Tom –
The past five months have provided incredible professional and personal experiences. We were in Sri Lanka for four months working, touring and immersing ourselves in the culture. In addition, we have been able to fulfill some lifetime goals, travel to Egypt (e.g. pyramids), India (e.g. Taj Mahal), China (e.g. Great Wall), and fly around the world!
Tom – We went to 8:30 mass at St Theresa. Look at the pictures and note how the figures look Sri Lankan.
Nativity scene
I then went to the car rental company to close out my account, but on the way, dropped Ruki and Helen off at House of Fashion for one last shopping spree. They allowed me to keep the car for today and then a driver will come to our guesthouse at 10:30pm to drive us, in our car, to the airport. They have treated us very well.
Helen – Ranjan brought me another small painting of two Sri Lankan women which I had admired in his store. About 1pm when we were ready to drive to the warehouse, we called to be sure someone would be there, and guess what??? They were closed on Sundays…there is always a snag!!! We will have to call Chandra (the man from the antique store) to pick up two more small boxes of our things and take them to the warehouse on Monday, which he said he would do.
So now we are packed, and have 8 hours before leaving for the airport. I think that we are going to the Galle Face Hotel for ice café and to use their internet. Afterwards we will be back at the guesthouse where Ruki will make us a farewell dinner.
It’s really hard to believe this will be our last entry from Sri Lanka. We have loved our time here and had a few adventures. China should have a few highlights with the wall and terracotta soldiers (another planned tour trip – to Xian) but home is looking pretty good. I can’t wait to see and smother the kids with hugs and kisses. I have really missed them and am looking forward to talking to all my friends as well. As they say “THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME!”
Tom – Tried a new fruit this morning, it is called a mango steen. The white part, surrounding the seed, is what you eat. It is sweet and delicious. The outer fruit and seed are bitter.
Wrote the diary for the blog this morning and then took Helen to exchange our Fibretec picture for some Fibretec shell serving dishes. We then went to the bookstore to pick up the Sri Lankan cookbook that I had ordered for her. Ranjan took us out to an Indian restaurant in the Taj Sumara Hotel for a farewell dinner and also presented Helen with a silver ring and two pendants.
Helen – Is it REALLY worth the effort?? Tom makes the day sound calm, when in reality it was nerve wracking!!! The furniture logistics were a nightmare!! On Friday, Chandra the son of the Antique store owner, called and said that he was not able to get the bookcase into his van (only the two chests and the bottom and doors of the bookcase) so the bookcase would be going to the shipper tomorrow. They couldn’t use a truck (lorry) for everything because trucks are not allowed to go through the city due to security (another bus was bombed Friday – 24 killed). He said he would be at the house to show me the pieces he had and also to pick up the extra weight we wanted to ship back home. As expected, he came late and therefore I was not able to go to the shippers with him to check on things there and get our paperwork done. He told me not to worry that he was going to take the bookcase to the shipping warehouse on Saturday, call us when he was outside of Colombo, and we could follow him to the warehouse. We paid him with our Visa so if anything happened, we could stop payment. The next day we waited for his call, knowing that the warehouse closed at 3 and it would take from 1-1.5 hrs to get to the warehouse, we thought that he would be here at the latest by noon.
About 1 o’clock, we began calling his cell phone and it said that the phone was turned off. Then we tried the store and that phone was also turned off. Panic set in, Ruki raised the anxiety level with talk about how we should not have paid him until we were at the shippers, he probably took all our stuff and we would never see it again. I kept calling for at least two hours and nothing. About then I called the tourist police to ask someone to go to the store to have them call us (the store is almost two hours away!!). I had some problems talking with the police on the phone and they said that they would call us back. Meanwhile I found Chandra’s residence number and finally contacted him at home. He became upset with me for asking why he didn’t contact me and said that the truck was on its way and they would call me around 2:30.
Feeling better about his honesty, we ran our errands to Fibertec, bookstore, and had lunch at the Commons. We returned early and waited for his call. At 3:30, I called again, now he was upset with me for doubting him, said that we could cancel the transaction and he would return our belongings on Sunday. I put Ruki on the phone and she got the information about the shipping company, people and phone numbers, she was informed that we could still go to the warehouse because they were waiting for the truck and would remain open until it got there. Ruki then called the warehouse and spoke to a man who reassured her that our belongings were there and he named most of the things there. Since it was late, we decided to go the next day, Sunday. This would give us a chance to repack our suitcases again to get them into the weight requirements for our flight to China.
