The Tea Country

I don't often repeat countries I visit, but being that I was in Southern India and Sri Lanka "is so close," I thought, "why not?" Also, with the war ending somewhat recently I KNOW that it is going to be a top tourist destination and wanted to explore some places I didn't 3 years ago before it gets too crazy (seriously. Sri Lanka has been featured in at least 3 Travel magazines I have come across!). And I was right! It is a catch 22 sometimes, what I liked about Sri Lanka previously was that it was relatively untouched by tourism and authentic. But of course tourism can do wonders for local people and the local economy. So long are the days when the locals begged of me, "please tell your friends to come here." This time around I mostly had pleasant interactions BUT I did notice that there is a little more greed amongst the people and of course you always get the dishonest people ("yes, all the other hotels are full. Stay here"). And also it has gotten a lot more expensive. I think it is one of the most "expensive" of the Asian countries when you compare India and SE Asia, etc.

For some reason, like last time, what made this trip so wonderful is the people I met. I met such amazing and fun travelers! From a French Alps ski instructor to an Austrian entrepreneur to a Dutch dentist tech to a Belgium ophthalmologic and everything in between, the beauty of travel is the diverse and interesting people you meet. I can't emphasize enough how that is my favorite part of travel. Having known the country, I immediately went to one of my favorite places from before, Tangalle beach.

This area is fairly quiet and has a good mix of tourism but also local life. I stayed at place I knew from before, Mallika Guesthouse,

This family touched my heart last time because their guesthouse was destroyed by the tsunami and with the help of a very generous and altruistic Austrian, they are slowly but surely getting up on their feet again. Not like some guesthouses who I could tell are pocketing extra money, Mallika and her family work to improve and better the guesthouse. To say it was a wonderful stay with wonderful people and food would be an understatement. The days were lazy, yet eventful. Here are some pics of some of the things that kept me busy:

Going to fisherman's beach...

Watching amazing sunsets....

Eating a lot if delicious meals....

Having close encounters with wildlife...

Going on a day trip to the Dondra lighthouse,

And hanging out on the beach...

I also spent New Year's there and it was truly wonderful with lovely company and a great atmosphere. We were all just hanging out, just having finished a delicious meal,

and I heard what sounded like a fire cracker. I jumped and asked my friend, "hey, what time is it?" as I'm on holiday and hence don't have a watch. He looked at his watch, and .... there it was: 00:00! LOVE IT! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! I hope this year is as good as last one. All the best in 2011!!

After about a month only on the beach, including India and Sri Lanka, I can honestly change I was ready for a change. So I packed the bags, grabbed a tuk-tuk,

and headed to the hill country to explore some new and old areas. Below are some pics on the way.... fisherman on a lake and one of many bat trees:

With a fellow travel friend, we went to 7 places in 2 weeks, phew! One of the new places were Una Walawawe to see an elephant orphanage...

as well as the national park, where we did a 4WD jeep safari

and saw peacocks, including one flying!!! Couldn't capture it en route, but got it on the branch!! It was exciting for me because I seem to have forgotten that they can fly, hehe :-)

We saw lots of birds (Sri Lanka is particular known for its birdlife),

as well as elephants with tusks (!!),

... and a herd of elephants!

Loved it!! There is nothing like seeing animals in the wild.

Then we were off to Belihul Oya to enjoy the fresh air, beautiful mountain scenery from the balcony,

some lovely flowers,

and finally, the best for last, Sri Lanka's tallest waterfall, Bambarkanda Falls....

We also saw the whole process of making string hoppers, from beginning to finish:

Then it was off to visit, or I guess for me, re-visit, Haputale. We thought we were just going to stay 1-2 nights, and we ended up spending 4 nights there, which you can see why with these kinds of views from the bedroom:

In Haputale, we explored tea plantations where we frequently had school kids or tea workers either follow us around or call out the usual, "Alo! Where you from? Where you go?" :-)

We enjoyed some spectacular views around the town (Haptule is known for its' misty days, but on a clear day, amazing landscape),

... as well as the local life,

One day we went to Ella to climb Little Adam's Peak, which was sooo worth the fantastic panorama views and local life!

And we also managed to go to Horton Plain's National Park for the day, which although we encountered a view of mist and clouds to the infamous World's End views, we did see some wildlife like the sambar deer,

And some great views of the landscape and cool rock formations,

As well as Baker's waterfall,

Then as luck would have it, as we were leaving Horton's Plains, we came across these REALLY funny looking mustache monkeys! Normally I have a little fear of them, but these were super cute:

Also near Haputale, we saw more waterfalls, the Diyaluma Waterfall...

