My Roadtrip Through Sri Lanka - Day 3

Nuwara Eliya ( pronunced as Nooreliya) was the highlight for day 3 and I was really looking forward to it. Farida had mentioned that Nuwara Eliya has an amazing climate and stark contrast to the beachy south weather. We started out early from Kandy and I must say the drive was amazingly beautiful. I had to ask Yohan to stop at various places so that I could just enjoy the beautiful scenery around. But before that, I made a quick stop to the most famous temple in Sri Lanka, The Tooth Temple. Its a beautiful temple, serene and spritual. I was able to witness a pooja ceremony, the priest were playing various percussion instruments. I did think that it was attracting too many tourist and may be driving the locals who want to pray a bit crazy. There were guides with groups of foreigners, there were the single and odd couple moving with an audio guide. I decided not to go and see the the 'tooth" as it meant standing in a long que.

So, took off for Nuwara Eliya early morning and by mid afternoon reached the lovely tea garden estates. Till as far as the eyes can see, all that there is too see are mounds and mounds of hills with tea shrubs. Local women picking the leaves, winding roads. It was just too amazing and I decided to stop at a teas estate for lunch. At the Blue Tea Estate I not only gobbled a very tasty lunch but had a quick 101 on how tea is prepared for consumption. There are various process, starting from Withering - where the tea leaves are kept in a trench for 12 hours and are dried with fans to remove almost 50% of the moisture. Next there is Rolling where the teas are rolled in this huge container for about 20 mins, that is then folowed by a Roll Breaker. At this stage the broken and crushed leaves get seperated in 3 sizes, and the big ones go back to the Rolling section. After this is the Fermentation process and no chemicals are added so that the natural flavour is retained. By the way the healthy Green Tea is not fermented at all. And another tidbit is that the strength of the tea depends on the temperature, teh period of fermentation and the humidity it retains. Now did you know that! After Fermentation, the tea goes into the Dryer Machine for about 21 minutes and firewood heat is used for the drying process. Finally, in Fibre Extraction , the dry leaves are put in this machine to seperate the different sizes. The branches are removed first and then the tea leaves. The small leaves are very strong and the big one are light. The last step is Grading, which further segregates the leaves further on thier size. Phew !!!

My Roadtrip Through Sri Lanka - Day 2

Day 2 begins with Sigriya (World Heritage Site): Sigriya I think, was the highlight of my trip. It is a 200 mts. rock on which King Kasyapa had built his palace – and there is a story to why he built it there. But first my story… I am not much of a climber. Previously I had given up a climb just few mins / meters away from the top - that was in Kerala (Eddakal Caves at Wynaad) and when I was much lighter than what I am now. Climbing is just not my thing although I love to go on the top of a mountain or hill. So this was to be a personal challenge and I wanted to climb on the top for two of my friends Farida and Ebby who I had deserted on my last climb in Kerala. So when I saw this huge mother of a rock right before me I was shaken to say the least but then this time I knew I just had to do it. I owed it to them and this climb up was dedicated to these close friends of mine. Now with so much of an emotional baggage that I placed on myself there was no way I was backing out. The most exhilarating feeling of finishing a climb is reaching the top ( as you are suppose to) and feeling on top of the world.

My first view of this huge monolith rock just took my breath away. To think that thousands of years ago someone actually thought of and then built this amazing piece of architecture without any modern tools is just another testimony of how intelligent our ancestors were and how in comparison we pale out completely. It was a well thought and well planned fortress – it has various levels of distinct precincts that finally lead to the palace on top of 200 mts Rock. Without going too much into details let me just mention the various things that one can get to see on the way to the top. Man made water moats at the outer most walls, followed by water gardens, boulder gardens, terrace gardens, bathing pools. In fact during the summer the King would shift to the inner city, which would work as his summer palace.

One of the most amazing aspects of Sigriya is that it is one of the best preserved and most elaborate surviving urban sites in South Asia from the first millennium. As I moved from the outer walls to the inner city I just felt this overwhelming feeling of being touched by history as I have never felt before. I could actually imagine the queen and her maids have a royal bath is the octagonal pool; I could see the King in close conversation with his courtiers at the “meeting cave”. Indeed the period in which King Kasyapa ruled Sigriya almost 18 years) must have been the Golden Age for this area as assumed by the historians.

