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Parliament

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

On my last day in Sri Lanka, Lora and I went to visit Parliament. We’d got the idea from an MP who was friends with Lora’s host family. We’d met him in Avissawella and he’d said that he was sorry he was going to be out of the country otherwise he could have arranged for us to visit Parliament. Lora thought this was a good idea and I thought that we could ask Rajiva (the MP who had been doing a lot of work to get VESL back in to Sri Lanka).

I was hoping to meet Rajiva before I left anyway and I asked him if we could visit Parliament. He arranged passes for us.

So Lora and I braved the Sri Lankan buses to try to get out to Parliament. The bus doesn’t go all the way there. So we got off the bus at a likely looking place. With my map in one hand and my compass in the other we headed off in search of a rather large building in the middle of a rather large lake.

We got lost. I’m not sure whether to blame the map (which was crap despite being a very good map), the roads (which curved and weaved a lot more than the map would lead one to believe they should) or the Sri Lankan version of space-time which bears very little resemblance to the space-time I’m used to in the UK and Australia. Anyway. We found a woman who sort of helped us a bit. We found a giant snake that didn’t help us very much. I think it was about 3m long and about 8cm in diameter (not that I got close enough to actually measure it). It seemed quite terrified of us. I couldn’t work out if that was a good thing (it would then leave us alone and try to get away from us) or a bad thing (it would be scared of us, feel threatened and then attack us). Turned out it just wanted to get away from us. Fine by us.

Anyway, we did eventually find the main road, the lake, the security guards, the check post, the bag counter where we had to leave our bags (including all our coins), the first of the security checks and the bus that would take us to the island in the middle of the lake that actually has the Parliament building on it.

The first security check woman seemed not to notice I was wearing a money belt. As did the second and the fourth. The third found it and was amazed at how useful it was to have a belt under your trousers where you could keep plane tickets and passports.

We did make it to the chamber. We tried very hard not to stand, sleep, laugh, talk, gesticulate or any of the other things that one is not allowed to do when one is in the galleries of the Parliament chamber.

We didn’t have the magic headphones that would have translated the speeches into English for us. One speech was in English but it was such heavily accented English (and it was so dull and boring that I think even the speaker was asleep) that it was quite difficult to understand. But that was ok. We weren’t really there to hear what was being said.

We were there to see the chamber. An interesting room that seemed to be lit in such a way that all of the MPs could quite safely sleep in the comfy chairs without anyone noticing. The ceiling looked like the roof of a golden tent. The chamber was mostly empty. No surprise there then. It seems that democracy here works in much the same way as it does in the UK or Australia. At any given time there are a lot of MPs who aren’t actually in the chamber. The cynic in me says it’s because they’re a lazy bunch who don’t really do any work, or that parliament is just for show and it’s all a foregone conclusion so there’s no reason to be there unless you want to make a particular point for the cameras. The non-cynic in me says that a lot of the business of government is done in the discussions that the MPs will have with their fellow MPs, their advisers and their constituents. And that these discussions take up a lot of time. It may also be the case that MPs aren’t in Colombo as they are away on political business and so might be attending conferences, opening hospitals, visiting people etc.

But anyway, there were enough people in the chamber for us to get a nice idea of what sort of things go on there. Much the same as others I suppose. Some people listened to the person speaking. Some heckled. Some supported. Some ignored the person speaking and napped, or talked to their colleagues.

I was interested to see that many of the male MPs wore the traditional Sri Lankan dress (sarong with long shirt). Though others wore a suit and tie. Perhaps the traditional dress is too cumbersome for MPs too (given my ISA friend told me it was too cumbersome for teachers).

Some of the seats had white covers over them. Which I’d guessed were for Buddhist monks. And my guess was proved right when a monk came in and sat in one of them. I was surprised that there were monks there. I would have guessed that a religious life and a political life would have been at odds with each other. Not sure why I would have thought that. But it seems that it isn’t the case. I was surprised also to see that the seats for the monks seemed to be scattered throughout the chamber. This seems to be one arena where monks are not given the prestigious seats at the very front.

We saw Rajiva pop into the chamber to talk to someone and then walk out again. We weren’t too surprised. He was heading off to a conference that evening so guessed he had a lot of work to do before then and sitting in the chamber snoozing doesn’t really seem like his style.

After about an hour we decided we’d had enough so we wandered out to find the bus back to the security checkpoint to collect our things and then to find a three wheeler to take us back to the guest house.

Overall it was a good experience and both Lora and I were glad we’d done it. Visiting Parliament isn’t as exciting as climbing Sigiriya and it isn’t as beautiful as Sinharaja but it was an experience.

So thanks to Rajiva for getting passes for us.

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Hikkaduwa

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

After the final concerts we went back home and packed our stuff, said goodbye and met in Avissawella to head to Hikkaduwa.

Hikkaduwa is a beach resort between Colombo and Galle. We’d decided that we’d spend a few days there after finishing the projects.

So we got a bus from Avissawella to Colombo and then another bus from Colombo to Hikkaduwa. We then walked from the bus station to the guest house. We argued about the rooms for a bit (we’d booked two downstairs rooms at 800LKR per room, but they didn’t have two downstairs rooms, they had one down and one upstairs for 1500LKR). Ah well. We’ll sort it out in the morning.

