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.