The most famous feature of the Sigriya Rock is the Apsara paintings which are found in a depression in the rock some 100 mts above ground level. I had to climb countless steps to reach there and they don’t allow you to take pictures of the painting – ensuring that the flash do not harm the ancient paintings. Anyone who has a problem with heights should not venture here... its sheer drop in case of a misstep. The other interesting feature is the Mirror Wall and it is full of ancient graffiti some say from about 6th to 13th century BC.

The final entrance to palace is through the Lion Paw – it is an amazingly breath-taking piece of architecture. There are numerous steps that finally lead you to the top. It took me about an hour and a half to reach the top. Of course at most places I almost gave up but then I just knew that if I gave up this time I will never be able to climb another mountain or a Rock and I have set my heart at climbing the Adam’s Peak next time round (7 kms of upward hike – all steps)

Oh before I forget, here is the story of why King Kasyapa built his palace as high and as well protected as Sigriya. Sigriya came dramatically into the history of Sri Lanka in the last quarter of the 5th century BC – King Dhatusena ruled Sri Lanka from the ancient city of Anuradhapura (which I didn’t get to see this time round). Prince Kasyapa a non-royal prince, having being born of a consort mother was misled by his own greedy brother-in law against his father and King. He seized the throne, executed his father and banished his younger brother the crown prince Mogallana, who fled to India. Having done this dastardly deed, he was never ever at peace and always feared for his life. He thus established Sigriya as his new capital and gave it its present name of ‘Simha-giri’ or ‘Lion Mountain’. The 18 years he ruled were considered the best years for Sigriya.

It was in the 19th century that antiquarians began to take interest on this site, they were followed by archaeologists who have now been working on restoring this site for the past 100 years!!!

Sigriya to Kandy: After Sigriya, the next halt was Kandy. I was looking forward to Kandy for two reasons, one was because of the famous Tooth Temple and the other was because Kandy is where the Hill Country of Sri Lanka begins. It is also the second most important city in Sri Lanka after Colombo and I have been told that has the most handsome men of Sri Lanka.

The drive was a delight. There are so many spice gardens on the way. These are more for tourist to stop and maybe buy few goods. By no way are they a “must see” and I was ready to give it a miss but Yohan insisted we stopped. I guess he had a commission going on with one of the gardens. I met this young kid with an unusual name – Sachin Rafique. A school kid whose parents I guess where fans of Sachin Tendulkar. The ‘guide’ at the garden tried his best to sell me some oil but I just was not up to it. He however got me to agree for a leg massage and having done the climb at Sigriya I relented. It wasn’t bad at all. I was off on the road again; we reached Kandy at about 3 pm in the afternoon.

I had read it in the Lonely Planet that a single woman traveling would always have people asking about her marital status. I didn’t quiet believe it. But I was proven wrong. Wherever I went and I was seen by myself I was asked the question, “Madam, not married?” It seemed that the oddest thing in the world to do was to be single and it was not considered odd at all that complete strangers were asking me about my marital status and some even going as far as giving advice “Madam you must get married.” So I had trickshaw drivers, waiters, lobby managers, stewards, and restaurant managers all worried about singlehood status. As the trip continued I would begin to be surprised if I was not asked that question. But having said that, I could sense no feeling of trying to get “fresh” in their questioning; Farida said that as a society Sri Lankans believed that everyone must get married and while there was no looking down on affairs whether per marital or even post marital, the wedding bliss is wished upon everyone.

November 30, 2007

My Roadtrip Through Sri Lanka - Day 1

Day 1… But first the previous evening!

