Monday - March 21, 2005
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is a country that has been greatly influenced by the Portuquese, the Dutch, and the British, who all ruled it at one time or another, and the Indians who crossed the waters to make a new life here. Sri Lanka is a poor country, but an extremely beautiful and colorful one. And the people are incredibily friendly. They revere elephants, so you will see elephants everywhere you look, whether it be in art, an architectural detail, their dance costumes, or the real thing!
Colombo, the capital city is not a very pleasant place to be, so we booked onto a shore excursion that would take us up into the hill country to the ancient capital city of Kandy. It was a long bus ride - 3 hours there and 3 hours to get back - but it was a fabulous way to see the countryside and appreciate the beauty of the land. It was also a hair-raising ride, with lots of sudden stops to avoid hitting the three-wheel tuk-tuk taxis and oncoming traffic and much honking of horns. Those of us sitting near the front of the bus definitely got our money's worth.
Once we got out of Colombo, we passed through a number of small villages and towns, separated by open paddy fields with water buffalo grazing. A number of the fields would be divided by narrow dirt paths with men riding bicycles or ladies walking under the shade of their sun umbrellas. Each little village would specialize in some product and would display their wares at roadside stands. One place sold all pineapple, another sold cashew nuts, another would made furniture and baskets from cane, another made brass objects, etc. We passed by many stands that were laden with bunches of bananas, mangoes, guavas, the foul-smelling dhouri. Women in colorful saris - cherry red with cobalt blue, pink with turquoise, lime green with orange - would stand by the road, and sometimes in the road, in an attempt to wave you down to come buy their goods. We passed groves of banana and rubber trees, spice farms, and tea factories, but never got up into the real high country to see the tea plantations. The ride up and back was a delight to the eye because of the color and the picturesque countryside we passed through.
On our way to Kandy, we stopped at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage that cares for about 67 elephants at the present. This is a refuge for abandoned and orphaned wild elephants, and of course there were a number of baby elephants as well. We arrived at bath time, when all the elephants were soaking in the river or being washed down by their mahouts (male handlers). It was an incredible sight! I was busily snapping away with my camera when a young man asked me if I wanted to pet a baby elephant. Knowing this was going to cost me some money, I replied "I sure do! ", and was willingly led by the hand down to the water's edge. Well, "Baby" turned out to be at least a foot taller than I am. (I think Baby is a teenager.) Not quite sure of Baby's intentions, I stood as far away from Baby's feet as my arm length would let me, yet still rub him on the trunk. I absolutely loved seeing all these elephants and count this as one of my best experiences of the trip.
The stop in Kandy wasn't nearly as exciting after that, partly because we had been there before and had already visited the Temple of the Tooth (so called because they say that one of Buddha's teeth, snatched from his funeral pyre, is stored there in seven golden and jewel-encrusted caskets) and partly because a tooth can't compete with tusks as far as I'm concerned. Also, the temples in Sri Lanka are much more austere than those in Bangkok, so they suffer in comparison. This particular temple had been bombed by a Tamil Tiger since we were last there, but it had all been rebuilt. An interesting part of the visit to the temple occurred as we were leaving. As we crossed over the moat outside, I spotted a large water monitor lizard poking up its head as it tried to crawl out and up the wall. What a ugly beast that guy was!
It was really the drive that intrigued us, and that didn't disappoint. Plus, we had a chance to load up on Ceylon tea, which I have no idea how we are getting home along with the tea we purchased in Hong Kong. I plan to buy a bit more in India, so I sure hope they don't make good tea in the Middle East!