Sri Lanka: Colombo

 Colombo is the capitol of Sri Lanka and sits on the west coast of the country.  In the background of this picture is several of the nice hotels in the city.  Originally I wanted to stay at one of these but (fortunately) they were all booked.

Much to note here:  Coke dominated the city.  These ears of corn have to be the most over-ripe, over-cooked I have ever seen.  It looked more like field corn than sweet corn.  Also notice the kites in the background it was a rather festive atmosphere.

Sri Lanka: Elephant orphanage

 The highlight of the trip was walking among elephants at the elephant orphanage.

 They were a playful group.

 This is a sad picture.  This elephant is blind, having been shot 20 times in an attempt to kill him for his tusks.

 I am feeding this elephant bananas.

 She's quite happy and it's clear that bananas are like crack for an elephant.

While I'm happy that a guy captured this, the missing picture is of the elephant wrapping its trunk around my arm.  It was cool and scary at the same time.

Sri Lanka: Kandy

Kandy is at the center of the island nation of Sri Lanka.  It's most famous landmark is a buddhist temple that I didn't go in.  (Since I was wearing shorts I'd of had to rent a sarong - think skirt - and I was just too tired by this point to care.)  Anyhow the views were pretty spectacular.

 If you look carefully you can see a giant Buddha at the top of the hill.

Sri Lanka: Peradeniya Botanic Gardens

The next two posts are all about a stop at the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens.  Before describing the place I have to show my favorite part:  Feeding monkeys

On the ground were fruits I had never seen before.  They were kinda like peaches with a hard shell.  I broke two open for my new friends and they could not have been happier.

Sri Lanka: Peradeniya Botanic Gardens (II)

This botanic gardens are located near Kandy, in the hills in the center of the island of Sri Lanka. 

 The park was huge.  I could have easily spent the day there.

I thought the views were magnificent with this one being a favorite:

I didn't take the time to cross this footbridge; a reason to return someday.

Living in the UAE you rarely see couples in public. You are more likely to see two male friends holding pinkies than you are to see a couple holding hands. And while I'm not a fan of public displays of affection it was actually nice to see dozens of couples as I walked long the park.

It is no exaggeration to write that I saw more couples in an hour in the park than I have in 2.5 years in the Emirates.

Sri Lanka: Peradeniya Botanic Gardens (III)

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from botanic gardens:

 I have no idea what animal this is.  It was slightly smaller than a cow but much larger than a goat.  Any ideas?

 This picture doesn't do these trees justice.  The trees are all leaning at a 20 degree angle.    I'm not sure why.

I'm not sure of the story on this unique tree, either.

Or this tree with roots that looked like three foot high partitions.

The black balls you see in these trees are fruit bats.  They are quite a bit larger than bats in the US.  I like bats so their high pitched squeal was more interesting than scary.

I had many questions while walking around this place:  For example, why were there so many of these cluster of trees?

 Ever wanted to see a coffee plant?  I worship caffeine as one of the gods so I had to include this picture.

Sri Lanka: Tea plantation

This is a tea plant.  At least I think it is. 

 After the tea is picked it is dumped on these open-air grates to dry.  There's none to be seen because I visited during a full moon holiday (seriously).  I did not know that there are four parts of the tea plant that make very different teas:  Leaves, stems, and two parts of the flower.  In the past they'd use human workers to separate the four parts.  Recently they bought a machine:

Using some type of infared scanning the machine is able to pull apart the dried plant and separate them into the four parts.

No doubt many workers were laid off as a result.  This is a good example to use in my supply chain class:  In the long run it is unquestionably better for the company and the country to have devices like this replace human labor, but in the short run the unemployment hurts.

Sri Lanka: Shopping

Sri Lanka is the place where a lot of western clothes are made.  They have outlet stores in the capitol of Colombo that sells a lot of the excess merchandise at a discount of what you'd pay in the US.

They also, apparently, have all the ties from the 1980's that didn't sell:

My favorite purchases were those connected somehow to Sri Lanka, like tea herbs and anything elephant related:

Who wouldn't want elephant foot salt & pepper shakers and an elephant foot coffee mug?

I bought many of the containers of the cinnamon toothpicks to bring back to the US.  I should have tried one first:  While it is unquestionably cinnamon, it is also very bitter.

Sri Lanka: Buddhist temples

As I was walking along a guy very excitedly convinced me to come to this Buddhist temple.  After I told the tuk-tuk driver not to stay and wait, the guy who brought me there disappeared.  Still not sure what happened.

Anyhow, it was an interesting temple.

Check out the giant elephant tusks in front of the giant Buddha.

