Around The World With Lena: 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.