The day we went to the fall's we saw it was a clear day, which is a rarity in Haputale. So we decided to take a risk and quickly get on a tuk-tuk to trek up to Lipton's Seat. I had been there 3 years prior and actually hiked up, which is 7km, and after all that work came to rain, cloud, and mist. So here I was, almost exactly 3 years later, BUT fortunately enough, to a beautiful clear afternoon. This Lipton's Seat is where the Scottish tea baron Sir Thomas Lipton used to survey his ever-growing empire, and wow, I can see why he spent hours here!

These are views on the way up...

And then on top!

I have to say, that the train rides to and from places were my favorite part of this trip. It is a great way to enjoy the local life as well as gorgeous scenery:

Onward we went by trains, buses, tuk-tuks! Next stop was Badulla, a small local town where we went to a few sites like St. Mark's Church where there is a plaque commemorating the elephant hunter, Major Rogers, who was killed by lightening. Legend has it that it was the elephant's retribution to the 1500+ elephants that he killed during a 4-year period AND his actual gravestone is in Nuwara Eliya and that is cracked in half, and some believe it is the elephant gods that had lightening strike it again. Interesting stuff.

We also went to the Muthiyagana Vihara Buddhist complex in Badulla,

Although the temperatures had slowly but surely been dropping as we were making our way through the hill country, I was NOT prepared for the cold of Nuwara Eliya. Being that I am ONLY going to be in HOT climates, I literally have 1 pair of pants with me and one long sleeve shirt and my rain jacket. I bought a thin cheap fleece in Haputale but in Nuwara Eliya I bought a nice thick windproof knockoff North Face and a hat to keep me warm... which I later donated to a fellow traveller. We didn't let the cold and rain damper our spirits though and still went to Labookellie Tea Factory,

saw more waterfalls,

ate rice hoppers (yummy!),

went to Victoria Park,

and walked around and saw why they call it "Little England," with the cute colonial architecture.

It's a cute place to be, but unfortunately, the weather was bad. Which, by the way, if you listen to international news, you would hear about the severe flooding in Sri Lanka. Here is a picture of the flooding in Tangalle and then elsewhere in the hill country.

The flooding was mostly concentrated in the North and East and didn't affect us too much except for some rerouting on public transportation and some hold-ups because of construction to fix landslides. Still, there were some deaths and unfortunately, the floods were more in the Tamil area and there was controversy that they weren't getting as much aide because of that, and then the political talk starts and then I tune out (sorry, it's true!).

We then headed towards Hatton to Dalhousie to Adam's Peak via train and bus,

Adam's Peak is probably one of the most famous holy sites in Sri Lanka, BUT now I can say it is probably one of the famous tourist sites.

EVERYONE you meet always asks if you have gone there. It has been a focus of pilgrimage for over 1000 years for all the religions of Sri Lanka. It is known as Adam's Peak because supposedly it is the place where Adam first set food on earth after being cast out of heaven.

It is also known as Sri Pada, the Sacred Footprint left by the Buddha as he headed towards paradise AND it is also known as Samanalakande, Butterly Mountain, where butterflies go to die. Some beieve the huge 'footprint' crowning the peak to be that of St. Thomas, the early apostle of India, or even the Lord Shiva. Soo... as you see, it pretty much accommodates everyone and hence is soo popular. 3 years ago I did the 5200 steep step climb:

to get to the top to be in rain and cloud. We saw nothing and were disappointed as we got up at 3am so that we could see the sunrise. Nope! I wasn't at 1st sure if I was going to do it again, more out of laziness than the saying, "first time one climbs Adam's Peak they are a hero. The 2nd time, they are an idiot." BUT if you do climb it twice, you get to ring the bell on top twice. Ah ha!

So yes, I did it again. To keep my friend company and I would just die if I was actually there and of course knowing my luck if I didn't do it, she would have a fantastic sunrise. So off we went. This time we got up at 1:45 am to leave at 2am and took our time doing the 5200 steps.

It was a beautiful clear night with beautiful stars. It was actually also fairly warm. We stopped at tea shops along the way (hehe, most of them were awake, except this one!), and just took it easy.

We got there at 5:30am, plenty of time to spare and da da dum.... were lucky enough to see a beautiful sunrise! It was soo beautiful and with the combination of fatigue and being in such a spiritual place as well as hearing the drum music, it literally brought tears to my eyes. It was amazing!

Then there was the "hard" part of coming down, which we also took our time so that we could take our usual 03248932098432 pictures....

NOT like last time where we came back, showered, ate breakfast, and then left for another city, no joke, we came back at 10:30am, took hot showers, and then lied in bed all day and read and enjoyed this view from the bed:

Well, I was having some stomach issues and was just tired, but it was the 1st day we really had a day just to relax and do nothing. 20 hours in bed later, we hopped in a train to go to Kandy, which again had amazing views.

