I figure a 7 day trip in a country I've never been to, and rarely heard of deserves a blog post with all (or as many as I can remember) the details. I mean how often does one go to Sri Lanka?? Well apparently for Saudis, very frequently; but not for me although I do hope to go back there one day.
So lets just jump in, shall we?
Day 1: Habarna, Sri Lanka
We land in or near Columbo, Sri Lanka, I think the airport is outside of Columbo but not by that much. Anywhoo...we land and collect our luggage and look for the guy who is supposed to be carrying a sign with our names or at least my husband's name on it. There is no one...but this one guy carrying a sign saying "Husain and family" keeps staring at us. I pray that's not him...we call the guy we set up the tour with and he tells us he'll call the guy who will be our guide for the next 7 days. The man holding the Husain sign answers his phone the next second and I think, "Crap, he's our guide." We walk to a kiosk selling phone cards and buy Sri Lankan sim cards so we don't have outrageous bills when we get back to Saudi Arabia. Then we leave the airport, and are greeted by a rush of humidity and heat. YUCK! I feel like I want to cry, humid stickiness is not the vacation I was envisioning. But I decide to ignore and make the best of the sweat I suddenly feel dripping down my back and neck. Thankfully the A/C in the car is amazing, and in no time we are enjoying a ride to our first hotel. Along the way we pick up some coconuts, king coconuts to be exact and drink the coconut water straight from the coconut. Then we buy some lemon bananas. Next we drive through a little town famous for their cashews so of course we buy some cashews from the side of the road. Delicious! We then stop by a wooded area where we see some rubber trees and learn that they actually get rubber from these trees to make shoes and tires and stuff. And here I was thinking rubber tree was just a name! We stop for lunch which wasn't anything amazing or really all that interesting. Get back on the road and drive drive drive...passing by coconut trees, banana trees, pineapple plantations and rice paddies. I already knew this but for those who don't each pineapple plant produces one pineapple, and pineapples do not grow on trees or bushes. Pineapples grow under ground like a root with their leaves popping above the ground. When we think we've finally arrived at the hotel we realize our driver has brought us to a place where we can ride elephants..inside I'm terrified, but I play it cool and act like theres nothing too it. Until of course nearly crying when I actually climb onto the elephant and sit on the little bar/box/death trap thingy on top waiting for my sons and husband to climb in too. Our ride starts through a jungle where residents living there try to sell us bags of bananas (we end up buying two bags) to feed the elephant along the way. You yell "Kumari banana" and all of the sudden the elephants trunk is flung up nearly into the death trap thingy waiting for you to hand her a banana. So you feed her bananas as you ride through the jungle (not a dense jungle but its still called a jungle). Then we start walking towards a little lake/pond/some kind of body of water and the elephant walk in until our feet are practically in the water too. She walks through the water as you observe the water lilies and other plant/animal life as well as the floating mounds of elephant poop :D. Its peaceful and beautiful and you kind of forget how freaking huge the elephant is and how freaking scary it would be if you fell off and were crushed by its ginormous feet. And then she leaves the water and they ask if you want to move onto the elephants neck. My husband and sons all took turns...I chickened out. After the majestic elephant ride we head to the hotel in Habarna and are pleasantly surprised with a really beautiful hotel room with an amazing pool that has water soo warm you'll think an elephant must have peed in it. The boys and I take a swim at night, i love night swimming, and then our day ends with some dinner in the room.
