Trincomalee: Tourist Treats

Introduction to Trincomalee

Our first full day in Trincomalee started with a morning tour with Pinto. The weather is back to high 30s so we did well just to last the morning!

Our first stop was Koneswaram Hindu Temple, amazingly colourful and very busy as we arrived just before a service.

After this we walked across to Frederick Fort this was built by the Portuguese, then the Dutch took control and built it up, the French had it for a little before Britain took the reins until Sri Lankan independence. The fort covers a massive area and as was built so solidly a lot still remains. There are amazing view out to sea from both the fort and temple. Probably a good place for a fort and it was still used as a look out during World War 2.

We then did our non-ethical tourist bit, there are some deer you can feed but the idea is you feed them fruit and nuts probably not the cream crackers the guide gave us. In fact there was a sign saying this was not appropriate food! The deer were particularly keen on Karen and at one time she was surrounded, so I think they must have a taste for fake Jacob's cream crackers.

Lunch on the Beach

We then had lunch at a beach bar near our hotel, sitting at a table on the sands. It was very nice although our cheese and tomato sandwiches and chips may not have been a true Sri Lankan classic. I did have a fresh crab curry last night and we have eaten so many curries here a think a bit of bland food is allowed.

Whales, Dolphins and A Little Bit of A Shark

On the second day in Trincomalee we booked a whale and dolphin watching boat trip. We finished up booking on a catamaran as the guide said a lot of the small boats don't go out far enough to see the whales.

This meant we had a 7 hour tour and it was more expensive but definitely worth it. The boat set off at 6.30am and we quickly came into a big group of dolphins. There were about 20 other boats in the area mainly small ones but the dolphins seemed content. The boats were all going parallel with the pods so the dolphins stayed around for a while. We then set off for deeper waters leaving the smaller boats behind, as we were having breakfast the crew came and said they'd seen a whale. We went back on on the top deck, initially we just saw the spurt of water but soon the whale hit the surface. This was repeated about 6 times and we gradually saw more of the whale. Initially there were 2 other boats near us but after a few minutes the other 2 headed back and we had the whale to ourselves! We did thank Pinto later for his top advice. The catamaran we were on had a crew of 4 and only us 2 as guests so we felt very privileged. The whale we saw was a Bryde Whale. We also caught a glimpse of a whale shark the crew spotted it and by the time we saw the it was heading back down!

They cooked lunch for us which was fresh prawns and mullet really delicious then we headed back to shore getting a view of the fort and temple where we had been yesterday.

Wrapping Up Our Trincomalee Adventure

A really enjoyable couple of days. We are looking forwarding to heading north tomorrow to Jaffna. Heading north is into more Tamil area and apparently less touristy. Although where we've been we haven't seen loads of tourists and the guides and bar people we speak to have said it hasn't picked up since the terrorist attacks in 2019 and then covid.