Fortunately Hikkaduwa is a tourist area. And that meant that there was somewhere that would serve us food at 10pm. Which was lucky since I was starving!

The next day was spent walking around, shopping, lazing on the beach, lazing in the guesthouse, eating, reading, dodging the rain, talking to friends, resting, relaxing. Well, some of us did some of those things. :)

A well earned break. :)

It wasn’t the season for Hikkaduwa while we were there. So it was very quiet. Lots of places were closed. There was quite a bit of rain. I think it would be interesting to see it during the high season. Mind you, since I’m not really that big a fan of beaches, maybe I’ll give it a miss. :)

I certainly enjoyed my day and a bit in Hikkaduwa. :)

Posted in Sightseeing, Sri Lanka | 2 Comments »

Sinharaja Weekend

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

On our third weekend we went to Sinharaja. Sinharaja is a rainforest in southern Sri Lanka. I’ve been there before but this time we were going to the southern edge of it which I haven’t been to.

As usual, our weekend started with a Friday afternoon bus trip. We got a bus to Ratnapura where we would change and get a bus to Deniyaya. We were chatting to the conductor on the Ratnapura bus and he said that we didn’t need to change at Ratnapura, this bus goes to Rakwana and we can get a Deniyaya bus from there. We’d get in at 5, the bus would leave at 6 and we’d be at Deniyaya by 9. After a quick check of a map to make sure Rakwana was actually on our way we agreed.

We did get seats on the bus just after Ratnapura, which was good because from there the road got very twisty. And the driver seemed to be running late. So hold on tight. Laugh at the near misses with the oncoming traffic. Brace yourself and pray. If god ever happens to get lost, then Sri Lankan buses would be a great place to go if you wanted to find him.

We had some time at Rakwana to get our land-legs back and to find some food and then it was onto an even more hilarious bus for the three hours through the hills to Deniyaya. This road was even windier and this driver was in even more of a hurry. The bus wasn’t very full (who in their right mind would have been on a bus on those roads after dark?). And it was more roller-coaster than bus ride.

At one point Lora was attempting to sleep. Purely, I think so that if the bus crashed and we all died horribly, at least she could die in her sleep. This became a recurring joke throughout the rest of the trip.

We did finally make it to Deniyaya alive and in one piece (each). Though several internal organs were feeling somewhat more squashy than they’d been before we started and I think we all had bruises somewhere. The top edges of my shoulders and my temples tend to be the places where I most often get bus-bruises. (Shoulders from knocking against the window/wall and temples from falling asleep and whacking my head on the window, or the metal bar that runs along the window.)

The guest house was run by a really, really lovely guy named Upali. We’d already had several phone conversations with him. Including one absolutely hilarious one about towels. Emily had, quite legitimately wondered whether they had towels, so that we wouldn’t have to bring our own. She’d called him to ask. He wasn’t quite sure what she meant and was asking her how many towels she needed. She said just the one each. She felt like she was making a prank call so started laughing. He started laughing. She threw the phone at me. I tried to continue the conversation but by this time I was laughing. There were two or three other calls as well, though none as surreal as the towel call.

So when we arrived, we were very pleased to see that they did in fact have towels. And Upali was very pleased to be able to provide us with towels. He was happy that the towel situation was to our liking. Towels are very important you know. Ford Prefect would have been proud. :)

The next morning was breakfast (smoked bread, not toasted) and we headed out. Upali is not just guest house owner extraordinaire, he’s also a guide. So he took us in a van to the gate of the park.

The ranger station on the edge of the rainforest is where we got our tickets and used the toilets. There was also a tap outside for washing feet, hands etc. But the tap bit kept falling off.  Every time it did fall off the water came gushing out of that tap, leaving no water for the people in the toilets who needed it for flushing purposes. Never fear, Kath was prepared for exactly such an emergency. Out came the gaffer tape that she had wrapped round a pencil in the front pocket of her bag. If a problem can’t be fixed with gaffer tape, safety pins, string or micropore tape then it really is a big problem. This wasn’t a big problem. And pretty soon the tape was taped in place and the water in the toilets was flowing once again.

We spent a few hours walking through the rainforest. Just incredible. Upali was awesome and told us loads about the forest. Most of which I’ve forgotten. But I do remember the Iron Tree which is the national tree of Sri Lanka and the wood is really heavy, so heavy that it sinks in water. And it’s leaves are mostly green but some of them are red. And black and white millipedes aren’t dangerous. But red and black centipedes are carnivorous. Green vine snakes are cool but get a pattern on them when they get threatened (like when your guide picks one up and shakes it to show you how it changes colour). Kangaroo lizards hop. Lots of trees and plants in the forest are medicinal and I ended up eating about 8 or 10 of them. Yes, that one does taste like toothpaste. :)

There was a suspension bridge. There were lots of waterfalls. There were monkeys. There were leeches. We all tucked our trousers into our socks and rubbed salt on our socks. I was wearing my mosquito repellent socks. Which turned out to be a bad idea. They are certainly not leech-proof. Lora got one bite. Emily got one. Lauren didn’t get any. And I got 8. Yes, 8. 4 on each foot. 3 of which were bleeding. I did have sticky plasters and antiseptic wipes so I could clean them and cover them. Upali got a leech bite on his ear! He turned down my offers of antiseptic wipes and sticky plasters. I should probably have used whatever leaf he stuck on his ear.

