1. It turns out a Moffett vacation isn't a vacation without two things: rain and some level of catastrophe. Our journey to Sri Lanka started out with a traffic catastrophe that caused us to almost miss our flight, and our luggage to not be as lucky as we were! We tried a budget airline that flies out of Sharjah, the next emirate north, and it was not worth it! The trip there was a mess, and the airport was a bigger mess, but we made it safely to the little island off the coast of India.
2. Because of our missing luggage - and no cameras, we decided to change our itinerary a bit so we headed first to Sigirya, also known as the lion mountain. It is a 5th century castle that used to be shaped like a lion apparently, but now the paws are all that remain of the original shape. 1200 stairs have been helpfully added for visitors to get to the top of the mountain, and we climbed all but the last couple hundred to the top (except Nate, he made it all the way). The kids and I and our driver Wicky (Vicky) decided it was enough to see the lion paws so we rested under some trees and let our sweat dry! Nate and I definitely felt it the next day after carrying Finley and sometimes Will up and down all the ancient stairs (some were 5th century, others were just rusty enough to make you think they might be!
3. On our descent, we came across a real live snake charmer so for a couple hundred rupees (about $1.75), he played a little song for his two cobras and they wiggled up out of their baskets - one tried to escape for real, and he had to stop playing to capture him. Then he took a giant python out of another box, and offered to let us touch it - I tried to show Will it would be okay but he wasn't convinced and I was the only one brave enough to feel its scales.
4. After a little lunch, thanks to Wicky's sharp eyes, we saw our first elephant. He was taking a bath in the river - apparently owned by some locals who hire him out for rides. We also saw trees full of monkeys. Will was pretty dang excited to see the elephant, which made up for some of the stress of the morning.
5. Ahead of us was another long car ride (it had been about 4 hours from the airport to Sigirya) to our hotel in the city of Kandy. Driving in Sri Lanka was crazy - two lane windy roads through the country side, filled with cars, buses, tuc-tucs (a cross between a moped and a golf cart), motorcycles, occasional pedestrians, stray dogs (I think we saw at least a thousand), and wandering cows. The drivers make the two lanes into three or four - they really utilize that middle area and sometimes there had to have been literal inches between us and the cars we were going around, or the oncoming vehicles. I was glad to be in the backseat, and chose not to include and pictures of the roads for the sake of worried Grandmas:) (Also because this post is going to be incredibly long- not sure if I will make it to 100 or not, but it will be close!)
6. At the NatureWalk Resort in Kandy, we settled in for a luggage free night, and the first of a few crib free nights for Finley (and Nate and I). Nate and Wicky had to drive back to the airport the next morning (about a 5 hour round trip - stupid budget airline wouldn't deliver), so the kids and I had some breakfast and hung around the room.
7. After Nate got back with the luggage, he left the door of our room open as he was hauling suitcases, and after a minute or two, some monkeys arrived, and I'm willing to bet if I hadn't closed the door, they would have invited themselves in! It was pretty cool to watch them up close and personal - there was really no more than 4 feet between our door and the railing they loved to climb up and down.
8. Since the unexpected luggage run took up a lot of the day, we started out late in the afternoon to the wood carving factory, and saw the carvers at work, and lots of elephants they would have loved for us to buy if their prices hadn't been jacked up so high! Will got to have a trial run at riding on an elephant in preparation for our plans for the next day...
9. We stopped at a viewing point to see the city of Kandy, and then went to a cultural celebration of Kandyan dancers.
10. Balancing tricks, drums, some kind of flute - but lower and much louder, fire eating, girls dressed as peacocks, and the finale of walking on hot coals kept us all pretty entertained - Will did fall asleep in Nate's lap, and Finley lost it at the end, but overall, pretty impressive behavior for little ones during an hour dancing show.
11. ELEPHANTS!!! This is Kandura, the elephant strong enough to carry us all at once. I need to backtrack though and say that right before we arrived,
12. Will threw up in the car so that was awesome
13. and Finley pooped all over her clothes so that was doubly awesome.
14. But then we all got to ride an elephant together. I won't lie - when I saw how big it was up close, I got pretty nervous, but I knew Will was scared too, so I had to be brave. I'd like to say all my concern was for my baby girl strapped to the front of me, and a lot of it was, but seriously, that thing was so tall! And we rode bareback, with just a little blanket between us and elephant. I was right on the shoulders, and when we first started walking, every step shifted me back and forth and I really thought I (and Finley) were going to slide off. They noticed the probably sheer terror on my face and had us adjust our positions a bit, so that was better, then we went for a little walk on an elephant. I made them stay on all flat surfaces and we did the short (10ish minutes) ride.
15. You can see it best in this last pic, but I was in charge of holding on to the rope, so I had to lean forward and was holding on to that thing for dear life (my arms and hands were so sore the next day and it took me awhile to figure out why!), and Fin was therefore leaning forward pretty far too. She probably mostly saw the hairy head of the elephant the whole time. I was trying to grip with my feet too - I could not look more awkward! I'm sure it helped Will that he was sandwiched in between Nate and me - there was no chance he could go anywhere.
