Day 6 -- When travel attacks

So after a relaxing end to day 5, I wake up early and raring to go. I finally have hoppers (the Sri Lankan breakfast of choice). The hopper is similar to a tortilla, but in the shape of a bowl with much thinner sides and tastes like rice flour. With  your hoppers come veggies or curried meat and sambal (onions, garlic, chili paste and spices used as a condiment). I had the chicken curry sambal with both spicy and sweet sambal. The other thing you can do is have a sunny side up egg in the bottom of your hopper. I skipped that as I am not a runny egg fan. For the record, the spicy sambal at Casa Colombo was almost too spicy hot for me. That may be a first.

As I had about 50 minutes to kill, my domo from the hotel took me to Sri Lanka's largest gem house. I ended up being 15 minutes late to meet Ruwan, but he was 40 minutes late so I was ok there. Did I mention yet that Sri Lankans drink sweet tea like form the South. As I was cooling my heels, I had another. Yeah, it is almost perfect here.

The lateness factors in because we hit horrendous traffic and I ended up being 10 minutes too late to board my direct flight to Bangalore. It was tough being cross with Ruwan for being late because of all the great things that he had done for me AND he was so late because he was buying me a very special gift. In every wood carving shop, I was looking for a cross. I was raised that you should always have a cross in your house and I wanted to buy one from Sri Lanka made out of coconut wood as a reminder of the trip. As Ruwan is Christian and religion is a common discussion topic here because no one gets offended over the differences, we talked a little religion on our drives. He knew I was looking for one because I commented that all the shops had Hindu and Buddhist wood carvings, but no crosses.So thanks to Ruwan, I have a cross.

So I sat in the Colombo airport for a couple hours to fly to Chennai to fly to Bangalore. In the Colombo airport, I had the weirdest experience. I'll talk to anyone (insert your own comment here). Sri Lankans are also naturally friendly. So as I am waiting to enter the gate (there is also security screening at each gate), the TSA agent starts up a conversation as his partners are all still on break between planes and I am super early.

As all conversations with Sri Lankans do, this one gets VERY personal quickly. I think the third question was, "Are you married?" Being too honest for my own good, I tell him that I am getting divorced. He is sad for me and then proceeds to try to analyze the marriage with me and the problems. And then he asks, "So you really aren't married, or won't be married soon, right?" You've got it buddy. And then he asks me if I find Sri Lankan women attractive. I was too dumb to be uncomfortable before, but now I am really worrying where this is going. Kumara proceeds to then show me pictures of a woman on a cell phone and I start feeling better because he just wants me to compliment how attractive his girlfriend is and that is easy because she is very pretty. And then it happens, "Do you want to make a match with her?" I laugh. He tells me that he is serious. This is his sister and she needs to marry now. I laugh a VERY nervous laugh. He goes into sales pitch mode. She is 28, has never been married, speaks English well, has an education, etc.

So what do you do? This guy can make my life miserable in about 10 more minutes and I just spent two minutes telling him how awesome this girl looks (and she does). So I go into the not ready to be married response and he has an answer for that. I do the she'll want kids and he says she'll do what I want. Man this guy is good. I may hire him at work to negotiate with partners for us. Then karma intervenes. His supervisor comes with a new crew for shift change. So I morph into the can I have your number phase so he'll move on when I know I'll never call. And the day progresses.

I can't recommend the Chennai airport. It was insanely busy, flies everywhere, and a lot like the Delhi train station. But I landed in Bangalore and am ready to start the work portion of the trip today.

Sri Lankan Driving School

I forgot this story that I think is NASCAR worthy. As we were discussing driving, Ruwan shared a lesson that every Sri Lankan learns on their first day of driving lessons at 17 to prepare for their license at 18 -- drive to the back end of cows and towards dogs' heads. Cows and dogs are all over and constantly claiming sections of the road as theirs. The logic is that cows are slow and don't normally change direction so drive where they just left -- like in a NASCAR wreck. Dogs, on the other hand, change directions frequently so driving at his head will make it move out of the way away from your car. I think the story says it all.

And the best part is that as a learner you are branded -- literally with a scarlet letter. You get a big, red "L" on your car, truck, or three wheel auto-rickshaw. I think it stands for learner, but given how slow these "L"'s are driving -- maybe it stands for loser. Certainly the amount of honking they get would indicate that.

I did comment that most drivers appeared to treat pedestrians like cows, which drew howls of laughter. In Sri Lanka, pedestrians do not practically have the right of way -- even at cross walks. People act more like cows when crossing the street.