My bites flared up really badly over the next week or so and were very itchy and swollen and horrible. It’s three weeks later and I still have red marks on my ankles from them. But, even though I find the bites themselves more irritating than mosquito bites, at least leeches don’t carry malaria or dengue or other nasties.

Lora and Emily and Upali went swimming by the base of a waterfall. Lauren sat in the sun. I sat in the shade.

It was a really glorious day. There was a little bit of rain but we were in a rainforest, a bit of rain was the least we could have expected. Actually the weather was wonderful! We got back to the car at about 4ish having left the guest house at about 10 that morning. We got back to tea and cold sprite and a dinner of noodles and curry.

We got up not too early on Sunday and walked to the bus station at Deniyaya. We had been told that instead of going to Ratnapura we could go to Embilipitiya and get an Avissawella bus from there. Which we did. The bus to Embilipitiya was about four hours. And Embilipitya was hot and dry when we got there. Much hotter than Deniyaya had been. That’s one of the things I love about this country. There is so much variation in the climate. We were desperate for the loo when we got to the bus station so we embarrassed a load of bus people (conductors and drivers and the like) by asking whether the Colombo bus went to Avissawella (not embarrassing) and then by asking if there was a toilet we could use. They pointed towards the back of the bus station and we smiled and said thank you.

There was nothing down the back of the bus station, just an empty car park/field with a road going through it to a temple. Hmmm. Well, needs must. So I went up to the monk who was by the front door. Put on my best pious face. Greeted him by saying Ayubowan. And asked as politely as I could if there was a toilet we could use. He was most eager to help, as was his colleague on the balcony who yelled directions down at me. So we went off in search of the toilet. We walked between two of the monastery buildings and saw the toilet block at the end. Just on the other side of an open area in which 8 monks (from about 6yrs old to about 19) were playing cricket. They seemed quite pleased to see us and were chatting to us while we took it in turns to use the facilities (or hold the door closed). Emily was about to join in the cricket game (at the request of the monks) when the ball broke and play was stopped. Ah well. Nearly playing cricket with some teenage Buddhist monks while using the temple toilet is certainly not something that happens every day.

So back to the bus (which was now full) and off we went.

This was certainly not the most fun that Emily has ever had on a bus. She didn’t actually throw up, but instead spent about 4 hours feeling like she was about to (which might actually be worse), Lauren’s knees had locked into place since she was standing for the entire four hours (as was I). The bus started off full and then got more and more crowded. The road that this bus took wasn’t as bad as the one we’d come in on on Friday. So that was some relief.

We got back to Avissawella at about 7:30. Exhausted. But happy!

Posted in Sightseeing, Sri Lanka, Transport | No Comments »

Making Friends in Tea Plantations

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Warning: this post contains language that some people may not be happy reading. It’s also not appropriate for young readers. You have been warned.

While Emily, Lauren and I were wandering along the road through the tea plantations trying to find Little Adam’s Peak we met a local. He was late teens I guess, though could have been early twenties.

We passed him as we were walking up the hill. When we got to the top we stopped to take some photos and he caught up with us.

He came up to Emily and said something to her that sounded like “Are you fine?”.

Which I thought was a little odd. English conversations here go like this: “How are you?” “I’m fine. How are you?” “I’m fine.”. Deviations from this script just don’t happen.

We asked him to repeat what he’d said. At which point Emily and I both figured it out.

“Are you fucking?”

Emily was shocked and didn’t quite know what to do.

He tried again with a different line.

“You are very beautiful.”

So Emily and I walked off on him.

He then went up to Lauren.

“I love you.”

She joined us in walking up the hill and away from him.

We jokingly put it down to the fact that Emily was wearing black (I’ve been told that that’s the colour that prostitutes traditionally wear), that her shoulders were exposed (she was wearing a vest top since we weren’t on project and were in a more touristy area) and that she was white.

We hoped that someone had played a rather unpleasant joke on this kid and that he didn’t know what he was saying. My guess is that he did know what he was saying. When a culture that is as sexually repressed as the Sri Lankan culture is meets a culture that is quite open then there are bound to be misunderstandings. To them it probably seems like all white women are loose women who will sleep with anyone (I mean, some of us live with our boyfriends, some of us have multiple boyfriends (though not usually at the same time)). But to us there are rules and etiquettes about how we treat each other. And going up to a girl you don’t know and saying “Are you fucking?” is not the done thing.

But this experience freaked us out a little bit. It made us feel a bit uncomfortable. It made us even more wary of Sri Lankan men. It made us wish we had a man travelling with us (and that thought made me very angry – not because I don’t like men, I do, some of my very best friends are men, but because I don’t like the fact that women are vulnerable purely because they are women).

Now I don’t think this guy would have hurt us. I don’t think he intended to freak us out as much as he did. I’m not sure what he thought or intended but I don’t think he was dangerous.

