Yet Even More Oddities

Time for another installment of odd things that Ive come across during my time here in Sri Lanka. Enjoy!

Praying Mantis on the wall of my balcony. Almost human (alien?) head movements. Freaky...

Natrual Spring Water in a bottle? Why not? Figure this one out... Its actually kind of common here.

Danger - Our Highly Skilled Machine Operator Will Be Dropping Heavy Rocks On Your Vehicle.


If you want to see more oddities, just click on the "Oddities" Lable link on the right. Cheers!

Awe... They are so cute!

On the way back from our relaxing beach weekend in Mirissa, we stopped at a sea turtle refuge near Bentota. We talked about visiting one of these facitlities when were were planning the trip because Christen is a fan of sea turtles. But as it turns out, I think everyone likes sea turtles! I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting the place was and how well informed the people that ran it were.

Upon entering the refuge (read: house near the beach with a large sandy garden and 6 concrete tanks) we were greated by a smily local guide who was the owners son. He told us about the 5 breeds of turtles found in Sri Lanka then took us to the garden where they grow sea turtles. Yep, thats right - Sea turtles can be grown in a garden. Basically, they buy sea turtle eggs from local fisherman and keep them from becomming omlets (hmmm, now I wonder why those omlets in Mirissa were so good...). They take the eggs and rebury them in their garden and after 30-60 days (depending on the breed) the little buggers hatch. After they have hatched, they get moved to the first tank that serves as a nursery.

Jana has here hands full... there were hundreds of these little guys swimming around in the nursery tank.

You could almost hear this one crying "Mama!"

I look so confortable holding this turtle - I think I will take one home with me.

Eric and his turtle. ok, you dont have to say it... yes, Eric has a bigger turtle...

So that was our trip to Mirissa with Eric and Christen. Thanks so much for coming to visit! It was great to see you and I look forward to seeing you on the playa this year!

Beach Holiday

After 18 months on this island, I finally had my first visitors! This is not surprising given the distance from the states, the cost of the flights, and of course the wonderful state of affairs here during the past year. I was lucky though, my friend Eric was making his second trip to Chenni, India for business and had inivted his wife Christen to join him. We originally were hoping to meet in the Maldives for a long weekend, but in the end it was too expensive. So we decided to make a nice 4-day weekend in Sri Lanka instead.

Eric and Christen flew into Colombo on Friday night and Jana and I made the extraordinarily slow drive down to Colombo from Trinco. It took us the better part of 8 hours to make the 260km journey. We booked rooms at a small hotel near the beach in Colombo for the first night and had a nice seafood dinner on the beach. "Nice" being a relative term and even though the beachfront restuarant was better than most places in Trinco, Eric and Christen were quickly indoctrinated to the levels of service found in Sri Lankan resturants.

We rented a car from Colombo and the four of us drove south along the coast to a beach town called Mirissa about 3 hours away. We stopped in Galle along the way and had lunch in the old Fort and walked up on the fort walls that served as protection to the old town from potential sea invaders. We met a local man that claimed to be a dive instructor that lost his boat and all his equipment in the Tsunami. He was selling old coins that he scavanged from the shallow wrecks near the fort. I bought a few Dutch and British copper coins from the 1700's. I figure they will be unique keepsakes if nothing else.

A typical ox-drawn cart still in comon use here in Sri Lanka. Its a wonderful juxtaposition (thanks Eric!) seeing these animal-powered transports working against the sea of buses and Japanese lorries.

Jana and I a-top the Galle Fort walls. We were so lucky, the weather was like this the entire weekend.

Eric and Christen enjoying the views and relative reprieve from India's constant hussle and bussle.


After Galle, we moved on to our final destination, Mirissa. We stayed at the nicest place there, which doesnt mean all that much. But the place was really quiet nice. We each had private 2-story bungalows with ocean views and AC for about $40/night including dinner and breakfast for two.

Not much else to do but enjoy the beach with a few tropical drinks and good friends. Ok, truth be told, these cocktails tasted just a bit off... not quite right... But never fear, Eric and Christen stocked up at the duty free in Colombo airport. So we made our own drinks that were much, much better. Thanks guys!

It was so nice to have friends come to visit me and to see the country that I have been living in for the past year and a half, even if the south is much different then our life in Trinco. The weekend was really relaxing; we started each day with a swim in the sea, followed by a breakfast of fresh fruit, omlets and juice, then back to the beach to chill in the sun, read, swim or what ever met our fancy.

On the way back we stopped at a Sea Turtle refuge. I will write about this in another post.

Nuwara Elliya - Central Highlands

So its been a while since my last post. As you can Imagine, I have been pretty busy trying to finish up my work here so I can move on to greener pastures. Ok, maybe its difficult to get greener than Sri Lanka, but you get my drift. I felt pretty good coming back from my holidays in the states and was motivated to work hard and to enjoy the rest of my time here in Sri Lanka.

Not too long after my return, a few of us planned a trip to the cooler central highlands. Six of us took advantage of a long weekend, and climbed into a van for the 7 hour trip to Nuwara Elliya situated in the lush hills at about 6,000 ft above sea level. I had been here last year with my friend Tom, but it is a really nice place and I was happy to return. Nuwara Elliya is known for its lavish tea plantations and shockingly cool weather. It gets down-right cold in the evenings - about 45 deg (8 deg C).

The view from a mountian top behind our guest house. We hiked through the tea fields to this visita and were pleasantly surprised by the views.

Ivo, Matej, Jana, and me standing in the tea fields above Nuwara Elliya Town.

Mmmmm freash strawberry juice. Verka enjoying her strawberry milkshake. This is almost unheard of in Sri Lanka and was a welcome treat. I think we stopped at the Strawberry Inn each day we were there!

The fierce and much feared wild Sri Lankan Elk. Ok, he was not so tough in the end. i think he even came to me and licked my hand.