Day 5 - And another thing said Colombo

Got some work in. Skyped with some great friends. And got on the road at 11. I can't believe how inexpensive the hotels are here. My bills have been ridiculously small. So if this blog inspires you to come to Sri Lanka, call me. I'll come back with you.

 We stopped at the turtle hatchery on the way up the coast to Colombo. It was really interesting. The hatchery buys turtle eggs from fisherman (or whomever) for 30 Sri Lankan ruppes ($.27 US). They replant them and let them hatch 48 days later. They hatchlings will stay for two days (until their navel closes over) and then will be released at night. The owner/biologist said this raises the likelihood that the turtle reaches adulthood by three times. It was pretty cool - of course since it is a private endeavor I initially wondered how much profit he made. The more I spoke to him, the more I felt it was earnest.

This was also the first place that I got to see concrete examples of the Tsunami damage. He had before and after pictures of the Tsunami. Wow, totally devastating. As we drove north to Colombo, I got to see a number of shells of houses along the beach with a new house right next to it. Ruwan said that the south and west coast had water inland for many kilometers.

And then we arrived in Colombo. It is the commercial center of Sri Lanka, the main port, and where most embassies are. We arrived on a Buddhist holiday (the third National Holiday since I have been here -- which reeks havoc on everything from changing money to seeing sights to shopping).

The Casa Colombo is awesome. Again, a dirt cheap rate to stay here -- I mean Super 8 type of rate). There are only 12 rooms and it isn't full (and each room is a suite). My suite (I was upgraded my domo told me with pride) is humongous. If you have an extra weekend in Bangalore, fly here for $200 US on Sri Lanka Air and stay in this place. You'll get a ton of bang for your buck. Look at this suite. The bathroom is bigger than the bathroom we had as a hall in college! The pool is phenomenal. I don't take baths but I may need a hot one in that tub!

And then we went to lunch. The other night, I sent Ruwan home to be with his family. His daughter was sick and his wife had all three kids home. I knew it was going to be a beach day and a half for me so I wouldn't need a driver. So today, I got no canned American music on the MP3 player but real Sri Lankan radio AND real Sri Lankan food. AWE-SOME as Aidan would sing-song. Look at this plate of food for $3.50 (inclusive of an orange Fanta, I may add). I spilled red chili sauce from the deviled shrimp on my pants but it was totally worth it. The fried rice comes with its own egg on it. The fried eggplant was sweet and tangy. The chili paster to mix with the potatoes gave hot a new meaning. Dave, before you ask again. No one knows anything about a ghost pepper. But these chili's were super hot.

So after some real shopping with non-inflated tour stop pricing, we did some sight-seeing - without actually being able to go into anything due to the Holiday. I got to see the Sri Lankan Independence Hall. I am partialto the one in Philly. Here the both are so you make the call:

So here I sit at the end of the day by the pool writing on my last full day in Sri Lanka. As my new bud, Dilan asked this morning, "Mr. Chris, will you be back. Can I have your email to send you a note to find out if you are coming back. Sri Lanka needs more people like you to visit. If you come back, I will have you over to my house to cook a real meal for you. Please come back and bring others like you." Six days was not enough, however. I recommend longer.

So I'll get up from beside the pool. It is getting dusk. And ready myself to pack and maybe go into the office tomorrow. I'll continue to blog from Bangalore, but I am guessing it won't be nearly the same since the day will be filled with work.

See you all soon as my time away is now halfway done.

Day 4 - A day at the beach

I didn't get my butt out of that teak lounge chair with a cushion except to visit the restroom, go to the pool, or hit the ocean. Well, that isn't true. While I was tipping well ($3 a drink), those dang Russian tourists were throwing money around like it was sand, so I had to go get a couple drinks at the bar BY MYSELF - the horror of it all.

It was the first day without rain. I woke at 730 and went straight for a workout at gym. It is super great to key your weight in kilograms in those machines instead of pounds. Gosh I lost 50% of my weight since getting here so I can drink more! After the workout, I booked dinner reservations at the "fine" dining restaurant even though the seafood at the outdoor grill station last night was most admirable and a Balinese massage for the hot hours of the afternoon. And I parked it.

The pool was incredible - as you saw from previous pics. The surf at the beach was rough and exciting with waves that were three-ish feet over the normal sea level. I have not been able to body-surf like this since my grandfather taught me to do it as a boy in Wildwood Crest, NJ. And did I mention the Russian tourists? Wow. I think the women and men wear equally small bathing suits. Ruwan would later tell me that many of the tourists are coming to find a beach boy or girl to pamper them while they are here, travel around Sri Lanka with them, and then get lost at the end of their vacation/holiday.

