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Here are a few more pictures from the trip to Sri Lanka. They are the last batch that didn’t make any previous posts and are in no particular order…enjoy!
The third major stop on our trip after visiting the high elevations of Nura Elliya was to head back down the mountain to the national park at Uda Wallawe ((Learn more about Uda Wallawe)). It was definitely more rural and off the tourist track. We stayed at a very small resort called Kula’s Hideaway that only had 7 rooms. Very nice digs for being so far from everywhere. On Dec 31st we took a morning Safari into the park and despite coming close to getting stuck in the mud twice we saw dozens of elephants, peacocks, a host of birds and two crocodiles. Kai loved playing “spotter” with the binoculars.
Chandrasiri arranged a New Year’s eve “party” down by the lake which we thought it would be rude to decline. He seemed very excited about it. Turns out it was with the same crew that managed the Land Cruiser for the safari that morning – Chandrasiri drove us close to the lake in the van and then we went the rest of the way by 4-wheel drive in the safari truck. As the sun set on 2011 we were on the shore of Lake Uda Wallawe with some bowls of wild boar and lake fish and a couple of bottle of the local firewater – coconut arrak. Drums were produced and songs started. Crystal and I sampled the food and were thankful that Kai and Nora didn’t want to touch it. The coconut arrak disappeared surprisingly fast. Nora kept trying to wander away to chase fireflies which made us nervous as at least one wild dog was prowling the perimeter looking for the chance to dart in and steal some food. It was definitely a New Year’s Eve with bit more character than recent years.
The first two days we spent in Kandy – a scenic city built on steep hills. There were a few valley bottoms with some flat land but most of the city is built on incredibly steep hills. Our hotel (the Amaya Hills – highly recommend it) was well up the side of one of the hills which gave it spectacular views but led to a white knuckle trip through the switch backs every time we drove up. Our mini van was too long for one of the turns and so the driver had to make part of the turn then reverse towards a precipice on steep incline and then get back into first gear and move forward again. About half the time he could manage this without stalling but then the wheels would spin for a brief instant before catching. I dreaded that switchback and we arranged our excursions so we only needed to leave/return to the hotel once per day.
After we left Kandy we went up slope even further to Nuware Eliya which Chandrasiri called “Little England” being on the mountain plateau it was rarely hot and of cold and misty (our room had a space heater that came in very handy). It was a popular refuge for the English colonials who would go up there to avoid the worst of the heat and also enjoy English style vegetables which grew there easily – we saw plenty of carrot, onion and strawberry fields in addition to hill after hill of tea.
In what was our first foreign excursion with the kids in what seems like years, we made a nine day trip to Sri Lanka over the Christmas-New Years break. Crystal planned a great trip for us visiting lots of different places. She arranged a van and driver, Chandrasiri, who met us at the airport and acted as our guide for the entire trip. He was a Buddhist himself so our arrival on Christmas day didn’t put him out at all. Christmas is a holiday in Sri Lanka and we were surprised at all of the decorations that were up. I guess there is a pretty substantial Catholic presence in the country from the Portuguese.
We left Dhahran at sunrise on the 25th and landed in Sri Lanka just as the sun was setting. Nora had a cough and was under the weather as we left home and the three hour night drive up winding roads had me thankful that I pilfered all of the air sickness bags from our Gulf Air flight. Our first morning we were up early to visit a major Buddhist shrine, the Temple of the Tooth which is supposed to house an actual tooth of the Buddha that was rescued from his funeral pyre and passed down through the ages. There were few tourists and Chandarasiri guided us into areas of the Temple that we never would have gone if we weren’t being led. Even with a guide some of the areas were a little touch and go especially with the kids. They open the tooth relic shrine which houses the gold dome which houses the tooth (you can’t actually see the tooth) only briefly twice a day and there was a mad crush of pilgrims making offerings. Chandrasiri took us right through the middle of it. It was pretty amazing to see but most of my attention was focused on not letting Nora get separated or trampled.
Throughout the trip each of us carried hand sanitizer everywhere we went and even the kids were good about washing and hygine. Aside from the colds that Kai and Nora brought with them we didn’t come down with any illnesses. Even after the unexpected New Years celebration eating lake fish and “village pork” on the shore of lake Uda Wallawe while downing coconut arrak. More on that in a later post.
