Casey Space

During Tet holiday break in Vietnam, Josh and I booked an 8 day tour to Sri Lanka. Technically it was a 10 day tour, but I’ve stopped counting the arrival and departure date as part of the tour because nothing really happens.

We arrived in Colombo late on Saturday, technically early Sunday morning. We went on a tour all around the center and south of the island, and then flew home the following Sunday evening to arrive in Hanoi at 9am on Monday.

I’ll take you through the tour as we experienced it. Lots of buddhas and beautiful animals and colorful birds, to the point where when we saw a wild peacock, it was no big deal. We never got tired of watching the elephants though.

We really enjoyed Sri Lanka’s food, Josh ate dahl every meal and got really good at eating with his right hand. We shared many rice and curry dishes. The people are very nice, islander types.

Dambulla Rock Temple

To walk into these sacred caves covered in detailed frescos and lined with stoic Buddha statues delicately painted as our first attraction to visit in Sri Lanka, we knew the trip was going to be great.

The frescos were painted hundreds of years ago. The caves have protected Sri Lankans under attack and provided a place for monks to meditate and come up with strategies to fight off invaders for the warriors to implement.

It is disrespectful to turn your back to the Buddha so there were many signs about not doing selfies or taking family photos with your back to the Buddha.

Sigirya – Lion Rock

This site features ancient ruins of a civilization perched on top of a huge rock cliff. There are hundreds of steps up to the top, some places recommend silence while walking so as to not disturb the wasps and have them attack you. Also along the way are men who extend a hand to help older people or delicate women up the stairs, and when you accept their hand, they murmer “150 rupees.” They work as human railings I guess. They definitely get in the way when we are on a very thin metal staircase on the side of the cliff. Between them, the wasps, and the monkeys who grab anything loose on your body and the sheer edge of the cliff below your clanging climbing feet, it is quite the test of human resolve.

Kayanwala – Countryside

We cruised around the countryside, at one point transferring from our van to a wagon pulled by a small tractor then to a canoe to a traditional village house where a woman demonstrated how to cook lentils and make coconut samba. We ate a delicious meal there and rode tuk tuks back to the van.

We also visited many tea plantations and tasted what they claim to be the best tea in the world.

Kandy – Temple of the Tooth

Inside this temple is a tooth believed to belong to the Buddha! We visited during the daytime and it was packed and chaotic. Desciples and tourists were jockying for position to get in line to give offerings (desciples) or just gawk at the monks and a golden box containing the tooth. Yeah, you don’t get to see the tooth. Only King Charles gets to see the tooth when he comes to visit and maybe once a year some highly enlightened folks can see the tooth. The Sri Lankans are very proud to be Buddhist and that they get to safeguard the tooth of the Buddha and protect it from the invaders from the huge and largely populated country nearby, not to name names.

The city of Kandy is gorgeous, like something out of Star Wars. A mountainous city with a lake at the center.

Train to “Little England” Nuwara Eliya

I love trains and I love visiting places that painstakingly care for their older train cars and keep rolling. The signmaker in me absolutely reveled in the handpainted signs at the stations. I think Sinhala and Tamal alphabets are gorgeous.

We took a train up into the mountains, through many tea fields, to Nuwara Eliya, known as “Little England” because it is cold, wet, and they put Tudor and Victorian buildings everywhere.

Udawalawe National Park

The second half of our tour featured three safaris in three national parks in three days. Sri Lanka reveres the elephant as a holy animal, and they try to treat them with dignity and respect. The elephants can roam around national parks, and we saw some just walking down the road.

I still don’t have a fancy camera with a big lens so often I didn’t take a lot of pics with my phone. The animals just look like dots anyway. I just sat there and had a moment and felt like Jane Goodall.

Yala National Park

We saw a jeep full of monks on this safari. Monks like safaris too! We almost saw a leopard, our driver saw it and pointed, but the fast animal was gone gone gone by the time we cranked our necks around. I don’t think the 20 other jeeps revving forwards and backwards to get a better view helped much. If I was a leopard, I wouldn’t hang around there. It’s loud and it smells bad.

Bundala National Park – Marissa

Bundala park was supposed to be for bird watching, and we saw many beautiful birds. We got a long, quiet, uninterrupted session with some elephants. Not many tourists come to this park because it’s just birds, so we got a really nice treat.

Our hotel was on the beach of a popular surf and backpacker area. The water was beautiful.

Gangarama Temple – Colombo

My favorite part about this temple in Colombo was what was behind the beautiful Buddhist and Hindu sculptures in a back area of the temple. Rich people donate items in hopes it will help them get to a higher level of heaven. The monks didn’t know what to do with all the stuff, so they made a museum out of it. I asked the guide if it was a statement about accuring posessions and trying to get people to think about all the crap they have, but he said it wasn’t about that. It was just about how they represent a human being who was alive and this stuff was important to them. One of my favorite items was the world’s smallest Buddha.