The Balinese massage was awesome. Susan (pronounced Suzanne) was not over 5'1" and maybe 85 pounds. She could pack some power, however, and soon had all the tension out of my muscles. I don't think I've been these relaxed for years in those muscles. She used her elbows, hands, forearms, and at one point I think she was standing on the table over me (but I was jelly so I couldn't have lifted my head if I wanted to). That girl could seriously work muscles. She only knew four English words -- "Is that good, mister?" and I don't think my answer mattered, but she could rock it. She didn't even know how to say "Thank You" for the tip. We both had to go to the salon manager and she said something to her, who then told me a tip wasn't necessary. When I told the manager I knew that but wanted Susan to have it, they had another conversation before Susan said something to me and the manager translated to "Thank you very much".

Then more beach time, a little sand volleyball, and off to dinner. My plan was to nap as well, but that never emerged. I also slathered on enough sun screen that I did not burn which I was worried about given the sun's heat. So a pretty awesome and relaxing day.

Dinner was great. Scallops as an appetizer with bacon. Bean and bacon soup -- not the Cambpell's kind, think coconut milk broth with black and navy beans, carrots, ginger, and bacon. I would have fallen in love with the chef if they could have added some heat to the dish, but it was mighty tasty. And the entree was a lobster shell stuffed with lobster pieces in a crab cream sauce with garlic and green chili peppers. The spicy hot factor went from 0 to 60 pretty darn quickly. It came with a bed of leek risotto and pickled veggies. It was quite the meal. And my new best friend became Dilan the server, but more on that in the next post.

So after the meal, I slept pretty awesome. No pics today, but a ton in the next blog.

Day 3 -- Or what I saw at 45 KM per hour

The day of the epic drive. So you know when you look at a map and something is only 186 miles away and mostly on the highway, you figure 3 hours+. I didn’t count on these highways. It took us 8 hours to get to Bentota. But the location is worth it.

Along the drive I got to see a rubber plantation. It is amazing how rubber used to (and still does) come from trees. A section of bark is peeled away from the tree. The tree coats itself with rubber until the new bark grows. So the harvesters wait until that coating is complete and then peel it off the tree. That is a sheet of rubber that can be cut into the needed shape – it can’t be molded. How hard would it be to create a tire from THAT? Can you imagine pre-synthesized rubber tires and the number of sheets needed to make just one tire? Wow!

The other big aha on the trip was the number of Buddhist temples that we passed. They were everywhere. It was a little surprising to see these ascetic monks carrying briefcases on cell phones, etc. That isn’t the what Professor Mahoney taught us.

As you can imagine, we had a lot of time to talk. And although Ruwan speaks English, it isn’t enough to fill the entire time. We did have good dialogue around the Sri Lanka school system, family life, civics, and history. He used to work on the naval base is Bharain so there were some good stories there as well.

The Sri Lankan schools are free and Sri Lanka boasts a 99% literacy rate. Grades through 13 are compulsory, but after 7 you start to specialize. To continue past 13 you must pass a test and then graduate school is another test. Education is free, however, at all levels if you pass. You do have to pay for workbooks, food, housing, etc. though at higher levels there are scholarships.

In family life, it was traditional that men to marry in their mid 2’s and women in their late teens. The education system is causing women to marry later as many look to complete college, if eligible. Sri Lanka is also a mix of religions and cultures that seem well blended. We passed through a village that hosts a Christian festival at their church – the only one for KMs around. The local Buddhist and Muslim families were supporting the festival by housing and feeding Christians from other cities. Not sure that you would see that everywhere. Ruwan even spoke of the fact that he has been in religious parades where out of deference, the parade will go silent as it passes the temple of another religion.

The Sri Lanka government is working hard to provide for its people. He talked of houses built to reduce homelessness (tens of thousands), there are robust highway projects, and the government has a fullcourt press on against litter. They seem to have balanced their budget after the aid dried up from the Tsunami relief funds. So for a socialist country (yes, including healthcare), there are many people that get to be entrepreneurs (the nature resort owner, the gem shop owner, and the wood carver were all examples) but with some balance for those that are farmers/laborers. Oh and cell phones have enabled a huge leap forward because of the ability to skip a lot of infrastructure needs around phones, And everyone – from the servers to the entrepreneurs asks that I invite you to come visit Sri Lanka. As my guide in Sigiriya said – He used to climb those 1200+ stairs 3 times a day pre-Tsunami and war, now he is lucky if it is three times a week. Tourism could be a bigger boon here and the island certainly is inexpensive (except for the shopping) and beautiful.

The beach is lovely. I am parking it here for the day tomorrow. I am drinking Arrack (think strong coconut liquor) with Ginger Beer and going to get sunburnt. When does it start snowing in MPL?

