Our Stint in Sri Lanka

First of all, Happy New Year from Sri Lanka! We had a great time right on the beach where music, discos and fireworks lined the long stretch of sand from hotels to resteraunts to homes; everyone (tourists and locals alike) were out celebrating. It felt bizaar to be cheering and celebrating the new year while back home, it was only about 10 A.M. on New Years Eve. We missed you all terribly, but hope you had a great holiday season!

Well, Sri Lanka has come and gone. We fly to India today, but I will sum up our short stay (much too short) in one blog. 8 days is not nearly enough time to see this country, especially when it takes 4-5 hours to travel 60 miles by bus or train or tuk tuk, none are easier or faster than the other.

We have jumped headfirst into the eastern way of life, so long western comforts! Sri Lanka is beautiful and strange. I think about 80% of the population are buddist, but there is also a strong Hindu, Muslim and Christian culture as well. Getting off the plane in Colombo, the capital, threw us right into the crazy way of life in these 3rd world countries. The streets are alive and chaotic, with random smells and beautiful women in Sari's and anything from bikes to covered wagons to tuk tuks fighting for space on the crowded (slightly scary) streets.

We headed straight to the slower beach towns in the south from the airport but enjoyed the sights of the cities from our stuffy and overcrowded bus. (Think Jared with a pack in his lap, one under his legs, sharing 1/2 seat with a local man in a sarong). Since we only had a week, we decided to stay in the south where the living is easy and relaxed instead of frantically moving to see more. It is pretty hard to get around here with our backpacks, especially since the traffic moves so slow.



The first stop was a beach town called Hikkadua where we spent the first few nights lounging around. We attempted surfing again, although I did more fighting the waves and currents than surfing; Jared had some good waves, though. The beaches are white sand and the water is much, much warmer than in South Africa. It is also a lot cheaper here where a huge meal and a drink only costs around 5 dollars. Very nice change coming from South Africa.

From Hikkadua we went further south to Unawatuna where we spent the New Years Eve and made it our base for the rest of our time. The southern beach towns of Sri Lanka were hit the hardest by the Tsunami 3 years ago and you can still see the vast damage as you drive along the coast. There are head stones and shrines set up randomly around the towns and streets, a really harsh reminder of all the lives that were lost on that day. Very sad. It was bizaar to be here, to ride on the train route that was caught in the tsunami, where life goes on and most of the towns have been rebuilt. Very hopeful.

The Sri Lankan people are very friendly and helpful and outgoing. Many of them will just stop you in the street to chat about nothing as they laze the days away in the hot humid air. Again, a very different feel than in Johannesburg. Our hostel was not great but only 10 dollars a night, so we made it our home for 4 nights. It is funny how 4 nights seems like such a long time when you are used to moving every other night. Monkeys flew from tree to tree outside our balcony and the sounds of monkey/dog/who knows what fights kept us up throughout the hot nights.

We saw a few other towns by tuk tuk, but unfortunatley our time ran out and we c0uldn't get up to the hill country (which we hear is amazing, oh well, next time). We shortened Sri Lanka by a week so that we could have more time in gigantic India, so watch for more on India. We are 4 months into this trip already, boy how the time goes...