Voluntary Work: Volunteering in Chovar, near Kathmandu, Nepal

We have heard from our friend Sanju at Quest Volunteers that they desperately need people to continue the restoration and refurbishment of the school building that Rob started when we were in Chovar.  Quest has the usual placements at orphanages, monasteries and schools teaching English  - but also runs environmental awareness and community volunteering projects, something a little different.....and a bit more active.   Even if you have just 2 weeks to offer - you will get Nepalese language lessons, live with a Nepali family and make a real contribution to the community.  While you are waiting to climb Mt. Everest, paraglide in Pokhara, whitewater raft down the Seti or Trisuli River or bathe with elephants in Chitwan, why not offer just a bit of time helping to give this school a new lease of life? The kids would be so happy if they could again use their computer room and science lab - ruined by rain coming through the roof.  Rob has repaired the holes in the roof and a group of friends have begun replastering the walls - they need someone who can use a hammer to replace floorboards, someone handy with a paintbrush - and/or anyone willing to learn.
They are also planning a fundraising trek to Everest Base Camp in May 2013 - sounds like a lot of fun....
Contact Salve or Sanju at Quest (shakyasapta@yahoo.com  or questvolunteer@wlink.com.np or questvolunteer.adv@gmail.com.
 

Day 115 - Home: Colombo, Sri Lanka to Kent, UK

Day 115 - His.

Some things are truly amazing. One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is how you can wake up in one country and go to bed in another 5,000-ish miles away. That will be today. After 114 days of travelling around Asia via boat, truck, bus, train, plane and elephant we are due home today.

We got up relatively late - after all, the airport is only 15 minutes away and had a slow breakfast. This wasn't necessarily planned - really just a product of Sri Lankan service. In order to get dinner on time you have to order 45 minutes to an hour before. If you don't want dinner before 10 O'clock then by all means wander into a restaurant at 7 and order a la carte. It seems the same mentality runs to breakfast and it makes you wonder if they have to plant the tree, wait for it to grow and fruit before you get your orange juice. Truly - it takes ages. Still by 10 we were in our taxi and heading off.

Our plane ride was a gruelling 12 hour session cramped between a fat man and a screaming child as we did our leg exercises to prevent DVT (as described in our in flight magazine) and waited until we got to England. Thankfully Sri Lankan Air is one of the better airlines we have used so we arrived gritty, tired and unprepared for the cold instead of gritty, tired and miserable. Long distance travel is both a curse and wonder of the modern age.

Steve, our friend - who is, himself, a wonder of the modern age - was bobbing about waiting to pick us up and whisk us to the safe bosom of our home. Steve is a slightly amazing character. For the drive home he had brought food and drinks and chatted happily as we drove back - and when we got back we found he had had the house cleaned, bought food and milk and bread for us. He poured Patti a glass of wine and me a beer. What we all really need are friends like Steve. We had imagined arriving home, dumping off our stuff and grabbing some shut eye before the mammoth task of getting back into the daily grind - but thanks to Steve the house was actually cleaner than it had been when we left! God bless him.

Still we are back home now and we had been in the door for 30 minutes when I caught Patti on the computer.

'What are you doing?' I asked. 'It's time for bed.'

'Just looking at Antarctica,' she replied.

'Antarctica?'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'For our next trip, of course.'

So watch this space!

Day 114 Colombo, Sri Lanka

Day 114 – His.

Well, our last day. We got up at 6:30 – oddly enough as we didn’t have that much to do. The main thing is transferring to our new hotel – which is 15 minutes to the airport. But for some strange reason we were both just awake. We went for breakfast and met with the rest of our group to say our goodbyes. It was hugs all round and lots of we must keep in touch. It was all very sweet and a little glum. We than packed and went to wait for the taxi we had asked for at half ten. We waited, and we waited and we waited - by half eleven it turned up. We only had to say good bye three more times which is a little less than I thought it might be, so it wasn’t too bad.

The drive over to the hotel took an hour and a half – so on the whole I am quite glad we decided to do this today as if we had left it until tomorrow I know I would have been stressing. The Hotel we are staying in is the same as the one we stayed in when we first arrived and it hasn’t changed much.

The big challenges for today are to go for swim, have a final curry and repack our bags. About the only essential one is the bag repacking as several people have told us that England has a temperature of 10 degrees in the day and five at night. Normally I wouldn’t worry about such things – but, after living at 35 degrees in the day and 30 in the evening i am finding I start shivering at around 20 so I had to dig out some long trousers, fleece and my down jacket in preparation for arriving home.

It is going to be so weird being cold!

Day 114 – Hers.

The taxi ride between the hotels did seem to take forever – but I preferred to think of it as one last sightseeing tour.  We saw the stupas, temples, mosques and churches we had seen yesterday and Galle Face where we had dinner last night.  We drove around the harbour – and the building site for its expansion.  We drove through the northern suburbs we saw on our first full day here – now appreciating considerably more the mix of cultures and how the locals live their lives.   In some ways it will be a shame when the highway is completed, bypassing all the sights – but I’m sure it will be much quicker and less stressful for those with a plane to catch.

The hotel had the big fluffy towels and huge range of toiletries that I remembered – as well as the inordinately large staff anticipating any perceived need or desire.  The suite is large enough for both of us to completely empty our packs – a bit of a necessity, really. As Rob said, we had to dig out the cold weather gear; I also had to cushion a number of purchases that I don’t want crushed or broken on the way home – I really should have thought a bit more about that when buying things.....

We went for a short walk and then I went for a swim (Rob had packed his swimsuit at the bottom, so watched a silly film instead.  “Well, it’s been four months since I’ve seen a film,” he said, making me think his packing order was deliberate....), a long shower (I didn’t want to waste all those toiletries.) and we went out to the lounge for a drink and dinner – our last Sri Lankan rice with curry (I’ll try to make it at home, but I’m really not convinced I’ll find all the ingredients.) – and a strange dessert called ‘Watalappan’ that defies description  really, but had coconut and ginger in it definitely....

There was a large evening party at the hotel - so we retired to our room to watch another film and (hopefully) get a last good night’s sleep before our long flight home.

Day 113 Ahangama to Colombo, Sri Lanka

Day 113 – Hers.