Tom – Pat left this morning taking the Airport Express van at 6am. Helen and I went to Hatton National Bank to close our account with the Fulbright driver. It took over an hour to close the account and then convert the rupees to dollars. Helen worked on the Fulbright computer and then took a Tuk-Tuk home while I headed for the Ministry of Education. In a semi-formal exchange, I passed on the FITNESSGRAM/ACTIVITYGRAM software and the five books related to the Physical Best program ($500 value) that Human Kinetics publishers had donated to the Minister.
He seemed genuinely impressed and in turn passed the material on to his Director of Physical Education.
Dr. Rajaratne from Peradeniya University also attended the meeting. It appears the Director of PE may just sit on the materials – if that happens, Raj will go to the Minister and request the materials so he can start using them in Kandy.
I prepared for my presentation in the afternoon and got to the Fulbright office at 4pm to set up my computer and the projector for my “Fitness for Life” presentation. Fulbright had light snacks and tea at 5:30 which was followed by my presentation. I didn’t bring my power cord and about 45 minutes into the presentation the computer battery was depleted (it started fully charged!). So, I used the flip chart for the rest of the program – I believe it went well. There were about 30 people there and they had some good questions – even the owner of the car company where I rented my car attended! The Fulbright director suggested that I apply for a Fulbright Specialist grant to return to Sri Lanka for 6-8 weeks to follow-up on the projects that I started – we’ll see.
After answering questions and wrapping things up, Helen, Ruki and I went to the Gallery Café for dinner. Ruki paid for the drinks and I paid for dinner – her bill was higher than mine!
Helen – On the way back to Colombo we stopped to have the car washed. On earlier trips we had noticed the water hoses spraying skyward wherever there was a small waterfall. At first we couldn’t figure out what they were advertising but soon discovered that they were carwashes. So today we decided it would be our last chance to experience this novelty. We chose the very best one because it took him about 45 minutes to do it and Tom said he did it as well as he would have done it himself…that young man was meticulous and only charged about $2.
It had not rained the entire trip and you know what carwashes mean…yes, it poured not long after the task was completed. On the way into Colombo we stopped for some bananas and pineapple.
Tom – I took care of business in the afternoon while Pat went off for another massage. It was Pat’s last night in town, so we took him to the Galle Face Hotel for dinner. It was built in 1864 and sits right on the ocean near downtown. It had been raining but we still choose a table outside right next to the ocean. There were green lights playing on the breakers, a heavy mist, salt spray, and lightening all around – it was surrealistic! We had our initial wine there and then, with the coaxing of the maitre de moved inside under the tent. It proved to be a good decision because it did rain. Our only option for eating was the buffet but it proved to be marvelous.
Helen – Tom dropped off Pat at the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens this morning after first stopping briefly at a Buddhist temple.
Into the mouth of the lion – you may recall the huge lion entrance at Sigiriya (Lion Rock)
Door leads down to tunnels
Tom worked in his office and picked up Pat and me for lunch. We went to the Senani Restaurant (overlooking Kandy Lake). Pat went for a massage in the afternoon, then did a brief visit to the Temple of the Tooth and took in the Kandyan dancers and Fire Walkers at the Cultural Center. Tom meanwhile did his own two hour tour of the Temple.
Pilgrims approaching the entrance
Extensive and historical grounds and out buildings
Entrance
One of many holy sites in complex
Shenani prepared a wonderful Sri Lankan dinner for us and we ate along with Anada, Andrew (minister from Scotland) and a German woman who is studying Buddhism.
Helen – The drive to Kandy was loooonnnngggg!
Another boat left high and dry by tsunami
We stopped at Tangalla to see the hotel built like a ship and then stopped at Rawana Ella Falls,
Watch those monkeys – their thieves!
Friendship between Sri Lanka and Iran?
We had drinks overlooking Ella Gap
and continued through beautiful Nuwara-Eliya
Hindu temple
The drive took 11.5 hours!
We needed to get to Kandy before dark and we just made it. We wish that we had more time in Nuwara-Eliya because it was a beautiful and lively city in the hill country with many lovely buildings from the British times. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner!
Helen – Breakfast at hotel
I had a great time in Matara shopping with Nicole and slept the best two nights of our trip on the fabulous hotel mattresses. At lunch time, Nicole and I stopped for rotti’s at the local vender. His weren’t ready yet so we went to the next one. Just minutes after we left, Tom and Pat came to the first vendor, on their way to the Fort, and the man said, “Your wife was just here!!” Tom and Pat waited for theirs and it was nice to know they remembered us. In the evening we ate at a local restaurant across from the Matara beach. Pat was a trooper eating with his hands, but everyone could guess that it was a new experience for him because he didn’t have it all piled on one dish with his rice. He had each curry in a separate dish and didn’t want rice; it worked for him!! Kanthi had seen Tom in town earlier that day and then stopped by the restaurant to see me.