 

Sri Lanka Day 2 - Cultural Triangle

Well I saw my cobra today, but it was in a controlled setting where a snake charmer had set up shop at Sigiriya rock. So I am still alive.

The day started EARLY. I woke up at 4 am, killed some massive spiders in the room, and then couldn’t fall back to sleep. I had already gotten my 7 hours of sleep so I was good. I puttered around the villa, looked outside for the wild elephants, birds, and wildlife, before deciding to get ready. After my outdoor shower, I had an iguana visitor. Quite a surprise, but I am at a nature resort.

After a traditional English breakfast, Ruwan and I headed over to Dambulla to visit the Golden Temple and the Cave Temples. My hired guide was ok, but Ruwan gave me most of the spiel on the way. After our .5 km walk up, the temple was great and exciting with frescos that were several hundred years old as well as incredible carvings and statues. The ubiquitous begging monkeys were everywhere and I have a video showing how it works as a monkey devours the leftover lotus flower from the 5 Buddhist cave temples. It was insanely hot and humid and I am sure that I was quite the sight given the temperature and humidity combination.

After a stop for a Sri Lankan orange colored lemonade (yep Sri Lankan lemons are orange), it was on to Sigiriya. Sigiriya is a 5^th century AD fortress build with running water, swimming pools, gardens, and frescoes of all the concubines (of which 18 survive from the initial 500). Oh yeah, and somewhere north of 1200 stairs to guide you along the 100+ story journey to the summit. The place and story is incredible as it was the prince’s summer palace and served as a central point in a civil war between brothers. The journey up (with ramps and walkways to compliment the narrow steps) was almost as hard to complete as the Mud Run due to the heat, humidity, and how uncomfortable I am with heights. And to top it off, as we reached the bottom after having completed a 3k round trip, and before the onslaught of vendors, I got to run into a guy hawking pictures with snakes playing his pipes and charming his cobra. I escaped unscathed from the encounter – maybe it was all the sweat.

Since it was now 2PM and I had sweated out several pounds and the scrambled eggs and toast that I had politely started were long gone, I was ravenous for lunch. Unfortunately, the lunch was a restaurant tied to a wood carver’s shop that probably lived up to what you would expect from a side business. The only redeeming portion of the meal being the pumpkin, ginger, Gouda soup. Did I mention how hot it was?

So with the end of the cultural sightseeing, I moved on to shopping at the wood carver’s shop and then the gem shop. Similar to the marble factory in Agra that our guide took us to, this was pure marketing. I bought a couple things, but the prices seemed high so I am holding off for some of the government handiworks stores in Colombo. I got some great gem bargains on semi-precious stones, but the stone that I really wanted escaped me at this shop - an orange sapphire. It was a little too high end and the gems were exceedingly fine quality. He could have sold me more if he had been wiling to show just better than average.  I have one more gem stop visit scheduled to find the stone for which I am looking. Oh well. I made decent purchases at both places. I did find a table to die for at the wood-worker’s, but it was too tall and too square to be able to work for me. But here is a pic for any of you designers at home – that is colored slate in the center section and they will ship it from Sri Lanka to you.

Day 2 ended with a downpour again, but this time Ruwan and I were already back at the lodge having a beer so it all worked out.

Sri Lanka Day 1

Wow! What an incredible experience. I do feel a world away.  I am sitting on the second floor deck of my villa/cottage/bungalow writing this in the middle of the jungle on Monday morning (Sunday afternoon in MPL). I am not sure when it will get published.

SO let’s start at the beginning:

Good googley moogley. I walk out of immigration and past all the shops selling – appliances. Yes, appliances sold duty free in the airport. I did see a nice dishwasher, but didn’t figure it would fit in the overhead so I’ll have to wait. Anyway, I walk out of immigration into the most humidity that I have EVER felt. Think North Carolina humid on steroids. If you have ever left a building and felt like you were walking through a heat curtain, then this is like walking into a heat hammer. Bam! Right in your face. I greet my guide/driver and we are off. I’ll not bore you with the drive to the tired old hotel that I stayed in (it was cheap), but 7 am came early.

We started off and right away the differences between Sri Lanka and India were apparent to me.

Everyone was wearing western wear. Very few people wear traditional clothes.

Driving is less chaotic.

People are very friendly too, but there is less a crush of humanity.

The blend of cultures in Sri Lanka makes it feel more like Goa than the rest of India – which might be due to the Buddhist influence.

