The People of Sri Lanka

So as you can see, Sri Lanka rubbed off on us.  We really didn't blend in with the population at all there, even if we had been wearing traditional clothing.  I thought the people of Sri Lanka were some of the nicest, most welcoming people I have ever met.  The hospitality people were well . . . hospitable, of course, but the people in the markets, on the street, in the villages, and even on the water had big smiles and waves for us. 

Our tour guide Erickson is well-suited for his job.  He knew when to offer suggestions and information and then when to drive quietly and let us recover from the humidity and heat.  He was full of stories and facts and knew all the best places to take us.  He seemed well respected everywhere and we felt like we were getting all kinds of perks.  Erickson lived in Doha and worked as a house driver in the 90s.  His wife worked in the same house as a maid.  It was really nice to meet someone who spent time as a "second class citizen" in Qatar, saved the money he earned, and then went back to his home country to make a very nice life for himself and his family.  He now has two sons (one of which is in a lottery to go to the U.S. to study computer engineering) and two businesses.  He has several tour vans and drivers and has a small business of growing orchids.  I guess orchids are in demand in Sri Lanka because they use them in the most important celebrations like weddings.  I was just fascinated by this kind man Erickson.  He is a Christian, attends the Catholic church, and has a Virgin Mary attached to his dashboard for extra blessings as he drives, and boy does he need them!  He is an excellent driver, but we often wondered how we came through a tight squeeze of cars, trucks, and motorcycles without crashing.  If you are thinking of going to Sri Lanka, make sure and contact our friend Erickson. 

When we were staying in the Ahungalla area the beach was very inviting in spite of the fact that it had been ravaged by the tsunami in 2004.  But we had to REALLY want to go in order to overcome our aversion for the HIGH PRESSURE salesmen and women who would stand just outside the hotel property and then assault everyone who walked over the line.  They were relentless and so persuasive, probably because that is their living and a very poor one at that.  Abbey and Brett had a very helpful, tenacious man on the beach the first day who would not accept Brett's continuous nos.  He ended up helping them find shells and eventually found a live crab stuck in the rocks.  Brett and Abbey watched it in awe and when they were done admiring it, the man quickly caught the crab for his dinner.  The ladies in the picture below tried to become my best friend so I would buy some of their wraps or sarees.  One lady wrapped me in one before I even knew what was happening.  When they realized I couldn't be persuaded, one of the girls stood with me by the waves, admired my skirt, and asked if I had any more like it.  When I told her no, she asked if I would give her mine.  I wonder if that is their custom or if she was just being very impolite.  Another woman in the Galle area by the lighthouse tried to tell me about her poor circumstances.  Luckily Brett didn't give me many rupees for my purse so I couldn't hand over all my money.

The hotel employees were always dressed in exotic clothing and would bow to us with their palms together whenever they served us.  I guess we were paying for all that, but it certainly was nice.

The cinnamon farmer was one of the most memorable people we met.  He lived on an island in the middle of a lake and entertained river safari tourists with his demonstration of how to harvest cinnamon, make rope out of coconut husks, and make hut roofs out of coconut tree leaves.  His home was made out of the clay from the lake and his little grandson charmed us with his smiles as we passed through the home.  It was a very primitive life that they were revealing to us, and I wondered if we could even camp for a week in those conditions, but they seemed happy.  When I saw their idea of a kitchen in the house though I knew there was no way I wanted Brett to take up cinnamon farming.  The funniest part of the demonstration was when he asked Abbey to come up to the front to hold the coconut leaf roof he made he said, "Baby, come!" When she stood up there she was taller than he was.  Even though Abbey was embarrassed to be called a baby by many of the people there, we tried to explain to her that it is their way of showing respect.  It is impolite in their culture to say, "Girl, come." Baby is a term like Honey or Sweetie.

What would Martha Stewart have to say about this gormet kitchen?

While we were in Kandy we attended a cultural night and saw some beautiful dancing and impressive fire walking.  The costumes were brilliantly colored and the women so graceful.  The men were interesting - especially one guy who was Tracy Morgan's chubby Sri Lankan cousin, right down to the grin.  The male dancers had this little head bobble they did that was similar to the head bob of the Indian people when they are giving an affirmative answer.  We could see a lot of similarities to the Indian culture in Sri Lanka.  The dances featured interesting props, including the traditional masks and fire sticks.  The finale was a group of men walking on hot coals.  I can't even take the heat of the country let alone the burning coals of a fire pit on my feet!

