Busy

What a day! Today went something like this...
Wake, shower, call mum for her birthday (happy birthday mum! 🎂), breakfast and then off in a tuk tuk to a lace seller. Turns out in a bit of a fan of home made lace! I bought a lovely nightgown and a white shirt that took a lot of hand work to make!
After that we left Mirissa for Galle. We made two stops along the way. The first was to see some fisherman on stilts. This form of fishing is quite old, and is no longer in use.. But... You can pay to take photos of three old men sitting on the stilts pending to fish. Its quite hilarious actually as the couple who came to Galle a day early said the fisherman 'caught' exactly the same fish we saw him catch today. Matish, our guide says if these guys catch anything these days, its a complete accident!
After that ten minute stop, we drove to Matish's house where his wife and mother cooked the whole group lunch. It was absolutely delicious! Luckily I had some children's gifts from home that I wasn't supposed to share on our hike, so I passed them on to his two daughters, Aurora and Pollyanna, who had a great hour or two playing with jumbo chalk on the lounge floor (cement) and covering themselves in texts (5.5yrs and 2.5yrs old... As you can guess it was mainly Pollyanna, the younger one who thought it great fun to black texta both her hands!).
After lunch we came to Galle. Where staying at one of the many hotels that are situated inside a fort. Its actually pretty cool. Also, the shops are fancy (normal) and the streets are clean (and the prices are very western... Not what we've been used to!).
Still it was lively to walk around before our fort sunset walk. We walked the perimeter of the fort and watched a bit of a sad sunset as it was quite cloudy tonight. Still I think I took a hundred sunset photos!
Tonight's dinner was a delicious seafood number (Sarah had the most devine fish, like a whole fish, cooked in a lime cream sauce - yum!).
Anyway, ita been a long day and we have a really early start tomorrow on what will be our last day of the tour.
Until then,
A x

Lazy day in the sun

What a lazy day we had today. It was a free day to explore Mirissa, so Sarah and I set off before the heat to explore the area. We ended up walking somewhere between 4-5kms towards what we had hoped was a small village which had some lace makers. No such luck! It was just another little town like any other. So we walked back some of the way via the beach, before finally resting our feet and taking a tuk tuk back to the hotel.
After a quick swim we headed to lunch across the road where we sat and enjoyed the water lapping at our feet (literally, it was high tide and the waiters kept moving the tables and chairs further away from the water while we ate!).
Then it was another swim and a nap for me.
Yep a seriously lazy day in Sri Lanka.
Tomorrow we head to Galle. Our last stop before our final night in Colombo.
Until then,
A x

Transit day

Yesterday saw us leave our lively hotel for a 7hr transfer. While it seems like a long time we had heaps of stops. The first was to a waterfall. Which was lovely, but nothing like those we saw in Scandinavia. The next stop was for a supermarket and atm (important holiday business), then a tea stop (because clearly we haven't already drunk our body weights in tea yet) and then to an elephant orphanage.
The orphanage was really great. We were there for the 12pm feeding session where all the baby elephants and a few of the older ones with issues, come in to a central feeding station for milk and fresh tree leaves. They were also able to splash around in the water to cool down. All up there were about 50 elephants. The oldest one had a stump for one of uts legs as it had been injured by a landmine. They made up a prosthetic for it and it seemed quite happy being the first to be fed for the day :)
After our elephant stop we had a quick lunch at a local bakery (takeaway style) before heading to our destination for the next two nights, Mirissa. This is our last two night stop as the tour is almost over. The beach is lovely, and not nearly as calm as we were told. Its also not as clear, so while I've enjoyed walking along it and sticking my feet in, I've also been just as happy to swim in our rooftop swimming pool which looks out to the ocean.
Today is a free day, so Sarah and I plan to explore the closer villages (on foot or by bike, we haven't yet decided).
Love to all,
A

Up, up and away...