Day 2: Habarna, Sri Lanka
We woke up bright and early the next morning and headed to a jeep for a safari through the jungle. Now mind you, when I first heard Sri Lanka is a jungle...I envisioned dark green everywhere..kind of like Tarzan or something. Its not that dark...or dense. and Tarzan is a cartoon so I probably should not have been comparing real life to a disney movie. :/ oh well. It was still breathtakingly beautiful. Anyways...we start our ride and see a few birds, a peacock..and then the best part wild elephants!!! Be prepared this trip is all about the elephants. :D Its a beautiful ride, so peaceful and not too hot yet since its still pretty early in the morning. You can hear the sounds of the jungle fowl and other jungle animals. We drove past a little creek, and then we stopped at a rock/mountain/hill and got out to climb up. The view? SPECTACULAR! The sounds? Better than any relaxation cd! It was stunning....green everywhere and the sounds of actual nature no car engines to mar the beauty of it all. And on top of this rock there was a kind of hut on stilts that we were able to climb up and get an even higher view of everything. I fell in love, even though I am scared to death of bugs and getting dirty I absolutely love nature. When the safari ended we met our tour guide back at the hotel and he took us for one more elephant ride on Kumari. Then we started our ride towards Kandy but not before stopping for a "Village Tour" which consisted of a bull cart ride to a tuk tuk, a tuk tuk ride to a canoe-type boat, a canoe-type boat ride around a lake, and then a stop in an actual village persons kitchen to see how they do everyday tasks. We watched her clean rice (basically like husking corn), watched how they separated the husk thingies from the rice, watched her grind millet in her house, by hand (everything was done by hand), saw how she opened a coconut in her back yard- basically there is a stick stuck in the ground with a blade on it, and then she smashes the coconut against it to peel it so that she can take it inside to open it. They cover the blade with an old coconut shell "for safety" as she said. Next they take the coconut into the house and grab a knife to split it in half. They pour the water into old coconut shells and drink it (we got to drink it I felt soo awesome lol). Then the break the coconut and start grating out the meat. They eat the meat alone and they also have other uses for the meat. They mix it with water to make coconut milk. Or they use the grated coconut as part of the ingredients for roti (their bread). She made roti for us out of the ground millet, grated coconut, and coconut milk, and a little salt. Then she made something called coconut sambal which was grated coconut, onions, chili, salt, lemon and water. It was sooooooooooo delicious! She also made us a spice tea for after lunch with some fresh fruits. It was amazing to see how far the coconut could go! I mean it served as refreshment, side dish, and main dish, and it was also used as their cups! Resourceful!!!! The last stop of the day was a spice garden where we bought a whole bunch of natural medicinal stuff, and got to see the plants of a lot of spices. It was a beautiful garden and an exhausting yet amazing day! We were very very happy to get to our hotel in Kandy and head to bed to prepare for the next two days there.
Day 3: Kandy, Sri Lanka
We woke up early, again, theres a theme of early rising this entire week because Sri Lanka is a country where everyone goes to bed by 8 pm, and all shops are closed by 7 pm. :| This day we headed to the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage to see the elephants!! http://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=43 in case you'd like to see pics. So we get there and are able to see the baby elephants being bottle-fed, unfortunately we were not there early enough to actually give them any milk but we were able to feed the bigger elephants some fruit. After watching the milk feeding, and feeding the baby elephants some jack fruit tree leaves, we walked over to the bigger elephants and bought two plates of fruits to feed to the elephants. It was pretty amazing being that close to a huge elephant. Its trunk up in the air and its mouth open ready for the fruit. It just stood there mouth wide and its tongue would push the fruit down its throat. Its mouth didn't close at all...I accidentally touched its tongue which freaked me out..haha but since I did feel it I might as well describe it. it was soooooo smooth and very wet. Not sticky at all as I would have thought. Just very very smooth, soft, and wet. Once we were done with feeding them we watched them roam on the grassland with a beautiful jungle backdrop. I say backdrop because it looked sooo surreal! It didn't seem real...it was so incredibly beautiful! After watching them walk around freely, no glass or bars separating us from them they started their walk to the river for their two hour bath. We walked behind them, able to reach out our hands and touch them, to the river and the watched them bathing, and splashing and drinking the water. Afterwards we walked to a few shops and saw a factory where they take the elephant dung and turn it into paper, natural color and a bunch of other colors. Pretttyyy coool stuff, but definitely not a try it at home kind of thing..unless of course your diet consists of leaves, fruits, and tree trunks. lol Our next stop of the day was a botanical garden...which was beautiful but considering the heat and the fact that there are botanical gardens in the States too I wasn't all that impressed and was really just ready to head back to the hotel and rest! We rested for a couple hours then headed back out to watch a traditional dance which lasted an hour because it was a few different dances plus some fire tricks and fire walking. When that was done we headed back to the Tooth Relic Buddhist Temple and were driving past a lake...over the lake the sky was filled with bats flying over. Now I am definitely scared of a bat flying near me, but it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. They were so graceful! It was more beautiful than watching birds...maybe because its more rare to see the sky so full of bats (for me anyways). We visited the Tooth relic Buddhist Temple which was very ...loud. They were in the middle of a ceremony or something which is basically loudly beating two or three maybe four drums. I don't know how that can help meditation but there were people meditating. I probably would have yelled for them to shut the hell up! Then after another exhausting day headed back to the hotel in Kandy.