A walk on the beach and breakfast overlooking the crashing waves began the day.  We loaded up the Gecko bus for the last time and set off for Colombo.  We dropped off one member of the group in another coastal village where he was to meet his girlfriend for another four days of sun and sea.  His girlfriend has been volunteering with Habitation for Humanity, building houses for poor families – similar to the project Rob worked on in Guatemala on our last big trip. 

We took the highway to Colombo – it was well-paved and quick, only about an hour to the outskirts of the city.  The Sri Lankans we have met are proud of their government – there is free health care and education for everyone – and money that was being spent on the civil war is now being used to build the country’s infrastructure.  According to Deva, the people of Colombo have ambitions to turn their city into a success modelled on Singapore.  They are already expanding the harbour and building a second international airport – and skyscrapers are being built right, left and centre.  We saw the brand new performing arts centre, the national library, a good selection of beautiful temples, churches and mosques, several large hotels and shopping malls, and a wide variety of sport facilities as we drove around the city.

Colombo is green, attractive – and very clean.  Many of the government offices – including the new parliament building – are located in a large parkland suburb outside the commercial capital, surrounded by a lake and a wildlife sanctuary.  The colonial-style buildings in the centre and the Cinnamon Gardens areas give the city something of a southern European or South American feel.  There are still some obviously older and poorer neighbourhoods – but even these are, for the most part, well maintained.  The traffic is far worse here than anywhere else in the country – but nothing like we have experienced in most Asian cities we have visited. 

We stopped at ‘Food City’ (a very Western-style supermarket) to use their loo and buy snacks – and then at our favourite ‘P&S’ for a takeaway lunch of samosas and pasties. Our hotel is located several kilometres south of the centre of the city – so we munched on our purchases as we drove, arriving at around 2:00 and bidding a very fond farewell to our terrific driver and his very able assistant.  The hotel is nice, if a bit out of the way.  It has a restaurant, swimming pool and good wifi connection – even so, most of the group just collapsed into their beds for the afternoon..... a few have tummy problems, a few are flying out ridiculously early tomorrow – and a few just felt like chilling in the air conditioning!

Day 113 – His.

Now we are back from the mountains it is sweaty and hot. So, chilling in the air conditioning is a good way of putting it. We were going to use the hotel swimming pool but it is closed until December the 1^st – so that didn’t happen. What did happen was we grabbed a local bus (a bit of a disco theme here with flashing coloured lights around images of the Buddha at the front and partytime Baile music all the way) into town  and walked along the Galle Face – an area of Colombo just below the port and right by the sea. It is one of the high rent areas and has the Hilton at the top of it. Along the promenade is a whole clutch of little huts that set themselves up as restaurants by throwing a few plastic chairs around and barbequing as much chicken as they can sell. The meal was tasty, hot and filling and absurdly cheap. Our guide, bless him, paid for our bus tickets and helped us order – he is a real sweetheart. After dinner we strolled along the sea front into town and saw the lighthouse and stupa by night – they were all lit up and quite charming. Then we caught the bus back to the hotel. Of course people are unwilling to let the holiday end – this mostly because they are such a great group of people – so we wandered off to a local market to buy ice cream. Tomorrow is our last day here and I will be most sad to leave.

Day 112 Ahangama and Galle, Sri Lanka

Day 112 – Hers.

Our hotel is fantastically clean, quiet and comfortable and we were allowed a lie-in this morning – breakfast wasn’t until 8:30 – so I had a brilliant night’s sleep and didn’t want to get up even then.....  By the time we emerged, several members of our group had already had a swim, a walk, a run....this is truly a lovely, relaxing way to end our travels.

We boarded the bus at 9:00 and were taken to a sea turtle conservation project.   The centre is located on one of the main stretches of beach frequented by turtles for laying their eggs.  They ‘rescue’ any eggs laid during the night before the locals can dig them up – or pay a higher price than the food market – and then rebury them inside the compound.  After two months, when the eggs have hatched and another 5 days for their shells to harden on the underside, the turtles are released on the beach to crawl down to the sea and swim away.  The project has been going for 21 years – and as it takes a sea turtle 30 years to reach maturity, they have another nine years to wait before the first returnees.  It is quite an important project globally – there are seven types of sea turtles in the world and Sri Lanka has five of them.

The centre also provides an A&E hospital for injured turtles, reintroducing them to the wild once they have recovered.  One large turtle currently in residence has an amputated front fin (“Ooooh – a paralympic turtle,” said the vivacious English medical practice manager, with the quote of the day....) but will still be released when he has put on enough weight to be able to dive.

We then drove on to Galle, a World Heritage fort site and clearly a major holiday destination of the not far distant future.  The number of construction and restoration projects underway in this amazingly well-preserved colonial fort city was quite astounding.  The shopping is already better than any of the places we have visited; there are also already quite a few lovely cafes and restaurants – and the vibe is very like Antigua in Guatemala – a great place for a holiday – or investment.... We spent half an hour in one cafe talking to a local about the opportunities for foreign investors.  There are no restrictions on foreigners buying property – and no residency requirements, very unusual in such a desirable place.  We saw the international cricket ground – where New Zealand would be playing Sri Lanka today if they hadn’t lost the test match in 3 days....(The Aussie cricket fans were sorry to have missed it but not surprised at the result) and the colourful markets and large commercial area in the city outside the fort walls.   Rob suddenly announced that he would be quite happy living here – quite an admission given the heat and humidity......

After 3 ½ hours of cafes, shopping and strolling along the walls of the fort, we returned to the hotel along the coastal road – noticing again the remnants of buildings destroyed in the tsunami. Deva told us of several people he knew who were killed.  Apparently, it was a Full Moon Day (a holiday) in Sri Lanka – and hundreds of thousands of people had headed for the beach for picnics and outings.  The train that was washed away (with worldwide media coverage) was on a bit of track just down the road from here – 1,200 people were on that train and only one boy survived.  In addition to the 40-50,000 fatalities, over 2 million people in Sri Lanka lost their homes.  Deva told us that even though the civil war was still going on, the whole country pitched in to provide food and emergency aid to all of the affected areas – perhaps that was even the beginning of the reconciliation.....

We have noticed as we have travelled around that there are distinct ethnic/religious groups in different areas.  The Hindu Tamils live mainly in the northeast – which is still largely undeveloped for tourists as there are many landmines to be cleared – or in villages strewn amongst the tea plantations (though many of these are actually Indian Tamils who have immigrated).  The south coast has a large Muslim population and the southeast and east coast have many Christians – a legacy of the Portuguese and Dutch colonial settlements.  The Sinhalese majority, though, is largely Buddhist – and pure white stupas dot the countryside even here.