As we drove (and we drove a lot), it was great to see everyday life. We weren’t driving interstates, but mostly what we would consider smaller state roads through many villages. It was shocking that you would drive along and see a small house with a selling area that was selling the most exquisite teak doors and windows, or stainless steel railings, or concrete, or pottery. At one point I counted 18 roadside pottery stands in a row – all with similar planters, red clay pots and vessels. Sometimes they looked identical as they were were unpainted and other times there were decorations/paintings on them and that was the only difference to the stand beside it. A lot of cottage industries exist and regions are known for a particular skill so as you travel, you pick up the things you need from each area. My only contributions were a stop at a fruit stand and a spice garden (more to come).

 Oh and rice paddies everywhere. A typical size paddy will feed a family for a year and they will sell the excess (normally about 50% of what they grow). Sri Lanka doesn’t need to import rice as a result. And you saw it all as you drove – people working by hand, people tilling with hand machines, and tractors. And the paddies were in various states too – fallow, being prepped for rainwater capture, being planted, being tended, and being harvested. A family will plant their paddy twice a year on average.

Then we arrived at the elephant orphanage. In time for the bottle feeding of the baby elephants as well as watching the adults eat – up to 400 pounds of leaves a day. Makes me eating ravioli seem trivial. I’ve never been this close to semi-wild elephants before. They knew their schedule and boundaries, but they certainly pushed the limits on occasion with their tenders. At one point a part of the herd started to move with some speed towards a busload of tourists. Those tourists scattered quickly and the elephants slowed down as soon as that happened. I am sure they were thinking – suckers. We then walked to the river by Pinnewala to watch the elephants bathe. On the way, I stopped at the factory that makes paper from all that elephant dung. I saw the process in action and the lovely final products – but none of you are getting gifts from there. At the river, we sat at a restaurant over looking the water and enjoyed some breakfast and limewater. As we watched the elephants bathe. 

Then we got on the road again. Our next stop was a tea factory, where I watched tea being made. After the compulsory sample, I bought some tea and we moved on (if someone wants more details, I am happy to provide). I believe that I could now open a tea factory based on all the detail that was shared with me.

Our next stop was lunch in Kandy. Up to this point everywhere the guide took me was full of tourists. I asked him for someplace that he ate when he dropped his tours off to shop, etc. We went to a little place called “The Honey Pot’ on the banks of a river. I am not sure if it wasn’t a guided stop on some of his tours, but I was the only Westerner so I was satisfied. Honestly, everywhere but the guide stops I was in a serious minority. On the plane, I was the only westerner. In the airport, there was a couple from Germany would be my guess – and that was it. The lines at immigration and customs were really short for me.  So I was pretty skeptical when we would pull up somewhere and see a fair amount of westerners there. It might give people a new perspective on diversity if they were the minority more often, but I digress. This place though had awesome food - Eggplant that was spicy hot and sweet, beets that were spicy, curry chicken that had a ton of cardamom, and tomato salad with onions and garlic and fiery green chili peppers.

We stopped at a Spice Garden after lunch. It was more like a garden with plants growing and tended for show with a showroom for selling spices than a garden. I did find all the discussion on medicinal usage of the herbs intriguing though since I have always had some philosophical leanings in that direction for medicine/diet so I spent a fair amount of time there (and remember that time equals money too). I got my fresh cooking spices and a balm/tonic or three as well.

We stopped at the oldest Hindu temple in Sri Lanka next. It was beautiful. The sculpture that adorns these temples is amazing and the fact that there are so many of them – I don’t think it is actually one per god, but it must be close as you can see, makes it easy to spend a lot of time looking at the temple.

 And then we ended at the hotel. It is gorgeous. As the pictures indicate, it is a one-bedroom house (minus the kitchen). The shower is awesome. The sound of nature is omnipresent and incredible. But it is also a little freaky to be THIS alone. I packed a flashlight for this very purpose – the walk back to the main “lodge” for dinner. It was pitch black. And after leaving the light on for a few moments, I was glad I brought Deet and was taking malaria meds. You can see the tank (man made lake) from here – well when the bugs get out of the way. The bird life is phenomenal (I watched 10 to 15 egrets fishing this morning) and the calls are amazing. And last night Matt and Aidan would have had a field day trying to trim the frog population that was playing a symphonic scale production of some local pond favorite. The cacophony of sound was overwhelming at dinner.

But falling asleep when you can see the stars so clearly over the lake was great. Being awoken by lightning and thunder that close and hearing the frogs stop for every thunder boom (the only thing they stopped for), the solitude to consider anything and everything you want, and friends to share it with via the internet is an awesome feeling. Oh that and mosquito repellant and no snake sightings – I can’t forget those as things for which to be thankful, too.

Off to Sigiriya and Danbulla today (oh and a wood working factory). Three places where I’ll see fellow westerners again.