So lets just jump in, shall we?
Day 1: Habarna, Sri Lanka
We land in or near Columbo, Sri Lanka, I think the airport is outside of Columbo but not by that much. Anywhoo...we land and collect our luggage and look for the guy who is supposed to be carrying a sign with our names or at least my husband's name on it. There is no one...but this one guy carrying a sign saying "Husain and family" keeps staring at us. I pray that's not him...we call the guy we set up the tour with and he tells us he'll call the guy who will be our guide for the next 7 days. The man holding the Husain sign answers his phone the next second and I think, "Crap, he's our guide." We walk to a kiosk selling phone cards and buy Sri Lankan sim cards so we don't have outrageous bills when we get back to Saudi Arabia. Then we leave the airport, and are greeted by a rush of humidity and heat. YUCK! I feel like I want to cry, humid stickiness is not the vacation I was envisioning. But I decide to ignore and make the best of the sweat I suddenly feel dripping down my back and neck. Thankfully the A/C in the car is amazing, and in no time we are enjoying a ride to our first hotel. Along the way we pick up some coconuts, king coconuts to be exact and drink the coconut water straight from the coconut. Then we buy some lemon bananas. Next we drive through a little town famous for their cashews so of course we buy some cashews from the side of the road. Delicious! We then stop by a wooded area where we see some rubber trees and learn that they actually get rubber from these trees to make shoes and tires and stuff. And here I was thinking rubber tree was just a name! We stop for lunch which wasn't anything amazing or really all that interesting. Get back on the road and drive drive drive...passing by coconut trees, banana trees, pineapple plantations and rice paddies. I already knew this but for those who don't each pineapple plant produces one pineapple, and pineapples do not grow on trees or bushes. Pineapples grow under ground like a root with their leaves popping above the ground. When we think we've finally arrived at the hotel we realize our driver has brought us to a place where we can ride elephants..inside I'm terrified, but I play it cool and act like theres nothing too it. Until of course nearly crying when I actually climb onto the elephant and sit on the little bar/box/death trap thingy on top waiting for my sons and husband to climb in too. Our ride starts through a jungle where residents living there try to sell us bags of bananas (we end up buying two bags) to feed the elephant along the way. You yell "Kumari banana" and all of the sudden the elephants trunk is flung up nearly into the death trap thingy waiting for you to hand her a banana. So you feed her bananas as you ride through the jungle (not a dense jungle but its still called a jungle). Then we start walking towards a little lake/pond/some kind of body of water and the elephant walk in until our feet are practically in the water too. She walks through the water as you observe the water lilies and other plant/animal life as well as the floating mounds of elephant poop :D. Its peaceful and beautiful and you kind of forget how freaking huge the elephant is and how freaking scary it would be if you fell off and were crushed by its ginormous feet. And then she leaves the water and they ask if you want to move onto the elephants neck. My husband and sons all took turns...I chickened out. After the majestic elephant ride we head to the hotel in Habarna and are pleasantly surprised with a really beautiful hotel room with an amazing pool that has water soo warm you'll think an elephant must have peed in it. The boys and I take a swim at night, i love night swimming, and then our day ends with some dinner in the room.
