Creative Meanderings

Our schedule was a bit lighter for this day, so we started a little later for our trip up the mountains to Nuwara Eliya.

We started with finishing our visit in Kandy by heading to the Holy Tooth Temple located near/on the palace grounds of the last Singhalese king. It also happened to be a national holiday, so there were numerous visitors to the temple – lucky us! The temple was interesting though with the inside holding a very Chinese-style temple, but then combining Hindu/Buddhist decor and methods. It was quite an experience, but somehow not as disturbing to me as some of my trips to Japanese temples.

Sri Lanka – Kandy's Holy Tooth Temple17-Jun-2010 21:25, 6.6, 6.3mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100

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17-Jun-2010 21:34, 3.3, 6.3mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

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17-Jun-2010 21:39, 3.6, 9.4mm, 0.1 sec, ISO 200

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From there we stopped at the botanical garden, which was lovely. Sadly my camera battery died in the temple, so I was left to take photos with my iPhone, which did a decent job, but wasn’t the same. It didn’t seem to be high flowering season, but it was nice to see so much lush green, trees and some blooming flowers. 🙂

18-Jun-2010 11:09, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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18-Jun-2010 11:26, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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18-Jun-2010 11:40, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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18-Jun-2010 11:20, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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We continued on, but stopped briefly at a silk shop. They were very eager to sell us something, but neither of us were much in the mood for silk products. Unfortunately, they were a bit too keen for me and immediately caused me to put up a wall – besides the fact that I’m a very slow shopper! So, we didn’t buy anything and why go to Sri Lanka to buy silk, I mean really?

Our drive up to the Bluefield Tea plantation was a climb passing numerous tea fields and factories. The view of the valley and mountains was spectacular, but it got cloudy in mid-afternoon and since my camera was dead we had to wait to take photos. Still, our visit to the plantation was quite interesting. Families are paid a minimal salary to pick tea leaves, though they are provided with housing and transportation. The factory puts out about 1 ton of tea a day and the pickers must meet a 20kg quota per day. The process for drying and packaging the tea leaves seemed quite simple, but it is the second-largest export for the country, so I imagine it requires much more than we saw. I hadn’t realized that most Lipton or commercial black teas are just packaged Sri Lankan tea!

18-Jun-2010 14:49, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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18-Jun-2010 14:55, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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18-Jun-2010 15:00, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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We, of course, bought tea. Also, I had been wanting some good green tea for a while, so I bought some of theirs after a taste test and deciding it was almost as good as the tea I might find in Japan. 😉

Our night was spent at a mountain-high old-style British hotel called St. Andrew’s. It reminded me a bit of British Hills in Japan, though not nearly as traditional or conservative in maintaining “tradition”. Our room was cute with a space heater, which was actually needed! Thus ends our last night in Sri Lanka. One more day….

18-Jun-2010 06:03, 3.4, 7.9mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 200

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18-Jun-2010 16:33, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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18-Jun-2010 16:33, Apple iPhone 3G, 2.8

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More to come…

-T

Having rested up, we were out early to beat the Colombo morning rush-hour traffic to make our way towards Kandy. We drove for about three hours straight passing lots of green views of the land until we got to the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage.

The elephants were so cute and I could have watched them play and bathe in the water for hours, I think. I’ve always had a love of elephants, from the time I read Babar to seeing National Geographic shows on them. They’re majestic to me. It was a very touristy spot, so a few people were begging and there were stores along the road selling typical touristy items, but in general it was a quiet affair.

Sri Lanka16-Jun-2010 22:21, 4.1, 15.7mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 100

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Elephant Orphanage – Pinnawela, Sri Lanka16-Jun-2010 22:38, 8.4, 26.4mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100

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16-Jun-2010 22:42, 3.7, 11.0mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 100

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From there, we made a stop at Luckyland Spice and Herb Garden where we got a tour of the different herbs and spices that are grown and used for herbal medicines. Within seconds I was accosted by a mosquito (of course), so that was a great selling opportunity by putting some balm and citronella oil on it to ease the pain, which worked wonderfully. So, I bought that plus some hair remover that they claim after three uses (once a month), it will prevent the hair from returning for 3-4 years. We shall see….

