Day 8: First Day in Sri Lanka

Saturday, April 22, 2017

          We arrived at midnight and I was very tired because I did not sleep during the flight, me nerves were through the roof. I was worrying (which my dad reminded me was pointless) about all of the things that could go wrong, or that I would hate it, and of course squat toilets and no AC. Thankfully we were staying in a VERY nice hotel, and I was able to go straight to bed.
           The next morning I got up around 10 (finally my normal wake up time!) and the breakfast was AMAZING. It was outside right by the ocean, the food was amazing, and there were people slingshotting at birds (coolest job ever). After we got our scavenges, we went straight back to the room to pack some clothes to take with us wherever we were going. We got books, and while we were planning we figured out that the train we needed to take had one last train that left in 15 minutes. So we ran outside, got a tuk-tuk (middle-eastern taxi) and made it to the station right on time.
          The train was to Anuradhapura, and our book said it was about a 4 hour ride. No AC, limited seating, LOTS of people. We were able to both have seats after the first hour or two. We left the station at 1:45 and we got off at 7:30, which was way longer than we thought. We decided that we needed to find a place to stay, and we were lucky enough to see Zoey and Rainy at the station! They were on the train with us the and whole time and we didn't see them til the end.
          We all got a big taxi and our drivers were so nice, they let us go buy dinner, and eat it with them at their house (this was a scavenge) before they took us to a hotel. We had cottu roti, which was really good. After about 45 minutes they took us to a hotel we had found, and it had AC, showers, toilets, and wifi!! The wifi didn't work on my phone, but I was so tired I just showered and fell asleep. The hotel had a fancy mosquito net that draped over the whole bed, so I am now confident that I don't have malaria! We have a lot to do tomorrow, so until next time!! ;)

Daddy's View:

Writing this on a phone in a remote motel in the countryside of Sri Lanka.  Anaradhapura region.  Motel has very slow wifi, but wifi!

Today was start of a 5 day leg here in Sri Lanka. Big island, some areas modestly developed, most areas not.

When we arrived, the airport mall are little storefronts of villagers selling large home appliances.

We got our scavenge books, jumped in a tuk tuk (moped taxi), went to railway station, jumped on 1:45 otrain ut to Anaradhapura.  Open air, stacked wall to wall with bodies, babies, animals - like an Indiana Jones movie.  The lavatory was a toilet with a hole out the bottom of the train car.  We tried every vendor food item - from fried lentil nuggets to samosas to popsicles to orange Fanta (!).

We met a family with two kids, the oldest was so cute we made a video with him - one of the scavenges was to make a Malaria Public Service Announcement video with a Sri Lankan.  We asked the family through hand motions and a nearby passenger.

Six hours later, through a bazillion rural Sri Lankan villages, we arrived at the oldest, Holiest Buddhist region.  As we got off, we ran into another team - the very woman respinsible for me being on this trip, Zoe Littlepage and her partner Rainey.  My heroes.  They were kind enough to spend the rest of the evening with us, yay!

We found a  cabbie and his buddy, they ended up letting us buy them dinner and invited us back to their rural house to share a meal together.  A native meal with new friends was a scavenge task, and we were lucky enough to find two great people who spoke english - what an awesome way to encourage real cross cultural relationships!

We had a great time with 37 year old Chammi and 29 year old Ana.  They were so kind and gracious and I think they enjoyed the meal as well.  We had the Sri Lankan version of fried rice - instead of rice they chop up their tortilla equivalent - it was awesome!  His home was rural, with open air walls, roofs, dirt floors, and just a couple of lights, otherwise candles and flashlights.

Now we are at the Milano Motel - the most expensive hotel in town for less than $25.  We will have an early day in morning, lots of climbing and road tripping and sweating in 110% humidity.  Also, we are sleeping under mosquito nets - Sydney's first exposure to those :)

Go Rockets and Cavs!