But what he did do was make us feel uncomfortable and far less friendly towards the Sri Lankan people. It is thanks to people like him and the freaky guy on the bus once who tried to get me to get off at the wrong stop and go to a hotel with him, and the guy on the train to Galle who was leaning on me despite the fact that there was no one else around him, and the guy who started off being nice but by the end of the conversation was pledging his undying love for me and planning our life together that make me wary about travelling. And make me warn other women that they do have to be careful and that while these people might not be dangerous they will be annoying and unfortunately the fact that we are white and female makes these men think they can treat us badly. And this in a culture that prides itself on respect.

Posted in Clothing, Culture, Sightseeing, Sri Lanka | No Comments »

Weekend in Ella

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Ella is in the Hill Country near Bandarawella and Badulla. I’ve been through Ella before but never stayed there. Emily and Lauren fancied visiting it and so did I. So off we went.

On Friday after school we got an AC bus from Avissawella to the Ella Junction. It was about 5 hours. Amazing bus trip. The bus snakes it’s way up through the foothills to the spine of the Hill Country. From Haputale you can see for miles back down through the foothills and out onto the plain beyond. Amazing.

At Bandarawella the bus got very, very packed full of people. I wasn’t entirely sure how the three of us were going to manage to get off the bus. But I put my faith in the conductor and the people around me. The guy sitting next to me checked where we were going. The guy behind let me know when it was nearly our stop. The conductor seemed to know what was going on and managed to find my bag at the front and throw it and me off the bus. Emily and Lauren appeared behind me, both with their bags. I’m still not sure how it happened. But it did.

We found a three wheeler and then after a few false starts found the Rock View guest house in Ella. They knew we were coming and knew that we’d want dinner when we got in. We were shown to our room. Biggest room I’ve ever seen. The bathroom was about the size of the room that Lora and I shared when we first got to Avissawella.

Dinner was laid out for us. The two boys who worked there served it all up and chatted to us. They were really lovely and seemed quite surprised by us.

Dinner was rice and curry. There were 9 dishes (I think). Rice, dhal, breadfruit (a bit like jak), caramelised aubergine, green beans, potatoes, papadams, pumpkin, chopped green leaves, chicken. The food was really good. Lauren and Emily were quite surprised. This food was tasty. Really tasty. The food that they get at their house is full of chili and not so tasty. But this was food that had very little chili in it, but still had immense amounts of flavour. Wow!

I’ve eaten a lot of food in a lot of different places in Sri Lanka. This was one of the best meals I’ve had. :)

On Saturday morning we got up for a breakfast of toast, eggs, fruit, tea. It’s the standard western breakfast. And it was great. Made even better for the view of Ella rock that we had. And we could see part way through the Ella Gap. Which is a gap through the mountains that lets you see down to the plain below.

Ella Rock

We watched cars, bikes, buses, three wheelers, people wandering up and down the road. We chatted to the boys who worked in the guest house. We eventually decided that if we were going to go out for a walk we should get our stuff together and head out.

I’d been feeling the sun at breakfast so I put suncream on and a hat and my sunglasses.

We headed out. We went to the station first to book our train tickets to Kandy for the next day. But we couldn’t book since there were no more first class seats available. We’ll just have to come tomorrow and buy second class tickets and hope we can get seats.

We wandered back through town and went in search of Little Adam’s Peak. This is a short(ish) walk from Ella. Go along the road, turn right just past the flower shop that’s near the 1km post, walk through the tea plantation. There you are. How hard could it be?

So we walked along the road. Didn’t see any flower shops. Didn’t see the 1km marker either. But had a lovely wander. A lovely chat. It was very nice to be out in the sunshine and fresh air and getting some exercise. I really do do a lot of walking back home and I miss it when I’m here.

We saw some great views. We took some photos. We made a friend. Well. Not a friend exactly. But there’s a separate post coming about him. We saw the 3km marker and knew we’d gone too far but we were thoroughly enjoying the walk and had nothing to get back for so we kept going.

Walking through tea plantations. Saying hello to the locals. Not giving the kids rupees or pens or chewing gum. We saw some guys near a Hindu Kovil cutting down a tree. It was a massive operation that involved rope and pulleys and people sitting in trees and lots of men wearing sarongs and flip-flops and not a hard-hat or steel-toe-capped boot in sight. :) They were doing a rather marvelous job but we decided that continuing to walk along that road and under said tree was probably not the best option. So we headed back to see if we could actually find the place we were looking for.

And we did. Turns out the turnoff was next to a flower shop just past the 1km marking. Not quite sure how we missed it on the way up, but it didn’t matter.

We then got lost trying to find the right path up to the top of the peak. But that just meant we had to scramble up through a tea plantation to get from one path to the higher one that was going the right way.

It thought about raining for a bit. Drizzled slightly. Then gave up.

The views from the top were amazing. Apologies that my camera is not nearly good enough to do it justice. We lazed around at the top for a while eating biscuits and just relaxing. What an amazing country!

The View from Little Adam's Peak

Then walked back down again. There was a little tea shop within the tea plantation and we stopped there for some cool drinks. The family who ran it were a Tamil family who probably worked in the plantation. Tamil plantation workers do not have the highest quality of life of people in Sri Lanka. Things are getting better for them, but still, the conditions there are generally not good. So it was very nice to see a family who were running a drinks stall to make legimate use of the tourists. Rather than simply begging for money (which many others in the area were doing) these people were working for it. And we were expecting that the prices would be hiked up quite a lot given where we were. But they weren’t. Things were more expensive there than in other places, but I have been ripped off to a much greater extent in other places.