We arrived back at the hotel at around 2:00 and swam, napped, read – generally chilled – for the rest of the afternoon.  Truly a wonderful end to a wonderful trip – okay, not quite the end....we still have Colombo to go....

Day 112 – His.

 So this isn’t quite the end of the trip as we still have another day to go but people are starting to leave. One of the guys has arranged to meet his girlfriend in Galle so won’t be coming to Colombo with us and several of the others have flights out mid afternoon to early evening tomorrow. So, we decided to have the traditional last night meal tonight instead of tomorrow. It was a lot of fun and Deva pulled out the stops by hiring a DJ and we danced into the wee hours (that's 10pm in Sri Lanka....). As Patti said a great ending.

Day 111 - Ella to Ahangama, Sri Lanka

Day 111 – His.

Mostly, Today was destined to be a travel day. We had to drop down from the mountains right to the coast and six hours was the estimated travel time and it took about that. Then bear in mind we didn’t sit on the bus for that long. I think I have said before Gecko is quite good at handling these long travel days. What they do is split them up into little bits and give us interesting things to do after an hour or so of sitting on the bus. We started off by going to see the gap of Ella. The gap of Ella is the valley and the view from the top down to the plains is pretty awe inspiring. We clambered back aboard the bus and set off. Five minutes later we turned around and went back. We had left one of our group behind. Not deliberately I might add.  After we had picked him up we set off again and headed down a winding road to the falls of Rawana. Yet another magnificent water fall. The problem with water falls and Sri Lanka is that the place is just littered with glorious waterfalls. We stopped awed and ahhed and photographed and were assailed by trinket sellers who were flogging bits of rock. The bits of rock they collected in the mountain and included a huge piece of amethyst quartz -  a thing I had never seen – so I bought a lump for 50p. Their other offerings I had already picked up off the trail when we did the hike through the mountains the day before yesterday.

The next two hours were basically a winding climb down the mountain and dash along a highway to lunch as we regaled with stories of wedding customs, funeral rites and birth customs by our guide. So what was destined to be a dull experience was actually pretty interesting.

Lunch was at the Sri Lankan version of Greggs the bakers. There is a style of eating here called short eats. At first I thought this was a joke but it is for real. You ask for short eats and they bring out a plate of various pasties, rolls, sandwiches and local Sri Lankan delicacies. You eat as much as you want and only pay for what you have eaten. So we sat by the beach on little trestle tables and drank coffee and ate pasties and baked in the hot sun. The temperature difference is astounding. In the mountains we had been fairly chilly but here – everyone was begging for Ice cream.

The section of the coastline is the one that was hit by a tsunami a few years ago in which 40,000 people lost their lives and the remnants of the destruction were all around us as we drove on to our hotel. Smashed houses and cars upside down were in evidence everywhere. There was a memorial put up for the 1,700 people who were killed in a train that was washed away.

We finally arrived at three and the hotel is actually on the beach. It is brand new and pristine and what everybody would think a hotel by the beach should be. The sea is warm, the beach slopes gradually, the waves are high enough to have fun in but not high enough to scare you, palm trees line the edges, there is a pool, a bar, a huge public area with no walls and a roof. If you were to think of your perfect hotel the chances are it would look like this place.

We dumped our stuff in our room and the boys went off to play cricket on the beach with the hotel staff and the girls went into town. Patti and I changed into our bathing gear and went for a walk along the beach to see the stilt fishermen. The stilt fishermen are this bunch of crazy guys who have sunk poles into the sea bed about 50-100m from the beach. They swim out and as far as I can see spend the rest of the day sitting on top of their poles fishing. My guess is they are not the greatest of conversationalists. Still, it was fascinating to see. We then strolled back and went for a swim in the sea. People like to swim in the sea but on the whole I don’t. In my experience, most of the time, it is cold, the water is dirty and your feet get hurt on the rocks. But here the water is as warm as a bath, crystal clear and the soft sand extends for ages. We spent a while being rolled backwards and forwards by the waves until moving ourselves up to the beach hotel for a few lengths in the pool, then back for a shower. All in all a great place to end up in for the last couple of days.

 Day 111 – Hers.

Dinner was again a very jolly affair.  I had been craving pizza ever since one member of the group had one for lunch the other day – and the restaurant at our hotel offered a vegetarian pizza with mushrooms, aubergine and chilis....just my sort of thing.  It seems that most of us have tired of the Sri Lankan rice with curry dishes – I saw spaghetti, garlic prawns, fried fish, chips, salads....pretty much everything except rice with curry on our table. 

The restaurant also had a strolling guitarist who played a selection of old favourites from John Denver, Westlife, Ricky Martin, the Beatles – oh, and the la la la la la song we sang on the bus earlier in the week.  We all sang along and Dewa gave him a generous tip from our quickly dwindling tip kitty.

We ate, chatted, laughed and sang – even when the thunderstorm briefly cut out all the lights – until 9:30 and time for bed..... quite late by Sri Lankan standards.

 

Day 110 Belihul Oya, Haputale, Ella (Sri Lanka)

Day 110 – Hers.

I couldn’t stand tossing and turning to the thunder of the river rapids anymore, so got up at 6 and sat on the balcony watching the wildlife and the locals going about their early morning chores.  I managed to see a yellow bulbit – one of the birds we were looking for yesterday – winging its way down stream and several of the brightly coloured dragonflies that we have become so used to.  We breakfasted at 8:00 and then went on a short nature walk – just an hour and a half through the village and paddy fields – to work out any remaining stiffness from yesterday’s marathon.  We saw trees of breadfruit and jackfruit, that little plant –mimosa?- that closes its leaves when you touch it and a huge ironwood tree, as well as villagers working in the terraced paddy fields, all greeting us as we walked by.  We had been warned that the walk could be muddy – but the only one who actually fell into the mud was, of course, our accident prone Aussie friend....