Kandy, which I had been to before, it the 2nd largest city in Sri Lanka and it has a good atmosphere of local life mixed with tourist amenities, lovely people,

and nice sunsets:

We spent a couple of days there, staying at a lovely guesthouse, taking care of errands and also doing some sightseeing stuff like the Temple of the Tooth Relic,

which houses Sri Lanka's most important Buddhist relic, a tooth of the Buddha. There is a loong and complicated history of this tooth, it has adventures in India and in other Sri Lankan cities, but loong story short is that it is back where it belongs and is safe as can be. But it is somewhat anticlimatic because you don't actually see the tooth, it is kept in a gold casket shaped like a dagoba (stupa), which contains a series of 6 dagoba caskets of different sizes. Oh well, it still is an interesting thing to see and here are some pics from within...

From Kandy I left my friend (sniff sniff) and made the long bus journey back to the beach! Yea, back to warm weather! I made the trek to Weligama, the "surfer's beach,"

pretty much so that I would be close to see the famous fisherman on a stick. These fisherman literally stand for hours on a tiny stick and I've driven by them on buses, but never really got to watch them. Too make a loong story short, I met up with some Dutch travellers and made my mission their mission of seeing the fisherman. Well, we all failed. Wah wah. We never saw them and this is far as I got... the sticks.

But not all was wasted, I got to ride with them on their motorbikes and we drove around and saw some nice birds like the Kingfisher,

and had some nice interactions with locals, like these fisherman,

and when we stopped in front of a house to take pictures, and this man came running out saying, "you want King Coconut?" Okayyyy, sure! Next thing you know he is climbing the tree to get the coconut, cuts it open, and there you have it! The Sri Lankan hospitality is truly wonderful sometimes!!!

After that I made my way back to Tangalle back to Mallika's house where I enjoyed another 5 days of being lazy, relaxing in the sun, and just hanging out with her family.

And no, the white boy in the picture is not mine (as someone has already asked me), it is my friends son. Ha ha. Again, great people there so again, I had a lovely time and got to do cool things like go to the temple with Mallika to celebrate "poya" day, or full moon day, which is a holy day and all the shops close and kids don't have school (nice! Once a month to have a day off!),

As I had already been there for about 2 weeks, they knew my favorite foods and my last lunch, they prepared my favorite mixed salad, curd and yogurt, and papadam. Yeaa!!!!

And there you have it! A month gone by like it was 2 days. Again, an adventure. I loved being with familiar faces, seeing new and old things, and I guess I am happy for Sri Lanka that it has become more touristy because it is truly a wonderful place to be because it has soo much to offer. BUT, I am VERY glad that I not only had the experiences from 3 years ago but also now.

Next stop is Bangkok where I am meeting up with a friend from Chicago! Yea!!!

Ayurveda - The Science of Life

You know it's saying something when within the 1st 5 minutes of checking into a guesthouse the owner says, "shandi shandi," or "relax" "chill out." Hmm... I guess I was a little worked up after surviving a 15-hour train ride as a single white female in India going from Vellore (Tamil Nadu) to Varkala (Kerala), a beautiful place which is known for its spectacular cliffs and nice beaches:

Well, what other way to do that than do a 21-day Ayurvedic treatment? Yup! Welcome to the"Science of Life" or Ayurveda that seeks to protect life and longevity. The idea is that we have an intrinsic order and balance, 3 doshas in our bodies: Vata (wind or air), pitta (fire) and kapha (water/earth). Supposedly, if either of those are severely out of balance, that leads to disease. So almost until the last day, I thought the whole purpose was to have them even out, but the ayurvedic doctor says that they will never even out.... it's basically just trying to restore them. So after looking at how many times I blink, how I talk, the way I walk, my mannerisms, my blood pressure, body type, the ayurvedic doctor determined I was mainly kapha, then pitta, and less vata. Based on those things, and also that I am relatively healthy without ailments, we did more or less a "Rejuvenation" package. People really seek this treatment anywhere from helping with arthritic pains to slimming, and I think that you have a specific ailment, they really do cater towards with treatment programs via medicines and/or oils. Fortunately, I don't have any of that.... yet.

Here is the resort, Krisnthatheeram, where I did my treatments and where I ate:

What most people think of Ayurvedic treatments, they think oil, oil, and more oils. And yes, they sure use a lot of oils. The last time I was in India I did 2 single Ayurvedic treatments. The 1st time it was super oily, awkward, and uncomfortable. I didn't like it at all. I decided to do another one because I figured it was probably just that treatment center which happened to be in a gym. Nope, the 2nd one was equally as oily, awkward, and uncomfortable. Why did I decide to do 21 days of it? Basically, they say, and I see it is now true, that the only time you will really benefit from it is if you do at least 2-3 weeks. Being that I had nothing really else to do these 3 weeks before xmas and I actually had some friends here that I met on the Arctic Circle trip that were also doing it, I thought it would be a nice way to treat myself.... from all the hard work of this sabbatical travel life :-)

I started with "external" cleansing... the body is prepared for 5ish days before the "internal" cleansing begins with an ayurvedic diet, oil massages and herbal steam baths.