We made it back to town and found a somewhat western style cafe for lunch. Mmmmm burgers.

Then back to the guest house to rest, read, and work up the energy for dinner. :)

We met an Aussie guy who has been living and working in China as a primary school teacher. It was nice chatting to him.

Sunday morning after breakfast we headed off to get the train.

Bought tickets. The train was a few minutes late but not much. We didn’t really get seats. We found two seats across the aisle from each other, which Lauren and I got. Emily wanted to sit in the doorway with the wind on her face anyway so she was happy enough.

We settled in for a long but quite magnificent train ride. This is the third time I’ve done this trip and I really love it. Granted by the time you’ve done 6 hours on the train the final hour is looking tedious rather than enjoyable (and that’s the bit coming in to Kandy so is the least picturesque anyway).

But we had fun. I gave up my seat for a pregnant woman at one point so spent my time either sitting with Emily in the doorway or standing in the aisle.

There were two birds that made it on to the train and were having a hell of a time trying to get off. But the whole carriage helped. We switched off the overhead fans to avoid unpleasant accidents and then tried to shoo the birds out through the doors. It worked eventually, but the poor things might have been a little confused to find themselves outside the train quite a way away from where they got into the train.

We got to Kandy. Had a quick dinner. Headed to the bus station. I put Lauren and Emily on an AC bus to Avissawella and I got a three wheeler up to my guest house. On the way I got a call from Emily. They’d been told to get off the bus and get a Colombo bus to Kegalle. Which they didn’t want to do. It was now after dark so I told them to come straight up to the guest house and we’d get them a bus in the morning. I don’t really mind hanging around at bus stations after dark (I don’t like it but I’ll do it if I have to). But I’ve done this before. A lot. I didn’t feel too comfortable with sending them out to wait at Kegalle and try and get buses from there. And more importantly, neither did they.

So we all ended up at the guest house. I called the school to tell them that they’d be in late but would be there as soon as they could. They called their host family to tell them they’d be back tomorrow.

By 9am the next morning they were in the English Activity Room at the school. Pity we’d rushed. There were term tests going on and nothing for them to do till 11. Ah well.

Posted in Sightseeing, Sri Lanka, Transport | No Comments »

Weekend in Kandy

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

After a good but difficult but successful first week of the projects, the volunteers and I went to Kandy for the weekend.

Lora and I were changing host families. So we took all our stuff and left our host family. We got a three wheeler to Atulugama and left a few bags at Lauren and Emily’s house. We collected Lauren and Emily and jumped on a bus going to Kegalle.

No seats at first but it wasn’t long before we managed to get some. Which was nice.

At Kegalle we changed buses and got a very crowded bus to Kandy. Note to self: travelling on a Friday afternoon is not a good idea, there are a lot of people going home for the weekend. Ah well, this gave Emily, Lauren and Lora a taste of the real Sri Lankan bus experience. Emily had been telling me earlier that she was surprised that the buses weren’t as bad as she thought they were going to be. This bus changed her mind a bit. :)

We got to Kandy and went to The Pub. The Pub is one of my old haunts. They do french fries and grilled vegetables and mango juice and tea (with separate milk) and it’s a pub (well, sort of). But you can get food with no rice, no curry, no chili. And you don’t get forced to eat it if you don’t want it. A welcome change from Avissawella.

We headed up to the guest house (Forest Glen, another one of my old haunts). Not the cheapest place in Kandy. But it is quite a nice place. And Indra, who runs it, is lovely.

On Saturday we had breakfast (no rice, no chili, no curry) and then wandered down into town. We walked around the lake for a bit. I tried not to be too rude to the people who were hassling us (why do I feel rude not talking to people who I don’t know who are just hassling me?) We stumbled across a practice session for the perahera which involved a few dance groups doing bits of dancing on the street behind the temple. That was cool. A bit of a flavour of the perahera for Lauren and Emily who will be back in the UK when it starts.

The others went to the Temple of the Tooth. I’m still avoiding it. So I went to the Dialog shop and then sat in the Queen’s Hotel drinking sprite and checking my mail.

They joined me later and the four of us headed up to the Randolee hotel. This is owned by our in-country manager and she’d arranged for us to have a meal there. Which was very nice of her.

The hotel is up in the hills around Kandy and has a great view. We had fresh mixed fruit juice. We had a lovely lunch. We sat in the foyer area watching the rain pouring into the pool. We drank tea.

When it was time to go they arranged a three wheeler for us to take us back down the hill. Back to The Pub then back to the guest house.

On Sunday morning we packed up and got ready to go. We watched the monkeys playing outside our windows. Awesome! We headed down to find a bus and went to Kegalle. From Kegalle we got a three wheeler to Pinawalla. Pinawalla is where the Elephant Orphanage is.

