Well I’ve had an amazing couple of weeks! If you you have been following my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts you will know that I’ve been away on my belated honeymoon. After our wedding we did have a mini moon to Paris and Versailles, which you can read about here.
Being students for so long me and Alfie haven’t really done that much travelling together so we wanted to do something epic and decided to postpone our proper honeymoon until our first wedding anniversary. Both of us have never been to Asia, hence when planning our trip we settled on heading to Sri Lanka and a beautiful Maldivian island called Thudafushi.
After our 11 hour flight we landed at the airport in Colombo and were welcomed by an incredible 30 degrees- a stark contrast to the drizzly cold rain that we had left behind in London.
We stayed in the incredible Fortress Hotel and Spa in Koaggala just outside Galle on the south west coast line, which meant that the Indian Ocean was right on our door step. They had one of those infinity pools that looks like it goes straight into the sea…it’s always the little things! With a champagne cocktail on arrival, I was more than assured that we had picked the perfect hotel for our honeymoon. Our room had the most spectacular view of the ocean:
On the first night we were pretty tired from our long night of travelling so we hung around the hotel and rested. However, on the next day we met up with our friends who are frequent visitors to Sri Lanka and happened to be visiting the same time that we were there.
For breakfast that morning I decided to get my first try of some Belgian waffles:
These tasted just as amazing as they looked, yum! The hotel put on a lovely buffet for breakfast every day, but they would also make things to order like these waffles. One morning I tried a Sri Lankan traditional breakfast of hoppas (rice flour pancake) with an egg:
I took full advantage of the breakfast buffet with various plates of food. They also served King coconut juice, which is from the native yellow coconut. I loved having coconut water on tap, heaven!
Anyways as I was saying…we headed to Galle to meet our friends. A precarious trip in a tuk-tuk led us to the Galle Fort to meet our friends for lunch at Unawatuna beach, drinks and a wander around Galle:
It was so great hanging out in a completely different country. Our tuk-tuk driver was so kind as he was going to wait for us the entire time to take us back to the hotel, but we sent him on his way and called him to return. He became our guide during our stay and drove us to various landmarks in the area and arranged our excursions. One of which was to the turtle farm:
Unfortunately, people take the turtle eggs from the beach to eat as a delicacy. The turtle farm collects the eggs, which then hatch and when the turtles are ready they are released back into the wild. The baby turtles are so cute…
We also went for a boat ride on Koggala Lake and visited the nearby tea plantation, Temple Island and Cinnamon Island.
The architecture of the Buddhist temple was very simple, but the artwork inside was stunning, all hand painted using natural materials. Cinnamon Island was great as I got to learn how one of my all time favourite spices at this time of year is made. There is a family on the island that harvest and grind the cinnamon by hand:
Alfie gave a helping hand with the grinding of the dried bark:
My favourite excursion was our visit to the Yala National Park. It meant a 3.30 am wake up call, but it was so worth it to see all of the animals on safari.
Unlucky for us that the rather elusive leopards decided to hide whilst we were there, however we did get to see lots of other amazing animals. I loved the Safari and now have the urge to visit the Maasai Mara in Kenya…one day!
On the way back from the safari we visited another Buddhist temple, with a statue of the largest Buddha I have ever seen:
The shear size of this statue is not only astonishing, but it’s actually covered in small coloured mosaic tiles, stunning! We looked like dwarfs in front of it:
Whilst in Sri Lanka we marked our first wedding anniversary, many thanks for your congratulations. To celebrate we had a pretty relaxed day and treated ourselves to a pampering session in the hotel spa. I had a pedicure followed by the most heavenly 90 minute full body massage. I don’t think I have EVER felt so relaxed and calm.
We also spent the day relaxing by the pool catching some rays:
Vanilla and cinnamon ice cream and a magazine by the pool side
In fact we loved the pool so much that we decided to have our anniversary dinner in it:
This picture really doesn’t do the pool justice, you can just about see our dinner table in the pool. It’s lit up with lots of optical lights that look like stars in the sky, perfect for a romantic meal for two.