Tom and Pat went snorkeling at Polhena (where we went before) in the morning, then to the Matara forts, the Weherahena Temple and on to Dondra to see the lighthouse and stand on the southern most point of Sri Lanka. We had dinner at the “Uprising” –
Moon rise from the hotel
Helen – We began our round trip – traveling to Matara and Kandy and back to Colombo to show Pat the sights and where we lived. We were having trouble, as I mentioned, getting our things home through China because of weight restrictions and overweight charges from here to Beijing on Cathay Pacific airlines. So, on the way to Matara, we stopped at Sudath Antiques, where we had stopped three months earlier, and I bought a rice box, spice chest, and a two door bookcase!!! They will bring them to Colombo on Friday morning where I can inspect them, pay for them, and then add all our other possessions that we want shipped before taking them for packing and to the shipping lines. Since I will be on the road, I guess I really can’t say it is all taken care of…but it is close…and hopefully will be done without too much hassle.
Bodhi tree and flags at Buddhist temple
Tom – We stopped in Galle to do the walk around the ramparts of the walled Fort City built by the Dutch (another UNESCO World Heritage site) that was damaged by the tsunami in 2004.
and then stopped at the Sri Gemunu Beach Resort for ice café in beautiful Unawatuna.
We also stopped in Weligama to give Pat a close-up view of the colorful outrigger fishing boats.
After settling into the hotel (Surf Lanka) in S.K. Town right next to the house that we had rented, Luke, the hotel manager, made us the most delicious fish dinner.
Helen – Upon waking, Tom suggested that I ask Ranjan if he would go with us to the Antique stores we visited before on the way to Matara. Ranjan is also interested in perhaps sending some things to his daughter in Springfield so now we are thinking about sharing a small container. My hopes are up again but tomorrow will decide the outcome
I can hardly believe that our time here is really coming to an end. Tom drove to the airport to pick up his brother Pat who is flying in from Denver. He decided to drive since it is another Poya (full moon holiday) day and traffic should be minimal. We are doing the “redo” trip with him and spent the first day in Colombo.
Shortly after Pat arrived, we took a Tuk-Tuk to the city center to see the Gangaramaya Temple
It was crowded because of the New Year holiday.
We took off our shoes, because you can not wear them on holy ground, and left them by the gate. I decided to carry mine and someone “carried” Pat’s away. Yes, within his first few hours in the country, his new New Balance shoes were taken. They left his socks and Tom’s sandals.
Satellite temple on Seema Malakaya island
We had to return to Ruki’s to get another pair of shoes. When we left the first time, I locked all the doors, inside and outside, because Ruki, Irene, and Ciani all went to a birthday party. Now I could get into the hallway but had no access to Pat’s room to get his shoes. I tried everything, e.g. different keys to access the living quarters downstairs, to no avail. Thank heavens, they returned (with leftovers from the party for our lunch!) and we got his shoes and then returned to downtown to finish our planned trip.
Pat was a good sport about his loss and wouldn’t let it dampen his spirits. We finished our touring, took a Tuk-Tuk to the Fort area and had iced drinks at the Grand Oriental Hotel with a lovely view of the harbor (no pictures please – security zone). The waiters and waitresses were dressed in sailor uniforms.
We then walked to the train station and took the local train (second class) to Mt. Lavinia Hotel for iced cafes on the terrace. As we waited on the train platform, a man with an arm and neurological disability (e.g. had little use of his arms and hands and could not speak), sat on the concrete, opened his bag with his feet and demonstrated his skills using his legs and toes. He could cut string, thread a needle, set the string on fire with matches, use a small wrench to unscrew and screw nuts on bolts, and put everything away into his bag. After giving him a tip, he gave us the Big Toe up sign!
The train ride was awesome; open windows with people hanging out, ceiling fans, and the occasional beggar.
We were watching the stops closely but we weren’t sure the train was going to stop at Mt Lavina because we didn’t see a station…so when it slowed down, we jumped off because others were doing it too; stupid – the train stopped! However we found ourselves in the middle of the tracks and had to make our way to the station – all’s well that ends well!
It was too early for the sunset and dinner at the hotel so we just had ice café. Pat told the pool attendant that he was staying at the hotel and so got a bathing suit, towel, and a cool dip. We took a cab back to the city and ate local food at the Green Cabin where Ruki had taken me for my birthday.
Afterward we walked to the ocean crossing the railroad tracks. We showed some teenagers how to put coins on the tracks to get them smashed by the train – something Tom used to do in Chicago!
They were delighted!
Pat and sunset across the Indian Ocean
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