Day 10: Third Day in Sri Lanka

Monday, April 24, 2017

          Today is the last day we are going to stay in a different hotel than the one we have in Colombo, so we are going to power through today and tomorrow. We got up at 6:15, had breakfast, and we were off. We had a 20 minute tuk tuk ride to Dumballa where we got a 3 hour bus ride to Kandy and then got a taxi that was supposed to take up to Nuwara Eliya. We were in the taxi for about 15 minutes when our driver stopped and told us that there was no gasoline in Nuwara Eliya and he couldn't take us there. All of the taxis, tuk tuks, and buses were stopped or turning around because there was no way for them to get there. We were able to find a small bus that could take us there (and it was the first bus we had been on with AC).
          Once we got to Nuwara Eliya, we had to do our scavenges quickly so we could get to the next city we had to go to. First we went to the post office to send post cards. Then we took a taxi to Pedros, where we got a super cool and quick tour of their “factory” or where they work. It's similar to a factory, but it had around 10 workers inside at the time. We walked up Single Tree Mountain, which consists of many single trees. The last place we went was the Hill Club. It's next to the Grand Hotel, and it's a nice, British country club type thing. We stopped there to get some tea and food. The food and tea was really good, and we got to eat it in the #1 garden in all of Nuwara Eliya!! We were also accompanied by two very cute cats, and we are now members of the Hill Club. Nuwara Eliya is the coolest city in Sri Lanka, and it's actually very cool; not hot and humid at all.
          After all that was done we headed to our last bonus which is going to be very hard. We have a lot of walking to do, and a lot of hours in vehicles. Today was a lot of traveling across Sri Lanka, and tomorrow is going to be even more, so until next time!! ;)


Daddy's View

remember that scene in star wars, when the emperor is killing luke with lightning from his fingers?  darth vader gets up after getting his butt kicked by luke, picks up the emperor and throws him down into the reactor, saving luke!  darth is spent, about to die, luke pops darth's mask off and sees his father's genteel, smiling face. i got choked up at that moment - there WAS good in darth vader, and he lived to validate luke's faith in that!

i feel like darth vader is the part of my personality who is constantly pre-occupied with looking at my phone. email, sports scores, articles, news, whatever - emperor cell phone had brought me to the dark side.  

on this trip, i feel like luke has popped off darth's mask and confirmed that there IS still good left in him.  i kept believing that that guy was still in there, the guy who didn't care, could turn everything off and focus on the now of life, or just not focus at all and be in the moment.

as i rode on the bus today, standing, sitting, and sweating for 4 hours, bopping my head to bollywood pop music, furiously reading about nurawa eliya, i realized that i hadn't really thought about my phone (except to tap out this blog) for DAYS.  

and that is when i felt like luke popping off darth's mask, happy, validated, vindicated, proud... that that guy was still in there.  

in other news, lots of time on tuk tuks and buses and taxis today.  couple of interesting notes:

-  today the entire country of sri lanka was without gasoline.  apparently there is some game of chicken goig on between the country and the oil companies.  just to show off who's boss, the companies stopped selling gas since 7pm last night.  total chaos all day - 1970's US oil embargo-level lines. our taxi had to dump us because he was worried he would not be able to get home!  

- tuk tuks are really cool. it is too bad they are totally dangerous and would not be close to street legal in the US.  they are everywhere here, like the little spider veins and arteries in our bodies that don't have names but connect everything and keep us alive.  i love tuk tuks. when i buy wyoming we are going to have tuk tuks everywhere.

-  the whole history of sri lanka is fascinating. they  finished a 26 year civil war 8 yrs ago, after 2000 years of intermittent wars... all between hindus and buddhists.  it is oddly reassuring that christians and muslims and jews don't have a monopoly on long standing conflict.

- We toured the Pedro tea factory. Not napolean dynamite’s friend - curious name nonetheless.  Super interesting - Sri Lanka is the source of industrial quantities of base tea - they get cut into all the major brands teas.

- Nuwara Eliya is like a British napa valley for tea. Much cooler temperature, lots of highbrow British heritage. Our server at the Hill Club was a Sri Lankan named Bernard, with a British accent, who mastered the art of dismissive condascension of the uncouth (us) blended with authentic welcoming attitude to his establishment. Really hard to do, and a distinctively British skill.

- For the GSH there are food challenges - some are mandatory and some are optional.  None of them are intentionally gross.  For one of these challenges I had a food I've never had before.  It's called a woodapple.  The combination of those words are a bit odd and don't conjure up anything, either pleasant or offensive to me.  Here is a picture of me eating a woodapple.  I do not recommend them.