombo perhaps, because our flight to Male leaves at 8 pm, but that will depend on the desire we have and especially on the time we finally arrive.
Mihintale It is about 10 kilometers east of Anuradhapura and it takes us a little more than 30 minutes.
Chami stays in the parking lot and we tell him that it won't take us long to visit so he can be calm with the time we have left to get to the airport.
We pay 500 rupees per person before starting to ascend, how could it be otherwise in Sri Lanka, until Mihintale.
Having as precedent Dambulla, Pidurangla, Sigiriya ..., Mihintale It is a piece of cake for us and we begin to climb stairs almost effortlessly.
Mihintale It is a small town with an ancient and rock history. From its past the ruins of another of the great Ancient Cities of Sri Lanka.
The ruins are scattered on a hill, so you have to prepare to climb a bit under a burning sun if you don't get up early as we have done.
Legend has it that King Devanampiya Tissa was hunting in 247 BC and had an encounter with Mahinda, the son of the Indian emperor Ashoka and sent by him to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism. In this same meeting the king became and became the main propagator of the new religion in Sri Lanka.


Mihintale

Before reaching the stairs that ascend to where most of the ruins are, you can see the remains of a hospital surrounded by other buildings.


Mihintale

Mihintale Ruins

Just past the main access door, we find 1840 old granite steps that go up the hill.


Mihintale stairs

Halfway up the first section, on the right there is a detour of steps that leads to the remains of the Kantaka Chetiya dagoba, about thirteen meters high and which is probably built towards the 13th century BC.
The end of the first flight of steps is the old refectory where the pilgrims were fed by the monks and adjacent are the remains of what seems to be a relic chamber, with a pair of 10th century inscriptions.
Climbed the 1840 steps, we find the Dagoba Ambasthale, which stands at the top of the hill, just in the place where tradition places the encounter between Mahinda and the king who hosted Buddhism in Sri Lanka.


Kantaka Chetiya in Mihintale

Mihintale

The stone columns surrounding the pagoda, similar to the oldest in Anuradhapura, constitute a mystery about its usefulness.
Opposite there is a seated Buddha statue.


Buddha sitting in front of Kantaka Chetiya in Mihintale

Not happy with everything we have within our reach in Mihintale, we still have the strength to reach the highest point.


Mihintale

Images in Mihintale

Views from the highest point of Mihintale

We are here until almost 10 in the morning. The visit the truth is that we could have extended it a little more, but as we do not know exactly how the road will take us to the international airport of Sri Lanka, where we will take our flight from Colombo to MaleWe prefer to be cautious and leave with time.


Time to leave Mihintale ...

With the last view set to Mihintale We return to the car and now we are on our way to Negombo airport.


Mihintale ... where it all started ...

Halfway, the sky is raining its rains and that makes us smile, thinking of the fear we had the day we arrived for not knowing how time would behave with us.

More practical information to prepare your trip to Sri Lanka

- 10 essential places to visit in Sri Lanka
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Sri Lanka

It is clear that this time and throughout our stay in Sri Lanka The monsoon has behaved with us and has let us enjoy the experience to the fullest.
When there is little to complete our journey from Anuradhapura to Colombo airport, a storm falls that reminds us, for the third time today, of the luck we have had. In the middle of the monsoon and it has only rained two afternoons, which were the ones we had “free” of visits throughout the trip…
Now we just have to cross our fingers for the next destination, because the forecasts were equal to or worse than those we had for Sri Lanka!!
We arrived at the airport with some hours in advance at the time of our boarding to Male and we said goodbye to Chami thanking him for everything that has helped us in the tour of the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka and on the subject of theft. On the way to here, telling him to stop us before in a exchange office, he doesn't say that if we want we can pay him in euros.
For us it is perfect and we tell you that if you do not need the money, wait a few days, because the rupee was rising and so you can get more with the change.
Before we go, we look back, we thank him again and he looks back at us with those eyes that we've only seen in Sri Lanka and so much says of its people.
Already at the airport, waiting for our flight from Colombo to Male We took the opportunity to eat some samosas and a kind of very good cakes, with drinks, for 700 rupees.
For dessert we eat a couple of ice cream for 80 rupees each and make time reading before boarding ...


