Sri Lanka - Day 1

Quick!  Fast forward to present day!  Well, not present day, but close enough.  December 2011.

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David and I took a return trip back to Singapore last December to visit friends, eat at the places we had been dreaming about the last few months, and go to a friend's wedding.  While we were out there we decided to take a side trip to Sri Lanka.  "Why Sri Lanka?" was the question most asked about this choice, and basically it was because it was one place we hadn't been in SE Asia that wasn't a pain in the arse to get to.  And I had heard great things about Sri Lanka, how beautiful the country was, and everyone was talking about it being the next great undiscovered travel spot, blah blah blah.  In general, I pretty much knew nothing about Sri Lanka before I went there.  I knew it was close to India and was hoping for some good food, but that's about it.

After a bit of stress trying to plan a last minute trip to a foreign county (beach area or ancient city, beach or ancient city!?  Ancient city it was, it was the rainy season anyway), we put all the planning in the hands of a travel agency who booked a room and guide for us.  Done.

Arriving at 3am, we were able to get in a few hours of sleep before we headed out for our first day in Sri Lanka.  Here's the obligatory first shot from our hotel room in Columbo.

The first day we drove from the main city of Columbo out to where our hotel was in the Central Province.  It was only about 150km (90 miles), how long could it take?  Hours and hours, thats how long.  There are no freeways in Sri Lanka, just windy, curvy, crowded two lane roads.  Luckily there was lots to see.

There were a lot of rubber tree plantations along the way. It really does come from trees, you know, not a lab somewhere.  Trees!

Some street shots in a small town we passed through.

No, the bike is not that big - this guy was just that little.

Sri Lanka is known for its cashews, here's the lady that we bought our first package from.  David went a little nuts (no pun intended) and paid $25 for five tiny packages.  There was a bit of an argument about the cost ("This is not the state fair, David, don't just pay these amounts because they ask you to!"), but David won out, supporting the local economy.  They were pretty good, though.

Oh, look at the river and the pretty trees!  What's in the top of the tree?  Birds?

Wait, are those.... BATS?

Yes.  Yes, they are.  Dozens of them.

More nice (bat-free) scenery of the Sri Lankan countryside...

We stopped at a tea factory along the way, where we thoroughly enjoyed learning about Ceylon tea - the processing all the way from the green leaves to drying and sorting for the highest grade.

Getting late in the afternoon, we drove us through the main city of Kandy.  We chose not to stay overnight here as most do, I think the only thing to see was the Buddha Tooth Temple, which we had seen others in other countries as well, so we took a pass.  Who thought I'd ever say I'd seen too many Buddha Tooth Temples?

David has bought a mask in almost every country we've visited, and luckily again there was not a shortage of them available.

After a couple more hours of driving, we finally made it to the hotel where we both had bad car-headaches, but ready to get some sleep and see some cool stuff tomorrow.

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This is what we woke up to the next morning, bright and early.  Houseguests!  I love the tropics.

South Dakota Wildflowers

I've never tried to write this story down before.  I've told it more than a few times, but for some reason trying to put it into the written word was really hard.  Maybe because there are no pictures for me to fall back on.

On the last night we stayed at Custer National Park campground, Kelly and I got a little bored (we were unable to start a fire between the four of us), so Kelly, being the more more adventurous one, convinced me to walk around and see if there was anything interesting going on.  We came across a group of teenagers who had a great fire going, and (can I say it again?  Kelly, being the more adventurous one) walked right up and introduced herself.  Turns out it was a group of junior high kids from an indian reservation, and their - wait for it - very cute, very charming chaperone.

[Kelly and I have talked about what we remember him looking like - I remember him as a shorter version of Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins) from Friday Night Lights.  With longer hair and his baseball on backwards as was the  hallmark of cool back in the day.  She remembers him pretty much the exact opposite.  Hey, this was a long time ago.]

We were invited to share in the fire, and chatted with him and the boys for a long while, I remember one of the kids cracking jokes, throwing pop cans in the fire, and when the kid next to him didn't laugh, he took a red hot stick from the fire, pointed it at him and said deadpan "Laugh." Looking back, the grown up in me now would lecture him on fire safety, but at the time it was hysterical.

He asked where we were staying, we pointed toward our tent, and we tried to make plans to come hang out at their fire again the next night, but alas, they were on the way out the next morning and we probably wouldn't see them again.

We packed up early to head out to Mount Rushmore and had a great day.  When we returned, we set our stuff down, chatted for a bit, then headed to the tent.  I opened the flap, and saw the most beautiful thing.

Our entire tent was filled with wildflowers.  Laying on the pillow, hanging from the poles, in bunches around the side, there must of been dozens and dozens of them.  Yellow, white, green, it was really beautiful.

We were thrilled, it was so gorgeous, so unexpected, to think someone took the time to go through all this trouble.  They guys were a bit less charmed, complaining "Oh my god, they went in your tent???".  We didn't care, it was lovely.  And I can't believe I didn't take a picture.

Tim Riggins-ish dude, wherever you are.  Thank you.  This still is one of the best memories from a trip I've ever had.