Dambulla and Kandy

K at dinner in Dambulla

The drive from Colombo to Dambulla was fairly long (made longer by the fact that our driver did not take a direct route - more on this later), and we arrived shortly before dinnertime.  We passed several king coconut  farms and learned quite a bit from our driver/guide about the many uses of coconut.  Being an island, Sri Lankans prefer to import very little.  So, they try to make use of everything that grows naturally in their tropical climate.  They drink the coconut juice, get coconut milk and coconut oil (used for cooking) from the pulp.  The husks are soaked in water until they break down and are then ground up and used to make a wide variety of items.  When the government gives permission for a mature tree to be cut down, they use the trunks to create lumber.  In addition, while the trees are growing, they cut low-hanging branches off to use as fertilizer for the soil, and when they cut the tree down, they weave the leaves to create thatch for roofing and barriers (think orange construction nets).  When it's not harvesting season, they grow pineapples and sweet potatoes under the trees.

We stopped at a small restaurant on our way for snacks and the kids had fresh pineapple juice.  Of course, since this was a restaurant set up specifically for western tourists, we paid 1200 Rs for these drinks (about $10).  By comparison, our entire meal for 4 people including drinks at the British style pub the night before was only 2500 Rs.  Thus begins the extreme markup for tourists.  You will see this theme continue throughout our trip.  We arrived at our hotel - Amaya Lake - with enough time to have a quick swim before dinner.  Dinnertime in South Asia starts at 7:30, so this was a bit of a stretch for our kids who like to eat around 5:30.  In the later days of our traveling, K often asked to be put to bed (which never happens) while sitting at the dinner table.

The restaurant at Amaya Lake was totally open air with large "curtains" that could be lowered during rainstorms.  It was a beautiful setting, but the presence of wildlife was a bit shocking.  On my way back to the room after dinner, I found geckos all over the outside of our cottage (which I was expecting), and a snake hanging from the rafters hoping to catch some dinner (which I was not expecting).  In fact, we found quite a few snakes while we were visiting Amaya Lake.  I don't think we walked anywhere on the premises without seeing at least one - in the drainage ditch, hanging out in our yard, etc.  The kids thought they were great and K even started calling out, "Snake!  Where are you??" when we went walking. 

The kids and I from the top of Sigiriya

Josh selected Dambulla so we would be close for a visit to both the Rock Fortress and the Cave Temples in the area.  So, our only full day in Dambulla, we drove about 45 minutes to Sigiriya and spent about 2 hours climbing up and back down the fortress.  Cost for tourists?  $30 per person.  The view from the top was nice, and the climb wasn't too bad (don't talk to Josh about it), but we found $60 to be a bit much to pay for  the climb.  It wasn't really on par with a National Park back home - which is kind of what I'd expect if I was paying that much.  At the stopping point just prior to the final climb, we had an interesting experience with some fellow tourists.  Josh was opening up the backpack to get out some candies for the kids (I'm totally not above bribes) and I heard someone next to me saying, "Vorsicht... vorsicht!!"  He probably should have been saying, "Achtung... achtung!" since we had a monkey about to drop into our backpack from the tree above us.  We drove back to our hotel (soaked with sweat) hoping for nothing more than a quick dip in the pool and some lunch.  Lunch we got, but a rainstorm halfway through put our pool plans on hold.  Josh was surprised by a gecko climbing his leg partway through the meal (but nearly nearly as surprised as the lady who had one crawl up the inside of her pant leg during dinner later that night).  We substituted quick naps for the pool visit and woke to find the hotel workers playing an impromptu game of cricket by the lake.  