As soon as we piled out of the three wheeler we got accosted by a local guy. He said that the orphanage costs 2,000 rupees to get in and you can’t feed or touch or wash the elephants. He said that for 2,000 rupees each we could go to his place (nearby) where we could ride an elephant, feed them, wash them and see his spice and herb garden. Might be a good deal. Might not. But I said that we needed to check about ticket prices since we might be able to get discounts as we are volunteers.

Turns out that this was indeed the case, 100 instead of 2,000. The guy vanished pretty quickly when he realised he wasn’t going to convince us. I’d been to the elephant orphanage before and decided that I didn’t want to go again so waited out the front minding the bags for the others.

They saw them being fed and got to pat one of the baby elephants (do do do do do do do do do do, do do (ok, so the Baby Elephant Walk does work better as an aural thing rather than a written thing)) who was only 6 days old. The elephants were taken down to the river to be bathed. So we all walked down that way too. Well, all except me. Since I didn’t have a ticket I wasn’t allowed to walk down the street to the river. There was a barrier across the middle of a road and I wasn’t allowed through. Fine. I didn’t want to buy anything from those shops anyway. I went in search of coconut roti but couldn’t find any. So I just sat and enjoyed the sunshine and watching the people.

When we’d finished there it was a three wheeler back to Kegalle, a quick lunch and a bus back to Atulugama. We then got a three wheeler into Avissawella where Lora and I met one of the teachers who would take us to our new boarding place.

A very nice (if busy) weekend.

I love being on project, and the others loved it too. But it is very nice to be able to escape sometimes for some independence and some sightseeing.

Posted in Sightseeing, Sri Lanka, Wildlife | No Comments »

Kanyakumari 2nd Visit

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Kanyakumari is the southernmost tip of India. It’s where three seas (the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal) meet. It is one of the few places where you can see the sun rise from the ocean and set into the ocean.

I went to Kanyakumari last time I was in India.

And decided I wanted to go again. One reason is that Johny couldn’t come last time because he was studying for his exams. And I promised I’d take him next time I came back. Plus I thought it would be a nice adventure to go on a day trip with Elaine. And introduce her to Indian buses. :)

So Elaine and I were joined by Johny and his friend John (seriously, there are other letters in the alphabet you know). John doesn’t speak much English. But he understands everything that’s going on. And he’s very funny.

We weren’t going to be able to make it to Kanyakumari for sunrise nor would we be able to stay for sunset, but that was ok. It’s a nice enough place anyway.

I stayed in Poonthura with Johny’s family the night before. Mainly so I could make sure he actually got out of bed and left the house. We were due to leave at 7:30. I woke him up just after 7. I was ready to go. He got up, eventually. Then had a wash. Then a shave. Then got dressed. I texted Elaine to tell her that we were up and moving but we might be a bit late (no surprise there). We did leave the house at about 8:30. Mind you, Johny did look gorgeous. So it seems all the early morning preening was worthwhile. ;)

John had been waiting outside for us since 7:30. Well done John for being on time! And also looking gorgeous. :)

We got the bus out to Puthiyathura where Elaine was staying. I dumped some stuff there and collected Elaine (who always looks gorgeous). The boys got the 3rd degree from one of the nuns. Note: boys, don’t loiter guiltily at the front gate of a convent, it only makes you look suspicious. :)

Johny managed to get us on the right bus and we took him further south than he’s ever been. Changed buses. Changed states. We’re now in Tamil Nadu. And about 3 hours after collecting Elaine we got to Kanyakumari.

There’s a small island with a temple and a boat goes out to it. And a wind farm along the coast in the distance. And shops selling all sorts of crap made out of sea shells. I mean really? Who wants a mirror with a frame in the shape of two kissing doves made out of sea shells? Seriously? Or a sea shell chandelier? Or those strings of sea shells that you hang from doorways just to annoy people walking through them (never really understood those, fly screens I understand, doors I understand, curtains or strings of beads/shells I don’t understand). But it’s not just your name painted on a sea shell. You can also buy monkeys carved out of coconuts (obligatory tourist tat), dancing flower pots, plastic children’s tea sets, clothes, buddha statues, elephant statues, etc.

We managed to restrain ourselves and not buy any crap whatsoever. Well done us. :)

We didn’t go to the museum that would have charged 10 rupees each for the boys and 100 rupees each for the girls. (That would be because we’re foreign rather than because we have ovaries.)

We found a hotel for lunch. Johny was a bit freaked by the fancy place I’d suggested (even though I’d told him I was buying lunch) so we settled for the place across the road. Elaine was happy enough with it. Well, till the food came out. Not that she (or any of the rest of us were unhappy). Just that that was not the best Indian meal we’ve ever had.

We went across the road to the fancy hotel since I was in need of a cold coffee and the place we were in for lunch didn’t do them. Nice.

Then off to find a boat and an island with a temple (or two).

Elaine noticed something that she mentioned to me later. It’s amazing how in India there are temples with such amazingly clean floors you could eat off them. And then there are restaurants with such amazingly dirty tables that the thought of eating off them is enough to drive anyone to fast.

People in India can clean. And sometimes they do. It’s just that sometimes they don’t.

We realised we were running a bit late so headed off to find the bus station and a bus to get us back home again. Well, the first of two buses that would get us back home.

