The Lanka

Here in the UAE we have just finished a very nice holiday weekend.  The Muslim community celebrated Eid Al Adha and we were off of school for several days over a weekend. 

 

We decided this summer that when we have a break - we'd be travelling!  And so we did!

 

We chose to visit Sri Lanka during this holiday.  It's only a 4 hour plane ride from Dubai.  Close and relatively cheap - although other times of year are much cheaper for Sri Lanka vacations.  But life is short and so is our time in this part of the world. 

 

We arrived in Sri Lanka at like 5AM (after a delay and immigration taking forever to get through).  And it took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to our hotel.  The streets are like downtown streets - small and traffic is bad.  And the driving is horrible.  Supposedly the one highway in this area of the country doesn't have a good exit to where we were staying so we just did the coastal road.  It was interesting.

 

There are quite a few pics!  Enjoy!!! We sure did! 

 

We've never been picked up from the airport with our names on a sign!  Even our own family hasn't done that for us!  But Channa did!  Channa was our driver for this holiday.  One would not dare rent a car and drive themselves. The driving is beyond explainable!  We learned about Channa through some friends of ours who used him last spring when they went to Sri Lanka.  He was awesome!

Random cows periodically on the sides of the streets, in the street, in the median, just about everywhere.  Although - the stray dogs were out of control.  In a 25 minute period I think we counted over 50 dogs roaming the streets of Sri Lanka.

Lots of kids walking to school.  Some didn't even move when we were driving by - they just kept walking as we moved around them. 

A wedding car - they decorate the car for the bride and groom to ride in.  According to Channa sometimes they use their own vehicle or hire one.

Not sure what they were doing - we think the elephant was working - moving branches.

Lots of Buddhist temples around Sri Lanka. 

A church - all the religious buildings were very beautiful.

We really liked how green and lush the landscape was!  I think we've just missed seeing grass and trees so much that we really enjoyed the scenery!

 

 

Love this pic!  This was the logo on all the windows.  And the main souvenir shop was Adam and Eve.  I loved the theme.  

At the Eden Resort & Spa - kids enjoying their welcome drink!

View from our hotel room

View of the beach (and the island) from our hotel room

All Cole wanted to do was color - even if he was naked.

 

We all enjoyed the pool - and the kids LOVED the pool.

The beach by the hotel wasn't that great and they are not safe to really swim in.  So we just walked around.  We beached it later at Hikkaduwa Beach.

Fresh seafood daily!

King coconut trees everywhere! 

Believe it or not - the boy eats. 

lots of squirrels - even though we think they're chipmunks.

The kids enjoyed the balcony

 

The 2nd day we headed to Pinnawala, Sri Lanka to see the elephant orphanage and do a little shopping.  We had to leave the hotel at 5AM to get there in time (since it takes forever to drive anywhere!) for the 9:15 events.  Although there was no bathing in the river since there had been so much rain - the levels were too high.  But we got to do everything else!

 

There were a few checkpoints - never saw anyone stopped at any of them.  Just some police, and some armed military guys. 

 

This was hilarious - no warning signs that there was this road issue - just when you see the car get over in front of you - BAM - danger sign!

Another Buddha statue

These are tuk tuks.  A tuk tuk is like the Sri Lankan version of a taxi.  They don't really go that fast (Channa thought maybe around 35-40 km/h) but they get you where you need to go. 

 

Channa loved the kids - and they loved him!

The entrance to the elephant orphanage in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka

 

Saw several of these flowers around the country in water with lily pad like things.  Great photo!

 

We went to feed the elephants first.  The kids were nervous but Cole got over being scared quickly.  Caralyn - not so much. 

They were very gentle elephants and were adorable!

Love this pic!  It was sort of nasty to feel the air coming from their trunks.

 

There was this area where they have elephants lined up for photos - and they'll even take one of your family with your camera!  For a donation of course!!!