Then comes the "internal" cleansing or "panchakarma" - internal purification. This can be done through a variety of ways, "vaman" or vomiting (really. And no, I didn't do that), "virechan" or purgation (drinking medicated butter. Yes, not the most pleasant of them all),

"vasti" or enemas (purgation through the rear-end), "nasya" or elimination of toxins through the nose, and finally "raktamoksa" which is detox of blood (leeches and other things which I DID NOT need or DID NOT do!). I had that to do that drinking purgation of "ghee," medicated liquid butter for 3 days. I survived. Then one day I took this little black pill to encourage "loose motions" and have lentils and literally rice with water all day,

then to top that off (I guess I have a dry colon, not to give too much information!) I had that "ghee" "vasti" cleansing. Ew, I know. But hey, when you do something, you got to do it all the way, huh? I have to say, I do feel "lighter" and detoxed!

So yes, between the 3 ayurvedic meals a day and 2 hour treatments, time passed quickly! Treatments was everything from them hanging on a rope and massaging me with their feet,

(Above is my therapist Biji, who literally hung onto that rope to massage me with her feet, ha ha).

to "shirodhara" or medicated oil dripped onto the forehead...

to that medicated "ghee" in my eyes, ears, and nose. And when I say I think I've had every aspect of my body, I'm not lying, from my ears to my cheeks to toes to..... yes, everything. Again, something to get used to.

Also, an important component of Ayurveda is diet, and for 3 weeks I ONLY ate vegetarian foods, no-spice, no eggs, lots of fruits and salads, and lots of curries:

Besides that, I spent the remaining time on the beach reading (I think I ended up reading 6 books!),

taking walks, doing window shopping or real shopping (hehe, things are too cheap here!),

hanging with friends I've met, lounging on the hammock,

having afternoon fruit shakes or tea, and going swimming. Tough life, I know. The 1st week I didn't feel much difference, but now I do feel my skin is clear, soft, and shiny, my hair is softer, and I think I even lost a few well-needed extra pounds (3.5 kg's!) I gained from all the meat eating in Serbia.... and carb eating in Ghana, etc.

As you see, life has slowed down a lot for me, so I was majorly entertained by the fisherman action. I never realized how much work it is, and it was really interesting to see them... and hear them. I have some cool videos of them shouting at each other but for now hopefully the pictures will do:

I also went to a famous Keralan traditional temple dance drama called "Karthakali." Back in the day, these performances would last at least 5-7 hours. Of course now that it is a tourist thing and there is no way people would sit for that long, it is condensed to 3 hours... 1/2 of which is the make-up and preparation. That was super interesting to see and I can't believe that every night they spend at least 2 hours of make-up and prep. The show was actually very short and had, umm... let's just say interesting plots:

"Nakrathundi and Jayantha: Nakrathundi was a servant of an Asura King Narakasura. She is a demoness. She went of Devaloka the abode of Devas to capture maidens to give the king Narakasura. On the way she saw Jayantha the son of Indra. She fell in love with Jayantha and wanted to marry him. To fulfill her desire she assumed the form of a beautiful girl and asked him to marry her. He drove her away. She got angry and assumed her real form. There was a fight between them. In the flight Jayantha cuts off her nose, ears and part of her body...." and some other stuff added to that that made somewhat sense. Here are some pics from the performance:

So yes, the drama was actually done without speaking and using facial and hand gestures which were... fairly easy to understand. I really liked it, something different and again, I was just flabbergasted on the make-up and costume dressing that goes into it!

(The above is them putting this ointment in the eyes that literally make the eyes turn red. It actually looked like it hurt, although he claimed it didn't. They also made a joke that often Indian students will get this to put in their eyes and claim they have red eye to get out of class. Those Indians, always up to something!!).

Now.... it is almost Xmas time, and I probably wouldn't have known it if I wasn't getting emails asking me where I will be for Xmas. Here there is no xmas music, no gawdy green and red ornaments, no trees, nothing. There is a part of me that enjoys being away from it all, BUT I have to admit I do kinda miss catchy xmas tunes. I will be spending the next month in Sri Lanka... mostly in Tangalle to meet some friends I met the last time I was here and then may do some mini travels from there. Now beings the R&R phase of my travels... beach, beach, and more beach!!! And sunsets, sunsets and more sunsets (I'm obsessed, I know!)

Sooo... I'm sending off 2010 happy, relaxed, rejuvenated and energized, a few pounds lighter,

and want to wish you all MERRY XMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! I welcome 2011 with open arms!