April Break Trip

So friends I'm sorry that it took me so long to get my pictures up from my trip this term break. Our entire trip lasted for four days. Those on the trip were Murray, Esther and Isaac, Jackie (a friend of Matt and Reb's from Abbotsford) and myself and of course Rajah, the driver. They were jam packed with fun and excitement. Our first stop on our way was in Matale. In Matale they have a Noritake china factory. We didn't take a tour of the factory because we didn't have time but we did visit the showroom where we purchased some goods at VERY reasonable prices. After finishing there we drove to Dambulla. We stopped in Dambulla to see the rock caves. The group of pictures below are from Dambulla. I didn't take any pictures inside the caves because they were too dark. It wasn't until recently that they allowed you to take pictures. They used to allow it until a French tourist sat on one of the buddhas which was in the meditating position and broke three of his fingers off. Her punishment was that she was banned from any Buddhist country for 18 years! Note to self...don't wreck buddha.

Everywhere that you go here there are fish ponds. In restaurants, at hotels and at the rock caves in Dambulla. The caves were up the mountain behind the giant buddha. When we were up there we could see Sigiriya Rock and from Sigiriya we could see the Golden Buddha...it's huge. After we were done in Dambulla we traveled on to Pollonaruwa where we were staying. It was the most centeralized location. Early the next morning we headed off for Sigiriya.

Sigiriya is this massive rock. All around and on top of it castles and gardens had been built in the 5th century AD. Monks had been using the area as a monastary since 3 BC. It was amazing to see the construction of the water system, fountains and water gardens, paintings, and the amazing lion (only the feet are left) which lead to the castle at the top of the rock.

We got a guide to take us through Sigiriya and I am really glad that we did because there is so much that we would have missed had we just gone on our own. Our guide was really good. There is a picture of him with Murray and Isaac. His name was Rajesh. When the trek was almost over we got to see a man charm a snake. That was cool. I'd never seen it in person before.

So after we were safely tucked back into the van (we had to fight off a barrage of eager vendors) we headed off back to Pollonaruwa. But then Rajah (our driver) had an awesome idea...why not go on a jeep safari to see elephants in the wild! Great idea. We had a blast. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip we got to stand in the jeep when we were travelling. Our guide was really good. He could spot elephants from far away. You'd think that spotting an elephant wouldn't be too hard but it is actually quite difficult. Elephants totally blend in to their environment. One thing I should tell you is that our guide was mute...that's right friends he couldn't talk! He was an excellent guide though.

So the first elephant that we saw was a young male. He was all alone. We sat there in the jeep and watched him for some time then all of the sudden he charged the jeep!! I didn't know that I could move so fast. We were all down inside the jeep in seconds except for our guide who was standing up grunting and waving his arms at the elephant. The elephant stopped and we all had a chance to regain our composure before we moved on. Near the end of our trip there were huge thunderclouds rolling in and it was beginning to rain. By the time we got back where we started it was pouring down pretty good. On our way back we saw three jeeps just heading out for their safaries. That's gotta suck.

So the next day we checked out of our hotel in Polonnaruwa...we wanted to leave bad. The rooms were ok but the service was lacking. We thought that it would be better to go to Kandy and stay there then we would have a full day in Kandy. After we checked out of our hotel we set out to see the sights of Pollonaruwa. Polonnaruwa was once the capital city of Sri Lanka. The first ancient capital was Anuradhapura then, Polonnaruwa then Kandy. Now it's Columbo. We saw a lot of ruins which had once been castles and temples. We saw many buddhas in many positions (there's seven). At one of the temples we visited there were some kittens running around. Most of them looked really sick and malnurished but the one in the pictures looked like it might make it.

Polonnaruwa is where the infamous "Cheese Button Theft" occurred. If you are not sure what that is then you should check out my blog "Monkeying Around". When we were done in Polonnaruwa we stopped for popsicles and then headed on out for Kandy. We stayed at a newer hotel in Kandy and it was very nice. The next day we headed out for the Temple of the Tooth. It is an important Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka because it holds a tooth relic that belonged to Buddha. They have an area in there that tells you the history of the relic and how it came to be in Kandy...that part I found interesting...the rest I wasn't so sure about. Not that it was anything bad it's just that you can only look at so many statues of buddha in a trip. After the temple we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. That was fun. There's a picture of their delivery bikes in the collage. After lunch had settled we went to the Peradeniya Gardens. If you've ever been to Vancouver Island to the Butchard Gardens you have an idea of what the gardens were like except that it was full of flowers and plants that I'd never seen before. We were part way through the park and these two workers asked us if we wanted to see the bats. I said sure so they went over to some huge trees and started beating some sticks together. At first I thought that they were crazy but suddenly there were bats flying out of the trees. These were no ordinary bats like we see in Canada these were huge bats. In the collage following there is a picture of a tree that looks dead. It's not it's just that there are tons of bats hanging in the tree. When we were done in the gardens we left for home.

So we did a few other things along the way. The day that we went to Sigiriya we also went to a batik factory. They showed us how they make the batiks and then took us into the showroom. It was amazing how many procedures are needed to make one batik. It was also amazing how many colorful batiks filled the showroom! We stopped at a wood carving place when we were finished our tour of Polonnaruwa. They showed us the different kinds of woods that they used for carving. They also told us hints for making sure that wood carvings were really made out of the wood that people said they were. There was one type of wood that was really cool. It was called Rainbow Wood. They outside of the tree was the color of pine but the inside was bright orange. Okay I know what you're all thinking..."Of course you like it if it's orange in the middle!" That's not why! The guy showed us that if you file the wood, collect the shavings and put them in hot water the color of the water turned bright yellow. Then he added some lime juice and the water turned bright pink. Then he added some alkaline powder and the water turned purple. They use this wood to color their carvings. That way they keep their carvings all natural. They showed us all the stages that the wood goes through before it's a finished product.

Another thing that we did was we went to a Spice and Herb garden. It was very interesting. We took a tour with an herbalist and he told us what all of the spices and herbs medicinal uses were. I didn't know that pepper grows on a creeping vine. I also learned that black, green, red, and white pepper all comes from the same plant. It changes color depending on the stage of preparation it is at. Pepper starts green. If it ripens long enough it will turn red (like bell peppers). If you remove the outer shell, which is red then you get white pepper. If you dry the pepper you get black pepper. Who knew? The funny picture of the tree with green things growing out of it is a fruit tree. The fruit is called Jack fruit. When the fruit is little people curry it as a vegetable. When they are really big (10-20 lbs.) they become sweet and you eat it as fruit. The cool thing is that the fruit grows out of the trunk instead of the branches. We also saw squirrels at the spice garden that were the size of cats! craziness.

So friends, that's pretty much everything that I did on my trip. Hope it wasn't too long for you.