An hour to shower and pack and an hour on the bus to Haputale where we bought delicious samosas from a street vendor and boarded the goods train – yes, goods train (with two old passenger carriages at the end) – for Ella.  Deva told us that in the nine years he has been leading this tour, the train has never been on time – but today it was.......though in order to make up for this unprecedented occurrence, it waited 20 minutes in the station before it left.   We bumped along on wooden benches, surrounded by Sri Lankan families on outings and a few other tourists, through beautiful mountain scenery.  (Several of the crazier members of the group – Rob included – hung out of the open doors for part of the journey....but I’ll let him tell you about that.)  I sat next to a young Taiwanese woman who told me that the countryside was very similar to that of Taiwan.  We compared travel experiences of China, Cambodia and Sri Lanka – and then made faces at the little Sri Lankan baby sitting with his father opposite us, making him laugh – and chatted with another Sri Lankan family, telling them that they must be proud of their beautiful and friendly country.

Day 110 – His.

 

The train we got had no doors and no windows and we were allowed to hang off the carriage as it sped along. It was so cool and there was no way they would let you do such a thing in the UK. Health and safety gone mad! The passenger car was an after thought tagged onto the bi-daily gods train that chugs its way through the mountain country here and it rarely gets over 30kmph, So, lots of fun and very little danger though i did feel a bit like one of those dogs you see with its head out of a car window and its tongue lolling out. The journey took an hour and a half and I wouldn’t have missed for the world.

 

Ella is a tiny tourist stop famous for its views of the surrounding mountains and spectacular waterfalls – neither of which we saw as it was just too foggy. The chill night will certainly help us sleep – so, silver linings and clouds!

Pretty much all we did here was arrive at our hotel, play cricket and go out for dinner. The group we are with though is composed of excellent characters – so even such simple things turn out to be fun – How true it is that these kind of holidays are made of three things – the place, the local guide and the group one is with. We have only spent a few days with these guys but I think we are going to miss them – so unlike the drunks of the last part of the last trip.

Day 109 - Horton Plains National Park, World's End, Baker's Falls, Belihul Oya (Sri Lanka)

Day 109 – His

So, we got up at 5 and were in the bus by half past. Not many people were talking. We had been provided with a cup of coffee and a packed breakfast and a packed lunch. Neither of which our young Texan friend wanted so we ended up with 6 packed meals. Quite a lot to put in a day bag and lug around with you all day – but it turned out handy as we had breakfast, lunch and dinner out of the whole lot- though we did end up having to eat more boiled eggs and oranges than are good for you.

We had two walks planned – the first was clearly on everyone’s itinerary and included the little world’s end, the world’s end and the baker falls. The path around was 9 km and it was filled with tourists of all shapes, description and nationalities.

The world’s ends turned out to be cliffs and pretty impressive they were too. One was a couple of hundred meters high and the other was 600 meters high – ish. The view was magnificent and the surrounding countryside beautiful.

The next walk was 16km through the local tea plantations from the mountain tops down into the valley where our next hotel was waiting. Again a beautiful walk with the ground strewn with rose quartz and crystals our guide kept pointing out to us. I picked up a few as we struggled along the precipitous path that descended so quickly our knees were aching by the end of it. It took four hours to complete and by the end of it our young Texan friend was whining at every step. She had been making little moaning sounds about two hours into the walk and by three hours she was in agony. It was pretty hard but no harder than the Himalayan walks we had done previously. Though like everybody I was pretty pleased to see the  tuk tuks and the bus that were waiting to take us to the next hotel.

(Many of the others were even more pleased with the celebratory arrack cocktails provided on the bus!)

Our guide had been apologising about the state of the hotel for most of the day so we weren’t expecting much. But as we drew up the place looked most promising and they served us complimentary tea on the veranda. It wasn’t until we got to the room we realised quite how grotty it was. It is built by the side of a river – which sounds picturesque, and indeed is, but it also means it is damp, mouldy and mosquito infested. The bed smells of mould, the rooms are basic to the extreme and the nicotine stained mosquito net doesn’t bode well for a good night’s sleep. The river rapids literally thunder outside the room and Patti has to shout if she is more than three paces away – ah well we are only here for a night.

 

 

Day 109 – Hers.

Our group has been together for over a week now – and it is very interesting to see how each person’s character has emerged.  The Aussie guy we have mentioned is very playful – full of energy and always up for a laugh. On our walk he would bound up and down extra hills, like a mountain goat.  Rob, the Texan girl and I were sent by another group’s tour guide down a particularly adventurous side path to the foot of Baker’s Falls (I knew that wasn’t the way Deva had meant for us to go.....) – the young Aussie bounded down after us to tell us where the rest of the group was – and then put his head into the stream and shook himself out like some native animal.  The Aussie’s partner is a lovely girl who is 5 ½ months pregnant and still manages to keep up with him most of the time.  She wisely did not attempt the second part of the walk – most of us found it very strenuous – she was able to stretch out across 4 seats of the bus and nap for 3 hours.....  The English medical practice manager is another of the cheerleaders of the group – keeping us laughing with her witty observations and passing sweets around the bus – even to the driver whilst reminding him to keep his eyes on the road.  Another of our group, a 50 year old Aussie woman, has become known as the most accident prone.  She took several tumbles on the walk – the last one injuring her ankle – so that the ‘baby’ of the group (a 23 year old Aussie medical student) got to practice her first aid skills strapping it up.  The ‘English rose’ KPMG  auditor we’ve mentioned before, two thirtyish guys – one Australian who loves cricket and is meeting his girlfriend in Galle and one Irish computer programmer – and a lovely Irish/English woman from Norwich complete the group.  It’s a really nice balance – very jolly – and such a blessing after the curate’s egg of a group we travelled with in India.

Day 108 Kandy to Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

Day 108 – Hers.

Another terrific breakfast at the Devon Hotel in Kandy and an 8:30 departure for the hill country and tea plantations – known as ‘Little England’ apparently.  Up in the hills, on the outskirts of Kandy are a good number of hotels ‘with a view’ and many shops selling silks, batik, gems and tourist tat.  We stopped to photograph the spectacular view....I would have liked to explore the shops as well, but on we went.  I don’t know if we’ve mentioned it – but Rob’s great grandfather was born in Kandy.  His great-great grandfather was posted here with the British army.  From the hilltop, it was easy to pick out Kandy prison – what had been the barracks for the British soldiers and possibly Rob’s ancestral home?