16. Our next stop was just outside the elephant orphanage. We chose riding an elephant over seeing the elephants be fed, but made it in time to see them parade through the town down to the river for a bath. There were all sizes of elephants, and I guess many of them are victims of the long civil war in the country, and that's how they ended up being taken care of.
17. After a serious elephant fix for all of us, we got back in the car for another 5-6 hour car ride to Uda Walawe National Park, and our hotel for the night, Kalu's Hideaway. We drove through beautiful jungle on narrow, windy roads, and I finally had to fall asleep as I was getting car sick. We were way out in the jungle, what I imagine it would be like in Africa, with monkeys in the trees, peacocks in the fields and bugs aplenty.
18. Will has been obsessing about fishing lately, so Nate found him a long enough stick to make it feel real, and they "fished" for a bit.
19. We got to meet Kalu - a famous (in Sri Lanka) cricketer, who helped the Sri Lankan team win the World Cup (if that's what the cricket thing is called). I realized after we talked to him on the way to our room, and he introduced himself, that he was the nice guy who kept picking up all the stuff the kids dropped all through dinner...
20. Early the next morning, we started our elephant safari, and lucked out right away as we entered the park. A small herd of elephants was having breakfast, so we stopped and watched them for awhile. Of course I didn't have the camera at the ready when Will turned around with the best grin, and said "Elephants".
21. We saw a plethora of water buffalo - most of them lounging in the water as water buffalo are wont to do:)
22. We also saw lots of birds,
23. a jackal that is supposed to mean good luck,
24. and from afar, a couple of crocodiles, but our picture makes them sort of look like rocks. Pretty sure they were crocs though.
25. My favorite was this group of elephants, and the little baby who was about 6 weeks old. So adorable. The herd crossed the road in front of us, and it was so cool to see how the mama and another big elephant kept that little guy right between them the whole time to protect him. Loved it.
26. My other favorite part of the day was Finley in her cute little tennis shoes from her cousin Lauren - still way too big, but looked so cute on her.
27. A close second to that was how much fun Will had wearing his "jungle hat" and how much he loved the safari. On our way back, it was pretty bumpy, and he made sure Nate's arm was over his lap as extra seatbelt protection.
28. Elephant encounters over, it was time to head to the beach, so after some breakfast at the Hideaway (with the nicest staff), we got back into the car for another many hour journey to the coast. Our destination - Oonawatuna, supposedly home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
29. Upon arrival, we got some bad news. a. no crib again, but they would have one for the second night. b. the club next door was having a big Halloween party. Their incredibly loud music started up around 8, and at 10:30, Nate went down to ask how late the party was supposed to go. The law in Sri Lanka says parties can only go until midnight, but apparently the club had paid the police under the table and the thumping tunes and obscene DJ went until 4 in the morning. Surprisingly, the kids slept through it pretty well, but Nate and I suffered through it. I lucked out and was in the bathroom both times the DJ said super obscene things, but I guess you could say we took our family to an all night Halloween bash since the balcony of our room overlooked the party.
30. Backtracking again - when we got ready to go down to dinner, we could only find one of Will's shoes - turns out he had knocked one over the edge, so we did get to go to the Halloween party, albeit before it actually started!
32. Day two: We tried again, and had much more success. It was cloudy and cool, but no rain so we spent about an hour getting coated in sand. Nate and Will chased the waves, I took a little swim, Finley fell asleep (again, she fell asleep the day before too - must be the sound of the waves), and Nate and Will build sand castles and sand houses for the animals.
33. I know Finley was tired - she didn't get great naps, but she also really liked laying her head down on the high chair tray. It was pretty cute.
39. We also saw a blind turtle, and a turtle born with flippers only on one side of his body, and one who was missing one of his back flippers. I love this picture of Will - I'm pretty sure he wasn't supposed to get to hold this guy, but the man who was giving us the tour bent the rules a little - how could you not with that face?
39. In Negumbo, it stopped raining long enough for us to take a tuc-tuc ride. With no destination in mind, we just rode down the street and checked out the cemetery - all the locals were decorating graves for All Saints Day, then we passed a Hindu temple. We jumped out at one store to look at something and the driver pulled across the street to turn around. Will said, "Where is our tuc-tuc driver going?" He thought they were pretty cool little cars.
40. Although our last hotel was only for a few hours, (our flight left at 4:30 a.m., so we had to leave for the airport around 2) it was good to have a place to be and at least get a couple of hours of sleep. It was kind of lame when the power kept going out though. There was no emergency lighting, and I stopped counting after 5 times.
41. And not to be forgotten again, another not cool thing about our hotel on the beach - bats swooping around the dining room while we were eating dinner one night. Bats are so creepy.
42. I didn't make it to 100, but it's probably a good thing. I told my mom our trip was about 60/40 good and bad. We saw some amazing things, and Will loved so many things we did. The countryside is beautiful, and we miss rain living in Dubai. So it was a win of a trip, even if there were some negatives along the way. Next stop, Istabul Turkey - no kids...
3 comments:
Your children have done and seen more in their lives than I ever will. hoping to see my own elephants when I go visit my parents next month. But I'm sure I won't be riding any!
What a life you are leading.
I can totally imagine the excitement Will must have had seeing all those 'anmals'
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