Tracy Morgan's Sri Lankan look alike

Don't you agree?

The religious people we met were a very interesting group.  We saw many Buddist temples (too many if you ask me) and the people there were curious as we toured their everyday sanctuary.  We met a monk at the Kotdoowa Rajamaha Viharaya Temple on an island who showed us a 600 year old book written in sanscrit and his student monks.  He also gave us a blessing as he tied a string around each of our wrists.  At another temple we stopped at there was a self-appointed tour guide who insisted we see the temple through his eyes.  We politely went through the tour, but were very uncomfortable with his Buddist zeal.  You can actually see the discomfort on Abbey's face as she went through the motions of trying to appreciate Buddism.  The gentle, quiet worshippers were the ones I wanted to talk to about their faith, their beliefs.  We were told over and over that Buddist do no worship Budda, but then we watched as they prayed to him, bowed to him, knelt before him, gave water offerings to his fountain, left food and flower offerings in glass cases before his statue, etc.  It seems more than a philosophy of living when you see Buddism in action. 

After eating in the Bountiful Temple cafeteria, this doesn't quite match my image of a temple kitchen.

These cute boys are monks in training.  They often come from poor families who cannot afford to take care of them.  It is a rule that they must eat with their fingers.

My favorite people of Sri Lanka were the ones by the side of the road selling the coconuts and the five different kinds of bananas (the lemon banana is the best), the people who were bravely stacked three or four deep on a motorcycle zipping through the traffic, the people who were gathering clay from the bottom of the lake to build their home but had time to wave at us, the farmers working in their rice paddies, the people who appreciated their beautiful country and the visitors who came to see it.  Thank you to the generously friendly citizens of Sri Lanka.  You will not be forgotten.

Elephants Never Forget, But Neither Will We!

Elephants are some of the most interesting creatures.  As we traveled through the country of Sri Lanka we saw only one alongside the road being led by his owner.  Then we visited the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage near Kandy and had an up close adventure with these amazing animals.  Pinnawela is operated by the Sri Lankan government and they take in elephants that are unable to care for themselves in the wild.  They have one elephant that is blind from almost being killed by a hunter.  Another special elephant there has only three feet.  He stepped on a land mine during the Tamil Tiger rebellion.  His whole body has become misshapen because of the way he has to maneuver with only three full legs.  There is even an elephant there with a missing ear.  An overly confident leopard claimed the ear but not the life of the elephant.

A land mine victim

On the way to the orphanage our driver Erickson stopped and bought some bananas at a roadside market and told me to put them in my purse and zip it up.  At the entrance of the orphanage there were men standing around with sacks of bananas and were very insistent as they forced them into our hands.  Then they promptly charged us ten times the amount of the roadside bananas.  Erickson just rolled his eyes when he saw how weak we were when it came to the high pressure sales from the locals.  I guess the orphanage doesn't want us bringing our own bananas for the elephants so they can take advantage of the captive consumers - hence the reason Erickson asked me to zip up my purse.

We first met the elephants out at their exercise area.  We first got to feed bananas to the blind elephant and had to put them right inside his large pink mouth.  It was pretty slimy but so cool to be able to be next to such a gentle giant.  We fed the three-legged elephant and then a baby with her mother.  She was so small she was still nursing.  Abbey wanted to know all about that as we watched from six feet away.

So let's be clear:  Elephants are not soft cuddly bedtime buddies like they are portrayed in children's books.  They felt like a bristle brush attached to 8 inch thick leather.  Their personalities though are more like the fables and fairy tales advertise.  These elephants are gigantic and powerful yet they gently submit themselves to the men who must wrangle them throughout the compound.  I asked Erickson why some of them had chains around their legs or necks.  He said those were the working elephants (like the one we saw by the roadside earlier) that are used at the orphanage.  I noticed they got extra special treatment in the river as their trainers bathed them.  I guess there should be some payoffs because I wanted to break all the prodding sticks and chains they had.

After our bananas quickly ran out, Erickson presented Abbey with a special ticket that he had purchased so she could feed a baby elephant.  We walked over to a barn-type building and she waited in line to hold the most enormous baby bottle I have every seen.  Luckily she wanted my help, so I got to be up close when she tipped the bottle into the VERY hungry mouth of the grey youngster.  He was precious and downed that bottle in three seconds.  There was barely enough time for Brett to snap these pictures.

