Sri Lanka - April 2011

Another April, another awesome month of taking advantage of public holidays! With 2 weeks to spare, I scour the globe for somewhere that's not too far and still exotic enough to appease my nomadic spirit. Isettle for Sri Lanka.

My sister's immediate reaction when I tell her is, "Why do you

always want to go to places like that!" It's true, why do I always want to travel like that? By like that, she means, backpacking to foreign destinations where people don't speak English, where I don't know anyone, where the food guarantees giardia, the roads are bad and there's always a threat of civil war looming. I don't know why i'm attracted to places where travel is hard... actually I do, it's because when I arrive at a place where I don't know anyone and I have no plans, it really tests my skills, challenges my senses and makes me feel so free and alive.

I arrive in Sri Lanka in the dead of the night - midnight in an airport that amusingly has more whitegoods being sold in duty free than perfumes. The number of stores selling washing machines and fridges was astounding! My friend later tells me that it's to attract cashed-up workers from the Middle East, on the way home to see family after a few years of slaving in the desert. What better gift to bring back to the wife you haven't seen for years than a washing machine?!

I catch a taxi to Negombo, a beachside town that I hardly see as I roll into town at 2am and leave at 630am the next morning. I'm on my way up north to see the UNESCO famed sites of Sigiriya and Dambulla with a side trip to visit an elephant orphanage. The drive through winding country roads with lush rice fields, framed by gentle rolling hills, is so picturesque that I fall into bucolic bliss.

It's several hours before we reach Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, a place that has gathered a bit of controversy from naturalists who claim the centre is exploiting its elephants for

profit. I see many elephants being herded by mahouts with cruel looking wooden batons with nasty metal hooks. I'm sad to see a huge blind bull elephant with magnificent tusks chained up. What surprises me are how vocal the elephants are, trumpeting loudly and also growling menacingly whenever a tourist got too close to the young babies. The babies were hilarious, so playful and small and ever agile and mischievous. The highlight was bath time for the elephants - loud trumpeting heralded the stampede of around 50 elephants, rushing towards the river to the delight of throngs of tourists. It was very sweet to see the matriarchs keeping a close eye on the babies, one which was swept off his little feet with the currents threatening to sweep him away before a protective trunk picked him up and settled him back to his feet.

After Pinnawala, it was another long drive to get to Sigiriya, a mysterious rock formation with remnants of a palace or temple at the top. I bumped into an Aussie tourist and we climbed up steep and rusty metal stairs precariously tied to the side of the rock. Through the soupy humid air pregnant with the promise of rain, we made our way to view mysterious cave paintings of, depending of whether you believed it to be a temple or palace, sexy half naked court dancers or the goddess Tara. Either way, it's amazing that after 2000 years in this wet air, the paintings were still so well preserved. Still higher up, we pass through giant lion's paws carved into the side of the mountain to reach the top where nothing much was left of the palace/temple that existed there. It was a tad cooler and a welcome breeze was blowing through. How

ever, the breeze also hinted at rain and we rushed back down the rock and I was in the cab for all of 10 mins before the heavens opened up and monsoon rain thundered down.

Checked into the Holiday Inn - nothing like the cheap and cheerful chain hotel but attempting to leverage some of that brand, my guesthouse was fine but had that damp feeling from being in this humidity. I was a little disappointed (ok a lot) by the pathetic shower with pressure so weak that it merely trickled water out. I had a pleasant surprise when I first turned on the tap in the basin and instead of water, out came a little black frog! I thought it was very cute but fortunately no more frogs came out after the first one.

At dinner, I got talking to a lovely family, expats living in Laos and backpacking through India and Sri Lanka with a 3 year old cherub. I was so impressed that a family of 3 were travelling for 5 weeks with only one backpack! And Ethan the cherub, like my own similarly aged nieces and nephews, was soon demanding his iPad!! and out came the iPad which Ethan then proceeded to operate confidently. These babies are so techie!