Sri Lanka: Moped Adventures

Continuation of my adventures on my "around the world trip." If you would like to read from the beginning, here are the links:

Around The World Trip: The Idea
Booking the 'Round the World" trip
Korea: Day 1
Korea: Things to Check out in Itaewon
Taiwan: Food, Fun, and Friends
Kuala Lumpur: Food Never Stops
Sri Lanka: Scared for my Life
Sri Lanka: Great Tuk Tuk Scam Part 2?

My moped adventure epitomized the benefits of traveling alone. I did what I wanted, when I wanted with no real destination and no one to compromise with.

Now don't get me wrong. I didn't just hop on the road and drive mindlessly in a random direction. I had a general area in mind, and that was the former colonial Dutch port town of Galle, about 45 min south by moped from my hotel. The first stop, obviously, was food. The American couple I met the day before recommended a restaurant, just past the town with the name similar to "Tortuga".

Galle

I cruised on the moped for about a mile with wind blowing across my bug-eating grin until my moped started stuttering... and then finally stall. Looking at the two gauges offered to me on the moped's dash, I concluded that I had run out of gas. It turns out that moped rentals are filled with just enough gas to get to the nearest gas station. After wheeling the moped back a half mile down the road like the idiot tourist I never wanted to be, I found a gas station. And when I say gas station, I really mean shack with glass bottles filled with different colored liquids on the side of the road. I paid what I'm sure was an exorbitant foreigner's price to fill up the tank with fluid that I hoped would allow me to continue my adventure.

"Gas station." Bottles of gasoline, alcohol or possibly both.

Back to cruising along weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, I finally arrived to a restaurant with turtle in its name. I sat down in the completely empty restaurant, picked a few items off the menu, then looked out to my ocean front view. I noticed a white building resembling a temple on the peninsula across the bay from me, and I thought to myself, why not?

Lunch.

You can almost see the white temple.

After consulting with Google Maps and taking a few wrong turns (thanks, Google), I found myself meandering on this beach, towards my goal. Hiking up a small hill I heard what sounded like prayers coming from speakers posted throughout the area. I found my destination and just took in the sights and sounds.

Stroll down the beach.

Found it!

My next stop, found in similar fashion, turned out to be one of many Japanese Buddhist peace pagodas found around the world. Finally, I reached my destination of Galle and explored the colonial streets.

Streets of Galle

Satisfied with my meandering, I returned to my hotel (after waiting out a few storms) and had dinner on the beach. Life doesn't get much better than that!

 Next part- Ignorance in Jordan, Rama-what??