There was a guy on the bus who was sitting across the aisle from Elaine and me and one row in front of us. Now, I don’t know if he visits a chiropractor, but he should have done after that hour on the bus. But if he does, I think Elaine and I deserve a commission. He spent the entire bus trip with his head twisted round so he could stare at us. I ignored him. Elaine stared back for a bit. Johny and John (who were in full blown bodyguard mode at this point) were staring at him too. I asked Johny if staring is considered rude in India. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe we were just being over-sensitive westerners. Nope. It’s rude in India too. But bless his little cotton socks, Johny did ask whether this happened in Kerala too (or just Tamil Nadu). He was a little crestfallen to discover that people from his own state do it to us too. In fact, people from his own village do it to us too.

But, it was only staring. The guy got off the bus at his stop. He never said a word to us. He didn’t try to convince us to go to a hotel with him (that has happened to me on buses before). He didn’t ask for our phone numbers. He didn’t propose marriage. He didn’t try to touch us. So actually, one of the better bus experiences I’ve had. :)

We had to wait for ages (and in three different places at the one bus station) to change buses. But we did eventually find the right one going the right way (thanks Johny and John). We got to Poovar by bus and then the boys found an auto (three wheeler) for us to take us back to the convent. They waited to make sure we got safely inside and then then headed off to get the bus back home.

It was a long day, about 7 hours of buses. But a very, very nice day indeed.

Big thanks to Johny and John for being such superb tour guides, translators, bus ticket buyers, water buyers (Johny nearly missed one bus because he’d gone in search of water for me), bodyguards and all round good company.

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My week with Alex – Dambulla to Negombo

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

From Dambulla we went to Habarana where we could intercept a Trinco-Colombo train and head back towards the coast.

The station at Habarana isn’t in the town. It’s in the middle of nowhere. But there are two little hotels (again, no rooms) where we could buy food. Which was good, since breakfast was one UNESCO World Heritage site ago. :)

We bought our tickets and found food. Then back to the station to wait for the train. The barriers weren’t working so when a train was coming a station guy had to stand in the middle of the road with a green flag to wave at the train and a red flag to wave at the traffic. Given how fast the buses roar along that stretch of road I’m amazed they managed to stop at all. But there seemed to be no problems with this method. :)

We saw this a couple of times. Once for an express train coming from Trinco and again for a slow train which was going to Trinco. More sitting. More waiting.

The platform was quite short and we were sitting by the ticket booth. Which turned out to be quite funny because after waiting for about 2 hours (the train was an hour late) we had to run down the platform to the 2nd class carriage which was right at the front. I’ve been sitting around for 2 hours, why am I running now? :)

We got seats and settled back for the long trip to Colombo.

At Maho Junction there was some shuffling around with engines and trains and things and we ended up connected to another set of carriages and now facing backwards.

We got various bits of snacks and drinks from various hawkers on the train and at the stations.

We sang Whitlams songs and TISM songs much to the dismay of neighbouring passengers. We played fences. We tried checking email but there was insufficient signal for that to work. We napped. We braved the cockroaches to use the toilet.

And I realised when we got the Veyangoda, that getting off there would be better than going into Colombo and then north to Negombo. Didn’t realise it was Veyangoda till we left it though. Ah well. Got off at Gampaha instead. :)

Found a three wheeler to take us from there to Negombo. It was dark and I really wanted to get to the hotel before it got too late since I wasn’t 100% confident that the hotel we’d booked (who didn’t have a room for us but said they’d booked a room next door instead) were organised enough to have actually booked the room they said they’d booked.

Once we got to Negombo it took us a long time to find the hotel. Despite the fact that I had a map and showed the driver (I don’t think he can read maps). And I was trying to tell him which way to go. And Alex was reading the map and trying to tell him which way to go. But he preferred to make up his own mind and then stop randomly and ask people for help. But after a large amount of sub-optimal path choice we got to the hotel. And got a room. Yay! Since we were going to be leaving early in the morning we paid in advance and went out in search of kottu for dinner!

Awesome!!

The next morning was up early and off to the airport. I was flying out at 7:30. Alex (far more sensibly) wasn’t flying till 9:30. I was off to spend two weeks in India. Alex was back to Paris (via Dubai).

In the 6 days since Alex had arrived we’d done a circuit down the west coast, across the south, up to the Hill Country in the centre, north to Habarana and back out to the coast. We’d seen the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Galle, Kandy, Sigiria, Dambulla. We’d got trains, buses and three wheelers. We’d eaten chilli mango, kottu, hoppers, wade, cutlets, bananas, curd and honey, rice and curry. We’d seen cities, beaches, plains, hills, jungles, tea plantations, coconuts, bananas, paddy fields, temples, ruins, giant squirrels, tiny squirrels, birds, monkeys/baboons, dogs, water monitors (yep, the water’s still there), land monitors (yep that’s land), fish.

A fantastic week! Thanks Alex for coming to see me and for giving me a chance to show off Sri Lanka. And for sharing kottu with me!

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My week with Alex – Dambulla

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

The next morning (January 16th) was Dambulla. Which was a small amount of back-tracking. It’s about 45 mins back the way we’d come yesterday.