As we climbed along a well-paved but very winding road, the scenery changed from sub-tropical to evergreen forests and terraces of tea, with the odd waterfall thrown in.  As the climate became more temperate, the vegetation began to look more familiar – we even saw a strawberry farm with a little jam factory by the roadside. 

The mood on the bus was jolly – some ‘Fanny’ sweets caused a considerable amount of hilarity and Deva led us in a Sri Lankan song (called ‘La la la la la la la’ as well as I could figure) comparing the beautiful landscape to a beautiful woman. 

We stopped at one tea plantation to photograph the women picking the tea – only two young leaves and a bud, we were told, and each field harvested every week.  A tea bush can produce good tea for 45-60 years.  Tea was introduced into Sri Lanka by the British in 1834 – it is still the country’s third most important source of income.

We stopped at a second plantation for longer.  The Mackwoods tea company has been in operation since 1841.  It produces fine specialty teas (a very special ‘gold’ tea was produced for the Queen’s jubilee) and huge amounts (literally tons and tons) of the ordinary commercial stuff that is blended to make the tea that we buy at the supermarket.  We sampled one of the specialty teas, served from an enormous pot – with a delicious piece of chocolate cake – and then toured the factory, of course finishing in the shop.  It was actually very interesting – the company is amazingly eco-friendly.  They produce all of their own power from small hydroelectric plants within the plantation area – and they have a reforestation project for areas not used for cultivation.  It was quite interesting to note that the demographics of the other tour groups at the tea plantation were noticeably different from those we have come across earlier – older and much more ‘British’......

From the tea plantation, it was only a short drive to Nuwara Eliya and its planted roundabouts, 18-hole golf course and mock-Tudor hotels.....ah, that’s why they call it ‘Little England’.  We stopped for lunch at yet another of the ‘local’ restaurants and then had a walking tour of the market (nothing English about those fruits and spices....) and the town.

We drove a few kilometres out of the town centre and around a lake to our guesthouse for tonight.  The Aussie guys joined in a local game of cricket – we just chilled (literally) in the refreshingly cool mountain air.

Day 108 – His

The guesthouse is a little basic – but no worse than some places we have stayed in and certainly better than some. After mentioning to our tour guide that we were a bit sick of having twin beds (we are married after all) he managed to get us a room with a double bed and because of that the room is huge. Some of the other guys on the tour are complaining that their rooms are little more than box rooms. Still, ours is huge and has two – yes two balconies. We are being spoilt.

It wasn’t long before we were due at a kitchen of another hotel to be given a cookery class in traditional Sri Lankan cuisine. The chef showed us how to make four dishes the details of which escape me – luckily Patti was taking notes so I paid more attention to the coconut grater than anything else. An interesting machine consisting of a lot of rotating blades- I wonder how it would perform if it were attached to a motor – scarily I imagine.  All I can tell you is that they had a lot of coconut and spices in them. The dishes he showed us how to cook were then served up to us as a buffet along with half a dozen other dishes that, in good form, he had prepared earlier. We finished dinner around nine and then went to bed – we have to be up at 5 in the morning as we are due to go hiking along the Sri Lankan mountain range for most of tomorrow. Did I mention this was supposed to be a holiday?

Day 107 - Kandy, Sri Lanka

Day 107 – His

We seem to be having something of a Buddhist holiday. So far we have been to Buddha’s birthplace, the site of his first sermon and now we have been to the great Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka. Here they keep one of the only relics of Buddha – his tooth. It was stolen from his funeral pyre by a Sri Lankan king and is a big deal round here as it is said that no true king of Sri Lanka can be king without having Buddha’s tooth. Apparently, all through Sri Lankan history several powers have vied in order to get and keep this thing – including the Indians, the Portuguese and the English. Mostly, to no avail as it is still here in a golden casket in Kandy. And this morning we went to see it. It is one of the holiest of holies as far as the Sri Lankan people are concerned and they take it very seriously. So, it was temple clothes and respectful manners as we trooped around the temple and gathered together for the drumming ceremony that hailed the opening of the inner shrine when we could view the casket. You can only view the tooth once every six years and when that time comes around – quite literally millions of people descend on Kandy – and it is a small town. Every year they cart a replica around the town on the back of an elephant in a procession consisting of 150 other elephants – it must be quite a sight. In the temple grounds there is a museum to an elephant that carried the tooth for something like 60 years. The poor beast died in 1988 and they stuffed it and built a little mausoleum to it where you can see it – which we did just prior to the opening of the inner shrine.

The Inner shrine is a small gold covered room where the faithful are able to walk past the casket and catch a glimpse - actually it was all pretty cool as we did this the drummers pounded out a rhythm in the courtyard below and as everyone was so respectful and holy it had quite an effect. After the seeing the tooth we went on to see the library and another shrine to the Buddha before collecting our shoes.

We have so far done three majorly touristy things – the first was a trip to a wood carving factory, the second was to a spice garden and the third was to a gem museum. The gem museum was today, right after the shrine of the holy tooth. I have to say this about the Sri Lankans – they give good value for money. Of course, the reason these places host so many tourists is that it is a chance to get you into the shop and stress you into buying something. In Sri Lanka, however, the ones we have been to have been interesting and informative and the gem museum was no exception. They had a model mine, a video explaining the gem mining process and a good display of cut and uncut gems, precious metals and minerals from around the world – as good as any natural history museum exhibit. Of course, the Sri Lankans are held back a little from their tourist exploitation by a culture of politeness that stops them from hassling you too much and it is quite easy to just walk through the main shop area where they want to get you to buy something. Having said that quite a few people did buy something and more often than not at £200 a pop.

After the museum we drove a short way to the botanical gardens and spent an hour or so walking round the orchid houses and fan displays of different grasses and bamboos. Botanical gardens are not really my thing and though I admire them and the work involved I am happier admiring them from afar. Still it was a pleasant walk and I am sure I would have learned something if I had listened. Unfortunately, I didn’t and spent most of the time wondering where I could get a decent coffee. As luck would have it the place for decent coffee turned out to be our next stop. After the gardens we were on ‘free time’ so Patti and I headed off for the centre of Kandy and a charming place called the White House. Sri Lanka has a surprising cake culture and very very very good bakeries litter the streets of which the White House is one of the best according to trip advisor. The cakes and snacks looked very appealing and the coffee arrived in a huge pot along with sweetened thickened milk, after which I was most happy.