The food was beautiful. I settled on the tempura prawns, lobster thermidor and a chocolate torte for dessert. We really got stuck into the Sri Lankan culture whilst we were there, trying all of the native foods. Alfie even bought a sarong, which is typical dress for the men and he wore it to dinner.
Sri Lanka really is an incredible country and we have already decided that we want to go back and explore the more northern parts. We had quite a busy time and loved looking around and experiencing a whole new country. I particularly loved trying all of the different curries, some of them were blow your head off hot! There was a mango curry and a pumpkin curry which I really enjoyed. Since we knew that the first part of our honeymoon would be quite busy, we made sure that we also got in some R&R…enter the Maldives. I will have a round up post of the Maldives part of our trip soon.
Have you ever visited Sri Lanka? What did you think? Where did you go?
Where would your dream location be for a holiday?
I don’t even know which photo to talk about they all are just so cool but so different! Looks like a blast!
I don’t even know which photo to talk about they are all so AMAZING but different! Looks like a blastttt
Thanks! It was certainly an epic trip 🙂
Wow it looks wonderful! Glad it was worth the wait.
I have never been there but my Auntie has been a few times and she loves it.
It absolutely was worth the wait. I really want to go back and explore some more already! 🙂
Jemma I’ve been looking forward to your holiday recap and it doesn’t disappoint one bit – everything looks so wonderful! What a beautiful setting and with so many memorable things to experience too. I think there would be a fight to get me away from the breakfast buffet 😉
It was spectacular Claire, such a beautiful country with so much to offer! The breakfast buffet was pretty epic with so much choice, best one yet. 🙂
I have never been but it looks wonderful! My dream holiday location would be San francisco I wanna go so bad!
San Francisco looks like such a vibrant city! I hope you get to visit.
This looks stunning. Sounds like you had an amazing trip.
It really was wonderful Lauren ! 🙂
What a great honeymoon! I actually visited Sri Lanka earlier this year, and was absolutely blown away – it’s the most colourful place I’ve ever seen! I fell in love with hoppers and kottu, and having pineapple and papaya every morning… Kandy was my highlight (though, we went on a Poya night and it was strictly no booze…) and going up to Sigirya rock. Memories!
Oh wow! We wanted to visit Kandy and Sigirya rock but unfortunately it was a 7 hour drive from where we were. We are absolutely going to go back at some point though so will go their next time. It’s such an amazing country! 🙂
Oh wow that sounds and looks amazing!! How romantic to have dinner out by the pool and sea. Lovely! And your summery outfits look fab as well 🙂 Loving the excursions as well. It’s nice to relax but it’s also nice to get out and see the culture and different sites.
Thanks Anna, we had a blast . Definitely I think it’s nice to see a bit of the place and get some relaxation in there too 🙂
New to your blog! Love the creative and beautiful layout– can’t wait to read more about your trip– photos look like fun!
Hello! Thank you so much for stopping by, glad you liked the blog! 🙂
Looks like you had so much fun! I want to be in that massage session right now!
Seems like you had fun!!
xoxo
http://berrybloomxo.blogspot.co.uk
It was amazing and that massage was one to remember!
This looks like SUCH a lovely trip Jemma! I saw a couple of your instagram pics while you were away and had serious holiday-envy! I’ve heard really great things about Sri Lanka (particularly also how it is a lot less stressful travelling around compared to India but still maintains a real cultural richness) so would love to go – winter time seems perfect to get some rays in too 🙂 Welcome back!
It looks idyllic! I’ve never been anywhere in asia but really want to visit. I think Thailand is next on our travel wishlist.
It looks heavenly! Congratulations again on getting married x
o wow, that’s just beautiful. dream locations a plenty on my part: Bali again, India, Thailand, Costa Rica, Iceland, south coast of US….
feel very privileged to be pictured in your blog jemma! hope you guys had a good rest of your trip, the maldives sure looked amazing!! jx