The following morning, we set off to visit the Cave Temples on our drive to Kandy.  The climb to the temples was mostly shaded, so much cooler than Sigiriya had been the previous morning.  We had another monkey incident on the way up (but really, doesn't everyone need a good monkey story??) as one came by and stole a flower that K was carrying up to give to Buddha.  She was inconsolable - maybe because the monkey was about the same size as her, and maybe just because he took her flower - the world may never know.  A passing French tourist donated a flower to the cause and all was well again in the world.  The temples were beautiful, but I was most impressed (and you're going to think this is stupid) by the guy who keeps all the shoes outside the temple.  As it's a Buddhist holy place, no shoes are allowed.  So everyone who goes in gives their shoes to this guy outside and he watches them for you (and you hope you get them back when you return).  There were probably a good 100-150 people inside when we got in there, and a steady stream coming and leaving as well, yet the man remembered who each and every pair of shoes belonged to.  I'm pretty sure I could not do that job.  

Inside one of the cave temples

View from our hotel in Kandy

We arrived in Kandy just as school was letting out for the day (around 2:00) and the roads were packed with school vans.  Our hotel was at the top of a local mountain, so we had a beautiful view!  The kids and I stuck around and relaxed while Josh headed out to watch some traditional dancing and see the Temple of the Tooth - a local "must see".  It houses one of Buddha's teeth although all you actually see is the box the tooth is inside of.  

The following morning, we set out bright and early and saw the Botanical Gardens as well as the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage, a local artisan shop, and a jewelry store.  First up were the gardens.  They were nice enough, and the entrance fee was not exorbitant, so it was a good walk for all of us.  The high point was at the far side of the gardens however where we found a bat colony that hangs out in the trees by the river.  They were seriously huge, and a bit scary.  Aren't bats supposed to sleep during the day?  These guys were a bit restless and you could catch them flying between trees every few seconds if you watched.  We decided to pass through quickly - because of the bats, but also because of the local who decided that we really wanted to see the large scorpion he was carrying around imprisoned inside a large leaf.  Thank you, no.  I had enough of scorpions when we lived in Texas, and I was fairly certain those ones would die if I stepped on them.  This one might actually take off my foot if I tried.

Trip number two for the day was the elephant orphanage where they house upwards of 50 elephants.  The kids enjoyed watching them bathe down at the river while we ate lunch, and we headed back up the street to see them in the actual park after that.  Unfortunately for us, the president was coming to feed the elephants that particular day however, so the park was a bit crowded and security was everywhere.  We stayed only for a short time and then headed back to Kandy.  Oh yeah, it was $40-50 for us to go see the elephants - again, just more than I would normally pay for something like that.

Lastly we did some shopping.  I was probably not in the right mindset to spend any more money since we were already feeling a bit overspent, and as it turns out, we did not buy anything either at the government run artisan shop (read tourist trap) or the jewelry store (also read tourist trap).  The men at the store seemed incredulous that I might find their prices to be expensive - apparently anyone who can afford to fly all the way to Sri Lanka can certain afford to pay for some jewelry.  In most cases, I would say they're probably right - we're definitely the exception to the rule.  We finished out the evening with a wonderful local-style dinner at our hotel and prepared for the long drive to Bentota the following day.

Sri Lanka - Our first travel experience

Map of Sri Lanka

Fair warning to all that I actually took notes while we were gone to make sure I didn't forget anything.  When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to travel around Europe for a short time.  My mom - in her infinite wisdom - insisted I take a journal with me.  I wrote on maybe 5 pages of the entire thing, and certainly wrote nothing of consequence.  On this trip, I happened to have a small legal pad stuffed in my purse (for the kids to doodle on when we have to wait for random things) and I filled page after page.  Perhaps it's just that my mind doesn't work nearly as well as it used to and I know if I don't write everything down, I'll forget it.  Whatever the reason, I'll make sure to pack some more paper when we leave to travel again.

