While on our little trip up to Kandy, we went to see a local group that performs traditional Kandyan dancing. Now I'm all for a good cultural experience, but I have to say I wasn't all that impressed. I'm not sure if it was the style of dancing and the music or just the performance itself - our driver even admitted that most of the good dancers were out sick that day. Sina and I felt like it was somewhat like Samoan dancing only not really as good at all.
But then after the dancing inside on the stage, everybody moved outside for the grand finale. That, my friends, was another story altogether. You've heard about it, maybe even seen video of it before somewhere, but nothing as good as our footage. And you should try seeing it in real life!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Ruby's First Day of Preschool and Ballet
Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Sometimes I wish I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time.
Waving goodbye with an absent minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Sometimes I wish I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time.
Elephant Orphanage
Here's the elephant orphanage - really quite a collection of them with around 90 or so altogether, including lots of full grown ones, some younger ones, a few very small babies, and even a three-legged one thanks to an old land mine.
This one was only a month old (underneath the big one, wise guy - look closer).
For a couple dollars you could feed a bottle to one of their 3 month old babies. As we bought our ticket, Sina said, "maybe we'd better get two - who knows how fast these guys can suck down a bottle of milk!" Sure enough, he drank it in about 3 seconds flat.
We missed the time of day when the whole herd walks down through the little village next door and down to take a bath in the river below, but I'm sure we'll be back to see that before long.
On the way out of town we did see a huge flock of egrets or cranes of some sort roosting in some trees by the river. This photo doesn't really do the scene justice, but imagine each of these being about two or three feet tall.
This one was only a month old (underneath the big one, wise guy - look closer).
For a couple dollars you could feed a bottle to one of their 3 month old babies. As we bought our ticket, Sina said, "maybe we'd better get two - who knows how fast these guys can suck down a bottle of milk!" Sure enough, he drank it in about 3 seconds flat.
We missed the time of day when the whole herd walks down through the little village next door and down to take a bath in the river below, but I'm sure we'll be back to see that before long.
On the way out of town we did see a huge flock of egrets or cranes of some sort roosting in some trees by the river. This photo doesn't really do the scene justice, but imagine each of these being about two or three feet tall.
Lakshmi
On the way back from Kandy is a place everyone calls the elephant orphanage. More on that in the next post, but it's a pretty cool place in terms of saving poor, orphaned elephants who have no home, no job and no stimulus package to help them out. (I know, it sounds like the beginnings of a great Dickens novel.) Anyway, like any good tourist attraction, just down the road from that is a small, private operation better known as a tourist trap, where you can hand over some cash and they take you out back to their own little elephant herd. This is where we first met Lakshmi.
Now if you remember your 5th grade biology class, you'll know that Asian elephants are the smaller ones. So if your elephant is named something like Lakshmi and not something like Indougou, it would be one of the smaller variety. That being said, their tusks are pretty big.
And their teeth are even more amazing. We were told by our very informative guide that an elephant has only four of them. Two on top and two on bottom. But when each tooth is this big, do you really more than that? If only we'd gotten a good picture of the toothbrush...
And that's right, Lakshmi took us for a ride through the jungle. Did I mention how big she was??
If you look close you can see the equal parts terror and giddiness on Sina's face, the sheer joy on Ruby's face, and the enormous determination on mine as I held onto the chain, and all the rest of the family holds on to me.
Here we are headed off to the rice paddy to do some work for the day.
And the big finale - Lakshmi was a bit of a show-off with the curly trunk and all. It was really, really fun, and Ruby's still talking about Lakshmi a week later.
Now if you remember your 5th grade biology class, you'll know that Asian elephants are the smaller ones. So if your elephant is named something like Lakshmi and not something like Indougou, it would be one of the smaller variety. That being said, their tusks are pretty big.
And their teeth are even more amazing. We were told by our very informative guide that an elephant has only four of them. Two on top and two on bottom. But when each tooth is this big, do you really more than that? If only we'd gotten a good picture of the toothbrush...
And that's right, Lakshmi took us for a ride through the jungle. Did I mention how big she was??
If you look close you can see the equal parts terror and giddiness on Sina's face, the sheer joy on Ruby's face, and the enormous determination on mine as I held onto the chain, and all the rest of the family holds on to me.
Here we are headed off to the rice paddy to do some work for the day.
And the big finale - Lakshmi was a bit of a show-off with the curly trunk and all. It was really, really fun, and Ruby's still talking about Lakshmi a week later.
