SRI LANKA Part 2: Kandy

The train to Kandy was beautiful. We left the city and made our way through farm land and dense jungle and then wrapped our way around mountains.  The whole time a group of musicians sat in the next car, their drums and singing making their way into our our car made the whole thing the perfect experience. We snacked on samosas and oranges we picked up at a stand at the station. 

Local boys going swimming

Heading through jungle 

We arrived in Kandy just following sunset. We booked our tickets for that friday to head to the town of Ella, all they had left was third class, which was a little worrisome, because we had heard rumours that this could lead to standing room only, and on a 6 hour train ride that didn't seem like fun. Our taxi driver who took us to our hotel offered tomorrow to take us around Kandy and show us all the sites. We were a little hesitant, but in the end laziness won over and we called back our taxi driver that night to book a tour for tomorrow. He picked us up at 9am, he drove us down the road and then we quickly shuffled out of his van into a newer rad car, turns out the original driver was fully booked for the day, but his cousin David would be taking us around for the day.

Our first stop was a view point in the mountains

Next up we stopped at a banana stand on the side of the road, so we could buy the elephants banana's to feed them, we sampled a variety of different types, including red bananas which were significantly more expensive and sweeter than the other varieties. When we got to the elephant place, it was not the elephant orphanage like he had lead us to believe. Instead it was a place where you could ride elephants and watch them perform various tricks. Having already learned about how awful these things are to elephants last year in Thailand, I decided to pass on the elephant experience.

Our next stop was a spice garden, where the owner of the small garden took us through explaining all the different plants and what they can be used for. He frequently used Hylin as his example as he rubbed in various creams and oils into her arm to prevent a variety of illnesses and skin conditions.  

Our next stop was the tea plantation, but as we went to leave the spice garden, our car refused to start.  A group of men attempted to push it down the road a bit to give it a start. It didn't work. The engine light was fully lit on the dashboard and the men all stood around looking confused doing nothing. I grabbed the manual from the glove box, and made my way through the group of men staring at the exposed engine. The men seemed to shocked as I started to run down the list of trouble shooting when your car won't start. I bent over the engine checking fluid levels, connections and occasionally shouting out to David, "Ok, try and start it now." By the end of all the tests, I had determined based on the manual that it was the fuel pump that wasn't working. Which was something that nothing could be done for on the side of the road. 

So we waited...

And then a little bit down the road we found a lunch spot. The place back onto rice fields, giving a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape. The served traditional Sri Lankan food, geared towards tourist. They promised the wide variety of curries, chicken and vegetable dishes were not spicy. They lied. My mouth was on fire, my eyes watering, nose dripping. In response I mostly ate rice, which was still kinda spicy. 

Then we got a Tuk-Tuk! Our saving grace, he took us to the tea factory, where they showed us how tea is processed and what makes up the different varieties. Did you know that Orange Pekoe is called that because when it's good quality tea, and steeped the correct amount of time, the tea will appear orange in colour. Which means my parents steep their tea for far too long. Sri Lanka was the 3rd largest tea producer in the world, most of it goes to China, Russia and England. Many of the factories still use the same technology that was introduced by the British in the the 1800s when Sri Lanka (or Ceylon as it was called back then) was first converted to be a major tea producer by the English. The only shot I actually took during our tour was of the old wood burning stove that heated and dried the leaves. 

By the time we finished with the tea factory and were able to get a car to get us back to Kandy we were out of time to go visit the botanical garden, which I was looking forward to. But we did make it back in time to see the Kandian Dancers. The fast paced dancing with elaborate costumes and loud drum beats filled the small auditorium. 

 

That night we went to a pub with a rooftop patio, where we saw the sun go down over the man made lake. Large fruit bats circled above us. And to top it all off, I convinced them to put bacon on my burger! The next day we were leaving for the Knuckles to go hiking. So we called it an early night and made sure all of our stuff was packed up for our departure the next day. 

SRI LANKA Part 1: Colombo

Because the school I teach at is one of the more conservative international school in Kuwait, we follow an Islamic style calendar for the school schedule. This means we don't get a break over Christmas, only Christmas day off (because all the western hirers would just take it off as a personal day, ever tried running a school with almost all of your teachers missing... it doesn't work). What We end up with instead is a 2 week holiday in January for Winter Break. Over this break I travelled to Sri Lanka with two of my friends who work with me on the Girls Campus of our school.

Sri Lanka was never a top priority on my travel bucket list, but after hearing several friends rave about it and seeing the price of the plane ticket I was convinced. It was worth it. Although not in my top ten, heck even possibly my top twenty places I wanted to visit, Sri Lanka was absolutely beautiful. After our hectic work schedule prior to departure, we opted for a relaxing start just outside of Colombo in the beach suburb of Mount Lavinia.

On our way to the beach. 

Our extended month in the desert had left us on a search for all things unKuwaiti: nature, colour, revealing clothes, pork, booze, dancing, music, and interacting in public with the opposite sex. All things that would shock and scandalize our regular lives in Kuwait. The biggest thing for me being surrounded by things that weren't beige and covered in dust was the most refreshing thing yet. One of the hardest transitions in living here has been the stark landscape. Also being able to have some bacon on your burger doesn't hurt either. 

