Sri Lanka

Hello again! As promised, I'll finish up with a post about the end of my trip. And yes, sorry, this is another long one.

But first, incidentally, one of the reasons I decided to start this blog was because I got into reading one of my friend's blogs who was studying in Europe last spring - I remember studying in the library and getting so excited to see if she had posted a new entry with some pictures about whatever country or city she had visited the previous weekend. I really looked forward to reading her posts, especially as I was in the middle of a Green Bay, Wisconsin winter. With his, I hope I can create the same feeling for you since I'm not able to tell you in person about my experiences at the moment - that's also why I try to write every week, since hers were a bit sporadic, and sometimes I would be so sad if she hadn't posted when I thought she would. So bear with me if you're not as much as an armchair (or library desk) traveler as I am - since I really enjoy reading travel blogs I tend to include a lot of detail.

So, without further ado, please allow me to tell you a bit about my experiences on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka. I think I've used the word beautiful a little too often on my posts, but there's really no other way to describe Sri Lanka - every which way I turned there was a picture perfect scene, and nine times out of ten it involved a palm tree. I really didn't know much about Sri Lanka when I was planning my trip, but I have to thank my stepdad Brent for suggesting it to me - he had been there on a previous trip and really enjoyed it. I only had five full days there, which was much too short, but again, I'm glad I at least got to spend some time there instead of miss it all together.

I landed in Colombo, the capital city, before noon and was out of Colombo by 2:30 on a southbound train. My reasoning was that because I had a late night flight out of Colombo on Friday (I landed on Monday - Valentine's Day) I would have to come back anyways, and could explore more then. Even as I landed, however, I still wasn't quite sure where I was going to stay that night - I decided to see if there was a train to Galle I would take it, though I would have to turn around and leave the following day, (why I was hesitant in the first place) and if not I would just stay in Colombo and explore a bit before heading to Kandy the next day. The guy at the train station made my decision for me - not only was there an available train a half hour from my inquiry, but also it only cost two bucks. It turned out to be the best train ride ever: three hours of beautiful coastline, right next to the train tracks. I gazed out at the ocean, white sand, and palm trees, while leaning my head out the window to catch some fresh air (no AC in these trains...and it was 80 plus degrees out.)

Galle intrigued me because it was an old Dutch stronghold, complete with a defensive fort, when they occupied the island in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, after the Portuguese (but before the British.) Because it was a spur of the moment decision, I ended up not having much information on the city itself, just on the fort, but it looked like the perfect place to stay for the night. People have been living inside the fort walls for centuries, and though it no longer has any military significance, the stone walls are well preserved and provide a quiet, secluded, sleepy little area of town that was perfect for exploring and walking around...plus it was lost-proof. I checked into a cute little guesthouse, then headed out to catch the sunset from the fort walls. The wind was blowing and the waves were crashing on the surf below - I could see kids playing cricket (the baseball-like sport that came from England during colonialization), families out walking around, and a small number of tourists out walking and enjoying the evening. I had the second best meal of my trip that evening: calamari curry, made with coconut milk and such a delicious blend of spices that I could taste each one individually. Heavenly.

The next day I had all morning to hang out, as the train to Kandy didn't leave until early afternoon, so I woke up early for the sunrise, then walked along the other side of the fort walls that I had missed the night before. People were out and about quite early, to beat the rising heat, and I ended up walking straight into a herd of schoolgirls in white dresses and red ties, all giggling and staring at me - I smiled back and quickly detoured to a smaller street. I got used to the staring but wasn't ready for that much attention that early in the morning. I noticed some men and women out jogging and walking along the fort walls - in all my trip I hadn't really seen anyone out for exercise, but it made sense based on my first impression of Colombo in the taxi from the airport: Sri Lanka seemed slightly more developed, more modern, and better off than India in terms of overall standard of living. Of course, there were still slums and poor living conditions, especially in the middle of the country, but not nearly as large a number as India, based on my observations.