The last two days have seen the group hiking. Yesterday was a 9.5km hike that saw us go from 1600+ meters above sea level and rise to the highest point of our walk at 1950ish meters above sea level. The hike wasn't difficult, it was just humid and warm.. Even though I thought being that high would make it cooler, I was clearly mistaken.
At that high above sea level we were actually walking in the clouds. Which was totally amazing to experience. The views were breath taking.. Unfortunately I didn't take many on my phone, but the good camera managed to capture a lot of it.
Along the walk (on a Saturday) we managed to catch a lot of locals. Unfortunately no tea picking was going on (the tea is planted on the sides of the steep mountains, with workers working from bottom to top). I don't know how the tea pickers manage it as the slope is really steep and the have to be like mountain goats to get to some of the tea plants. Our local guides for the walk Shiva and Dubula were fountains of knowledge and they pointed out many of the local sites. The tea plantation pickers are quite poor and the villages are quite remote. They earn in a good month about 4500 rupees which is somewhere around $40 a month. Their accommodation is provided, but they tend to be in ramshackle buildings that house multiple families. For instance one building will have 7 families in it. They have one room per family for sleeping,with a communal kitchen and bathroom for all 7 families to share, some have two bathrooms if they are lucky.
The children travel around 3km by foot, up a mountain (not barefoot, but close in thongs) to school and then the 3km back. Intrepid asked us not to give the children any gifts, which disappointed me at first as I had packed some things to give them. After doing the walk now, I can see why.most of them would run out to see us (its a weekend) and the first thing they would ask is if we had pens or pencils to give them. Intrepid has noted that its not good to build their expectations, or to encourage them to not work for what they have. Its so saddening to see all their cute little faces asking for coloured pencils. Our guide also mentioned that some of the children were missing school on weekdays so they could 'meet walking groups' who might have something to give them. Not great, so now I can see why it was suggested we don't give them anything. Still it was tough just to say hello and keep walking.
On arrival to our accommodation for the night we had some free time. This saw the group breaking up for some preferred activities. The dorm style accommodation had no WiFi or tv so we made our own fun. One group played cards,another learnt a local game called carrom (a disk flicking game that's played on a small table, similar to pool, but played in teams with your pointer finger), and crossword puzzle solving. By dinner time, 4hrs later we were all starting to feel weary after a long hike. Dinner was fantastic and afterwards the group continued to lightly party on till the late time of 9pm. I myself was in bed by 8:30 after a cold shower, but did manage to enjoy listening to our two local guides playing the drum and singing some local tunes. The guides sounds lively and the group really got into the music, even pushing furniture out of the way to do some dancing... No idea where that energy came from!
The next day (today - Sunday) was an early start. We were on the road by 7:30am for our final 11.5km hike. Todays hike saw us completing the devils' staircase who has been turned from steps to a road.. It's super steep. It was only a short hike up today.. Around 200meters higher up over about 2km, so not that hard. The rest of the morning was spent walking down hill. I can tell you afterwards my calves are hurting and need a good stretch out tomorrow. The hike took us about 5hrs to complete as we had multiple stops for those who were struggling. Impressively one of our group has been diagnosed with MS and she managed to complete the 11.5km by hold Shiva's hand the whole way. She was really impressive and so was he for his patience! By the end of it she was in severe pain, but she made it. She had a few tears at the end,which made me tear up a bit to. Pretty amazing she had the willpower to do it with numbness in one of her legs for half the walk.
After 3pm we had some free time so Sarah and I showered (best shower ever after the two days we had!) and a short walk around town. There isn't much around so we were happy to chill out at the hotel for an hour before dinner. Tonight we treated our selves to a super fancy dinner! 4 courses at a swanky hotel down the road.. It cost us $18.
Tomorrow we head to the beach via a waterfall (I'm sure it wont be that grand compared to Scandinavia) and a elephant orphanage.
Until then,
A x

