Tropical paradise

For the last leg of our Sri Lanka trip we continued up the coast with it's beautiful beaches that are right out of the pages of a "wish you were here" calendar. If I had known what to expect, I would have booked us longer at this appropriately named Palm Paradise Cabanas. The cabins have complete baths and you can open them up to the sea breeze and the sounds of the waves to lull you to sleep at night.

The beaches are quiet and more pristine this far south, away from the large population area of Colombo.

This fellow just snagged a small fish, using the typical long stick for a fishing pole.

Further up the coast the small city of Galle is popular with both tourists and the locals.

This family had a unique way to keep their youngster out of trouble for awhile.


There were reminders everywhere that this paradise had fairly recently been hit with the force of a devastating wave that is hard to fathom.





New Year's eve was spent at a beach resort where the management put out an incredible buffet with dishes from all parts of Asia. The tables were adorned with some amazing works of art made from butter. Char & I had the dance floor mostly to ourselves as the band played an interesting mix of old US covers and local songs.

I took this photo from the balcony in our room in Colombo to try to capture what you witness everywhere in Sri Lanka and India. The poor housing district next to our nice hotel, screened by a thick hedge, where you can spot satellite dishes on the roofs. In the block beyond, new high rise apartments have sprouted.

Yala National Park

The sun was not yet up when we climbed onto the bench mounted in the back of a Toyota safari vehicle. A half hour later we were at the entrance to Yala park along with about 20 other similarly loaded vehicles whose occupants were hoping to see elephants and leopards. Sri Lanka recognizes the assets they have with their abundance of wildlife, and to their credit they have set aside large wildlife refuge areas and elephant migrations routes throughout the island.

Yala is one such park that allows people in, though most of the park is not open to traffic, and you are not permitted to get out of your vehicle while in the park.


The park is located on the ocean and is a mix of dense shrubs, grassy plains, rocky outcroppings and many small lakes and ponds.

Once inside the park our driver/tracker took us on a side road and were soon greeted by a bull elephant who appeared out of the thick brush, checked us out, then meandered on his way. I would have never thought an elephant could hide, but if our driver had not pointed him out, I would have driven right by him. We were not disappointed by the abundance of wildlife, including water buffalo, deer, including some stags with very large antlers, monkeys, monitor lizards, wild pigs, wild dogs and crocodiles. The elusive leopard however remained out of sight that day.


We also spotted shore birds and raptors of all kinds.

There were also many Peacocks about. We caught this one strutting his stuff.

At lunch many of the vehicles congregated on the beach where we were allowed off the rig to stretch our legs. There is a sobering memorial here dedicated to the victims of the Tsunami who lost their lives at this once posh resort. All that was left after the water had receded was this concrete foundation and bits of building scattered about the area. Everything else was washed out to sea.

During most of our Safari, we had the roads to ourselves, but after lunch all the rigs had stopped to see a small herd of elephants. The big beasts seemed used to the idea of people gawking at them as they passed calmly by.

Over the pass

After a very pleasant overnight stay at a old mansion that had recently been converted to a hotel we climbed on the beast again and headed for the southeast coast. The mansion had an interesting history because the prominent family that still owns it used to entertain famous people here. We can now say we walked the same floors as Mahatma Gandhi and Gregory Peck.

From Kandy we climbed up endless switchbacks, to the town of Nuwara-Eliya which has an elevation of 1980 meters (6,500 ft.). Part way up we stopped to buy some more lemon munchie biscuits at this little store perched on concrete stilts. The view from the extended slab looking out over the hills was fantastic. This area is tea country, where the hills are terraced with tea plantations, right up to the top of some incredibly steep mountains. The women who pick the leaves throw them into a bag that was slung on their backs. I could not help but think of the cotton pickers before modern harvesters were introduced.

Our next stop was at the edge of the hill country where we were awakened every morning at 5:30 by the call to prayer blaring from loudspeakers at the mosque across the street. This area has a large Muslim population who originally settled here to escape the Portuguese domination of the coastal areas.

The next day found us back in the rice paddies of the flat plains where we had made arrangements for a jeep safari into the Yala wildlife refuge.

Sri Lankan Folk Dancers

We had been told that we should see one of the traditional dance shows while we were in Kandy, so we purchased tickets at the local YMBA (no it's not a typo, it stands for Young Men's Buddhist Association). The performance lived up to it's reputation as the women pranced around in some beautiful costumes and the men showed off their abilities doing some truly amazing gymnastics in their elaborate garb of cloth and metal.
The dancer's musical accompaniment, consisted of a half dozen percussionists with drums of various sizes and pitches and an occasional song included a oboe type instrument.

This particular act of spinning flat clay drums on sticks brought back memories of the old Ed Sullivan show.

At the end of the show, the audience was led outside where several men performed a fire dance where they tried to incinerate themselves with kerosene as they walked across a burning pit or flung burning torches around.

The night we attended the show the hall was full of European, Slavic and Indian tourists. It emphasized for me that it was the tourist dollar that was keeping many of the traditional customs alive, much like the elephants at the orphanage. (As a side note I really do mean US dollars which are used as a sort of second currency in Sri Lanka.) If not for those dollars I fear these dances would be lost to the 21st century which would be a real loss for the world.

Gardens, Kings & recent history

Located just outside Kandy is the large Paradeniya botanical garden that was originally kept for the royal family. The large grounds are kept immaculate and include just about every imaginable type of garden with plants imported from around the world. The gardens were one of the highlights of our trip as we wandered for hours in perfect weather through arboretums, bamboo groves and various formal gardens.