 By the time some of the restaurants were open I was ready to try some Sri Lankan cuisine. I found a cute little porch restaurant and tried the 'Indian breakfast' option: a plate of fresh fruit, a pot of tea, and rotti, (not like Indian roti - a little different) a type of flatbread that you eat with sambol - a spicy peppery blend of coconut, sweet onions, and other vegetables. (I took the picture before the sambol...you'll just have to use your imagination.) It was spicy and a strange breakfast choice to Americans, but it was delicious - I spent a happy hour eating, drinking tea, reading, and writing (by now you must have noticed how much this combination of food, beverage, scenery, a book, and a notebook pleases me.) I smiled at the people walking by as I feasted, noting how wonderful it was to exchange greetings with strangers who weren't trying to sell me anything.

I wandered around the fort area (it wasn't very big - about four streets by four streets) and poked around in some gift shops, walked through a restored Dutch house and museum, which is now a gem shop (I learned about Sri Lanka's lucrative gem mines) and chatted with my friendly hostel owner for a bit before packing up and heading out to the train station. Here is a picture of the streets - cute, narrow, clean. Very pleasant. Perhaps not the most accurate representation of the rest of the country, but it was a nice introduction.

So, let me tell you a bit about the geography of Sri Lanka. Colombo is on the west coast, kind of towards the south, Galle is kind of at the southwestern tip of the coast, and Kandy is pretty smack dab in the middle of the country. I figured okay, I'll do Colombo-Galle, then Galle-Kandy, then on the way back to Colombo ride the Kandy-Colombo train, which is supposed to have spectacular scenery. Makes sense, yes? Well, it would have made sense if there was a train from Galle to Kandy, as I assumed there was when Kandy was listed on the railway schedule. But no, there was not - we ended up taking the same three hour train ride back northwest to Colombo before turning and heading east to Kandy. If I had known this I would have taken a much earlier train to Colombo in the morning, so that I could have caught a more frequent train to Kandy and arrived by sunset...not dark! I had gotten spoiled by the Indian train system, where there seems to be a train everywhere from everywhere - as a result I missed the view as we got closer to Kandy. On the up side, I read an entire book on the six hour train ride, so at least that was something. Luckily, I had prebooked a hostel room for Kandy back in South Korea, so I had an address to head to from the train station, and the cook even whipped up a plate of vegetables and rice for me, as I hadn't eaten since breakfast.

The next morning I enjoyed another balcony breakfast - I was disappointed to see they didn't have Sri Lankan breakfast as a menu item, but I had to admit that I did miss eating scrambled eggs and toast with butter and jelly. I also had the best glass of fresh pineapple juice of my life, so I guess it was a win win. After breakfast I headed down the path to Kandy Lake and enjoyed the short walk along the lake to the city center. Kandy used to be the capital of the Sinhalese kingdom up until the nineteenth century, when the British took over. About eighty percent of Sri Lanka is Sinhalese, (an ethnic group) while the minority percentage is Tamil, originally from Southern India. These two groups were the main players in Sri Lanka's recent civil war, as the Tamils fought four a separate ethnic nation of their own. The war officially ended just last year, but most of the fighting and devastated were located in the north, not in the southern area where I was traveling. I picked up three books at a bookstore in Kandy written by local authors about the conflict and what it did to the country (sadly there was no book exchange, but at least they were cheap,) so I was able to learn a lot over the next few days on my bus trips.

The most important landmark in Kandy is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, which is home to a tooth relic of The Buddha himself, said to have been stolen from his funeral pyre during cremation, and smuggled into Sri Lanka sometime around the fourth century AD. The tooth has been moved and carefully guarded all across Sri Lanka, as the kingdom capital kept moving around until finally settling in Kandy a few centuries back. I toured the temple, the museum, (view from one of the museum balconies - the lion is the Sinhalese national animal and emblem) and the palace grounds (the temple was in the royal residence of the Kandyan king) and found it all extremely interesting and of course, beautiful. Hundreds of Buddhist pilgrims were in Kandy to pay homage and give offerings to the tooth relic, which you couldn't actually see since it was supposedly kept inside a small golden stupa-like structure - we were shuffled through so fast because there were so many people that I only caught a glimpse of the tooth holder thing - it was under pretty high security. Much of the temple area was decorated with paintings and gifts from other Buddhist countries like Burma, Thailand, Japan, and of course, Korea. Acutally, Sri Lanka was responsible for spreading Theravada Buddhism to the rest of Asia, compared to the other sects of Tibetan and Buddhism, as they made and kept copies of the Buddha's teachings and spread them across the ocean due to their lucrative spice trade. Because my plans to go to the museum fell through (it turned out to be a holiday, therefore some of the attractions weren't open) I came back to the temple at night (pictured) for the puja ceremony. If you remember from Nepal, I attended a Tibetan Buddhist puja ceremony in Pokhara - it was interesting to note the differences between ceremonies.