Train + cooking demo

Short one today everyone... 7hr train trip took up most of our day. Boy was it long!
When we arrived in our new town Sarah and I stayed in for the hour before our cooking demo... It's a small town and Sarah started to cough like you wouldn't believe last night... Poor thing. She doesn't feel sick... We think it might be a small bout of asthma due to ask the enough and pollution in Kandy.
After that it was cooking demo night. Wahoo! Dinner was just amazing. We chopped our little hearts out, least to make curries, salads and even coconut milk.
Unfortunately they didn't provide recipes so Sarah scribed 9 pages worth in her diary which she let all of us take photos of. All I can say is they use lots of herbs and spices! Still, I'm excited to try them... Maybe mum and I can do a Sri Lankan family dinner one month... Hope you all like chilli!
Until... Two days time when we return to a WiFi zone,
A x
(we are hiking 20km over the next two days and tomorrow nights guesthouse is remote and dormitory style so I'm guessing no WiFi)

My 20,000+ step day

Today started off with a tour of a tea factory. We learnt:
* ladies puck tea by hand and can pick between 25-30kg each per day!
* leaves are air compressor dried for 20hrs, handing turning them in batches of 1.5 tonnes, every 6hrs to reduce the tea leaf moisture by 50%
* tea is then rolled, squished, and rolled again, then finally chopped
* its then sun dried for 2.5hrs to turn black
* then its sifted to removed as many small stalks as possible
* then its sorted again, and again, to get rid of more stalks, until finally you're left with largish loose-leaf tea
* the dust that is left behind is inferior and sold to tea companies like Dilmah and Lipton who put it into tea bags!
Of course I bought a little bit of tea to take home :)
After that Sarah and i explored the hot, congested city. Where we were hassled to buy all sort of things, but luckily resisted. Faced with an entire free afternoon we thought it bust to take a tuk tuk to the royal botanical gardens and hang out there this afternoon. It was beautiful and peaceful and the orchid garden was a clear favourite.
Later today we met back with the group to see some traditional dancing, which included fire walking. It was ok.. But I wrote this post while there.. So not that fantastic... according to me.
After that we went to... Another temple! We are all adoring wearing our temple clothes in this heat! The temple was great. It has the left tooth of someone famous in it. We were all herded in to the temple to see this holy relic, only to be moved along after standing in front of it for less than two seconds! I kid you not, I hardly broke my walk while going past it. It turns out its housed in a golden shaped egg, but I have no idea what that egg looks like as I only caught a glimpse. We have all had to google it, or buy a postcard. Absolutely hilarious!
Tomorrow is a 7 hr train trip, followed by a cooking demonstration.
Until then.
A x

Lion's paw and spice farm

Another day in Sri Lanka, another early start! Today at 6:30am we met to go to Sigiriya. An awesome royal complex used around 500 AD. The site is up, up, up, on a hill and was quite a lot of steps to climb. Thank goodness it was early and slightly windy.. Perfect walking weather. Up towards the top we got to see some cave paintings that are still in great shape, 1600 years later. Unfortunately no photos as they are trying to preserve the frescoes. After that it was a hike up more stairs to the actual lion's paws. The view was spectacular.. Unfortunately I got a touch of vertigo and couldn't stomach the 30min climb further up the rock. Still it was fun.. And the sower afterwards was also enjoyable!
The afternoon saw us move to Kandy, stopping at a spice farm along the way.
The spice farm was fantastic! We got a lesson in local plants and their medicinal uses. A short lesson on cocoa trees, turmeric, peppercorns, ginger and cinnamon. We also got mini massages and of course the hard sell, which I totally fell for! Lots of purchases, which I hope will work.. Dad I have something for you to try :)
I managed to buy some lovely tea mix and even some curry spices which I cant wait to try out... When I get back home and after this curry coma wears off!
Sorry for all the posts at once as you can guess 'wifi' in Sri Lanka can also be a bit 'quirky'.
A x