Trincomalee is a port city on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka. Set on a peninsula, Fort Frederick was built by the Portuguese in the 17th century. Within its grounds, the grand Koneswaram Temple stands on Swami Rock cliff, a popular vantage point for blue-whale watching.
I travelled from Anuradapura to Trincomalee in a tuk tuk which took about 4 hours. I could have done it cheaper on the bus, but then I could not get the bus driver to stop along the way for pictures and the tuk tuk driver would. As we were driving along the rural roads there were many things to see and it is the only place in the world were I have seen signs on the side of the road say beware of the elephants crossing, hahaha.
These are some of the things I saw including lakes that were almost dry due to lack of rain, there was also crocodiles in the lakes. A religious festiva, a massive beehive in a tree that was about 1.5 metres across and a termite hill that has holes in the top. When I asked the driver what these were he told me they were snake holes, didn`t want to stay too long as these holes were pretty big so the snake was probably also big.
Checked into my accommodation about 200m from the beach and had these visitors arrive about 5pm last night. These things are huge, around 1 metre tall and make a huge noise when the jump from the trees to the roof of the hostel. There was a family of about 10 in the trees.
It is extremely quiet here due to it being the off season for tourists and also the terrorist attacks that took place in April 2019, the tourists are still a bit nervous. I can 100% say that there does not seem to be any hint of danger and the people are the friendliest I have met so far in the last 6 months of travelling. The country is beautiful and the scenery and nature is amazing.
I was down at the beach earlier today and the Sri Lankan children were patting deer like they were dogs, they just sat there.
13/10/19
FORT FREDERICK
Fort Fredrick, also known as Trincomalee Fort is a fort built by the Portuguese at Trincomalee, It was completed in 1624, built on Swami Rock-Konamamalai from the debris of the world-famous ancient Hindu Koneswaram temple.
This place is huge and now houses the Sri Lankan Army. It juts out into the Indian Ocean and looks down to Dutch Bay Beach which is stunning.
The first pictures are the old buildings inside the fort and then pictures of Dutch Bay.
Sorry the first few pictures are on the outside of the fort, I saw some guys playing cricket next to the stone wall of the fort.
DUTCH BAY BEACH
This is the bay that sites directly beside the fort.
THE MARITIME AND NAVAL MUSEUM
The Maritime and Naval History Museum is a Maritime museum has been established near to Fort Fredrick where the Dutch first landed to the island in the 16th century. This was an interesting hour spent looking at many artifacts that date back as far as 1100 AD. they include things that have been recovered from the ocean floor from sunken ships. These include coins, pots, bowls, bottles, cannons and they even have photos taken of the sunken ships themselves.
Well worth an hour of your time to learn some interesting history. Sorry I could not get any pictures inside the museum.
Had dinner at a little cafe off the side street I am staying. The food was excellent and cost $5.24 nzd. The cafe was called la Prince Cafe and I would highly recommend it.
Hilariously there was another lost in translation moment while looking at the menu. I think this is supposed to be Pineapple but I was to nervous to order it to find out, hahahaha.
14/10/19
UPUVELLI BEACH
This beach is located just 300m from my accommodation and was almost deserted. The pictures below were taken at 11.30am it was 32 degrees and probably only 5 people on the beach. The water is super warm and unbelievably clear.
NILAVELI BEACH
Nilaveli Beach on the east cost of Sri Lanka has to be one of the most beautiful spots I have seen. The water is very clear has so many fish you will see and the water is super warm, today the local website indicated the sea temperature was 30 degrees. I swam in the ocean and it was like taking a bath.
Again the beach was almost deserted, I felt like I was on my own private beach paradise.
MARBLE BEACH
This was the last beach I went to in Trincomalee and again I pretty much had the beach to myself.
On the way back from Marble beach we saw wild Elephants fighting which was amazing to see these giant animals. They are also very graceful when walking which I did not expect.
This featured blog entry was written by Geete01 from the blog The Weidenblog.
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