Final Blog Sri Lanka

I'm finally home. It has been a long trip home from Sri Lanka. I woke up at 12.30 AM Sunday (local Sri Lanka time), went to the airport at 1 AM. My flight left at 4.30 AM and I had my first breakfast on that flight. My flight from Doha left at 8.45 AM local Qatar time. So I had my second breakfast on that flight. Then they also served an additional sandwich before landing in Sweden 14.20 local time. It is safe to say that I had enough of breakfast and bread on the trip. Now I will be back on my normal GI diet. I'm so looking forward to it.

By the way - even if I love to travel, I always appreciate the little things when I'm back home. Like:

• That I most of the time can get food that is good for me. See example above
• That I can go to the kitchen and get a glass of pure good-tasting water from the tap, instead of carrying a bottle around
• That I can do my own laundry (So many clothes of mine have been destroyed by hotel laundry)
• That I know I will have hot water in the shower
• That my bed is comfortable and warm
• and so on….

But that the way it should be, right? There is no place like home.

Is it just me or do you also wonder about the story around some people's behavior? There were especially 2 stories that got me going on my way home:

At the gate in Sri Lanka a woman before me in the line was stopped because her boarding card wasn't approved. She immediately stated that it had something to do with her hand luggage. According to her it was gone, but she had 2 bags with her. Already there I started to wonder about the story. Did she have yet another bag as hand luggage and someone had stolen it? How could than then affect her boarding card? Or was she forced to check-in a bag that she wanted to have as her hand luggage, but again - how could that affect her boarding card. Then when I finally boarded the plane the woman was sitting next to the entrance (on the flight attendant seat) drinking a glass of water, looking a bit sick. What had happened?? Was she maybe a con artist - playing some kind of game. With a little bit of imagination you can write a whole story based on that woman's behavior. :-)

On the same plane yet another thing happened. When I arrived to my seat (Window row 16) a young girl sat on the seat next to mine. You know - one of those middle seats which is the last place you want to sit (I prefer window, then aisle - others prefer aisle then window. No one wants the middle seat). She acted a bit confused when I came, but I didn't think more about it. Until another lady came and gave her notice that it was her seat the young girl sat in. The young girl's ticket stated row 32?!! Now some questions arise: was it the first time she flew and she thought it was free seating? Why did she then chose the worst seat - the middle one?? Did she just want to sit on another seat? Why didn't she then wait until everyone was onboard, so she could see where there were seats available? Or was she just playing some kind of game?? So many questions….

Anyhow - I'm home, have unpacked everything and soon I will have done all my laundry as well. It feels good in a way, even if I would have preferred to have some more vacation. But that have to wait. Until then my blog is paused for this time. Take care everyone! Thank you so much for following me around the world!

Last days in Sri Lanka and a Summary

FInal day in Sri Lanka. I'm sitting in my hotel room. On my own - for the first time in 2 weeks. It is nice to have my own room, but still I miss my room mate Annie. We left her in Galle this morning. She will stay in Sri Lanka another week. Good for her!

The last days of the trip have been as busy as the previous ones. There have been both transports and sightseeing included. And of course some nice meals. You can see some of what I have seen the last days below.

So I guess it is time to make a summary….

Destination:

Sri Lanka is beautiful and fantastic. The food is great and people are very friendly. There are so many things to do and to see. I could easily have spent another week here. It is one of my top destinations and I could consider to come back later in life (which is top grades for me, since I usually don't visit a place more than once).

Trip:

As an Intrepid trip it is not one of my favorites. Our guide was very sweet and took really good care of the group, but he made things too complicated and talked forever. I got very impatient at times, since I like people who get to the point fast. The group was ok, but far from the best group I have travelled with. One reason was that half of the group was British and I realized that my English is not good enough to follow fast speaking British humor. It was quite a revelation for me, since I usually don't have any problems to understand English. I guess my English is more American than I thought.