Day 107 – Hers.

After our coffee (and a samosa thingy and a delicious piece of almond and chocolate tarte), we set off to explore Kandy a bit.  Kandy is a quite laid back, attractive city.  The palace, the Queen’s Hotel (the British officers’ quarters in colonial times) and the commercial district lie alongside a beautiful reservoir, framed by hills dotted with large colonial style homes, hotels and guest houses.  It is a very safe city – and it closes up early: shops at 5:30, restaurants at 8:00 and even wedding parties (there were two in our hotel today) no later than 10pm.  Restaurants do not serve alcohol – and market traders are just as happy to point you where you actually want to go as to entice you into their shops.  We wandered around the market and bought a couple of little things, then strolled along the banks of the reservoir and climbed the hill to our hotel, returning just in time to shower and get ready for our ‘cultural evening’.

The show we went to see was clearly put on only for tourists, but still very interesting.  Accompanied by a conch shell trumpet and five different traditional drums, we saw a good selection of Kandyan and low country dances – some involving elaborate costumes with masks or suits made of bells, a couple with plate spinning and gymnastics and some representing the movements of animals, particularly the cobra and the peacock.  The entire ensemble gathered on stage just before the short interval to sing the National Anthem.  It was really quite sweet.  The two acts after the interval were nothing short of spectacular.  First, two ‘artistes’ passed lit fire batons over their arms, torsos and tongues.  Then, after a prayer to the goddess Pathini, they walked over a four metre long bed of hot coals three times, throwing burning powder into the air as they walked.  (At this point, I was very glad we were up in the dress circle, not in front row seats – it looked a bit dangerous down there...)  Rob said that he would like to have a go at fire walking....hmmm.

After the show, most of the group went to a restaurant that had a good mix of Western, Chinese and Sri Lankan dishes.  I had a very interesting dish called ‘kankun’ with rice.  It was a bit like spinach, cooked in a garlic and soy-based sauce.  Rob had sweet and sour pork with chips – a bit odd, I thought, but he said he’s had more than enough rice to last him a lifetime.  A few of the younger members of our group then went to try to find a pub to have a drink. (Both of the Aussie guys had bought white linen shirts they needed to show off – our ‘rock star’ had even bought matching trousers....)  The rest of us walked back to the hotel – more or less in time to wave the last bride and groom on their way.

Day 106 - Dambulla and Kandy, Sri Lanka

Day 106 – Hers.

For some reason the alarm didn’t go off this morning – not a crisis as the monkeys had already woken me up, but a bit of a worry for the next few days.....We packed, breakfasted and climbed back aboard the bus – again in our ‘temple clothes’ for another full day.

Our first stop was a wood carving factory – beautiful furniture, statues of gods ,goddesses and, most notably, elephants plus masks, household goods, etc., etc – pretty much anything you could carve from wood. We were shown the different types of wood, the natural wood dyes and the carving process.  We then had twenty minutes to explore the shop.  As usual, I was sorely tempted.....but Rob pointed out that he could carve me nearly anything I wanted – and I wouldn’t have to carry it home – so once again I refrained from buying anything.

We then drove an hour and a half to the Dambulla cave temples – a quite spectacular series of 5 caves with well over 100 carved statues of the Buddha, some dating back over 2000 years.  The Japanese have built a giant Buddha, a golden stupa and an elaborate gatehouse/museum at the bottom of the rocky outcrop.  Tourists and pilgrims pass through this and then climb several hundred steps to the cave temples, avoiding the trinket sellers along the way.  In general, the trinket sellers are easy to avoid in Sri Lanka – usually it is merely a case of not making eye contact.  At most, a “No, thank you” seems to suffice.  Perhaps it is because they are such a polite people.

We again boarded the bus for another hour and a half to our lunch stop – yet again, a pleasant ‘local’ restaurant with rice and curry.  One of the girls, though, inadvertently ate a very hot chilli – the restaurant owner quickly brought out granulated sugar that seems to have worked to cool her mouth.... How interesting; not a remedy I had heard before!

We chatted a bit to an old lottery ticket seller outside the restaurant; he told us how much better life is in Sri Lanka since the end of thirty years of war and terrorist attacks in 2009 – if for those who haven’t won the lottery.  He asked us where we were visiting and made suggestions of other places we might like to see.  It is always really nice to get a chance to speak with local people – one of the real benefits of a ‘grassroots’ tour.

 

Day 106 – His

Our next stop was in a spice garden. I know this doesn’t sound like fun and smacks of the usual pearl factory tourist trap and to a certain extent it was. However, the guy who gave the talk was a bona fide herbalist and not a little proud of the six years he had had to spend studying his subject before he got his government license. It seems herbalists here are treated with the same respect as doctors in the west. His knowledge of his subject was encyclopaedic and he was a fascinating man to listen to. Perhaps the most astonishing thing was a herbal depilatory cream that he applied to our ever ready Australian. Well just his leg – and ten minutes later it was cleaner than a razor could have made it. It was amazing. Far better than Veet and no rash or harsh chemicals – unfortunately it was about twice the price of Veet. It did put me in mind of a series of things I have been working on using green chemistry. Green chemistry is an idea that all industrial chemical processes can be done using plant extracts rather than the industrial methods currently used. A nice idea and gaining ground. Anyhow, this seemed right down that alley – so, I listened intently.

We then headed off to Kandy. Now it is a curious world full of strange and wonderful things and it turns out that my great great grandfather was posted to Kandy when he was in the British army and that my great grandfather was born here – A tenuous link I know but still I am looking forward to Kandy. The trip here was fun. We have a great group and there is a lot of laughter on the bus and a couple of the guys have bought jelly sweets that they insist on passing round – so I have to have a few – it would be rude not to.

We pulled in to Kandy late and even now I get a sense of what my family must have seen – even though we are talking about the 1870’s here. The town has a timeless feel and of course the surrounding countryside hasn’t changed in a millennium. Kandy is a tourist destination and it is easy to see why. We are going to see more of the place tomorrow – of course, and I am looking forward to it.

Day 105 - Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

Day 105 -  His.