Sri Lanka: Panorama views

My camera has a pretty cool panorama feature.  I'm not sure if it will work well on the blog. Try clicking on each picture to get a better view.

 This is the view from Gall Face Hotel, an English colonial hotel.  This is a view looking westward out on to the Indian Ocean.  (This hotel is the one on the farthest right on the beach post above.)

This is a view of the national park.

Sri Lanka: Getting around

When I went to book a hotel I found that all of the good ($100 - $150) hotels were full.  I later learned this was because of the Cricket World Cup being held in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and India.  I booked a $32 hotel away from the touristy parts of the city.

To get around Colombo there are tuk-tuks rather than taxis.  Given their size they make a 2 lane road into a 3-4 lane road.  They weave in and out of dense traffic leaving mere inches from cars and trucks.  Fortunately, passengers can't see much to the right or left.  It's nice not to know how close you just came to an accident.  

This guy was one of the more polite drivers I had.  I gave a $9 tip and made his day.

The hotel choice worked out well.  My $32/night place was a mere $3 tuk-tuk ride away from all of the touristy spots.  In saving $70/night I could afford the tuk-tuk.  My hotel room was clean and rather spacious with a kitchenette:

 Ann had recommended trying all the fresh fruits I could while in the country.  On the first night I ordered a fresh squeezed lime juice and what claimed to be fresh squeezed orange juice.  The OJ tasted like Tang with a little bit of pulp.

The lime juice, however, was fantastic.  I probably had a dozen of these in three days.

Sri Lanka: Miscellaneous

See this plant?  It's beautiful isn't it?  I bought one of these last year in the Emirates.  Killed it in two weeks.

 Having been deprived of pork for three months back in the Emirates I ordered it three times in three days while in Sri Lanka.  Each time it was bad:  ridiculously salty.  I wonder if salt cured requires less refrigeration and/or keeps it from going bad longer.  Whatever the reason I'm crossing pork off the list on a future trip.

Etisilat was the monopoly phone and internet provider in the UAE until a few years ago.  (Now it has just a bit of competition from a company called du.)  Having made hundreds of millions (billions?) from their monopoly in this country they decided to diversify by buying phone companies in other countries, including Sri Lanka.

In the UAE, Etisilat has blocked Skype.  It is, in fact, illegal to use Skype in the UAE.  Skype allows people to make very cheap calls from one country to another over the internet.  If they allowed it in the UAE Etisilat would see revenue from international calls fall.  Remember:  80% of the people in this country are from another country.  International calling is huge.

In Sri Lanka, where Etisilat has real competition, they not only allow Skype they advertise its benefits.

Sri Lanka: the Iowa connection

While waiting to fly back to Dubai a guy noticed my U of Iowa shirt and came over to say he's an Iowa State grad.  Like me, he and his friends heard of the religious holiday on Thursday and decided to make the best of a three day weekend.

With his engineering degree from Iowa State he works in Abu Dhabi and commutes from Dubai.  "Why," I asked, "would you want a 2 hour commute each way every day?"

"The nightlife," was his response.  "There are a thousand more things to do in Dubai."  He's right and if I were his age I'd probably want to live in Dubai, too.  At my age, I see Dubai as a headache of traffic.  It's a nice place to go and do something but I have no desire to live there.

Sri Lanka: the con

I have 30 pictures to post from Sri Lanka but they'll have to wait one more day.  In the meantime, getting conned is a concern in traveling anywhere and more so in a third-world country.  While walking by a grocery store a beggar had a very specific request:  "Please, sir, buy baby formula for my new baby."  I was pretty sure it was a scam but I agreed and he went to pick out this can:

 I took it checkout and paid the $9.  He took the can and darted off.  I kept the receipt.  I'm still pretty sure it was a scam, but I'm willing to err on the side of good karma.

Another common feature is offering to do anything to help in the hopes of getting a tip.  The picture at the top of the blog is an example.  A guy said, "I'll take a picture for you," when I went to feed the elephant bananas.   As he handed the camera back he held out his other hand for money.  I gave him a buck or two.  If I had known how good that picture was I'd have paid more.

In a park (where I'll post many pictures tomorrow) a guy came up and said, "Would you like to see a scorpion?"

"Sure," I replied.  He ran over to a tree and picked up this leaf:

Now I wonder:   Is this scorpion real?  Is it alive?  If it was alive, how did he know exactly where it was?  Does the scorpion get a cut of the tips?

Sri Lanka or Iowa?

Tomorrow I will post pictures from the trip.  One of the oddest things to come across on the trip was this:

If I didn't know better, I'd have thought I was back in Iowa at the Old Thresher's Reunion.