Exercise:

I have only jogged 3 times on the trip, 2 times on the beach and one time with uphill training. I'm not totally happy with that. But I couldn't find the time for more, which is a common problem when you travel with a group. But I have managed to swim 2 times, we have done lots of walking, some biking and some hiking. So I haven't been laying still at least.

Packing:

My "backpack packing system" is great (it consists of 5 soft boxes formed to fit in a backpack). If you ever get the possibility to buy it - don't hesitate. You will not regret it. You never have to look through your whole bag to find what you are looking for and it is easier to pack and unpack when you are moving from place to place.

Contact lenses:

I have learned some things about traveling with contact lenses. It is funny it should take me 33 years (which is as many years I have had contacts) to learn about this. But I guess I have become sloppy through the years. So here are my findings:

• Don't put your glasses in your purse if you can't put them in a compartment that you lock or zip. I lost my glasses somewhere in Kandy halfway into the trip. They must have fallen out of my bag at one point or another. First time ever!
• Don't put your spare contact lenses together with your glasses. Then you have lost both plan B and C at the same time. I did that - thought it was so convenient to have all my eye things on one space.
• Don't take out your contacts or put them in if you don't have good lightning. I lost one when I wanted to put it in my eye in a dark bathroom. Which is actually the first time ever I lost one lens.

So I had a lot of bad luck with my lenses and I ended up spending 2 days with only one. It was very confusing. Especially since it was my camera eye that didn't have any lens. It was so difficult to take pictures. To walk in stairs or read a book was two other things that got very complicated. Finally i bought one extra lens from an Optician in Galle. She had only one kind of lenses and luckily it fit my eye.

I will write at least one more blog from home. So follow me the whole way.

Fishermen :-)

They go for 3.75 G in Sri Lanka

Monkeys are everywhere, but this one was special

Crow in the sunset of Galle

Elephants and Whales

OK - I know I have already shown you pictures of elephants, but I can't help it - I just love these animals so you will have to put up with some more. :-)

Yesterday we paid a visit to an Elephant Orphanage, where they take care of little elephants that has ended up in trouble. They take care of them until they can release them into the wild again. On our way to the Orphanage we passed a wild elephant next to the road.  We just couldn't resist, so we stopped and fed the elephant bananas. It seemed quite happy with the attention and stood close to the bus and waited for more bananas. See picture below.

We arrived to the orphanage just in time for the feeding. It was a fantastic view to see all the little elephants run towards the "milk station". There were around 30 elephants, so it was good that they didn't release them all at the same time. That would have been rather chaotic. Some of the elephants pretended that they still hadn't been feed and tried to go for seconds, but the guard always saw them trying. They were so cute when they were casually strolling around in the effort to trick the guard.

In the late afternoon we arrived to Mirissa Beach for a day off the busy schedule. But it didn't take me long to fill up the free day. I booked a whale watching trip and a massage. 

The whale watching started early in the morning (6.15). We had quite a big boat that took around 30 people. From the harbor we drove about 2 hours out on the ocean and then the "chase" started. There were 5 boats with tourists looking for signs of blue whales and as soon as someone spotted something all boats drove in that direction. If you were lucky you got to see the whale swim around and blow some air and then dive. We saw many whales and got close to a couple of them. It was fantastic. I mean - who would not be amazed by the biggest animal on earth??

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach, either strolling or just hanging around.

In the late afternoon I went for the massage. As some of you know - I have enjoyed massages all around the world. So I'm quite picky. I know exactly what I like and what I don't like. That is the problem when you have a lot of experience - you start having demands. When I came to my massage appointment they told me to come back an hour later?! I wondered why, since I had booked the time. They said that someone had just walked in (without an appointment). I then told them, that since I made an appointment - the other person should leave, not I. They agreed with me, so I was happy. When I came into the massage room and put myself on the bed I realized it was wet (from the girl before), so I told them to swap the towels. Again they did as I told. The massage started and I wasn't impressed. It was no pressure, just strokes. Exactly the kind of massage I don't like. When she was finished I looked at the watch and realized that she had only given me a little bit more than 40 minutes of massage (I booked one hour). And since I'm a friend of order I told the woman about it, so she put me on a plastic chair and gave me another 15 min of massage. So in the end I got what I paid for - one hour massage at the time I had booked, but it was a struggle to get there and that disturbed the whole experience. So as a whole it was probably the worst massage I have ever got. Well - you can't win them all.

