After a ridiculous day in Dubai and being awake for 2 plus
days, we flew into Sri Lanka exhausted and just wanting to be lying down with
our legs straight. But once we landed
and got off of the plane, we knew we were no longer in Middle Eastern/
Mediterranean countries. We were in
South Asia! Between the colors, sights and smells, there was a mixed emotion of
home and overwhelmness (I know it isn’t a word but it’s the only one that can
works). I can’t really describe it. I
felt like this trip had really started for me.
I had visited Turkey before, even though some places were new, and I had
a sense of the country. I did not have a
sense of Sri Lanka before coming here, although it did feel familiar to
me. It reminded me a little of Malaysia
with the smells mainly. A lot of their food has similar influences and spices
and a lot of the fruit is the same.
After taking a free bus to the bus station, then another bus
into Colombo, to get yet another bus to the neighborhood we were staying in,
and then walking around for a few minutes to get our bearings and head the
guesthouse, we finally made it. Check in
took a total of three minutes before we were in our air-conditioned and fan,
beautiful room. We took turns taking
showers and sleeping. We had grandiose
plans to go sleep on the beach but that did NOT happen, we passed out in those
beds for a few hours. When we woke up we
thought we should do something so we walked to the beach. We definitely took a path different than what
our guesthouse guy told us because we were walking through a train station and
people’s backyards to get to the beach. But once we were there, the water was
warm and the view was pretty. From there
we headed towards our first meal. All of
us are pretty adventurous so we picked the place with the most locals and a
display of the food.
Our first adventure with Sri Lankan cuisine was a huge
success! For the low, low price of 3 dollars a person, we feasted on 3
different types of curry, rice, chicken pieces, roti- egg and plain, vegetables,
and a few other smaller dishes. We
didn’t know that if they put it on the table and you don’t eat it, they don’t
charge you. So even though our meal was
pretty cheap, if we stuck with the rice and curry dish, it would have been even
cheaper! It is good to eat local! We even bought breakfast that consisted of
roti and a mixture of the curry gravies.
It was amazing both times!!!
The funny part about our first experience with curry is the
entire hand-washing/eating process.
Having a father that ate curry and rice with his hands, I had picked up
the technique. Eating with my hands is
no problem, granted I might not have it completely down, but I am okay. However, the process leading up to the eating
is not something I am familiar with. I
knew they would offer you something to wash your hands but was not sure
what. On the table is a bigger bowl that
has water in it that looks like it was already used. But before we sat down at the table, there
were already cups of water on the table.
And once we were seated, the waiter brought three more cups and a
pitcher. We thought they were drinking
water. Then he brought us three bowls
that were stacked and the top dish had hot water and spoons in it. We figured we would wash our hands in the hot
water and then dump it into the big bowl.
What we now know is the cups of water are what we use originally to wash
our hands over the big bowl. And the hot water in the serving bowls is just to
show they washed them. No matter how
stupid we looked, it definitely was a wonderful eating experience!
The next two days, we had to deal with our Indian visa
stuff. It is a pain to get a visa to
that country! And we still don’t have it in our hands yet! Oh man, oh man! We ate at another local place but this had
take-away only. It was pretty good and
spicy.
Once we finished with our visa stuff, we headed inland to
Kandy. We arranged to couchsurf in Kandy
and that was a wonderful arrangement! It was not just one host but it was with
a family. Our hosts were wonderful and
we were about the 220 plus guests! Their first surfer was on December 26, 2009
and for the past two years they have hosted 220 people. They have had a person there at least once a
week. They keep a journal of the guests
and each one has to write in it. There
are four kids, all older than us and doing well for themselves. The mother, father, and the sister that lives
at home were the main hosts. They took
care of us and helped arrange for us to go to the touristy places.
One of those arrangements included setting us up with a
tuk-tuk driver. The whole time we were
in Colombo, we were taking buses everywhere we went because they are
ridiculously cheap. However, in Kandy the
bus system isn’t quite as easy so for most of our transportation needs, we walked
or took our tuk-tuk. He was great! He laughed at us a few times and there was a
bit of a language barrier but he got us around in a very fast manner. He seemed
to know everyone and always was smiling at us.
Every time we would ask him something, he would shake his head and say
ok-ok-ok. We never figured out if that
meant yes or no… but our cross culture skills worked and we saw and did
everything we planned on and more!
The best part of the couchsurfing experience for me was that
the mother taught me a few Sri Lankan dishes! I now know how to make hoppers-
egg and plain, coconut sambal, chicken curry, an eggplant curry that is to die
for, banana flower curry, and dahl- although I wasn’t able to write down the
recipe. Now all I need is to learn how to
cook rice without over or under cooking it and I would be good to go! Ha ha! It
was a wonderful experience being able to watch her in her kitchen.
The first night I learned the curry and dahl. The second night she wanted me to cook
something for her while she taught me a few more dishes. I decided I would cook a lemon chicken dish
that my mom taught me. It is really
delicious but because we weren’t using an oven, I had to tweak the recipe to
use it on the stovetop. I was very
nervous about the way it would turn out because she kept asking me if I wanted
to put other spices in there. She kept
offering curry, curry leaves, red pepper, and a few others. I felt bad having to say no because I am sure
she knows better than I do but I stuck to the recipe pretty well. She said she really liked my dish and would
make it again for her family!!! Probably one of the highest compliments I have
gotten about cooking.
We went and saw elephants the next day but I will save that
for my next blog! Such a great time and a wonderful couchsurfing experience!
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