I only had two full days of Sri Lanka left, and since that wasn't enough time to make it to all of the ancient cities, as they were too far away and too expansive to do in a short amount of time, I narrowed my plans down from four locations to two, both of which I could hit in the same day, and one of which I had heard was the most impressive out of all of them. I left Kandy early that morning, after a breakfast of string hoppers - funny spaghetti like blobs of noodles (not quite noodles but close enough) that are eaten with sambol, dhal, and fish curry. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but even I couldn't do fish curry for breakfast. HI also ordered coffee, forgetting I was in the tea capital of the world, and they served me a cup of hot water and barely mixed in Nescafe grounds...live and learn, right?

My morning bus was a hot, bumpy, two hour long trip to Dambulla, which I shared with many staring males, but also with a science teacher lady who I sat next to - we had a nice chat and she helped me get off at the right stop. Dambulla is home to the famous rock temple, which is actually a Buddhist temple inside a cave high up in a hill that just sort of rises up randomly from the landscape. After climbing about twenty minutes up a rock step path, you have to take your shoes off before entering the caves (actually a series of five caves, but there's one big one that's the most famous.) I encountered more Buddhas than I have ever seen in my life within those 200 meters of caves - Buddha paintings, small Buddha statues, huge Buddha statues, some reclining Buddhas, and some Buddha carvings - some were very very old, some more recent. As always, I shared the location with Buddhist devotees, so I tried to inconspicuously take pictures and not disturb them as they made their offerings, which was interesting to watch (from a respectful distance.)

After descending from the caves - this picture is at the bottom of the rock path, of one of the largest Buddhas in Sri Lanka, I walked back to the bus station and caught a 45 minute bus ride to my next destination: a tiny little village called Sigiriya. Sigiriya has absolutely nothing going for it...besides a really big, famous rock. Here it is, in all its glory. The rock is a bit of a mystery, as there isn't much record of what it is or what it is used for - debates go between an old kingdom and an ancient place for Buddhist worship...or that the kingdom came first and then the Buddhists used it for worship. Either way, it's a really, really old rock that has been revered as a holy site for centuries, and it is surrounded by ancient rock and garden structures that provide evidence of human occupation and maintenance, possibly from prehistoric times.

So, what do people do at Sigiriya when they go visit? They climb it. After checking into a guesthouse that someone at my previous hostel in Kandy recommended to me, (by the way - you can rely on Lonely Planet all you want, but sometimes the best way to travel is just by talking to fellow travelers for tips and advice) I dumped my stuff off, grabbed my camera and a bottle of water, and headed off down the dirt road that led to the entrance. After paying a hefty fee of 33 dollars (it had just been raised from 25 dollars to 33 two days before...I was not happy), I entered the garden complex - said to be one of the oldest gardens in the world - and stared up at the 1,200 ft tall rock that lay before me - I was ready to climb. And also very hot. The climb was good - a series of small rickety rock and metal steps that took you up the side of the rock face, then a few extra spiral stairways straight up the side to see the ancient cave fresco paintings - estimated to have been around since the 4th century BC. They were really beautiful, and really well preserved. 

After about 20 minutes of climbing, I reached the Lion Gate - in ancient times the entrance to the palace complex was supposedly a giant lion, and you were supposed to walk into the lion's mouth - now all that is left are the two gigantic paws on either side of the stairway - but they were still incredibly impressive. After taking a short break at the entrance gate and doing some people watching of the tourists posing for pictures, I was anxious to reach the top, but ended up in a long line of people on their way up - traffic jam on Sigiriya Rock. I was so excited to see the view from the top, as I had been restraining on taking pictures the entire way up, figuring the best ones would be at the top and I still had the return journey to take more.