17-Jun-2010 00:18, 3.3, 6.3mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100

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Luckyland Spice and Herb Garden – Sri Lanka16-Jun-2010 23:49, 3.7, 11.0mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 100

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This area of the world is also known for its Batik fabric designs. I had been wanting to buy something made of Batik as I also had bought fabric during my trips to Cambodia and Thailand. So, though I thought I could find something ready-made, I ended up getting some fabric that I could use to make skirts out of. I’d take a picture, but as I’m using some fabric for gifts, you’ll have to wait. 😉

17-Jun-2010 00:53, 6.6, 6.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100

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We finally stopped for lunch at a tourist restaurant called DJ for a “traditional” Sri Lankan lunch. The food consists of rice, dhal, and different curries. My stomach rebelled after the first few meals…. 🙁

Our last stop was the most dangerous of the whole trip and our stay there caused us to push our itinerary a bit because we took longer than Anton had anticipated. Now, C had done her research on jewelry and gems. So, she was fully prepared to look into the blue sapphires that are only found in Sri Lanka. I, on the other hand, never buy jewelry for myself or anyone for that matter and had no intentions of buying anything. We stopped at Sifani, which strangely similar to “Tiffany’s”. They gave us a short video explanation of the differences in semi-precious and precious stones. All very interesting. Then, it was time to “look around”. I wasn’t really wanting anything, but I perused…. There was a ring I liked, but I didn’t really need a ring, so I just kept it in mind as something I could look for someday. I was almost done looking at everything, safely keeping my wallet in my purse, when I spotted a necklace…. It was a design i really liked and had seen something similar before months, maybe years before and liked. However, it was very gaudy for me. I like simple. So, after they had me try it on, I said no, it was too much. They said they would adjust it if I liked, but it was still too much, but as I looked carefully at how it was designed, it dawned on me that something new could come out of it….

I like unique things. So…I asked for adjustments and they said they would do it. Just as I agreed, I also decided to get the ring I liked since it was still in my thoughts and put a matching amethyst stone in it instead of the sapphire it had. Craziness! But, I was pleased and they were willing to change the design and have it ready for pick-up on our way back to Colombo….If only the story ended there….

In any case, for this day, we drove to the outskirts of Kandy city to the Chaaya Citadel hotel, which was quite nice. I decided to try an Ayuverdic massage, which is famous in the area and I love my massages. However, it’s an experience I never need to have again as I came out completely soaked head-to-toe in heavy oil and not really feeling relaxed as they haven’t quite got down the relaxing ambiance of a spa just yet….

Sri Lanka – Chaaya Citadel in Kandy17-Jun-2010 20:06, 3.3, 6.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 125

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Still, a very full day was had and a good sleep needed!

More to come…

-T

A friend from work and I decided to try out traveling together as we’re both semi-single women who like to travel, but aren’t always comfortable traveling on our own. So, we decided to take our first trip together for a few days at the end of term and before she had to begin summer school teaching.

C did all the planning and legwork for this trip as I was busy and it just happened that way. In the future, I’ll do more, of course. 😀

So, on June 15th we left Abu Dhabi late for Colombo, Sri Lanka. Our trip started off a little worryingly before we even left AD as we had arrived at Terminal 1 according to what our tickets said. When we tried to find where to check-in, we were told we had to go to Terminal 1A. To get there, we went downstairs, outside, past a very long line of workers trying to get flights home and in to the “ghetto terminal” of 1A. Everything went reasonably fast, but when we got through immigration, there was a small snack bar and the rest was seating with nothing else in terms of conveniences of an international terminal. Luckily, we didn’t have time to sit or even worry about it!

We rode on Sri Lankan Airlines co-shared with Etihad. While Etihad has a quality reputation, Sri Lankan Air does not share the same level of quality, in my mind. I would recommend paying some extra money and choosing a more well-known airlines. They did not hit it off with me when the flight attendant kept saying “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me” when she wanted to know if I wanted something to drink despite the fact that I was sleeping and did not put down my table and did not want to be woken up. I was NOT a happy camper….

Fortunately, the flight proceeded smoothly after that. We made it quickly through the airport and only noted a very strange sight after getting through immigration. While seeing a duty free shop is reasonably normal, seeing a large section of electrical items – washing machines, refrigerators, TVs, etc – was quite strange. Since it is in the arrival lobby, one can only assume that it is for Sri Lankans who return to their country and want to buy appliances for their homes…right? I could not understand this…gave us a good laugh in any case!

Arrival terminal in Colombo – duty free electrical items…the question is WHY upon arrival???15-Jun-2010 17:16, 3.3, 6.3mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 200

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We met our tour guide for the trip, Anton, and headed to the Hilton Colombo to rest up before an afternoon tour of the city since we had arrived at about 6am.

More to come…

-T