Sri Lanka, The Spice of Life

By 4:01 pm on December 20th, I was chalked full of Christmas chocolate and in hyper-vacation mode. I dashed to KL Sentral (yes..with an 'S' and not a 'C') to meet Tyler and we were set to make our way slowly to Sri Lanka. Being frugal (a much more becoming word than cheap) we had booked a very taxing route to Sri Lanka; Leaving KL at 8:00pm, stopping in Maldives, and arriving in Colombo at 4:00am. Did I mention it is a four hour direct flight? When checking in, the Malaysian Air worker was pretty baffled, and would not accept our itinerary. Instead he hooked it up! He got us on a direct flight leaving at the same time and signed off on some dinner vouchers. With our bellies full of complimentary airport food, we booked a hotel for that night in Colombo, feeling good that we weren't going to be sleeping in airports and starting our vacation off with little to no sleep. This was surely a good omen for the trip to come!

I need to mention that we traveled over Christmas with one pretty amazingly, awesome gal, Catherine Barker. Catherine and I had done our Education degree together almost five years ago at UNB. We hadn't seen each other since then. She is currently teaching in Qatar, and as she wasn't heading home for Christmas either, we decided to end the Barker/Mary drought and vacation together! The hilarious conversations, laughter, and company of this trip is a large reason why we are coming back to work feeling rejuvenated. Needless to say, so much love for Barker!

So, a little background on Sri Lanka; Geographically, it is an island country just south of India. Politically, the country just ended a thirty year civil war in 2009. Culturally, most people are Sinhalese or Tamils, speaking those respective languages. Most people practice Buddhism. How's that for generalizations?

So we collected Barker and we were straight to catch the bus from Colombo to Kandy. First lesson learned; Public transit in Sri Lanka is to be way underestimated. What was supposed to be a 2 hour drive lasted about 5 hours with a fair share of interesting smells, near collisions and body contact. No problem; we arrived in Kandy in one piece. When we arrived, I was completely overwhelmed! The trip's planning by and large was left up to Tyler and Catherine (thanks!). I hadn't so much as googled a picture of Sri Lanka, and was going in completely blind and misinformed. For some reason I just assumed it would be another S.E Asian country. A place for us, where at this point, we are still in awe, but more or less comfortable. I was wrong. As our tuk-tuk dodged people, cows, and buses from the 1960's busting with people, I turned to Catherine and said "India!?" In response she said "Uhh yah. Sri Lanka is India's 'Little Brother'". For the first time since we had traveled to Asia three years ago, my head was truly spinning with all the new sights, smells and way of life. A pretty great feeling!

Where's Barker? This trip could have easily been dubbed 'Public Transport Tour of Sri Lanka'.

 We spent two nights in Kandy upon a hill looking out over the city. We hired a driver, Mr. Mo, and he took us to various tourist spots in the area, collecting kickbacks the whole way as we bought tons of souvenirs..and good on him! Our first stop was the beautiful botanical gardens in Kandy. The gardens themselves were amazing, but on top of that, there were tons of monkeys and giants bats flying around (more crazy would have been flying monkeys...I wonder if the Wizard of Oz was actually just Sri Lanka..?) We frolicked, avoided the guano and drank tea. It was a great change from the exhaust and concrete we left behind in KL, and for Catherine, the dry, sandy desert!

Next we headed off to spend some time with elephants. Now this was a longtime tourist want for me, since we had first started traveling around S.E Asia two years ago. I had fantasized about bathing and feeding the elephants, snuggling them and leaving them with big smiles on their sweet faces. However, the places we checked out seemed to be a bit of a harsh reality (I know I can be painfully naive). The elephants, although not being abused, were very much in captivity, and it was not the 'Jungle Book' magical scene I had imagined. Nonetheless, we did get to feed and bathe sweet Nona. I left with mixed feelings, but totally glad we experienced, and as lessons are learned, next time we will seek an elephant sanctuary setting.

Next we went to a spice garden. Kandy is very well known for its spices, and we were keen to taste and buy! By the time we left, we had indulged in a name-your-own-price massage and bought several home remedies. We also left feeling inspired to learn more about herbal medicine...we can now add that to the ever growing list of future careers. Leaving the spice garden smelling of cloves and fresh vanilla beans, we ended the long day with a quick stop to a tea plantation and a seedy underground liquor store. Before leaving Kandy the next day, we made a pit-stop at the market, buying a mass order of fresh spices..but not before sampling the very best fruit we have ever tried. Seriously. The mangoes, lemon bananas, papaya! I am ruined!

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Leaving Kandy, we ventured forth on the train. The train was pretty full, and there was standing room only. We had heard that the views from the train routes throughout Sri Lanka were second to none, as they meander through tea fields and upon mountains. The rumors were true! Truly amazing vistas! We got off in a town called Hatton, and took a scenic hour long tuk tuk ride through the rolling tea fields to Dalhousie where we prepared for a hike up Adam's Peak, or Sri Pada. Depending on your beliefs, this mountain is said to be the place of Adam's (of Adam and Eve) first footprint on Earth (or Buddha's or Shiva's). Adam's Peak is a 5200-ish staircase pilgrimage up a mountain. As we made our way, huffing and puffing, we were passed by babies and elderly making the trip up the steep, steep slope totally putting us to shame. It's popular to leave at 2:00 am, to make it to the top for a 6:30am sunrise..and that's what we did. Although tough and exhausting, the sights from the top were pretty spectacular!

Adam's Peak from afar.

 

 

With no sleep, we headed back to to train station to make our way to Ella. As it was Christmas Eve, the train was packed. So packed that we held our bags above our head, my face was pressed up against the wall, all the while, a man was trying to pickpocket Ty. Oh, and it was a steam-engine train from the 1800's! After three hours, we got a seat on the floor, and rode out the rest of the trip in comfort. As I said before, the scenery was second to none and worth feeling like a sardine (don't get me wrong, a little forethought, and a first class ticket would have been the cherry on top..but where's the adventure in that?) So, after being up for 30+ hours and having our legs feel like jelly from the hike, we finally landed in Ella, where we would spend the night before Christmas!

Waking up the next morning, we reminisced about the best things about Christmas in Canada as it rained in the mountains of Sri Lanka. We suffered from about 30 minutes of pathetic fallacy, then picked ourselves up, had a massage and made plans to get to the beach for the remainder of our time in Sri Lanka! Having had our share of public transit, we opted for a private car for the trip (it was Christmas Day after all..) We made it to Unawatuna Beach and never looked back! Unawatuna was a village that was hit by the tsunami in 2004, but because it is such a loved place by tourists, bounced back really quickly. The spirit and kindness of every person we met in this village was amazing. I can see why it's so beloved.

Boxing Day spent on the beach, pizza and beer in hand!

Our final stop before leaving Sri Lanka was Galle. As we rolled into town, Sri Lanka did it once again! Another completely contrasting, equally beautiful setting. This time it was a colonial European town situated within fort walls, much like Old Quebec City, but with a tropical feel. We wondered the streets, ate the most amazing curries, and prepared to say goodbye to Sri Lanka....but not without one more crowded ride on a bus that broke down every twenty minutes.

I know I say this about every country we visit, but I can say with confidence that we will visit Sri Lanka again. It was genuine, diverse, beautiful ...and not to mention the head bobble is literally the best response to everything and anything! Try answering any question with the head bobble. Don't say a word, and see where it takes you!