Sri Lanka- Trains and Beaches

There is something so calming about riding on a train. I love it.  There is the rush of stress to buy the tickets, get the seats (especially because here most of them are not assigned), get your luggage up and out of the way (because we have a LOT), and settle in to the journey.  Once that train moves, all of your stress is gone and all you can do is daydream, look out the window, maybe strike up a conversation with your neighbor, and enjoy the ride. Trains relax me more than any other style of transportation.  Maybe it is because I have had a lot of great memories on trains but there is something about the slow motion of the trains and the scenic way of traveling that relaxes me.  Every time I have ridden a train, I have been going somewhere good that I want to go. Even in Armenia, it was either to Gyumri, to Yerevan, or back to my house and each time it was good. 

We took the train to and from Kandy and down to the south. The entire time I am on a train, I am daydreaming. I don’t even think about things, I just let my mind wander and see where it takes me. A lot of the times it dreams about the future and the possibility of things. Who knows where I will be in five years, this is the first time in my life I have not had a plan but I think that is ok. I don’t like that I don’t have a life goal I am working towards, but by the end of this trip I will.  Ok, no more deep thoughts; more of the now.

The beaches here are beautiful. A lot of people told us to go east because the weather would be nicer but we didn’t listen. But it has worked out. We have had rain but we have also had sunshine and blue skies. The water has been a little rough but it has been good enough to swim and catch waves.  We are staying at a place that is 3 dollars a night and has some of the best food! Tomorrow I will be taking a cooking class and will be learning a few of the curry dishes as well as a dish called devil chicken. I had it the first night we were here and it is Spicy! But it has that sweet spice that is so good and the chicken is cooked to perfection! Hopefully I can learn it well enough to cook back in America but again we will see if I can get all the spices in America.

For the past two days we have woken up to monkeys and birds, ate delicious breakfasts, walked to the beach, laid around until we were sufficiently burnt.  Then we would walk home, usually in a light rain, shower and nap or read, then have a delicious dinner while laughing about something silly before retiring to bed early.  It has been incredibly relaxing and if anyone does read this, don’t hate me too much, but it is wonderful. I promise I will cook you some delicious food to make up for the fact that this is my life right now.

Elephants and Foreigners

We saw ELEPHANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is an orphanage that is very famous called Pinwalla Elephant Orphanage.  It originally started out as an orphanage but has since expanded to a tourist hotspot and Lonely Planet doesn’t give them the highest compliment.  But we went anyways because it was a must see and I really wanted to see elephants. 

We arrived a little later than expected due to unforeseen events but we were there in time to walk the elephants down to the river.  To get there, they must cross a street, go down a block through tourist shops that have sprung up from the amount of foreigners there, and down to the river.  It was really cool to watch them, especially the babies.  Once at the river, they go in and start bathing themselves.  Because it was not that hot and it was going to rain soon, they did not splash as much.  The trainers and keepers were going around splashing them with buckets and rinsing them off. 

The cutest part was the kid elephants! They kept rolling over each other and Parksie and I were pretty sure they were going to drown one another.  One would be underwater being rolled on by a second one when a third would come running in and jump on the other two.  At one point, we thought they were trying to make a pyramid but it didn’t work out so well for them.  Needless to say, it was adorable to watch.

As you can guess there were a lot of foreigners (ourselves included) that came to watch them.  There were also school groups and local tourists that came to watch them as well.  At one point, we are standing on rocks by the river and there is a group of school children sitting on some rocks watching the elephants.  I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but in my made up scenario they were doing the same thing Parksie and I were doing- giving the elephants voices and laughing at their movements.  They were wrapped up in watching the elephants that much was for sure because there was this foreigner white woman that kept standing in front of them trying to take their picture. It was one of the more annoying things I have seen foreigners do.  They were obviously there on a field trip and she had nothing to do with them.  She just wanted a picture of a local school child…

Side note: I have taken pictures of school children from foreign countries.  HOWEVER, and this is a big however, they either have been students I have interacted with or students I have taught in some form. 

It was so frustrating to watch this and to see how obnoxious this woman was being. The children were nice enough about it but then she would take their picture, show them the picture, and say (while miming) that is you! What the hell?!?! Who does that?

After we made fun of her for a while, we walked back to our tuk-tuk driver and headed on to other temples.  It was a fun day, minus the annoying foreigner.

While I am on the subject- I am jumping ahead in my blog a little bit but it fits the title. While we are on a beach in the south, we are laying near a fancier hotel/resort.  There are a lot of foreigner couples lying on the chairs.  We were hoping to steal some wifi, but that didn’t work out but we ended up lying near them. One of the days we were there, we saw a guy cleaning around the chairs and the general area.  All of a sudden, one of the foreigners takes out his camera and takes a picture of the guy cleaning.  Maybe there is a back story to this, maybe it wasn’t the guy he was taking a picture of and it was a butterfly or something, or who knows. I sincerely hope he wasn’t taking a picture of a member of the hotel staff cleaning.

Can you imagine the slide show later? Here is the beach we were at… here is the hotel… here is our room, notice the mosquito netting… here is the food we ate… here is the tuk-tuk that took us places… oh and here is the guy that cleans the beach… I mean, seriously?!?

It was such a sneak attack picture of a guy not doing anything special. He wasn’t cleaning it a special way, he wasn’t doing anything that doesn’t happen at a resort in America, Australia, or wherever he was from. I don’t understand why he would have jumped up to take that picture, it doesn’t make sense to me.

I have taken pictures of locals working at their jobs, like at a market or fishing or driving their tuk-tuk but I have either asked for permission or it was more of the fruit stand or the car that I was taking a picture of.  I also feel that intentions are everything. If you are trying to take a picture that will capture a memory for you, then taking a picture of a fruit stand or of a guy fishing is more understandable. It is also something that is specific to the country you are in, it may show daily living, or it may show a commonality between your countries… either way, it is more respectful.  Again, this is my opinion and something (as you can tell) I feel strongly about. Don’t go to a country and take pictures of the locals if you aren’t interacting in some way with them.  Don’t be that guy.

To end this blog on a better note and to return to the elephant topic, it was a lot of fun to watch them.  On the way back to the tuk-tuk and through the tourist shops, we saw a shop that was called Elephant Dung.  Intrigued, I continued reading the sign. Basically it is a shop that takes elephant dung, cleanes and starilizes it, presses it, and makes paper.  Because elephants mostly eat grass and straw, it is just like making recycled paper.  So guess who bought elephant dung paper? Hehe.  And if you picked up some of the dung and brought it in, you would save a dollar.  So guess who saved a dollar on the paper? Not this girl, we are not there yet with our finances!

Ok-Ok-Ok- Sri Lanka- Curries, Couchsurfing, and Cooking

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!