Then we left the orphanage and toured the nearby elephant poop paper factory.  And yes, they make paper from elephant dung and silly tourists like us buy it.  It is quite interesting how they wash it, dye it, and then form and dry it.  I guess every little bit of money helps the facility, so we didn't feel so foolish about our purchase.  Now some of you are wondering who the lucky person is who gets the wonderful souvenir stationery Abbey picked out.  I guess you will just have to be surprised.

Erickson led us down through the small town where shopkeepers were desperate for our business, but the only thing that interested me was the man in the turban with a cobra in a basket and a python.  Abbey snapped a picture before his partner informed everyone that we should pay for such an indulgence because that was their living.  Unfortunately the cobra was put away before the picture was taken.

We wandered down to the river and sat in the balcony of the restaurant with a bird's eye view of the upcoming attraction.  Soon we heard the commotion of the elephants being led down to the river for their regularly scheduled bath.  It was quite impressive to see so many elephants  plodding into the river and then becoming almost childlike as they washed and even played in the water. 

This is one tough handicapped elephant!

I sipped my cool drink in the very humid weather and watched the elephant drama of the day.  We saw the three-legged elephant hop into the river very carefully and then become a regular elephant with the curtain of water over his lower body.  He never did take part in the water games, but he seemed happy anyway.  I guess anyone in that large steamer trunk of a body would be happy sinking into the cool water in that sticky heat.  Abbey seemed very concerned as she noticed many of the elephants walking over to the other side of the river and climbing up the opposite bank.  She thought they were running away, but the trainers didn't seem all that worried, so we realized it was part of the routine.  The large elephant bodies couldn't get enough of the river banks and the dirt they rubbed off onto their backs and head.  It seemed a waste of a good bath to me, but their instincts are strong and keep them from unwanted sunburns and pests.

Can you see the elephant  causing some major erosion?

At one point we saw quite a mass of elephants coming down the cliff one by one on the other side.  They seemed like they were the exact elephants from one of our favorite Disney movies with their military style (a shout out to Jungle Book!).  Then just as most of the elephants were getting down to the beach one of the baby elephants stumbled and rolled down the hillside.  I have never seen elephants move as fast as that group did then.  They quickly surrounded the little guy and stayed there quite awhile.  We couldn't even see him, but we could tell that the elephant family were kissing him better and making sure he was tip top.  It was quite a sight.

The bathing lasted for quite a long time, so Brett and Abbey went down to the riverbank to get some closer pictures and see the Muslim school children who were there on a field trip.  The next thing I saw was Brett wading into the river to bathe an elephant.  Abbey was snapping photos from a safe distance and Brett had a big smile on his face when he got back.

Our next stop was a chance to have our very own elephant ride.  I think the elephant was at least ten feet tall and his name was Samria.  He was gentle but oh so TALL!  The most difficult part of the whole ride was hanging on as he was climbing down into the river.  We were glad we only asked for a 15 minute ride because . . . well . . . let's just say we were VERY saddle sore the next day.  Abbey was a little frightened at first even with me hanging on to her.  I just wished I had stretched out before climbing aboard such a wide ride.  Brett felt like a true Tarzan but didn't complain when it was all over.  With only a small signal from the trainer, Samria dipped his trunk in the water and sprayed us.  Abbey got the worst of it but had a big smile.  Then we ended our ride with a good rub down - for the elephant that is.  They gave us coconut shells and taught us how to rub Samria's back to get the coconut oil into his skin for protection.  He didn't mind our inexperienced hands at all and let us fondle his ears and trunk.  We then said good bye to the elephant crew and drove back into Kandy.

On our way back Brett and Erickson were discussing elephants and Erickson told us an almost unbelievable story.  He said that some of the local people in Sri Lanka build their huts up in the trees so they don't get destroyed by the elephants.  But then the elephants are still a problem for the rice paddies and their vegetable gardens, so the people try everything they can to keep the elephants from invading their areas.  Erickson said one man got so tired of the losing battle with the elephants that he resorted to urinating on the elephant when it was down below the family hut.  He had heard that it would keep the elephants away.  Well, it worked and the elephant left.  But apparently it is true about elephants never forgetting, because a few weeks later, the elephant came across the man as he was walking in the jungle and proceeded to kill him and then urinate on him.  I guess not only do they never forget, they hold grudges too! 

It seems like a Sri Lankan myth, but all we know for sure is that we will never forget our magical elephant experience!