First, a note on our departure.  We scheduled our trip so we had enough time to see everything we wanted and still be back in time for Josh's class to start.  Right after we bought our tickets, we were notified that there was a hartal scheduled for the day before our trip.  Shortly after, another hartal was scheduled for the day after our departure.  We were a bit anxious that we would be unable to leave as scheduled, and as the tickets and hotels were all paid for in advance, we would be out a significant amount of money (minus whatever we could recoup based on this being "official travel" for Josh).  Luckily for us, the hartal was not violent and businesses opened as usual the following day just in time for us to leave.  We managed to arrange a direct flight on Mihin Lanka Airlines, so after a short 3ish hour flight we were in Colombo.  We hit a small snag when we realized Josh's cell phone wasn't going to work, so instead, for about $10, we picked up a new sim card for my phone at the airport that worked just fine for the whole trip.  My initial impression as we drove from the airport to Colombo (about a 45 minute trip) was that the city was very clean and orderly.  Keep in mind we're coming from Dhaka, so I guess it might not be that great of a city for anyone else who is visiting, but I thought it was absolutely beautiful.

I was surprised to see that most women I saw wore western style dress - a long (knee to ankle length) skirt and some sort of blouse.  I did see some women in saris, but they were really few and far between.  Also, as I read in the airplane magazine, the traditional sari in Sri Lanka has a ruffle (I'm sure that's not the real name for it) around the waist area making it a slightly different look that the saris I see here in Dhaka.  There were nice-looking stores and the streets and sidewalks were very clean.  We drove past the port area and did some minor sight-seeing in the downtown area before heading to our hotel - the Cinnamon Grand.  Our evening there was fairly uneventful, but nice.  If I'm remembering right, there are 13 restaurants at the hotel including an English style pub in the basement which was our choice for dinner.  They have a glassed in kids playroom complete with a kiddie size pool table.  There are video game consoles and a DVD player to watch movies.  Add in the puzzles, plastic animals, trucks, and legos and you have a parent's paradise.  At least 30 uninterrupted minutes to enjoy your food.  I tried ginger beer for the first time (and definitely not the last I might add).  It's an interesting concoction that that tastes a bit like sprite with a heavy kick of ginger.  Not exactly something you can gulp down, but quite tasty.  There was a grocery store in the basement of the mall next door, so after we put the kids to bed, I headed over there to pick up some jugs of water and snacks for our trip.  Like Dhaka, the tap water is not safe to drink, although it's apparently safe enough for things like brushing your teeth and washing your dishes.

Josh had meetings the following morning at the embassy - where coincidentally enough there were protests scheduled (can't get away from those...) so the kids and I hit the pool.  They had a huge kiddie pool and K only managed to try and drown herself once, so I considered it a successful morning.  I hit up the pub again for lunch since I was solo with the kids, picked up some take-away for Josh, got all the bags packed up, and waited for Josh to get back.  We met our driver downstairs, loaded everything up and headed off to Dambulla with hopes of seeing the Rock Fortress and the Cave Temple.

Waste Not, Want Not

Little things about this country amaze me every day.  I think we, as Americans,  can all honestly admit that we "waste" a lot.  Whether we're throwing away the leftovers in the fridge that we had every intention of eating (several weeks ago) or cleaning up after a birthday and throwing away the 12 million* pieces of plastic that are used to wrap and contain every individual piece of every toy we purchase, we throw a lot of stuff away.  Living in Texas where recycling appears to be frowned upon, this was a bit distressing to me.  We had to physically bag all of our recyclables and sneak them on post since off post residents are not supposed to dispose of items on post.  We could also take them to the dump ourselves, but our community - perhaps the last in the nation - did not offer a recycling program with our garbage pickup.  Then, we moved to California where our recycling bin was probably twice the size of our trash container.  And we filled it.  Every week.  While the state of California has significant budget issues, and recycling programs are expensive, I really think they've probably got the right idea.  It might cost something to recycle items, but isn't it better to reuse something at a small fee than create something new and use up resources?  You tell me...

Anyway, then we come to Bangladesh.  There is no recycling program here.  There's also not really any sort of organized trash system here.  We have a small can outside our house, and sometime during the week, our gate guard lets in someone who picks up all of our trash, then goes through and sorts everything to figure out what could possibly be used again.  This is naturally good and bad all at the same time.  Rather than just throwing everything away, we have to be slightly careful about what goes out with the trash.