No I'm sitting Galle and it is our last night with the whole group. I can't say that I'm looking forward to go home.

Hungry elephant by the road

Hungry little elephants drinking milk

Cuddling elephants

Mirissa Beach in the morning

Mirissa Beach in the afternoon

Blue Whale Diving

Finally hiking

I'm back in civilization after 2 days of hiking. At the moment I'm sitting in the hotel reception with a view of the tea terraces. I feel really happy. We have had 2 fantastic days of hiking the tea terraces. I loved every minute of it.

But before we went for the hike we had some other interesting activities:

• Tea factory tour
• Shopping in Kandy
• A traditional dance show which included a walk on fire
• A visit to a quirky hotel called Helga's Follie where a lot of famous people have stayed

The tea factory was interesting since we got to see the working conditions (I have seen how they make tea before). I don't think that any Swedes would accept to work there. It is times like this that I'm reminded how good our life is in Sweden. We also got to test some tea and I ended up buying green and white tea. I'm looking forward to try the tea in Sweden. I mean - Sri Lanka is famous for the their tea.

I was really looking forward to the shopping in Kandy, but I was very disappointed since I didn't really see anything that I wanted to buy (strange - huh?!). In the end I only went to the supermarket and bought some yoghurt and water. Huge disappointment. So far - the only souvenirs I have bought was in the Spice Garden and the Tea factory.

In the evening we went to dance show, where they presented a lot of different dances from around Sri Lanka. I was sitting next to Annie (my room mate) which was funny, since a couple of the dancers were staring (in a nice way) in our direction. They probably stared at Annie, but I still felt somewhat included in the attention.

After our late dinner in Kandy we decided to check out the quirky Helga's Follie hotel. Some of the guys on the trip had been there during the day and loved it. So we went there for the night cap. What a fantastic place. We went around and took pictures of all the rooms (that we could go into). You can see a couple of them below.

So we finally went of on a hiking tour. It has been THE thing I have been looking forward the whole time - my highlight of the trip! I didn't get disappointed. It was a fantastic track - one of those nice forrest trails where most of the time you can't walk two persons next to each other and with a beautiful view ALL THE TIME. I absolutely loved it. As usual (except for the hike in New Zealand) I walked in the front. For me it is all about being able to walk in my own tempo and also to have a quiet hike. I know - it is ridiculous to get on a hike with a big group thinking you should have peace and quite, but it actually works if you walk a little bit a head of everyone else. It didn't hurt that I had the nice company of our very good looking local guide. We spent 2 days discussing life, relations, work, money and hiking. It was so great!

We spent the night in the the "managers bungalow" - a sort of a guesthouse with shared sleeping rooms and bathrooms. It was absolutely lovely. The nicest thing was that I had company during my shower - a cute little frog suddenly appeared and kept me company. See the picture below.

Our evening the "managers bungalow" was ended with a lot of music. Our guides played some really nice Sri Lankan (love) songs accompanied by the bongo drums. The group was supposed to answer with a song that was common for all of us (Aussies, British and one Swede). But we stank. We couldn't come up with a single song that we all knew (especially the lyrics). In the end I sang one song, but we couldn't find any common songs. 

The next day our wonderful hike continued. It was as beautiful the second day as the first, with fantastic views and nice tracks. We were soooo lucky with the weather both days - sunshine and good temperature for hiking. I couldn't ask for anything more. We finished the hike with a trip to a waterfall. Out of the whole group we were only two (I was one of them) that went into the water. Most thought it was too cold, but it was actually 22 degrees Celcius. Not bad at all.

