We arrived in Sri Lanka on August 2nd and immediately made our way to the hill country to a town called Kandy. It turns out that we arrived just in time for the annual Esala Perahera festival that takes place every summer for over ten days to honor the sacred tooth enshrined in Temple of the Tooth. We don’t completely understand the full story behind this sacred tooth, but apparently this tooth was snatched from the Budda’s funeral pyre in 543BC and then gained more and more spiritual importance. Eventually a temple was built in Kandy to house the tooth and for centuries this Perahera festival has taken place to honor it. The Perahera is a massive parade - that includes elephants, dancers, fire - every night until the full moon and the streets are jam-packed with people – some who camp out on the street the night before to reserve a space. It is a big deal for Buddhists (Sri Lanka being an important country for Buddhism). So by pure coincidence (our goal in Sri Lanka was simply to get a visa to India) we arrived just in time to honor the sacred tooth.
Our first priority was to get to the India visa office and submit our paperwork. The India visa office lived up to the very poor standards that we have been warned against and expected. They have taken first prize in making simple paperwork become completely unnecessarily complicated. Elise and I were completely prepared, with our completed visa application forms (filled out online and printed before we arrived), photocopies of passports, and extra passport photos. I won’t bore the blog readers with any details of the unnecessarily complicated and user-unfriendly application form on the web. But the problem we had at the visa office is that Elise put her middle initial instead of her full middle name on her application. Since it is in the computer it apparently could not be changed easily (despite the fact that computers should make this process simpler, not more complicated, and the guy we were submitting our passport to was working on a computer which we presume could have changed this minor error) so she had to go next door to a separate office and pay to have someone else completely re-enter her application. This guy could not type, was misspelling everything and had to be constantly corrected. Next her passport photo background was deemed not “white enough” (you have to strain to tell any difference from mine) so she had to pay to have another taken which turned out to be a terrible faded photo much worse than the one we provided – but with an acceptably white background. Next, after we received the Indian’s high standard stamp of approval for perfection in our application form (I must mention that the published India Visa information is inaccurate or misleading so they don’t live up to their own standard here apparently) we were asked to come back in ten days to pick up our visa. The Indian officials worked feverously around the clock for those ten days, I’m sure, to make sure we got our visa so that we could finally enter the country and spend our money there. All in all this whole thing was not that big of a deal compared to other horror stories we’ve heard about the Indian government…but it definitely meets our low standards of expectation of Indian bureaucracy.
In our case this was absolutely no big deal because Sri Lanka, it turns out, is an extremely nice place to spend a couple weeks waiting on paperwork. Kandy is a very pleasant place situated in the hill country with temperate weather. We enjoyed walks along the lake to town from our guesthouse, touring the Temple of the Tooth, the Buddhist museum, attending a traditional dance performance, and walks in the surrounding neighborhoods. We attempted to watch the Perahera one night by mingling with the locals on the street side. We stood on a corner being completely surrounded by masses of people to the point of feeling too claustrophobic to catch a glimpse of the elephants all dressed up in lights and dancers with torches and fire rings. This was the first night of the festival, and we heard that it only gets more dramatic and more crowded towards the end on the night of the full moon. The next day, probably more fun than watching the elephants in the parade, we had a good time watching the elephants be bathed on the street beside the temple. The elephants are told by their handlers to lie down (an impressive process in itself) and then are sprayed with large water hoses and scrubbed with brushes. The elephants definitely seem to enjoy the bath. We stayed the Peace Haven Guesthouse in Kandy which is simply the home of Mr. and Mrs. Attapatu who are extremely friendly and hospitable. It is a great place located up on the hill east of town with airy rooms and a pleasant balcony with territorial views. The best part was the breakfast: a huge plate of fruit including a quarter of a large, very sweet papaya, an egg any way you like it, endless toast with jam and butter, and a large pot of tea around a large dining table in the living room. It was one of our best guesthouse experience of our trip and highly recommended to anyone passing through.