Day 2: Habarna, Sri Lanka
We woke up bright and early the next morning and headed to a jeep for a safari through the jungle. Now mind you, when I first heard Sri Lanka is a jungle...I envisioned dark green everywhere..kind of like Tarzan or something. Its not that dark...or dense. and Tarzan is a cartoon so I probably should not have been comparing real life to a disney movie. :/ oh well. It was still breathtakingly beautiful. Anyways...we start our ride and see a few birds, a peacock..and then the best part wild elephants!!! Be prepared this trip is all about the elephants. :D Its a beautiful ride, so peaceful and not too hot yet since its still pretty early in the morning. You can hear the sounds of the jungle fowl and other jungle animals. We drove past a little creek, and then we stopped at a rock/mountain/hill and got out to climb up. The view? SPECTACULAR! The sounds? Better than any relaxation cd! It was stunning....green everywhere and the sounds of actual nature no car engines to mar the beauty of it all. And on top of this rock there was a kind of hut on stilts that we were able to climb up and get an even higher view of everything. I fell in love, even though I am scared to death of bugs and getting dirty I absolutely love nature. When the safari ended we met our tour guide back at the hotel and he took us for one more elephant ride on Kumari. Then we started our ride towards Kandy but not before stopping for a "Village Tour" which consisted of a bull cart ride to a tuk tuk, a tuk tuk ride to a canoe-type boat, a canoe-type boat ride around a lake, and then a stop in an actual village persons kitchen to see how they do everyday tasks. We watched her clean rice (basically like husking corn), watched how they separated the husk thingies from the rice, watched her grind millet in her house, by hand (everything was done by hand), saw how she opened a coconut in her back yard- basically there is a stick stuck in the ground with a blade on it, and then she smashes the coconut against it to peel it so that she can take it inside to open it. They cover the blade with an old coconut shell "for safety" as she said. Next they take the coconut into the house and grab a knife to split it in half. They pour the water into old coconut shells and drink it (we got to drink it I felt soo awesome lol). Then the break the coconut and start grating out the meat. They eat the meat alone and they also have other uses for the meat. They mix it with water to make coconut milk. Or they use the grated coconut as part of the ingredients for roti (their bread). She made roti for us out of the ground millet, grated coconut, and coconut milk, and a little salt. Then she made something called coconut sambal which was grated coconut, onions, chili, salt, lemon and water. It was sooooooooooo delicious! She also made us a spice tea for after lunch with some fresh fruits. It was amazing to see how far the coconut could go! I mean it served as refreshment, side dish, and main dish, and it was also used as their cups! Resourceful!!!! The last stop of the day was a spice garden where we bought a whole bunch of natural medicinal stuff, and got to see the plants of a lot of spices. It was a beautiful garden and an exhausting yet amazing day! We were very very happy to get to our hotel in Kandy and head to bed to prepare for the next two days there.
Day 3: Kandy, Sri Lanka
We woke up early, again, theres a theme of early rising this entire week because Sri Lanka is a country where everyone goes to bed by 8 pm, and all shops are closed by 7 pm. :| This day we headed to the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage to see the elephants!! http://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=43 in case you'd like to see pics. So we get there and are able to see the baby elephants being bottle-fed, unfortunately we were not there early enough to actually give them any milk but we were able to feed the bigger elephants some fruit. After watching the milk feeding, and feeding the baby elephants some jack fruit tree leaves, we walked over to the bigger elephants and bought two plates of fruits to feed to the elephants. It was pretty amazing being that close to a huge elephant. Its trunk up in the air and its mouth open ready for the fruit. It just stood there mouth wide and its tongue would push the fruit down its throat. Its mouth didn't close at all...I accidentally touched its tongue which freaked me out..haha but since I did feel it I might as well describe it. it was soooooo smooth and very wet. Not sticky at all as I would have thought. Just very very smooth, soft, and wet. Once we were done with feeding them we watched them roam on the grassland with a beautiful jungle backdrop. I say backdrop because it looked sooo surreal! It didn't seem real...it was so incredibly beautiful! After watching them walk around freely, no glass or bars separating us from them they started their walk to the river for their two hour bath. We walked behind them, able to reach out our hands and touch them, to the river and the watched them bathing, and splashing and drinking the water. Afterwards we walked to a few shops and saw a factory where they take the elephant dung and turn it into paper, natural color and a bunch of other colors. Pretttyyy coool stuff, but definitely not a try it at home kind of thing..unless of course your diet consists of leaves, fruits, and tree trunks. lol Our next stop of the day was a botanical garden...which was beautiful but considering the heat and the fact that there are botanical gardens in the States too I wasn't all that impressed and was really just ready to head back to the hotel and rest! We rested for a couple hours then headed back out to watch a traditional dance which lasted an hour because it was a few different dances plus some fire tricks and fire walking. When that was done we headed back to the Tooth Relic Buddhist Temple and were driving past a lake...over the lake the sky was filled with bats flying over. Now I am definitely scared of a bat flying near me, but it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. They were so graceful! It was more beautiful than watching birds...maybe because its more rare to see the sky so full of bats (for me anyways). We visited the Tooth relic Buddhist Temple which was very ...loud. They were in the middle of a ceremony or something which is basically loudly beating two or three maybe four drums. I don't know how that can help meditation but there were people meditating. I probably would have yelled for them to shut the hell up! Then after another exhausting day headed back to the hotel in Kandy.
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