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.

Bangalore Day 1

Nothing too exciting to read for you today. The plane arrived at 2 am about 2 hours late. So the day started for me at 7 am in Minneapolis on Thursday and ended at 4 am in Bangalore on Saturday (a whopping ~34 hours later). I didn't sleep much on the planes, but did get some reading done and watched a lot of movies (Limitless, Thor, Captain America, and Friends with Benefits). I also got my work inbox cleaned out and filed so I am now somewhat organized. My seat mate on the way from Minneapolis to Paris was a Target India team member. It was great to meet him as we actually have some work that overlaps. He was returning home after 2 months of being away for his family. BTW ... Business Class rocks.

I did get a good place to spend the night here and a buffet lunch out of today. A buffet is the perfect way for me to go as it allows me a little taste of everything. I am at the point where I can read the dish name and get the main ingredients without knowing the dish -- and it is important to know what you are eating regardless of your location. The briyani (baked lamb and rice cooked in the same pot) was super tasty and spicy - you could feel the coriander on your tongue. I also had a piece of fish for a starter that was as spicy hot as anything that I have ever eaten. The other really awesome part of the meal might be my new summer drink -- a watermelon and basil martini. So the meal coupled with a solid 8 hours of sleep and a 2 hour nap,  makes me feel like I am ready to be on this time zone now. After the time change on Sunday, I will be 11 and one half hours ahead of Minneapolis.

The real fun starts tomorrow where the tour company that I am using in Sri Lanka, Lanka Vacations, is arranging for me to go to a spice plantation after the elephant orphanage. I am excited to be able to get spices from the source and hope to be able to come back to cook a fun meal with them.

Alright that is it for now as my car should be here soon to take me to the airport,
Chris

Prep

Alright. Post 1. Haven't even packed yet, 22 hours before the plane takes off. I'll be in India in 40 hours and Sri Lanka in 52ish hours. Excitement is starting to build after getting through work today. Still a few work things and prep pieces for the trip, but the highlight of tomorrow is Milda's breakfast with Aidan.