We are staying in a small hotel called The Village and it isn’t a patch on where we were last night though still pretty good in itself. It was a bit unfortunate that we spent such a short time at our last hotel. But as I say this one isn’t so bad. It’s arranged in a series of little chalets that are the rooms and breakfast is the usual – for here – buffet. The beds are ridiculously soft. When I got in it last night I sank into the mattress up to my ears. Soft beds can be a real curse and I slept pretty badly. But coffee and an omelette sorted that and I was ready for the morning. The morning incidentally was pretty superb. We had bikes waiting for us and the plan was to cycle round the ruins of the old town. This was a good idea.

If you are British – the idea of a medieval town conjures up an image of twisty streets and small compact buildings and quite a lot of tea shoppes. This place, though medieval, was quite different. It is a large collection of ruins that had once been covered by the jungle and rediscovered by the British who spent quite a bit of time rebuilding it – badly, and is spread out over a rather large acreage.

We started off at the southern ruins and cycled first to the Parakrama Samudra, a collection of ruined old houses with a large statue of the king, Parakramabahu. (who is some old medieval  king from the second kingdom of Sri Lanka – our guide, who is pretty knowledgeable, did tell us about it but I have forgotten – so feel free to look it up). Apparently he was a great farmer and renowned for blowing his own trumpet. Every great work done in the area was claimed by him even if he hadn’t actually had anything to do with it. After that we cycled along a large man made reservoir called the Sea of Parakramabahu. We continued onto the museum. It was a small place but well set out and a good collection of models of the city as it should have been and a fine collection of sculpture. But perhaps the most memorable thing was one of the locals who was visiting the museum at the time wanted to have his photo taken with the Aussie guy of the group. A little bemused our new Australian friend agreed and ended up just outside the main building holding hands with this stranger and posing for photos. It was something of a new experience for him and I don’t think he has quite gotten over it. The next place was called The Citadel which had the royal palace, the council chambers then the royal baths. (Also a rat with a mole-like snout at the bottom of the royal septic tank.) All pretty impressive ruins that the British had put back together – again, wrongly – one of the elephant carvings had 5 legs.

The we went to a hindu temple the Shiva Deval, a tiny place with an obvious phallus in the inner chamber that everybody wandered around nodding and saying – yes, that’s a penis. Then we went to the quadrangle a collection of administrative buildings all of which were impressive but the complex had a large stone carving called ‘the book’ which mostly was a record of the kings boasting. It was here he claimed he had built everything since time began. Oddly enough the whole area is full of puppies. There are literally hundreds of them and every time our guide squats down they come up to lick his face.

From there went up to a large stupa surrounded by shrines. Gal Vihara a large – and by large I mean large – stone carved out with 4 Buddha statues. The statues were 6 or 7 meters high and the guards were pretty serious about making sure the visitors showed due respect. Several people got yelled at for crimes ranging from using an umbrella to trying to hug one of the statues and one of the statues has a gunshot wound from some drunken British colonial who thought it was an elephant. All in all a very cool morning.

 

Day 105 – Hers.

I loved the cycle ride – especially the ride back along well-paved routes through the village and along the reservoir.  We really must get our bikes out at home more often....

There was supposed to be an optional activity this afternoon of a jeep safari into one of the national parks – but all the recent rain has meant that the grasslands and tracks are flooded and the animals don’t come out into open anyway so Deva advised that it may not be safe and it probably wouldn’t be worth the expense.  He really needn’t worry about us seeing wildlife, though – we have seen an amazing assortment in the hotel and temple grounds.  Yesterday, we saw three land monitors, a turtle, several chipmunks, a cave full of large bats and a huge variety of birds and butterflies.  I was awoken at half past 5 this morning by the males of the monkey family resident in our hotel grounds shaking a tree for the fruit that then rolled off our roof.  Several of the family then sat outside our door to have their breakfast.  The babies were a bit timid; they peeked down from the hotel rafters and scampered away when they saw me.  It seems that half past one is lunchtime because there was a repeat performance when we arrived back from our cycle ride.  One of the large males bared his teeth at Petra (a medical practice manager from Leeds who has the room next to ours) when she closed her door loudly – fancy interrupting his civilised meal.....  Two mongooses (mongeese?) also slinked across the wall behind our room and climbed a tree – I thought I might have seen a mongoose once in India...these were so close that there was absolutely no doubt at all.  We have been astounded at the number of dogs, puppies, cats and kittens that live near the temples.  One particularly friendly dog took a liking to Deva this morning, licking his legs and sitting in the middle his sand diagram as he tried to explain the history of one of the palaces.  We haven’t, thank goodness, yet seen any snakes.  There are reportedly more deaths from snakebite in Sri Lanka than in any other country.  One member of our group – an accountant with KPMG in London – is so afraid of snakes that even just seeing a picture of one causes a panic attack; I hope for her sake (and ours...) that it is one form of the local wildlife we miss altogether.

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In place of the jeep safari, we had a free afternoon.  There was a short heavy downpour, but many of the group went for a swim after it had finished and sat around the pool.  Caroline, the young Texan, also went for a run. (Apparently, she saw two snakes. So much for not having seen any.... I always knew running was bad for you....)  Rob and I decided to have a sleep when the rain began – and didn’t wake up until it was time to get ready for dinner......

We had a special ‘jungle dinner’ this evening.  We went by bus to a jungle lodge where we ate a huge feast around a campfire and were entertained by our guide, driver, his assistant and a couple of locals playing a drum – and beer bottles ‘strummed’ with rocks – and singing traditional songs.  The empty beer bottle instruments were interesting – one of the Aussie lads (the same one who was photographed holding hands with a local this morning – maybe he looks like a rock star) joined in with his own empty beer bottle – maybe he’ll start his own bottle band at home and actually become a rock star!

The meal was spectacular – traditional rice with curry, of course, but the curries were made with everything the guidebooks list as traditional Sri Lankan fare: breadfruit, okra and pumpkin, as well as the combinations we had seen previously.  We all tried the local spirit as well – it’s called arack and tastes like a very mellow whiskey.  We mixed it with cola; it was very nice indeed and ensured a jolly party and a good night’s sleep for us all.

Day 104 - Anuradhapura and Sigiriya (Lion Rock) to Polowaruwa, Sri Lanka

Day 104 – Hers.

