the hills

Much to report since my last check in. We're still in Sri Lanka and I've all but given up the fight to not get bit by my arch nemesis, the tiny mosquito. I sit here scratching away and tempting fate as they circle my ankles in their invisible way.

Tammy and I have made it to the south of Sri Lanka and tomorrow we are due to go on safari. This is the part I've been waiting for! Our group has grown and morphed from 2 to 3 to 7 to 5 and now 6. People have come and gone but James has remained a constant. James is our Irish boxer/teacher from Doha, Qatar and trusty side kick. There really aren't many western tourists, at least not many traveling the way we are, and we have a tendency to clump together. Until this trip I thought being a teacher at an all-girls was as close to celebrity as I would come. Turns out being a whitey in Sri Lanka is even closer. I have a number of potential husbands lined up and the children have no compunction about staring and staring.

Our route since the north has been through Kandy in the mountains (I was slightly disappointed to find the streets were not paved with gumdrops and lined with lollipop trees), then to Nilambe for a silent meditation retreat, back through Kandy and down to Nuwara Eliya for tea plantation hoping, then Ella, followed by Arugam Bay for surf watching and wave riding, now we're at Yala National Park for animal sightings.

I've been listening to James tell and retell our Nilambe mediation experience where he's paranoid about cannibals and took a picture of a ghost in his room. My experience was a little different. Nilambe is set in the hills of Sri Lanka. I mean THE HILLS. Entering the grounds launched the next 48 hours of silence, save for the half hour between 4:00 and 4:30 when we could practice mindful speech. I mistakenly thought I would be bored here and get a lot of reading done. Turns out the 5 hours of daily meditation and no electricity really limits your free time.

The day started with the 4:45 a.m. gong for morning meditation at 5:00. This means strapping on the head lamp, crawling out from under the mosquito net, rolling off the cement slab bed, scanning the room for other large insects then traipsing outside to use the squat toilet. Seated meditation took place throughout the day for one to 1.5 hour intervals, followed by tea or a snack. There was also a working meditation, nature meditation, walking, standing and seated mediation, evening chanting with a monk (my favorite time) and yoga. We were served two vegetarian meals a day and stale bread (no joke) in the evening. This came to 500 Sri Lankan rupees per day, about $4.50. My time in Nilambe did not reveal much to me about myself, although I enjoyed the sustained quiet. However, I did learn that leaches don't like Tiger Balm and rats will eat soap. Upon departure, we were thrust back into the real world after the first bus back to town rejected us but the second let us on. Then it let on more and more people until you were ass to ass with the person standing behind you and had no need to hang on for there was no where to fall down.

The hill country is full of tea plantations and the ride from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya offers the most amazing views One would be wise to pop a Dramamine We had the brilliant idea to rent bikes and coast a cool 11km downhill along the highway to visit a tea plantation. Problem was coming home meant going uphill to 2000 meters. My initial calculations misinterpreted the height to be about 2000 ft shy of its 6128 ft.. I usually try not to exert myself in this way.

Sri Lanka used to be called Ceylon hence the preponderance of tea plantations which were found to be successful after the coffee crops crashed. This is where Lipton got its start. Then in 1948, Sri Lanka gained independence from its Dutch and English invaders. The tea plantations were taken over by the government and Sri Lanka is now the number two exporter of tea in the world, following India.

Sri Lankan food consists mainly of curries served with a pile of rice or string hoppers (noodles formed into patties) meant to be eaten with the hands. The curries can be of fish, beef, chicken or veggies like potatoes, okra, eggplant.... This can be part of breakfast, lunch or dinner. We've been eating curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm pretty sure I smell like curry. There's also coconut sambol, a shredded coconut and chili dish, served with breakfast. My favorite snack is vegetarian roti, a flat bread stuffed with spicy potatoes and veg and folded into a triangle. I was expecting the food to be spicier than it is and unfortunately there aren't many restaurants so we often eat in the guest house where the food has been tamed for the western palate. However, the fruit selection is amazing with mango, pineapple, rambutan and lots of coconut.