We were going to visit Sri Lanka in February '05, but the Tsunami literally "washed" away our plans for one year.

Sri Lanka is a large island, off the tip of South India...extremely green, a mountainous interior, with beautiful sand beaches. And, it's hot all year - a great place to escape our Nothern Hemisphere. It also has a long history with interesting sights.

Our trip was arranged by Aitken Spence Travels, the largest tour operator in Sri Lanka. We had our own driver/guide, a car with a/c, ***** Hotels, water and soft drinks included on all drives, fees for admissions and sights. This gave us the flexibility to stop any time something piqued our interest. For example, to watch an elephant (on his way to "work") walking down the middle of the traffic....

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If you have thought about a trip to Asia, put Sri Lanka at the top of your list. It's rare to find a destination that combines wonderful food, gorgeous hotels and some of the sweetest, most helpful people it has ever been our pleasure to meet. "Madam, where do you come from? Madam, what can we do for you? Madam, thank you for coming to our country!" Some of the many comments we heard over and over again.

Sri Lanka has mountains , historical sights, beautiful beaches and national forests. And, it is reasonable to visit!

Continue reading "Fruits and Flowers Everywhere" »

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The description in my Lighthouse Hotel, Galle, Sri Lanka, described a "Marma Body, Mind and Spirit Massge" as - an exotic and therapeutic Ayurveda inspired massage using aromatic herbal oils that stimulate the Marmas, the body's vital pressure points. This full body massage begins with the balancing of the head's Marmas. The body's Marmas are then massaged with the therapist's feet and then by hand with long sweepint strokes. The treatment concludes with a herbal body mask followed by a warm shower. 6,600 rupees for 90 minutes.

That came out to $66 US for 90 minutes. Even cheapskate me couldn't pass that up!

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We headed in to the Sinharaja Rainforest which is a world heritage site. This forest is the respository of Sri Lanka's endemic species of flora and fauna and a wonderland for birders (which we are not). (I am a "look...there's a yellow bird" type birder.) It is also a major respository for leeches since it rains almost every day.

That was all I had to hear -- leeches! Like most people, I picture "The African Queen" with Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart pulling giant leeches off themselves. No, contrary to that movie -- leeches are itsby, bitsy little things - some the size of a thread.

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Today we drove to Pinnawala, the elephant Orphanage. This orphanage is the home to about 60 elephants including babies found abandoned in the wild. We weren't in time for the bottle feeding - would have had to leave the hotel about 5:30am - just a little too early! But, we did arrive in time for the elephants parading from the Orphanage down to the river. They are taken to the river twice a day for a bath.

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We climbed up Lions Rock which was a fortress, built from 477-485. It's a steep climb of 600 stairs and ladders and there are masses of Sri Lankans visiting along with us since it is a weekend. This creates a "ladder and gapers block" which moves very slowly. The highlights are the frescos which are still so colorful and a highly polished rock with original graffiti - verses written between the 7th and 11th century.

Continue reading "Sigiriya (Lions Rock)" »

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