 We were up and showered by 7 and had a truly lovely breakfast in the hotel to set us up for a full day of sightseeing.  A short bus ride delivered us at the ruins and temples of the ancient city of Anuradhapura, built in the 3rd century BC.  We saw the sacred bodhi tree, grown from a cutting of the tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment – supposedly the oldest living tree in documented history - and explored the remnants of the Brazen Palace. The area is reminiscent of Anchor Thom, the ancient city of Cambodia – though fewer of the buildings remain.  The extensive foundations and pillars bear testament to what must have been a truly magnificent city.  We visited the restored Ruwanveliseya Stupa and the seated Samadhi Buddha  - an ancient statue of the Buddha sitting in the meditation position and then had lunch at a ‘locals’ restaurant -  yet another buffet version of rice and curry, delicious as always, but again toned down for Western tastes until, that is, I added the fried red chilis....  One of the more interesting dishes this time was curried jack fruit – I had wanted to taste jack fruit; it is a bit like squash – it wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but I enjoyed it.  We finished off the meal with nut and coconut brittle – very nice indeed. 

After lunch we reboarded the bus for the short drive to the Sigiriya (Lion Rock) rock fortress. Dewa explained that King Kassapa, who had killed his father and feared retribution from his half brother, built this virtually impregnable fortress in 471AD.  We had been warned that the climb was challenging and it was indeed  - stone steps and rickety stairways clinging to the rock face rose several hundred metres to a terrace, which sits beneath enormous carved lion paws (remnants of the lion façade that once protruded from the edifice) and further climb up to the summit  - where natural springs feed an amazing hydraulic system of fountains (some still working) and pools in the water gardens at the base of the rocky outcrop.  Rob didn’t climb the spiral staircase to see the unbelievably well-preserved 1500-year-old frescoes of well-endowed women – nor the scariest staircase up to the summit.  I overcame my fears and held my breath – concentrating just on the steps and not the drop – and made it up to both....and back down without incident.

An hour and a half more on the bus brought us to Polowaruwa and our hotel for the next two nights.  We spent the evening chatting with our group over drinks and dinner – they are a great group this time, really nice people – and then scurried off to bed.  Another full day tomorrow.......

Day 103 - Pinnawela, Mihintale and Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Day 103 – His.

The main reason, it seems, for getting up at 5 in the morning was so that we could get to the elephant orphanage in time to see the herd being fed and taken for a bath. All very well in theory – but not so much fun when you are stumbling around trying to find a missing sock and the sun hasn’t even come up. Still, Patti had made me a coffee- we really are in civilisation again: the hotel rooms have kettles and the jar of coffee we have lugged all over India (the same one we bought in Nepal) has at last come in handy – so, after a coffee, and a successful hunt for the missing sock we grabbed our hotel-provided breakfast box and headed out for the bus. The breakfast was supposed to be a chicken sandwich – it turned out to be boiled egg – which is chicken in a way – and a banana. Actually it was pretty nice and I ate mine fairly soon after setting off. The idea, no doubt, is to watch the passing countryside. But, to be honest, I fell asleep.

I took only two and a half hours to get to the orphanage. Apparently, Sri Lanka has 5,600 native Asian elephants and from that number quite a few suffer some mishap and end up at the orphanage where they are looked after until they can be returned to the wild. The orphanage has a herd of some 65 elephants from new borns right the way through to one blind old elephant with enormous tusks and quite a bad temper.

We all piled off the bus and wandered around the main buildings for a bit having a look at the keepers taking care of their charges and going off to the paddock where most of the herd hangs out. To be honest I have never seen that many elephants in one place and the sheer number of them was a sight well worth seeing. Around ten the keepers march them through the town and down to the river for a bath. It is quite something to see a herd of elephants walking through a high street – they raise quite a lot of dust. The orphanage has spawned quite a little industry around it – of course – and the place in the river where they bathe has seen quite a few cafes spring up with viewing lounges where you can see the herd play in the water from the comfort of a padded chair with a nice beer and air conditioning. I have to say I preferred what we did in Chitwan where, basically, we got in the river with the elephants and rolled around with them a bit. Although awe inspiring the Sri Lankan version was a little surreal.

After the elephants we had a two hour drive to lunch. I strongly suspect that the tour has to get us from A to B and in order to do this it has a few stops every two hours or so to make the journey more enjoyable. However, they do it very well and it was certainly a fun day. So, lunch was at a little local restaurant where the main thing on offer was a ‘buffet’. Actually it was about half a dozen large clay pots of this and that that you helped yourself to. After eating all of my breakfast and half of Patti’s I wasn’t that hungry so I passed on it, though Patti tucked in and she tells me it was very good – if not spicy enough.

 

Day 103 – Hers.

Lunch was the traditional rice with curry that I have now had three times.  They had clearly toned down the spices for Westerners, but there was a little dish of the very spicy salad at the end that I mixed in to get the heat I enjoy – and another dish of very, very hot chilis that even I passed on..... A nice addition was some fried fish, served at the table. 

After lunch we drove another hour and a half to Mihintale – the birthplace of Sri Lankan Buddhism.  Apparently, the Buddha visited Sri Lanka three times in his lifetime and this was where he made an agreement with the king to spread Buddhism throughout China and Southeast Asia.  We climbed the steps to the impressive large white stupa and photographed the large Buddha statue and surrounding countryside.  We then climbed up a huge rock hill – some parts steps, some parts just indentations in the rock to a viewing platform for an even better view.  However, beautiful and impressive the vibrant, colourful, busy Hindu temples are, I prefer the quiet simplicity and serenity of the Buddhist holy sites.  Our guide, Deva, explained again how the Buddha came to be enlightened and we wandered around for nearly an hour.  As with many other temples we have seen, the wildlife provided an additional attraction.  There were scurrying chipmunks, monkeys nursing and disciplining their babies (apparently the done thing in the monkey world if junior starts to wander is to haul him back by his tail and then give him a big cuddle...) and two very odd turkey-like birds no doubt pleased that Thanksgiving is only celebrated half a world away......

Another short drive to Anuaradhapura – an ancient capital city – saw us arrive at another lovely hotel.  The standards of accommodation on this tour so far have been much more comfortable than those in Nepal or India.  Our room has a balcony overlooking a lake; we have a kettle, hair dryer, swimming pool, bar and wifi (though the wifi seems to be extremely slow and we haven’t actually managed to connect yet).

I couldn’t manage dinner after such an enormous lunch, so Rob went off on his own to join the group – he prefers the Westernised hotel food.  I am happy to wait until our next local meal tomorrow lunchtime.