They only sell 10 tickets for the bottle feeding but we gave this guy 200 Sri Lankan Rupees (like $1.50USD) and he let the kids feed the elephant.  Channa had as much fun as the kids! 

It was really cool to see the elephants up close and what appears to be a safe and caring environment.

They enjoyed playing in the water and mud.

BEAUTIFUL!

After the orphanage visit - we walked down to a few shops and to see the river where they bath.  Jennifer noticed a window that said POO PAPER.  So she asked Channa what it was, and he took us in. They make paper from the elephant dung.  WHAT?!?!?!  It was fascinating!  They take the dung and dry it out.  Did you know that the dung is 97% fiber since they are vegetarians.  Then they boil the dried dung to kill any bacteria.  Then dry it out again.  Then mix it with water in some machine and then use this screen like thing you see in the pic above.  That dries and forms a rough sheet of paper.  If they want it to be smooth to write on, they send it through a press.  And sometimes they even add dye to make colored paper. And there you have it - POO PAPER!!! 

 

The river area where they typically let the elephants bath in twice a day. 

Jennifer tried a king coconut drink.  She's wasn't really a fan - she thought it was chilled it would be better. High maintenance.

Not many pics of Jennifer on the elephant - she went about 10 feet and then asked to go back.  She was shaking and terrified!  Cole got off too and then joined Caralyn and I on our elephant.  Caralyn was scared and started to cry, but we kept going and she got over it.  She was nervous the whole time - kept reminded me to hold on to the rope and not sit up straight! 

 

On our way home we see this elderly couple and two porcupines. Yes - porcupines!  They have them on leashes and you can take pics with them!  For a fee of course!  I bartered a little because I'm cheap.  We even bought two quills too!  Caralyn was too afraid to sit in the chair and take a pic!  Cole thought it was awesome - even though he was a little scared about it all!

 

We saw several rice patty fields on our way into the jungle/mountainous areas.

After the elephants and shopping we decided to head back to the hotel since it took forever. We also wanted to see a batik factory.  And Channa stopped at this one and they agreed to take us on a short tour.  This process fascinated me!  And we bought two batik pieces we'll frame and hang in our home back in the states when we move back next summer!  So the batik process is multiple steps.  They take the cotton piece and trace a design that is one a piece of paper.  Then they put one color how ever the artist is designing it.  Then they put melted wax on the areas they don't want the color to be on. The wax prevents the ink from bleeding into other areas. Then when that color is dried, they boil the cotton piece in the water to get the wax off.  Then they put wax back on the different areas and add the next color and so on and so on.  When they finish you have this cotton hand painted fabric with many different layers of colors and such.  It's amazing, really! 

Here is their display to show how it works.  It starts from the top left and across and down.  The bottom left one is the final product. 

After she does the brown on yellow they'll add wax and do the next color and then so on and so on. 

 

The different tanks where they dye the fabrics.

 

We were surprised that there are so many (not as many as the UAE but...) KFC's and Pizza Hut's but we only saw like 3 McDonald's.  Guess McD's hasn't been embraced like the rest of the world!  

 

More Buddha.

 

 

Wedding photos - during breakfast one morning.  The wedding ceremony is typically held in the morning - even during a workday. 

 

It was cool to witness this part!  These traditional Sri Lankan dancers perform the processional.  They do their thing as the guests follow them into the hall where the wedding will take place. Then they come back out and do more dancing and singing and drumming as the wedding part follows them in.  It was awesome to see!

Sri Lankan Rupees.  $1 = 128 Sri Lankan Rupees

The Eden Cafe had themed dinners.  This night was a Tex Mex buffet.  It was actually good.  Much better Mexian food than the UAE's version of Mexican!  The problem I had with the hotel was that the men had to have their legs covered.  I didn't bring any pants so they lend you a sarong (a man-skirt!) to wear.  So I had to wear a skirt but several of the girls/women had skirts so short you almost saw their business.  But rules are rules I guess.  I ended up buying two sarongs though.  They're very comfortable. 