Giant bamboo is fairly common on the island, but it was our first encounter with stalks as large as palm trees.
One gardener motioned for me to check out this colorful spider and it's interesting web.

Another caretaker unrolled a large leaf he had pulled from his pocket to reveal a 4-5" scorpion. It was worth the few rupees he extracted from us for the photo.

Some of the trees grew to enormous size in this tropical environment. If you look closely at this picture you can get a sense of proportion by the lovers nestled in the roots of this tree under their umbrella.

Visiting Kandy where the Monarchs have left their legacy of the lake and gardens left me with an impression of just how powerful and luxuriously they had lived before the arrival the Portuguese, Dutch, and later the British. The isolated hill country of Kandy remained a region ruled by the last king of Sri Lanka until the early 1800's when local chiefs, who felt they would be better off under British rule than the oppressive king, banded together to cede the kingdom to the British.

Sri Lanka is a country that has been hard hit in recent history by a civil war between different ethnic groups and the politics of creating a government in the void left by British rule. Today there are soldiers and checkpoints everywhere you go, with locals frequently pulled over on the road at random. We were only stopped once where we were politely but thoroughly questioned about our itinerary. On the heels of the war the 2004 Tsunami hit the coast, where there are still remains of ruined buildings and many recent roadside graves, evidence of the devastation it caused.

Today Sri Lanka is at peace and is rebuilding at a rapid pace with new private and public works projects every where you go. You can feel the mood of the country in the air, and when talking to the locals, you get a sense of relief that the worst is behind them, and an optimism about moving on to the future.

Kandy

From the flatlands of the area around Colombo, we quickly gained elevation and made our way to the city of Kandy. They call this the hill country, but for me it qualifies as mountains, with very steep terrain and a definite change in the climate, still very tropical, but much cooler. Our home for the next several days was a small guest house high on a hill with a great view of the man made lake that the city is built around.

Kandy itself is not a large city, but it is crammed with people, buses and busy markets. We spent most of our time away from the crowds by strolling along the lakeside path that surrounds the lake.




There was a lot of wildlife to be seen including shore birds, Fruit bats and Monitor Lizards. The first and largest lizard we saw, we took to be a crocodile at first. Fortunately for us it wasn't, as it was only 10 feet away. From tip to tail, this guy is probably over 5 feet in length.

Monkeys were everywhere, in fact the owner of our guesthouse was complaining about how they tear the roofs apart, and even open the water tanks and yank out all the wiring. As a tourist though they did not bother us, and were fun to watch as they slid down tree trunks and leaped from branch to branch.

There is also an interesting arts and crafts store where craftspeople were giving demonstrations. You weavers out there will appreciate this women at her floor loom who is hand picking out an intricate pattern.

This gentleman is pounding out very intricate brass sheets which will be used for decorative corners and other appliques. His only tools are a hammer, file and old square nails for punches, on a table covered with a thick wax surface.

The majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhists and the main attraction in Kandy for tourists and pilgrims alike is this temple where it is said there is a tooth from the Buddha himself that was snatched from his funeral pyre.









A common sight on in Sri Lanka are elaborate carvings of Teak & Ebony which are used for ornamentation and ventilation around doors and windows.

These paintings adorn the entrance to a very old Shrine.









As we sat by a busy street eating local pastries and Lemon Munchie Biscuits, Char spotted this guy lumbering down the street.

Sri Lanka and the Elephant Orphanage

 After spending 2 hours making our way through check in, customs and a short 1 hour flight from Chennai, Char & I found ourselves in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  There I had arranged to rent a motorcycle which was to be our mode of travel for the next two weeks.  This turned out to be a 250cc street legal dirt bike which when loaded with our gear and the two of us on I could just reach the ground with my toes.  I thought this was a bit of overkill, but Suranga, the very helpful man we rented from just said that not all of the roads in Sri Lanka were like the nice paved street outside his shop.  As we were to discover, this turned out to be true and there were more than a few times we were glad to have the big beast.

We wanted to see elephants while on our trip, so our first stop was the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage.  It was a beautiful morning as this view from our hotel room shows, but as soon as we got on the bike it started to rain nonstop for the rest of the day.  The orphanage has taken in about 80 elephants that have been orphaned or abandoned.  It has also become a major tourist attraction where people are allowed to get up close and personal with many of the elephants.  The elephants don't seem to mind, and even appear to like the attention, and the Mahouts are always close by.  Even the very protective adults guarding this nine day old allowed us to pet them and raised their trunk in greeting. The elephants have a large area to wander and seem to be well taken care of, so our overall impression was if the tourism pays the way for the animals it is worth any trade off for a more wild existence.There were also some sad scenes like this huge bull elephant that was chained tight inside a covered shelter with scars from his leg chains.  However, from what we saw of their treatment, this must have been a necessary restraint.    There was also the elephant on the right in this picture, leaning on the other who had lost a foot from a trap or land mine.  It was amazing to watch her as she shifted her massive weight to her hind legs as she limped forward on her one front leg which was permanently bowed from the weight it had to support.After feeding time the elephants were walked down to the river where they were free to wander, bathing themselves and rolling in the dirt.  We had a good laugh watching them slide down from the upper banks on their bellies.

Overall the Orphange was a great place to see many elephants, and they seem to be doing a needed service to abandoned animals.

That evening, still in the pouring rain, we made our way to our guesthouse in Kandy where we spent several days, and an attempt to dry out some of our clothes, which is not an easy thing to do in 100% humidity.