The day finished with a visit to a Hindu temple where we got to participate in the service. Very interesting! I love this kind of activities - where you get to try or be a part of other peoples traditions.

Now we are looking forward to a visit in a elephant orphanage and some days on the beach is awaiting. It is going to be really nice.

In the tea factory

One of the dancers in the dance show, who kept flirting with us (Annie!)

Walk on fire

Helga's Follie

My shower companion

Our guides. The good looking one in the middle, if you didn't get that. ;-)

Again - the guides and me. My favorite to the right. Notice the mark on my forehead.

Me in the waterfall

The hiking trail

Ruins, Elephants and Spices

I don't know if it is good or bad when you get tired from having a vacation?! But I'm tired. :-) In a good way. We have had long days filled with lots of activities and/or transports. But I enjoy every minute of it. 

During the last days we have:

• Biked some more around ruins
• Been on a elephant safari
• Hiked to the top of big rock (Sigirya)
• Seen more Buddhas statues than I can count
• Visited a spice garden
• Had many hours of transportations

There is not that much to tell about all the temples and ruins I've seen, more than that they have been interesting and beautiful. I've learned a lot about Buddhism (or rather I was reminded of what I learned in school) and I feel a need to study it a bit more. I learned a lot about Islam while I lived in Indonesia and Malaysia and I feel I would like to know at least that much about Hinduism and Buddhism. It gives me a better understanding of the the different cultures which is very important when you are traveling a lot. Come to think about it  - I think it is always important to know more about other cultures. Don't you agree?

I have to admit that I'm not the ruin/temple kind of girl. I can take some, but I get bored quite quickly. So after 2 days of temples and ruins I really wanted to do something else. Of course I enjoyed the sightseeing a bit more doing it on a bike, but I would have preferred do to more 'just' biking. So when the option came along to go on a Elephant safari I jumped on it. I was a little bit worried that we wouldn't see any elephants at all, since you can never guarantee that you will see animals. But there was absolutely no need to be worried. We saw plenty of elephants and some very cute birds. As always I don't remember the name of the birds, but if you are good at birds take a look at the picture below.

The Sigirya is probably the best know landmark in Sri Lanka. It is the rest of the of an impressive fortress built as a royal citadel on the top of a 200 m high rock mass. You can also see some 5th century frescoes there, absolutely beautiful. Our guide kept on warning us, before we went there, how difficult the walk up would be. I was a bit confused about the warning. To walk up 200 altitude meters is not a lot or especially hard. Some of you, that have followed my blog, might remember that I walked up 1200 altitude meters in Norway last summer and that WAS hard (especially doing it in thigh deep snow), but 200 m - I mean REALLY?! But on the other hand - the walk up could be difficult due to bad steps or something. When we arrived there I saw that the steps were quite good. In fact they were a lot better than a lot of other places I have visited before. So almost everyone felt "that was it?" when we finally came up to the top. I'm not sure what is the best: to be expecting the worst (and maybe drop out the activity) and then be happily surprised how easy it was or to expect it to be easier and then struggle a little. Anyhow - the view from the top was amazing and we had our breakfast there in the morning sun.

The spice garden has been the highlight so far. Mainly because I did't have any expectations. (Sigirya and the elephant safari I had expectations on and they were met) We had a great guide that taught us a lot about the different spices and how we could use them to improve our health. As a health fanatic I listened carefully and decided to try all which I found to be extra interesting. It ended up with a bill on 1000 SEK (around 110 Euros). Maybe a little bit more than I planned, but if all goes well it will improve my time on the half marathon. And that can't be bad. The extra added value to this stop was that we all got face-, back-, arm- and leg massages so they could prove how good their different products were. Not bad, not bad at all.