Waiting to embark towards Male! Flight from Colombo to Male

Without a doubt, we have now started that part of the trip that we can call "vacations" and although we are quite restless people, we hope that we enjoy this part just like the one we have already lived in Sri Lanka.
With classical music in the background, we spend the remaining minutes we have left to embark on the next destination of our trip. Now only the flight from Colombo to Male.
It's going to cost us to say goodbye to Sri Lanka and this background music will make it harder for us ...
When the time comes we invoice the backpacks and go to that no man's land where everything changes in seconds.
Prices go from local currency to dollars, people take out their phones desperately looking for that peak of Wi-Fi, souvenir shops appear 50% more expensive than in the rest of the country ... those massage centers that are difficult to ignore after Load with the backpacks.
And although we do not like this "no man's land", we cannot deny that we always associate it with travel, so in the end it is a sign of "we are alive" ...
We embark at the scheduled time and arrive at the plane with buses that already show us what we will see again inside the plane.


Now yes… embarking on Male! Flight from Colombo to Male

We are the only ones who travel with backpacks and our clothes make it clear that we do not travel in the “Maldivian luxury” concept 😉
We are surprised that they put some red carpets for access to the first class of the plane. We had never seen it!
The flight from Colombo to Male We do it already at night, so we cannot see the famous atolls that we have seen so many times in the honeymoon travel magazines. Why don't we deny that this destination has always been associated with honeymoon or luxury travel and look where you are now on our way to Maldives!
We arrived in Malé at 9 p.m. local time and after picking up our backpacks, which have been very easy to locate thanks to the fact that they are the only ones that come out of the belt, among hundreds of suitcases to each one bigger, we take our cart and just at the exit we see our "driver" of the hotel in Male, the Ripple Beach Inn, which at the time of making the reservation, forced us to take transport with them from the airport of Male to the city of Male.
It has our names pointed in a pen on a cartel, unlike the rest of the tourists, who are waiting with cartels from different hotel chains, each one more luxurious.
As soon as we meet, he picks up our backpacks in another cart and we go to the car that will take us to our accommodation in Male tonight, until tomorrow we fly again, this time by seaplane, to the Diamonds Thudufushi.
The man asks us several times if we have a reservation at a resort and when telling him the name several times, he asks us if we already have it paid.
That creates some confusion and when we ask him why so many questions he tells us clearly that he doesn't usually see people like us, with backpacks and with the "type" that we come.
That comment brings us a smile and after looking at each other, we explain that we are not on our honeymoon, that we have been in Sri Lanka A few days and now we come to know Maldives.
He tells us that here people come with two suitcases per person, women with heels and men with moccasins and that is something they do not understand when they only need a swimsuit, a sarong and nothing else, not even shoes!
We look at him with another smile on his face and affirming with his head what he tells us, so as not to give the subject too many laps and in 10 minutes he leaves us at the door of our accommodation in Male.
Upon check-in we give the resort information at the reception and tell us that they will call you to give us the transfer time tomorrow.


Our hotel in Male after a flight from Colombo to Male

From the agency with which we treated the Maldives reservation, E-Two Travel (August 2015 Update: this agency closes its doors for retirement), we had to send an email with all the data, but we have not yet received it, so We take advantage of the predisposition of the Ripple Beach Inn to help us and let them process it for us.
We intuit that this is the normal process they have when a tourist arrives at some untimely hour and is "forced" to stay in Male one night. They themselves are responsible for doing the paperwork of the transfer to the resort.
When we made the reservation with E-Two Travel (August 2015 Update: this agency closes its doors for retirement), we ask that the transfer to the resort be made early in the morning, since from 4 in the afternoon , the seaplanes did not fly, so it was impossible for us to reach the resort and we had to spend the night in Male.
They explained that this can not control it and depends on the seaplanes that are free, the schedules ... etc, so we were not sure if we were going to be able to take advantage of the first day at the Diamonds Thudufushi completely.
Once in our room, facing the sea, they call us after 30 minutes to tell us that tomorrow they will come at 9 in the morning to take us back to the Male airport where our transport to paradise will wait for us !!!
After 5 minutes we received the email from E-Two (August 2015 Update: this agency closes its doors for retirement) confirming the transfer.
This has already taken shape and now we can only dream of paradise.


Views of Diamonds Thudufushi from the air ...

Diamonds Thudufushi
Day 18
MALÉ - HYDROAVIÓN TO DIAMONDS THUDUFUSHI (WATER VILLA)

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