We got to the Golden Temple at Dambulla. There is a giant golden Buddha statue there. It is in the Dhamma Chakka pose (I don’t know what that is, that’s just what the internet tells me it is, but sitting cross legged, with both hands in front doing something). It is sitting on top of a museum. It claims to be the biggest Buddha statue in the world. It is in fact not even the biggest Buddha statue in Sri Lanka. But it might well be the biggest Buddha statue in the world that is in the Dhamma Chakka pose and sitting on top of a museum.

But we were there not for the giant golden Buddha statue, or the museum, but for the cave temples. UNESCO World Heritage site number 4 for this trip. (There are a few other UNESCO sites in Sri Lanka but we only managed to see four – which for 6 days isn’t bad at all.)

So we walked up the hill to the temples. We looked back to see if we could Sigiria across the plain but it was too overcast and cloudy and drizzly. Glad we climbed the rock yesterday!

So onward into the temples. We got a guide (fixed price 500LKR, written on a sign on the wall, now that’s more like it). He showed us through the temples and explained some of what was going on in them. The story of one statue which had to be repainted (no other statues in that cave have been redone) because a girl sat in it’s lap to have her photo taken. And about how you are not allowed to have a photo with people in it and Buddha statues. Though I’ve also heard that the rule is that you can’t have a picture of you standing with your back to a Buddha. Or that you can’t stand with your back to a Buddha. But since some of the caves have Buddha statues on all four walls, it’s a bit difficult to avoid having your back to one.

Each of the cave temples has lots of statues and artwork painted on the walls and ceilings. I was most impressed by the way they have painted the ceilings. Because these are natural caves the ceilings aren’t flat, yet they’ve tried to paint flat 2D images on them. Which they have succeeded in doing to quite a remarkable extent. Very impressive.

We avoided the monkeys and went to collect our shoes and then avoided the hawkers (I don’t want a t shirt with an elephant on it that says Sri Lanka, even if it is a very nice t shirt) and back to the three wheeler. On to Habarana since we have a train to catch.

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My week with Alex – Sigiria

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

So climb the rock we did. I dumped all of my stuff. I’ve climbed Sigiria before. It scared the hell out of me. I don’t want to have to do it with anything in my hands or pockets or with a bag.

Alex took his camera since he’s not such a big girl as I am and isn’t scared of a couple of hundred meters of elevation. Plus he’s a photographer and Sigiria is UNESCO site number three. :)

Our three wheeler guy dropped us off at the rock and found us a guide (who also has a three wheeler).

We asked the guy how much his guiding services will cost us. He said when we finish you decide. (On a scale of one to completely useless, that answer is completely useless.) We pushed him, but he didn’t give us a price. Ah well.

The water gardens, boulder gardens and the terrace gardens at the foot of the rock are beautiful. One side of the path has been excavated but the other side has been left covered over (as an exercise for future generations).

We climbed to the Mirror Wall. We climbed the scary spiral staircase to the fresco cave. Not quite as bad as last time but I was still terrified. The frescoes are cool! Alex took loads of photos including one of the fresco that is on the 2000 rupee note (with said 2000 rupee note in the foreground).

Then it was back down to the Mirror Wall. It’s interesting, the Mirror Wall has some of the oldest graffiti on it. It is being studied. It is an amazing historical record. And yet, the wall is now something that you can’t touch. Which means no more graffiti. Which means history, from the point of view of the wall, has stopped. Hmmmmm.

We sat watching the staircase up through the lion’s paws. I psyched myself up for the next bit which I knew was the worst bit (or are the spiral staircases the worst? hmmm, hard to tell).

Up to the top! Yay!!! Given this is my second time up here, maybe I should rethink the scared of heights thing. Then again, given how scared I was getting here, maybe I shouldn’t. :)

But the view from the top was fabulous! And it was quite a clear day.

Back down (going down isn’t as bad as going up, but still isn’t nice). Back to the hotel.

We asked the guide how much money he wanted. He said, you decide. So we did. We said how about 500. He said, no the minimum is 1000. So we said ok, how about 1000. He said, but that’s just for climbing the rock, what about the three wheeler ride back to the hotel. So we said, ok, how about 1100. Which he reluctantly accepted. We then arranged the next day. This time, he’d learnt his lesson and made us agree a price in advance. Which was fine with us.

It’s quite annoying. I don’t want to rip anyone off but I don’t want to be ripped off either. I wish people would just tell me what the price is for the thing I want and then I can pay them that (or not) and just be done with it!

Back at the hotel things were interesting. There was a Canadian couple who had arrived. On pushbikes! Alex said “you’re crazy”. I said “I’m jealous”. We all chatted lots for the rest of the evening. Really interesting people. Having just celebrated their 60th birthdays they decided to do this trip. They want to cycle the difficult countries (like Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, etc) now so that they can do the easy countries (like Europe) when they’re old. Awesome!!!

And aside from being crazy cycling people they were really fascinatingly interesting people. So we had a great time talking about education, politics, pensions, charity, economics, travelling, vegetarianism, veganism, the environment, building houses that are warm and dry and energy efficient (those Canadians know about building houses), trade unions, Paris, poker, all sorts of things.

Conversation was interrupted while they had dinner in the hotel and we wandered next door to find some kottu (I think I’ve got Alex addicted!). :) And we finally said goodnight when we all realised that it was way past all of our bedtimes. :)

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