Case in point:  Recently we were picking up some fruit and vegetables at a stand.  The man bagged my oranges for me in a recycled bag.  Recycled here of course means something a bit different than it does back home.  It means they took paper from something else, glued it together to create a bag, and are now offering it to you as something to use again.  Sometimes it's newspapers, sometimes other random papers.  On this day, the bag we took home happened to be log sheets from a security firm appearing to list addresses of residences of ambassadors and their key employees.

Not that I feel like we were disposing of any sort of important papers before, but we will now be shredding just about every piece of paper that leaves our house lest I find my grocery lists and letters from home pasted together inside the next bag I pick up.


*Not an exact figure.

We Met by Accident...

While I would say that opportunities to do things with the kids is a bit limited in Dhaka, that does not mean that we don't have anything to do.  It just means that instead of 10 playgrounds to choose from, I have to pick among two or three.  And while they're not as elaborate as anything we had back in California, they're no worse than the metal playgrounds I grew up playing on - and I turned out alright, right??  So they are thoroughly enjoying their playtime so far.  The people we've met here have generously shared their toys with us (since ours are still somewhere in the Pacific - or we can hope the Indian - Ocean) and we've managed to make it to several playgroup meetings.

Josh is finding his introduction to the embassy to be interesting so far.  We attended a Hail and Farewell last night where we were introduced to the "group" at large.  Unfortunately, as tends to happen at these functions, we left knowing only one more person than we knew when we got there.  It's probably our own fault for not just "jumping in" and introducing ourselves to people, but that's not really my style.  Oh well.  The people who work here seem happy enough, although they are all quick to point out that this is considered a "gritty" assignment.  People who leave here get essentially their first pick of new duty assignment (or whatever the terminology is for the State Dept guys).

On the housing front, it's possible that we've made some headway and again, possible, that we might know something definite sooner rather than later.  Mind you, I'm not holding my breath or anything, but things look more positive this week than they did last week this time.  How's that for being positive, but totally non-committal at the same time??

Oh, and as for the title, Josh has officially had his first accident driving in Dhaka.  It didn't really amount to much - in fact, I'm not even convinced that we actually hit the guy.  He gave us lots of dirty looks, but since he already had several dents in the same door and a portion of the car had been re-attached using clear packing tape, I am a bit suspect.  We left, and I don't think he followed us, so all's well that ends well.

Things I Saw Outside My Window

This could definitely be a multiple-part entry, but it will likely be short each time I write it, so hopefully no one minds.  Today, Josh wanted to practice driving to his school.  He did pretty well and only missed one turn the entire time.  The drive allowed the kids and I to see more of the "real" Bangladesh that exists outside the diplomatic enclave.  I'd like to focus this particular group of sightings on the constant tear-down and construction here.

There was a group of men performing some road construction.  The first time we passed, they must have been on break, because all we saw was a large hole in the asphalt that went down showing layers of dirt, stone, brick, etc.  On the return trip, there was a group of 5 men each with a sledgehammer taking turns pounding a large metal spike into the asphalt to manually break it up and allow them to dig up the road.  Gives you a new appreciation for a jackhammer.

Apparently they were running some wiring for a new apartment complex because there was a man standing at the top of a 15 foot tall bamboo ladder (not an A frame one either) that was leaning against a large grouping of power lines - in the middle of a 4 lane road (that often holds way more than four lanes of traffic).  Forget about safety vests and bucket trucks.  All you really need is a ladder...

We passed countless bicycles pulling construction materials - 20 foot bamboo poles, 30 foot sections of rebar folded in half (these are then unfolded by men at the construction site by hand and banged with hammers to straighten them), and bags of concrete.  The dry concrete mix is taken to the construction sites where people carry in stones (in baskets on their heads) and sand to mix with the water to make cement for building.  Because there is such a significant shortage of small stones to use for this process, they make brand new bricks and pay people to break the bricks into tiny pieces to use as stone.  They also are very careful in the deconstruction phase and take old bricks away to break up in the same way.  The process is truly amazing.