The beach at Mount Livinia, it's not the best one I've ever been to, but it was a really great place to relax and read a book. In the distance you can see Colombo. 

The restaurant we dominated for several meals a day, for several days.

However, we did manage to venture into Colombo. We got a tuk-tuk driver to take us into the city, where we wanted to hit up the market. Upon arrival at the Manning Market, just outside of the old colonial area referred to as the Fort, it became clear that despite our guide book's write up, that this was a place that tourists rarely ventured. Our tuk-tuk driver whisked away and we began to make our way down the dirt paths, through the small tin shacks that contained a variety of produce and household goods. The air was thick with humidity, smelling of over ripe fruit and car exhaust. Curious stares followed us as we walked along, and occasionally dare to take a photo. In my time living and travelling abroad, I have found that most places although foreign from the everyday norms I grew up with, can still be warm, inviting and like you belong. This was not one of those times, although I did not fear for my safety, there was an uneasiness, a strong sense that we were unwelcome there. It was odd, because as we carefully walked amongst these people going about their daily lives and weekly purchases, that uneasiness was such a contrast to the rest of our time in Sri Lanka, where stories of our home, lives, families and careers were exchanged with locals and we felt completely at ease. Our short tour of the market ended, we made our way back to the gate where we had originally entered, personally I was doubting whether we should have left our oasis just a few kilometres down the coast. We debated our next move, and then found a tuk-tuk driver and asked him to take us to the old dutch hospital, the guide book recommended it as a must see thing in Colombo, but I was starting to question its reliability. The tuk-tuk driver told us he knew where it was, and asked if we wanted to go strait there or see some of the sites around. I cautiously agreed, not sure if this was going to be a scam of some sort. It wasn't.

Our new tuk-tuk guide took us in loops around the old city, stopping at temples, monuments, Parliament, he pointed out old buildings built by the Dutch and British, the high end hotels, making sure to tell us which cricket player stayed at which one, of course those tidbits where completely lost on me. There was a snake charmer, which based on the non deadly bites on his hand, I'm pretty sure his cobras had their fangs removed. We paid him anyhow, not sure how I felt about the ethics of animals' fang removal versus the safety of me being close to live poisonous animals. It was only a couple months before in Kenya where standing outside the cage of a black mamba, I wondered if my health insurance policy considered attending a snake show an "extreme risk activity" and therefore wouldn't cover any treatment. 

 We were dropped off at the end at the Old Dutch hospital. It had been built in the early 17th century by dutch nuns, it has sense be transformed from a heath care facility to a collection of restaurants and shops. We had lunch at a small tea shop, where I had a peach tea soda, it was brilliant. We did some shopping and made our way through the city to the train station to purchase our tickets for the following day to Kandy. We passed old building, some abandoned, others transformed it to roti shops, corner stores and banks. 

On our way to the train station, we go turned around and asked a man for directions, and got pulled into the classic scam of, "oh no, its so far, here take a tuk-tuk, only 100 rupees." We whizzed past the monuments and buildings that had been previously pointed out to us that day, in the opposite direction of where I was certain the train station was. Well of course the tuk-tuk did not take us to the train station, but instead a gem wholesaler, which honestly may have been more along the cut glass line. Classic tourist trap. When we wandered into the shop we were greeted by a very friendly gentleman who told us all about the different types of gem stones that could be found in Sri Lanka. At the end of speech he clasps his hands looking very kindly at us and ask "What would you like to see?" To which Hylin happily told him, "well honestly, we aren't really interested in Gemstones."

We left the shop to relocate our tuk-tuk driver who was no where to be found. We flagged down a new one and made our way back long the same roads and monuments to the train station in the direction that I was sure it was in. We secured our tickets to Kandy for the next day at counter 12, which was located no where near counter 11, or 13, in second class express for a grand total of $2 a piece.

We grabbed another tuk-tuk who took the long way back to Livinia, but we made in time for sunset.  

Our last day in Livinia was spent on the beach with our books and the sun, it was perfect, we waited until the dreaded time we had to leave at noon to make our way to the next destination of Kandy. It was worth it. 

 

Sometimes You Suck At Blogging

And by you, I mean me...

So here's a short but important kinda interesting update of the past four months....

I spent some more time in Kenya where:

I held a snake at a sketchy reptile place...

When to the ocean

Saw some lions

And Zebras

And so many elephants

Yeah thats Kilimanjaro in the background

Saw cheetahs hunting stuff

Where they destroyed a rabbit RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!

Giraffes

More elephants...

Meet some Maasai 

Flew in a tiny Ultra light plane over the ocean

Pretty cool right?

Flew back past Mt Kili, after our plane was rerouted on the second worst flight ever. Moral of the story don't fly Air Ethopia 

And then I came back to Kuwait, where my amazing sister had her second baby!

Baby Juliet

My first time holding her

Before you knew it was Christmas

So I put up a very small tree, its real and therefor smelt wonderful

Baked some cookies

Had Christmas morning

Unwrapped some gifts

And then I flew home to see my little brother get married!

Morning at the lake

The first time he saw Aubrey in her dress 

Spending time with my Mom and Nana

So now I'm back in Kuwait. There were exams and report cards (never exciting).  A trip to Sri Lanka (very exciting), which there will be more on later. New classes and students, and hopefully more updates to come.