And What An Adventure

I am in my hotel room with long leggings and a big turtle neck sweater, chilled. I am in Sri Lanka, off the south east tip of India and it is 16'C!
Reality Check.

And yet this whole trip needs reality checks. We are in very definitely a third world country and yet the last two days have been a time warp back to Edwardian/Victorian England.

Let me explain.

We flew to Colombo, a 3 1/2 hour flight east, and a bit south of Singapore. Colombo is a city of under a million, very spread out. We were met by a driver (the ONLY way to go). The drive in, 45 minutes, passed poverty I have never seen before. People sleeping on the sidewalk, no blanket, no possessions. Tin shacks. Shanty alleyways.

Then to the beach, and in a circular driveway to our hotel, which might as well have been on another planet. A gorgeous hotel, like what I imagine colonial India was. Uniformed doormen, sari dressed women,  huge floral arrangements in the lobby. Our room was lovely, the hotel played classical music in the elevators, huge brownie points from me, and security at each elevator on each floor!

We booked a tour with a driver /guide to see Colomba, the museum, much of Buddhism (about which I had just attended a lecture a few days ago in Singapore- talk about reinforcing the lecture), To a beautiful Buddhist temple, where I fed an elephant. No not very temple has a resident elephant. We went to the Dutch museum, very small, but it did show us of the Dutch colonialism, before the British. We went to the National museum, and learned a great deal about this country of which we knew so little. Like why is it not more Hindu given it's proximity to India? Buddhism was in India before Hinduism, and was here before Hindus. The country is 65% Buddhist, 15% or so Protestant, Catholic, and Hindu.

We met a pilot friend for the evening, and he took us to this wonderful 200 year OLD hotel, Mount Lavinia, on the beach around the bay, looking across at the downtown skyline of Colombo. We had seafood on the beach of the Indian Ocean (when I was in Perth I had a meal on the other side of the Indian Ocean)

We then the next day, had a driver to drive us up in to the tea plantations. We are staying in two different old mansions from the colonial days of the Brits and the tea trade.

The drive here was beyond description. But I'll try. Sri Lankans either straddle the centre line, or pass where there is no passing lane. Our driver was going 70 k's through the crowded main streets of towns, no curbs, filled with pedestrians and kids, and motorbikes, and big trucks, and way too many of anything and everything. He was very good about not passing when a solid line, but only because the police sit at the end of solid lines, picking off all those who show no whit of attention to any road rules. Many times we would be passing, in the oncoming lane, with a truck passing another truck coming at us. Somehow it works, most of the time. But we have taken to noting the number of auto body shops, and the scraped fenders, front and back, of pretty well all trucks, busses and cars.

We stopped at a roadside stand to buy a pineapple. So fresh, and he cut it up, and gave us salt and chili powder to put on. We chose unadulterated but our driver relished the salt and chili.

We saw what are called pillow trees, they grow white puffs, and the puffs are used for stuffing pillows. When they are slept on, the next morning they puff up to their original .... Puff.

We stopped at an elephant preserve. Elephants really are cute. One ton of cute. Hairy, bristling, huge eyelashes, and brown eyes cute. Very trainable, but I did notice the honker chains around the ankle of each elephant.

We saw many country houses/shacks, with barbed wire fencing. To keep out the wild boars who make havoc.

We drove to Nuwara Eliya. At 5000' feet, where they grow tea. Huge plantations. Did a tour. How they grade the leaves, sort them, dry them (1hour) then that is white and green tea. Fermenting the leaves makes black tea, which has caffeine because of the fermenting!

We stayed one night at The Hill Club, a hotel that was a private English hunting and fishing club. Still very British. When we went to bed, they had turned down the sheets and put in a hot water bottle! That stayed warm until the morning! All sorts of photos of leopards. Why? Because the jungle we saw STILL has wild leopards.

We moved to another baronial home turned hotel. Very English, very charming, a little tired, but charming. Tim had afternoon tea. I had an Elephant Kiss, some boosey cocktail. We now loll in the room hoping we will feel some hunger before it is bed time.

It is cold here. Like fall at home or very English. Wet, some rain, much fog clinging to the tops of the hills. It is gorgeous. The camera can not capture the wonderful mood here. We stopped in Colombo to visit a store to go to their Winter Department, to buy some polar fleece for these hills. With all our clothes stored in Canada, no warm clothes in Singapore, so we had to get something for this damp foggy weather.

Tomorrow we have a 6 hour drive to the south west coast of Sri Lanka to what is said to be one of the ten best beaches in the WORLD!!! I'll let you know!