Trincomalee had a special pull for me: I lived on Mayne Island looking up the Trincomali Channel every night at unparalleled Canadian sunsets. So in Sri Lanka, Trincomalee on the east coast drew me, although I didn’t know what to expect.

I knew it had lots of history, still in evidence today.

Trincomalee is a strategic and historically important deepwater port for SL and the navy has a large presence. But the day-to-day life along a beautiful coastline centers on locals fishing

tourists beaching

families worshipping

and cows wandering. We saw thousands and thousands of cows in Eastern Sri Lanka, with about half of them on the road, even in the towns.

Our little hotel on the beach was a great place for Vitamin Sea, but we couldn’t swim because the sea was too rough and the snarling, fighting beach dogs were really intimidating. That is common in Sri Lanka and something needs to be done about it. But we enjoyed hours on the deck.

In Trincomali, it seemed every second building was a temple, from the very small

to the very large

In Trincomalee we were introduced to kolvis – ancient temples established on the shore to guide and protect mariners.

From colorful Trincomalee, we drove through the countryside south to Batticoloa. Flat, treed and sparsely populated. Very green and very poor. The road started out well but degenerated to serious potholes that I dodged between cows and tuktuks…not many other cars. We stopped for the usual roadtrip lunch and shopping, then southward and it slowly got more prosperous.

Batticoloa is a busy city with lots of tourist appeal.

Another colorful market.

A simple resort by the river.

It was planned to be a restful couple of days because it is Kandy tomorrow – a long drive climbing into the mountains to a complicated city.

I will remember this part of Sri Lanka for the colors – beautiful Hindu temples.

And the colorful, kind people.

And for the fact that Trincomalee Sri Lanka actually looks a lot like the Gulf Islands of Canada.

At this point we left the east coast and headed inland. A 6 hour drive to Kandy – challenges but we made it!