Being on top of Sigiriya redefined the feeling 'on top of the world.' It was amazing to look out over the immensely green landscape, dotted with palm trees, jungle, and small hills here and there. There weren't any lasting structures from whatever used to be on top of Sigiriya, but there were still remains of the stone wall foundations, so I spent some time just walking all along the edges and through the paths, taking pictures and viewing the area from all angles. As I walked around, taking pictures and avoiding some groups of young guys while pretending not to understand English, I had a clear, definite feeling: "I'm done."

 I was so elated - I would be on a flight back to Korea the next evening, I had survived three and a half weeks of travel on my own, I made it through the trip, I was standing on top of this amazing rock on a perfect afternoon on a beautiful island - I realized that I was completely satisfied with my trip, and also completely ready to go back to Korea. I think I reached this point because by then, while I loved the travel experience, I hadn't realized how emotionally grating it would be to see such abject poverty, to deal with all of the tourist hawkers and staring, to continually answer what country I'm from and 'no thank you,' to keep telling people I had a boyfriend so they would stop hassling me, to negotiate prices for everything since everyone (taxi drivers, hostel owners, shopkeepers) tries to ridiculously inflate prices for tourists, and I had just had enough. It was time to return.

 After surprising myself with that thought, I sat on the rock looking out over the palm trees for a while in peace and quiet - I realized how much about the states and even Korea I had taken for granted, and how my perspective on how fortunate I have been in life had really changed, to embrace even more of an understanding of how lucky I am. Also, I was proud of myself for having made it through the trip on my own, living out my travel dream exactly the way I had wanted to, and I was so excited to begin to make plans for my next one. Life was good on top of that rock.

After my little personal Hallmark session, I practically skipped down the rest of the trail, taking pictures and stopping here and there to just take it all in and make sure I wasn't rushing myself off. When I got back to my room I rewarded myself with a much needed shower, then settled down with my journal and book to wait for dinner - the guesthouse owner made meals family style at his nearby house (with his wife, I assume) and then brought them over to feed his guests - there were seven of us total, and we all waited in anticipation for our homecooked authentic Sri Lankan meal. We weren't disappointed, as we were fed an amazing yet simple meal of rice, four kinds of curries, and a plate of fresh fruit for dessert - YUM. I couldn't wait for breakfast. We ate out in this little treehouse like hut, with a perfect view of Sigiriya Rock behind it. I chatted with the other travelers for a bit - all European - and realized how much more there was of Sri Lanka to see, as most of them were on two or three week trips. Shame on me for not doing better research. I'll go back someday to cover the rest. I went to bed extremely full, but excited for my final day of Sri Lanka, which would culminate on a plane trip to Singapore, where I had a full day layover before leaving for Seoul the following day. I had a choice between long layovers in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, or Singapore, and I chose Singapore because it was the longest and I had heard marvelous things about the airport and how easy it was to get into the city center - I was sold.

So, the next morning, after being fed another round of fresh fruit along with some bread, jam, and tea, I packed up and headed out, ready for another day of: bus. I could have taken the bus back to Kandy and then taken the train, but as I figured that would be backtracking a bit, and since I hadn't really spent any time in the capital city, I should get to Colombo as soon as I could and do some exploring before catching the train to the airport for my 11 30 PM flight. Well, this turned into about five hours of bus time, and I ended up sitting next to some young guys who were all too eager to give up their seat for me...so they could try to chat me up. Now, if you recall my feelings from before, I was just so ready to be left alone that the last thing I wanted to do was chat. If it was a woman, like the teacher I had met on my way up, or a family, that would have been different, but at that point I had spoken to so many young guys, trying to be friendly and not the mean, snobby tourist, that I was just plain ambassadored out - I whipped out my book and stuck my nose in it as soon as I sat down as to not be disturbed, figuring if they couldn't talk to me they wouldn't know what country I was from, so at least I wouldn't be giving America a bad name. This was a bit sad because I wanted to look out of the window to see the scenery, but as soon as I raised my eyes from the book one of them would ask me a question...luckily the bus was really loud so it was feasible enough to pretend I didn't hear them. So I played my little game most of the bus ride back to Colombo - the good thing is that it was actually a really good book about the civil war that had happened not even five years before, in the exact same area I was traveling through at the time - there is nothing like reading about history in the place it actually happened. I was able to finish it shortly after my overly friendly seat partners left (I hopped into an available seat as soon as one opened up, book still in hand.) I was able to sneak some pictures in then, such as this little roadside hut, complete with fresh papayas and bananas for sale.