My holiday was about to begin and a late night the previous evening – why am I not surprised… but before I talk about the first day let me quickly take a flashback to the previous evening. It was a hectic day for me and I was not able to do half the things that I had kept for that last minute – the most important being withdrawing money for an advancement payment. And as Murphy’s Law state – when things go bad, they are likely to get worse. So now I was not only cashless, I realized when I went to the ATM to withdraw money later in the evening that all I could withdraw was 20 K Sri Lankan Rupees and I had to give the agent about 97K. No it wasn’t a case of limited amount of withdrawal at one go, it was a case of not having a balance left in the bank. I was expecting some monies to be deposited by my office which they didn’t. No need to panic I told myself, I can ask Fari for it, anyway she needs to pick up my bag , I can always tell her to give me the money for now and at the end of the trip I can return it to her. So I call her and she asked me to come over as the 2 kids were driving her a bit crazy at that moment. No sweat I say, I shall just hire a cab and come over. Ten minutes later she called, rather frantically I must say, there was a bomb blast at one of the place that was enroute to her house and she asked me, no make that she ordered me to stay put at the hotel and wait for her call before I “ do anything silly”. Murphy’s Law was just proven right!! I needed the money before morning as I was set to leave pretty early and I was in a fix. Thankfully she saw reason and agreed that instead of taking a cab, if I hired a car from the hotel it would be alright. Not that I am making a light of bomb blast situation – but I guess by now as world citizens all of us have learnt to take blasts in our stride and have developed the fatalistic attitude to life of “ what is meant to happen will happen”.

So to make a long story short, I went to her place, dropped my extra bag at her place, picked up the monies, promised to email her the itinerary and call her every night and whenever possible in between, I was back at the hotel past 10 in the night. Post that a quick dinner and all signs of sleep vanished. Wrong time to have a bout of sleeplessness but could not be helped. I think I finally truly slept at about 2 a.m. and woke up by 6 a.m. I had to be in the lobby by 6.30 as Yohan the driver was going to be there by then. And the first good sign was that I was ready by 6.30 a.m. and Yohan was at the lobby when I went down. A good start to a wonderful holiday…

Day 1: Colombo to Dambulla via Pinnawala.

Since Yohan was already at the lobby, I quickly grabbed some bakery stuff from the breakfast room and some bananas and we set off for Pinnawala sans breakfast or coffee. The distance between Colombo and Pinnawala is about 90 kms and we had about 3 hours to reach the Orphanage to catch the feeding and bathing of the elephants. I made myself comfortable in the backseat and enjoyed the ride, which was pretty much similar to a drive down any South Indian cities, townships flying past with palm trees and other trees along the roads. At some places it reminded me of Goa too. Due to the late night I found myself catching catnaps in between. We passed Gampala, a small township known for its pineapple plantations. A small tidbit, Sri Lanka has 2 types of pineapple, the usual big ones and the red small ones… the small ones are usually used in Ayurvedic medicine. The farmers had lined their fruits alongside the roads and it again reminded me of back home, where farmers displayed watermelons, oranges and other such fruits when you passed small townships where they are grown aplenty.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

We reached the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage about 9.30 am in the morning. Indians don’t have to pay as high as the Westerners for the entrance and I was very happy about that. The security person at the entrance was a first of his kind – a smiling one. He thought I was Sri Lankan and was kind of embarrassed by his mistake when I told him I was Indian. “The skin colour same madam” he said trying to explain the source oh his assumption. I didn’t mind it at all. The orphanage was everything I thought it would be and more. I have seen elephants at many occasions prior to this. At Madhumalai forest – I also had encounter with an entire wild herd as it crossed the path where we were driving in the night and I remembered we quickly shut off the engine and watched in complete silence and awe as these huge beast crossed the path. I have also seen enough elephants in captivity and have had “elephant rides”. But this was different. These were wild animals and yet not completely wild nor were they completely domesticated. I think I would call them ‘quasi wild”.

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is one of its kind in the world. Here elephants that were/are orphaned are taken care so that the population of these does not dwindle and they do not get extinct. Currently the orphanage houses 70 elephants including the babies (the youngest being 6 months old), a blind one and a maimed one. A hunter blinded the male elephant and it was not nice to see this proud animal in that helpless state. I was told that he does get wild sometimes – I guess it would be his way of venting out his frustration. A landmine maimed the other elephant. War as they say spares no one, not even innocent animals. There are about 30 Mahouts to look after these 70 elephants.