Now we are in Kandy and have spent the morning in a tea factory. It was quite interesting and of course I ended up buying some tea. I went for the white tea, since that is a bit fancier. :-) Let's see what I think about it.

I don't know when I can blog again, since we are about to start hiking. We will spend 2 days hiking up in the tea plantations. I'm really looking forward to that. :-)

This is how you look when you go sightseeing on a bike.

The gang

Beautiful bird on the Elephant safari

Buddhas, Buddhas, Buddhas...

A cute little elephant

The stairs to the top of the rock

The view form the top of the rock - our breakfast view

Ahhhh... vanilla!!!

A hectic start of the trip

I have had some really nice and hectic days, like always when I'm traveling with Intrepid Travel.

Since I wrote my last blog, 2 days ago, I have:

• met the group of 12 people + the guide. We are 11 women, 1 man and a male guide
• Travelled from Negombo to  Anuradhapura (took several hours by bus)
• Swam 1000 meters two times (one time each day)
• Climbed/hiked a mountain with a monastery. It was somewhat of a challenge to my fear of heights
• Had a bike tour where we visited MANY historical religious sites, where the Bo Tree, which was grown from a cutting of the original tree in Bodhgaya under which Buddha gained the enlightenment, was the one that stood out.
• Had a cooking show
• and so on…..

I will not tell you in detail about all these things, since you can read about them in any tourist book. I think it is more interesting  for you to read about my observations. Or?! Let me know what you think?!

The group is a lovely combination of strong women used to travel the world on their own. We have one retired couple with us (hence the man in the group) who are traveling the world together. I think it is a lovely way to spend your retirement. I hope I can do that also. My room mate is the best in the group. She is a cool chick from London, a mother of two daughters and divorced. We are the same age, we have had similar family "problems", similar problems with men and we are laughing trough the night discussing these things. But we look rather funny together. I'm totally white after a winter in Sweden and my usual blond hair and Annie is totally black, skin and hair. We joke about this and I always start to sing Michael Jackson's song (it doesn't matter if your black or white) in my head while looking at us together. She is teaching me proper English language, since I'm totally destroyed from all the time I have spent in California.

The rest of the group consist of one half Aussies and one half British people. I'm the only one that don't have English as my mother tongue. And I have to say that it is sometimes hard to follow all the British and Australian expressions that I have never heard before. But it is a great group with a lot of fun.

The guide on the other hand, seems to have a complete lack of humor. He is hardly smiling and is taking himself FAR to serious. And as a super efficient Swede that wants everyone to get to the point fast - I sometimes get very bored and maybe even a bit annoyed with his way of telling us things. He repeats everything several times (yeah, I know you should repeat yourself  if you want people to fully understand, but that is not how he is doing it) in a way it feels like he is talking in circles. When you are standing in the hot sun, you have even higher requirements on how fast people should get to the essence of the subject. Our guide takes his time. And he says "do you follow (me)" every second sentence. That has a tendency to make me both smile and get annoyed. If I start to say that (do you follow) from now on - you all know where I got it from.

To ride a bike in Sri Lanka is a different experience. Especially when you drive the bike through the city traffic. You have to pay close attention to everything that happens around you and that is a LOT. To cross the street - you need help from someone that can take the role of a temporary traffic police But all in all it is an amazing way to see the sights. The wind cools you down while biking, you are good to the environment, you get a little bit of exercise and you see everything, but are still moving quite fast compared with the rest of the traffic. I wish all my trips had more biking.

One more thing - there are monkeys everywhere. And they are quite sneaky. They will take what ever they can put their hands on. They took Annie's ( my room mate's) mangosteens (a fruit that I learned to love in Malaysia) from her hand. So you better watch out here.

Tonight we are going to  Chinese restaurant. It feels a bit funny to do that in Sri Lanka, but it is a recommendation. And we have been eating local food so far….

A funny little creature that I saw

I'm on top of the mountain

Mean Monkey Grandpa

How to repaint a big globe. ;-)

Some of the girls