Our next destination was the east coast of Sri Lanka, Arugam Bay to try a little surfing. Arugam Bay is located near a town called Potavil which was ravaged by the 2004 tsunami and afterwards part of the area in the violent conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers rebel group. Now supposedly peaceful, it sounded like a good off-the-beaten-track place to visit. It turns out that every “cool” surfer kid from Europe was there and that it apparently has become a fairly popular place – at least this time of year. Nevertheless, we had a great time and this area of the island is a beautiful, sunny, with savannah-like vegetation that remind me of what I imagine Africa to be like .
Even though most places in Arugam Bay were booked full - we lucked into a great guesthouse experience. Another World Guesthouse is a small five-room place run by a 22-year-old named Sulfi who is an incredible cook. With good company from other travelers, every night we would all sit around a large table, and Sulfi would cook and incredible family-style meal. His coconut sambal and pumpkin curry ranked at the top of the list. One night we had a large barbeque with fresh grilled fish. No one dared bother going out to another restaurant for dinner. When Sulfi was asked where he learned to cook so well, he responded that his mom taught him how. One interesting observation: we saw very few local women while we were in Arugam Bay. The east coast of Sri Lanka is primarily Muslim, not Buddhist, and from the lack of their presence, it appears that the women do not leave the house.
Another thing I was introduced to in Arugam Bay was the Indian sub-continent’s amazing barber shops. I was in desperate need of a beard trimming and hair cut. At barber shops in this part of the world, a trim not only includes the clipping and straight-razor shave, it includes an incredibly relaxing head massage afterwards. The scalp is oiled down with some sort of spicy smelling scalp-oil and then the greasy, smelly barber magically turns into a beautiful man-masseuse, gently massaging the scalp and all major pressure points on the head. It was glorious. I have heard that is the standard for both India and Nepal so for the rest of our travels, I will be treating myself appropriately and should, as a result, have a much more professionally trimmed head and beard from here on out.
The main lesson learned about surfing: jump off of the surf board before you reach the shore. Very important. After a “road-rash” from being washed ashore while feeling like I was being put through a washing machine full of gritty, sharp sand – and afterwards fighting for a spot on the wave with the “cool” surfers (who were sometimes a little too grumpy when we got in each other’s way) – we decided that the next time we try will be somewhere where there is less people. Sulfi’s little brother (who helps run the guesthouse) decided to “help” my road-rash by spraying perfume on it resulting in it stinging very badly. He didn’t speak English so I’m not really sure what his thought process was, but maybe perfume has special healing powers for the Tamil culture of the east coast of Sri Lanka.
There is some good wildlife in the area too. We spent one day with a rented motorbike searching for wild crocodiles and elephants. We did see one crocodile, though we were not completely sure it was one until we got back and zoomed in on the photo. With the bare eye, it looked like a rock in the middle of a pond and we were throwing rocks within centimeters of its head and it wouldn’t move. No wild elephants were spotted, but we did hear one.
After Arugam Bay we went back to Kandy to pick up our India visas and spent a few more comfortable nights at Peace Haven Guesthouse. Then on August 13th, we flew to Chennai, India to begin our six weeks here. So far it is exactly what we expected – one of harsh contrasts: one giant pile of dirty, smelly, filth that is also vibrant, colorful, fascinating, and friendly. We will provide more details in the next blog post, but we’re “settled in” and very much enjoying it so far.
The most important cultural lesson we have learned lately (this applies to both Sri Lanka and India):
People have this unique way of showing acknowledgement by bobbling their heads. It really can mean “yes”, “no”, “maybe”, or simply “acceptance” or “contentment,” or that they are enjoying your company. The “head bobble” should not be mistakenly interpreted to mean “no” – it looks sometimes like shaking your head. We learned when we tried to order a meal at a restaurant and thought our server was telling us that we could not have anything we ordered.
So glad to hear more of your adventures. I miss you both and love the blog and the pictures!
ReplyDelete