Amongst few of the interesting things I learnt was how to identify a male from a female. If you observe an elephant closely you will see that while some have curved backs, others are almost square. The curve ones are male while the square ones are females. Apparently the Asian elephants also have a class system and the females from the upper class (Athkule: Ath - meaning tusks and Kule meaning class) do not breed with the lower class. The sure way of identifying a Athkule male elephant is the tusk and his massive size, also when they are standing with their head in an upright position, their trunk touches the ground and curves in a bit The female however is just massive without the tusks (Asian female elephants do not have tusks so calling them Arhkule is a bit of a misnomer). I learnt that there were at least 5 classes and I left it that not venturing into details. The other interesting tidbit I picked up was that it seems that elephants have the highest incidence of homosexuality in the animal kingdom; I really don’t know how true that is. According to Yohan when males are separated from females for a long duration, either because they are unable to breed due to some man made obstacle or if they are pregnant (they carry their babies for 18 months) it seems they turn towards the other males for little bit more than male bonding!

And yes a tradition particular to me is dropping money on such trips, which I duly did after tipping a Mahout who allowed me to take a touristy snap with his elephant – a tusked one. Anyway the money wasn’t much and tradition was maintained.

At about 10.00 a.m. the elephants from the orphanage are taken across the road to the river, a branch of the mighty Mahavali River for their bath. Now this sight by itself was worth the visit to the orphanage. Here it was almost as if one was observing them in their natural habitat. The Mahouts guided them to the river and let them loose… it was their time by themselves. It was a sight I will not easily forget. Mother bathing her baby, teenagers having mud bath on the opposite bank (due to the heat they keep having these mud baths which cools their bodies). The males are bathed at one corner while the females and the kids on the other. They make sure the males are bathed well as they are not too many of them at the Orphanage and so they are a bit pampered lot, also they can get a bit unruly at times. The females and the young ones are left to themselves with a special bath attention once in a while.

Amongst elephants babies are a taken care of by the entire herd. Babies are a collective responsibility – considering it takes 18 months to deliver one I can understand the special care. Any female from the herd would feed the baby in case it had to be fed and the mother was otherwise occupied. Hmmmm I wonder what she would be upto? Another particular trait of the elephants is that they are not the “Wham Bam Thank you Ma’am” kind either. They have a full courtship as well as intercourse ritual … Now I know what kept Mama away at feeding time.

After bathing one big male elephant I was tired – it’s a tough job scrubbing those beasts. Just joking it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I sat on a table, shaded by a tree and had a quick sandwich and some lemon soda (no breakfast remember) and watched the elephants having a public bath. The bathing ritual is for 2 hrs after which they are taken back to the Orphanage. Post breakfast and once the elephant were back at the orphanage we were on our way to our next stop for the day.

Ancient Cave Temples ( Rock Temples) and the Golden Temple - Dambulla.

The Amaya Lake Resort at Dambulla was the pit stop and on the agenda was a visit to the Golden Temple and ancient cave temples also known as the Rock Royal Temple. Dambulla is about 100 kms away from Pinnawala. We set out hoping to make it there in time for a late lunch. A single woman traveling has its own peculiarities – I sat at the back because I didn’t want to get too friendly with the driver and yet he was the only companion on the long drives. Yohan I must say was a good driver- he kept the right amount of distance and made the right amount of conversation to ensure that it wasn’t a complete dull drive.

We arrived at Amaya Lake Resort about 2.30 in the afternoon. As I was on a full board basis, lunch was to be taken immediately. My first impression of the Resort was that it was very impressive. I was later told that it is quite popular with honeymoon couples and I can understand why. It had this calmness about it. It is on the bank of Lake Kandalam. The rooms are these eco friendly cottages – each one at a distance from each other so as to allow privacy. On the whole it was a place where you could easily soak yourself in the peace around and wish never to go back. I walked around the banks of the river, and sat under a tree that had a tree house. Right across was the Kandalama Hotel – another very beautiful resort I was told. It was designed by the famous architect – Geoffrey Bawa. Stories go that while he was alive none of his hotels could change anything that he had designed without his prior approval. Not even the uniform of the staff!!! Now that’s what I call having power

So far the day for me was going pretty fine. I had traveled about 210 odd kms and I was raring to go for more. I met Yohan at 4 so that we could go to the temples. The beautiful Rock Temples sits at height of 100m to 150 meters above the road in the southern part of Dambulla. There is a short hike up to go to the caves but before that the entrance tickets have to be bought from near the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple is a relatively new temple built on the foothills facing the highway and was completed in 2000 by Japanese donations. It had a huge statues of a Buddha (30m high) sitting in a dhammachakka mudra (dhamma turning pose). It is quite imposing in height and although the temple claims it to be the largest statue in the world – according to Lonely Planet it is not even the largest in Sri Lanka. The temple also has a museum but I gave it a miss and preferred going directly to the Cave Temples.