This was on our way to Hikkaduwa - they paint and repair these boats just on the side of the road right off the coast. This area was badly damaged from the tsunami in December of 2004. Very sad to see the homes.

 

On our way to Hikkaduwa we visited a turtle hatchery.  This one is a private hatchery. They depend on their ticket sales and donations.  They buy the eggs from fishermen who dig them up at night after the turtles lay them. 

Above you see the mounds - the eggs are buried in a hole. Something like up to 100 eggs get laid by the turtle.  The numbers tell you how long it takes to hatch.  The letters tell you what time of turtle. GT - green turtle.  HB - horn beaked. 

 

Turtle eggs!  Like soft flexible ping pong balls!

Once they're hatched they stay in this tank for 3-5 days before they release them at night. 98% are males and 2% females. They keep the females for several years to keep them safe.

 

I think this was like their umbilical cord - the large opening one is a day old.  The far right one is three days old.

It was cute - when they laid the turtles on the kids hands and up their arms they just laid there and rested

 

The kids signed their guest book.  It was cute.

The "special needs" tank.  They keep these ones here so they're safe. 

The bottom one you see has no limbs.   

a horn beaked - not nice turtles! 

 

Tsunami damaged building

 

 

 

Not impressed. Jennifer and Caralyn loved their seafood but Cole and I did not like their "fried" chicken which was not fried and had an interesting sauce all over it.

We rode a glass bottom boat to see the coral reef and the fish.  The coral was not the nice colorful amazing stuff you see on TV but was still cool to see.  Lots of colorful fish too!  And we saw two HUGE sea turtles.  Lots of dead coral too - the boat driver said it died back in 1998 from some crazy weather conditions - I guess the water was too hot?!?!

I was a little nervous with the waves being so big and this driver using his foot while he looked for the sea turtles. 

A sea turtle.

 

 

 

Our last day in Sri Lanka we went to buy a few last minute items we wanted.  We took a tuk tuk from the hotel.  The kids even got to drive the tuk tuk down a side road and up to the hotel.

 

 

Lots of fruit stands on the side of the road 

 We headed to the beach to buy some shells that some folks were selling. No shells but we did find a man sitting just outside the fence with a monkey, Johnny, and a cobra.  He played his snake charming music and out comes the cobra. 

Finally - she's not afraid of something!

And at some point the damn cobra gets out.  Not cool.  He did get it back in quickly though. 

It was VERY nice to see rain - hear thunder - and feel the breeze of the storm!  We miss that!

 

The last night there was a fire limbo performance!  They got Cole up on stage to do the limbo holding two fire sticks but he chickened out.

 

Our visa!

The airport in Sri Lanka - very old fashioned! 

Some Buddhist monks

 

Our last Buddha sighting! 

There is this cartoon, Freej, about these elderly ladies living in the Middle East.  Fly Dubai (the Middle East version of Southwest Airlines) uses them for their safety demonstration.

 

WHEW!  We had the best time!  It was very humbling seeing this third world county - even though we stayed at a very nice resort - and just seeing how poor some folks really are.  And they were all so friendly and seemed to enjoy their life.  The saddest part of all this was leaving.  We sat waiting for our plane and saw several people crying.  These were the Sri Lankan folks crying.  One young boy who probably left his parent's home not knowing what lies ahead.  Maybe he's coming to the UAE to be a laborer.  Making very little money but more than he'd make in Sri Lanka.  Or the women who are coming to be cleaners or house-maids.  Wiping their tears.  And seeing these two walled areas with glass walls and people piled in to catch that last glimpse of their loved one who is leaving to make more money to help their family.  Mothers left behind holding babies.  Very sad. Reminds us how blessed we are to be living in a foreign country and enjoy the luxuries the UAE has to offer, to travel around the world (South Africa in December!!!), and make memories most of the world doesn't get to make! 

 

Now - back to reality.  Teaching tomorrow. Ugh.....

 

Stay Tuned...