I arrived in Colombo about an hour before sunset, so I had just enough time to catch an autorickshaw over to Galle Face Green, the one destination I really wanted to see. It was really neat - an open lawn area, right on the beach, with a boardwalk and tons of food vendors selling savory snacks and treats. There were lots of families, tourists, kids flying kites, and schoolkids hanging out - a fun public atmosphere. I said goodbye to the Indian Ocean with one last walk in the surf, and then after checking out the famous nearby Galle Face Hotel, I turned around and walked my way back towards the railway...or at least I tried to, until I ended up not taking the correct turn and found myself in the middle of the Sri Lankan military headquarters complex...oops. At first I thought there was just a lot of high security...so I turned around and got myself out of there pretty fast, cursing my inner compass. Unfortunately, by then it was getting dark, so I gave in and got myself an autorickshaw, paid a dollar more than what I should have, but made it back to the train station in time to wait around some more for my train to take me to the airport.

It was a good thing I had one more book left, because it occupied me on my final train station wait and train ride to the airport - however, the 80 cent cost beat out all discomfort, so that was fine by me - more reading time. I actually freaked out for a moment because my internal compass was off again, and I thought we were going south instead of north towards the airport on the train, but then someone reassured me we were going the correct direction. The train ended up taking an extra hour than I anticipated, so I made it to the airport about an hour before my flight - by the time I checked in and went through security (by the way - Colombo has a surprisingly nice airport) I was hot, tired, but relieved. Then, like an oasis rising out of the desert, I was greeted by a wonderful sight: a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Call me a coffee snob, call me a tourist, but I don't care because my latte tasted like the best thing in the world at that point. It was a fun treat, and I even had enough time to spend my last remaining rupees on a few small souvenirs in the gift shops. When I was waiting to board the plane, I watched the Grammys live on the TV playing in the waiting lounge and remember thinking 'hey, those are MY celebrities! I know all about who they are dating and I can even understand what they're saying!' I never thought watching Katy Perry sing "Teenage Dream" would evoke such happy feelings inside of me, but I did feel glad to see such a familiar sight as American TV. I was also especially happy to be on my final leg of my trip: I just had two plane rides and a couple more buses to go. But first I had a fun day of exploring Singapore to look forward to.

I arrived in Singapore around 6 AM local time, which put me at about 2 hours of sleep total. My next flight was due to take off at 2:25 AM that night (morning) so basically I only had two options for surviving the next 20 hours: sleep in the comfy lounges provided at the Singapore Airport for that very purpose, or just drink a lot of caffeine and occupy myself enough so that I didn't think about being tired. Which did you think I chose? Yes, you were right - pulling all nighters in high school and college prepared me well.

It turned out that I would have probably been too excited to sleep in the Singapore Airport anyways because it was just so exciting - it was really fancy, clean, and full of fun shops, cafes, restaurants, and even some pretty gardens. There were free Internet kiosks everywhere, comfy chairs, duty free shops, clean bathrooms, well marked signs and information desks, and lots of happy looking people: after spending three weeks in South Asia it was nothing short of heavenly. However, one of the best parts of that airport was that I was automatically anonymous - no staring whatsoever, or at least none that I noticed or that creeped me out. Oh, and the Starbucks. Of course that added to my traveler's heaven. 

I had three things on my Singapore agenda: coffee, a free airport personnel guided city tour, and meeting up with Corrine, a former English teacher in Thailand that my aunt put me in contact with. Since I had planned to meet with Corrine later in the afternoon, I sought out the airport tour kiosk - there was a choice between the cultural tour or the historical tour - both about an hour long. I'll let you guess again which one I chose. Since my tour (yes, of course the history one) wasn't due to meet for another three hours, all I needed was coffee and I was ready for action.