The climb up had me huffing and puffing – signs that I am far from the healthy self I think myself to be. Of course the added extra 20 kg on me doesn’t help either. The thing is that I didn’t even have to climb all the way from bottom. There is a mid way drive till where the car can go. Anyway Yohan thought I didn’t need a guide here and I thought otherwise. When I reached the top it was this quite place. Right outside the main door of the temple there was a place to remove our shoes (I conveniently forgot my money in the car) and a guard that checks your ticket. As soon as I entered a guide came to me. See earlier I was of the belief that a guide is not needed – it’s just a waste of money (that is why I didn’t take a guide when I went to the Golconda fort – later I regretted it). A guide orients you to what you will be seeing, he is there to answer questions and though he might not always have the answers and sometimes make some up for you – having him is around is much better than not having one.

So a quick tidbit here – the Cave Temple or Royal Rock Temples as they are also called is a series of 5 ancient caves in which successive kings built temples. Each one has its own significance and stories. It is believed that the caves became a place of worship around the 1st century. The first one Devraja Viharaya (Temple of the Kings of Gods) has a 15 m –long reclining Buddha. The significance here is that since the toes of both his feet are not joined together it essentially denotes that he is a state of Nirvana and is not is arresting pose. The colours used are all natural colours. It’s a small temple.

Moving on to the next one – Maharaja Viharaya (Temple of the Great King) is definitely one of the most spectacular one. It is I think the biggest one. The cave is named after the 2 kings whose statues it houses (Valagamba and Nissanka Malla). The Buddha statue here has a Abhaya mudra (where the right hand is raised – a pose conveying protection) and is situated under a archway decorated with dragons. There is a vessel in the idle of the cave which collects dripping water that is used for rituals. This cave also has some very beautiful naturally colored frescoes. By the way do you know what a fresco painting is? A fresco is done when the plaster is still wet and so there is no room for mistakes and once the plaster dries up the colours are imbedded in the plaster.

The other three caves are relatively small – they are the Maha Alut Viharaya (New Great Temple), the Pachima Viharaya (Western Cave) and the Devana Alut Viharaya (Second New Temple). It was in the Second New Temple that I saw a Buddha statue that seemed to have been, well newly painted. When I asked the guide about it – it seems there was a Westerner lady who in her enthusiasm to click a picture in the cave actually climbed up to the statue and sat on its lap and clicked a picture. Well Not allowed – they had to wash the statues and therefore paint it again. See this is what you don’t get to know when you don’t have a guide along. So after having seen all the caves we began going down. I gave the guide is tip as well as tip for the guy who took care of my slippers and we were on our way. Oh yes when I was on the top of the mountain the view is superb and I could also see the Sigriya Rock quite clearly from here – that was my destination for tomorrow.

Once back at the hotel, I picked myself a book and sat in the verandah based coffee shop of the hotel. I loved the furniture’s in this resort. And while I sipped tea and read my book in the background I could hear beautiful flute playing. Right behind me on the tree house sat a man playing the most appropriate music for the time and environment. I loved this hotel and I think another trip is a must. So with this ended my day 1. I had a long second day so it was early to bed since it would have to be an early rise again and a climb to Sigriya.

November 29, 2007

My Roadtrip Through Sri Lanka...

My long awaited and much planned trip to see some parts of Sri Lanka beyond Colombo was finally going to happen. This time I had decided that I would take at least 10 days of break from work and make the most of my business visits to Sri Lanka. My trips to Sri Lanka on work were a great opportunity and I didn’t want to lose it.