My airport tour was great - the guide was a cute little Singaporean lady who works for the tourism board - she said the reason they give airport tours is to interest people who are passing through Singapore on layovers enough to want to come back and spend a vacation in the city/country (/island.) I must say, she did an excellent job - I learned about how this British dude showed up in Singapore back when it was nothing more than a little Chinese fishing village in the nineteenth, and he turned it into one of the most successful trading ports in the world. Singapore is made up of three major ethnic groups: Malays, Tamils, and the Chinese, plus all of the other foreigner expats. The architecture is outstanding - they are constantly creating new structures, building on top of things, and trying out innovative new designs. This submarine like looking thing is actually a casino and swimming pool (infinity pool) and I have no idea why it is on three pillars. Most of these pictures were from a bus, so I apologize for the quality. We also had the chance to walk around the historical downtown district and take some pictures.

After the airport tour I plopped my much-heavier-than-when-I-left-due-to-God-knows-what backpack down in the luggage storage area and took the metro from the airport into the city center to meet up with Corrine. She has lived there for about a year now - her husband is in the Singaporean navy, and they met while she was teaching in Thailand. We hit it off right away, glad to finally meet in person after about a year of e-mail exchanges, and she was a wonderful tour guide for me. She actually had a yoga class to attend shortly after we met up, and her yoga lady was nice enough to let me use the studio's shower, (probably more for Corrine and the general public's benefit than mine) before I went out and wandered along the riverbank while waiting for her to finish class. This picture is post-shower, with the location of the original fishing village where modern Singapore officially started behind me, and the skyline beyond.

After meeting up again with Corrine and eating at a delicious Thai restaurant (she said you can get just about any kind of food you could ever want in Singapore) we headed to Orchard Street, one of the most famous shopping districts in the world - mall upon mall built all on one main street. I was in search of one final book exchange bookstore (I found out about one while inquiring in local bars during Corrine's yoga class - the local patrons were very friendly and helpful, which I'm sure didn't have anything to do with the fact they were at a pub at 4 in the afternoon) to turn in my Sri Lanka books for one or two on Singapore and its history. This mission was successful, and after wandering around in the shops we walked outside to see the strip. I was blown away. In the dark the malls lit up like Christmas - it reminded me of about twenty Times Squares put together but all on one long road. She taught me a lot about living in Singapore (and yes, chewing gum really is banned for sale in Singapore) and even took me to a local hawker center for a late dinner. 

Too short of a time later, I had to head back to the airport to check in for my flight - I had successfully been so busy I forgot I was supposed to be tired. Back in the airport, I had a nice taste of home with one final coffee while reading an entire People magazine in front of the magazine stall, then wandering through the new English books at the airport bookstore - just like a typical day for me at the bookstre. After a little final perusing at the gift shops and saying goodbye to the incredible airport and its gardens, it was time for me to board. Spending the day in Singapore was enough taste of modern life to get me back in Korea mode, and I was extremely excited to be back at my place the following day. Luckily, the seat next to me was unoccupied, and I was able to sleep for a solid four hours before waking up to the flight attendants serving breakfast. It was nice to hear the Korean language again. I was almost back, and I wrote my final journal entry on the plane (in very very small handwriting, as I was just about out of pages.)

I was back in one piece, I was safe, I had no major disasters, and I had an amazing trip - I scrolled back through my pictures, starting with my first morning in Kathmandu, and relieved my experiences - the trip was so much more than I ever could have imagined, and I knew I would always treasure my memories. I felt like I had been gone for the perfect amount of time - long enough to feel like an adventure, and long enough for me to start missing my Korea home, but not too long that I began to resent and dislike the places I was visiting - I was glad I had a home base to return to before that happened to me. My batteries were fully recharged, and luckily I've had the past week and a half to settle myself back into Korea - I see it in a whole new light now, and appreciate the modernism, the development, and even the kimchi.

I've passed my halfway mark here in Korea, and though I'm already busy planning my next adventure, I want to make sure that I make the most of my remaining time here - there is so much of the country left to explore. I hope you enjoyed my little travelogue, and feel free to look at more pictures on Facebook. I'd love to hear how you are doing and touch base - shoot me an e-mail or add me on Skype. I hope you're having a wonderful week and staying warm, especially if you're home in snowdumped-upon Minnesota or Wisconsin. I'll update you with some back to school stories next week - bye for now!