I asked Nushani to help me with at least putting in place an itinerary so that it could form the skeletal of my planning for the roadtrip. The trouble is that there is so much to see and do in Sri Lanka that it can be at times, a daunting task to decide where to start from. Besides Nushani (whose family incidentally owns a travel agency) the other source that I approached was the couchsurfing group. There are some great people on the network. Having in the past exchanged emails with Marlon I knew he was going to be a great source of information. There were few other people who responded to my emails about the trip and it all turned out to be good because Marlon was not in Sri Lanka (he was trekking in the Himalayas and promised to help me remotely – which he did). Anyway coming back to those who responded to email – one of them being Mark who had a couch and extended it to me for 2 nights, I needed a couch during the weekend when my office was not going to pay for my hotel stay and this was before my holiday officially started.

It was the first time I was going to couchsurf an incidentally it was Mark’s first time as a host too. He had an extra room in his JAIC Hilton Residency Apartments. We exchanged emails so that we could confirm that we were both comfortable and had all the fact we needed answered about each other – that by the way is the first rule of couch surfing. Anyway Mark gave me a sensible advice – “decide what you would like to do and then weave the holiday around it.”

Having taken that advice – I shot an email to Nushani’s agency stating what I would definitely like to do. Number one on my list was a visit to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, next was scuba diving (preferably someplace that had a certified course) and white water rafting. With my brief in place the agency sent me an 11 day itinerary - starting with Pinnawala Orphanage and ending with scuba diving. Then followed my research on the net, emails to Marlon, Mark and Lindsey (another couch surfer) and taking a realistic approach on what can be done in 5 days ( as a single traveler) and 6 days of diving. I finally decided to for go some of the places that the agency suggested and Marlon helped me bring down the overall cost and added some value adds and did the bookings for me and soon I was all set to go.

As I begin writing my travelogue – let me state upfront that there might be some extra pieces on few things facts and stories that I picked up from people I spoke to or from the guides which I will include, I will try and not go overboard but I do love those tidbits of details.

My Love Affair with Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a country that entices you to fall in love with her... I have been having an affair with her for the past year and a half and she has tried her best to make me slowly but surely fall in love. And I must admit that her charms have worked and I am hopelessly and madly in love with Sri Lanka.

Like in all love stories - strangers meet and slowly get to know each other. Soon they discover the hidden attractions and common interest and before you know it, a budding romance is in the making. My love story with Sri Lanka is on similar lines.

My first visit to Sri Lanka was for some work in Colombo and prior to that, all I knew about this country was the continuous strife that it was going through for years. For me it wasn’t the safest of all countries and as far as I was concerned, the few people I knew would take care of me during my stay and before long I would be back on the plane for India. I wasn’t too keen to know much about the country - how interesting could a country similar to South India and with a war waging be? I didn’t know how wrong I would be proven.

I was dazzled, amazed and pleasantly surprised from the moment I stepped out of the plane. The airport could be compared to any decent world class airport. As I stepped out of the airport it was almost as if I was in some city in South India, so similar but distinctly different – a paradox I cant explain. I loved my first drive down the Galle Road of Colombo to reach my hotel. And that is where it all began… I should have known the first sign of attraction. Before long I wanted to know her more intimately.

It took me just one trip to decide that I have to know her better. So began the questions, a bit of reading and bit of meeting people and lots of understanding. Sri Lanka has different countries within one country – I know that this phrase is often used for India but I think it holds true for Sri Lanka too. There is so much diversity that to try and fit her into one “kind” would be an injustice. Because of the constant strife, most people get educated in various Western countries and that brings in its social fabric a society which is very much Asian but with Westerns tastes. Then there are those who stay back and they have a different outlook to life. I found that although most Sri Lankans have this uncanny desire for all things materialistic there is a definitely a good dose of grounded spirituality. While the lure of the West and the Westerners is ever so present there is a great pride of all things Lankans.

It is not only the people who are so diverse the geography is amazingly diverse too. While Sri Lanka is an island country and therefore has a coastal life, it also has an amazing ‘Hill Country’ as the local like to call it, ancient cities and capitals of ancient of kingdom and very rich culture and heritage. All this is what she used on me to finally have me succumbed to her beauty and grace. And from here will begin an affair that I hope lasts forever.