The Gardens
It isn't Kukenhof, and while there we realized, we just prefer Europe to pretty much every other continent in the world (as long as we can afford regular trips back to the US to go to Target!)
The Temple of the Tooth
We spent a day in Kandy, which is a famous pilgrimage site in Buddhism as the place where the Buddha's tooth rests. The story goes that after the Buddha died and was cremated, a tooth was found intact. It went on a bit of a road trip of its own, but finally ended up here in Kandy for good. Pilgrims can buy lotus flower arrangements outside the temple to leave inside.
Here's the outside of the temple. The Tigers set off a bomb at the entrance a few years back and killed quite a few people, so they have quite a bit of security going in, and then you have to take off your shoes (not like at the airport, this one's actually for non-security reasons). Ruby thought that was pretty fun. They had one shack where all the locals left their shoes, and another shack just for the foreigners' shoes. As in, "let's find one more way to shake money out of the foreign tourists".
This is a moonstone. Our guide was actually a muslim, and his english wasn't always too clear, so I'm not sure we quite got the whole story, but apparently if you walk on these it brings you good luck, so we went in for a triple dose!
Here is part of the original temple built to hold the tooth.
This statue was a recent gift to the temple from Malaysia
And here is where most of the lotus flower offerings end up. Way in the back at the top of the picture you see a spot of gold - that's the big gold case that holds the actual tooth. We were hustled past it pretty fast - I guess we didn't look much like pilgrims about to unload a lot of cash into the offering box.
Here's the outside of the temple. The Tigers set off a bomb at the entrance a few years back and killed quite a few people, so they have quite a bit of security going in, and then you have to take off your shoes (not like at the airport, this one's actually for non-security reasons). Ruby thought that was pretty fun. They had one shack where all the locals left their shoes, and another shack just for the foreigners' shoes. As in, "let's find one more way to shake money out of the foreign tourists".
This is a moonstone. Our guide was actually a muslim, and his english wasn't always too clear, so I'm not sure we quite got the whole story, but apparently if you walk on these it brings you good luck, so we went in for a triple dose!
Here is part of the original temple built to hold the tooth.
This statue was a recent gift to the temple from Malaysia
And here is where most of the lotus flower offerings end up. Way in the back at the top of the picture you see a spot of gold - that's the big gold case that holds the actual tooth. We were hustled past it pretty fast - I guess we didn't look much like pilgrims about to unload a lot of cash into the offering box.
The Hotel
Ruby doing some light reading in "Buddhism Culture & Sri Lanka Pilgrims Guide" the Sri Lanka equivalent to the ubiquitous Gideon's Bible.
We arrived at night, and woke up with the gorgeous jungle views surrounding us on two sides. It was a lovely surprise.
I mean, did you ever think this is why you locked your hotel patio doors at night!
But as you can see, they do get quite close, and these aren't even the ones who tried to steal Ruby's biscuit at the Buddhist Temple!
We arrived at night, and woke up with the gorgeous jungle views surrounding us on two sides. It was a lovely surprise.
I mean, did you ever think this is why you locked your hotel patio doors at night!
But as you can see, they do get quite close, and these aren't even the ones who tried to steal Ruby's biscuit at the Buddhist Temple!
The Bridge over the River Kwai
This Oscar winning movie was actually filmed in Sri Lanka, and on a recent road trip (if those can truly be had on an island) we had breakfast at a hotel built just a few hundred yards from the filming site. The countryside is beautiful, this particular spot so peaceful.
They brought us fresh pineapple juice, which was divine, and a big hit with Gavin.
They brought us fresh pineapple juice, which was divine, and a big hit with Gavin.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Sina's Birthday
The best thing about our long flight was that we arrived just in time for a four-day weekend, just what Sina has always been saying should happen to commemorate her birthday. Knowing basically nothing about how to get around, and without having had so much as a basic security briefing even, we decided to celebrate in the bosom of old colonial decadence, at a resort hotel just off the edge of town that used to be a residence for the British colonial governor. It was perfect for the occasion, and they even rounded up a birthday cake for us.
Ruby kept sticking her fingers in the icing to sample it.
Gavin joined in the celebrating by eating his first french fries.
Had we let her I think Ruby would have just taken the birthday cake into the pool and spent the whole afternoon there.
But she did pause on the way out for the paparazzi to snap a quick photo.
Ruby kept sticking her fingers in the icing to sample it.
Gavin joined in the celebrating by eating his first french fries.
Had we let her I think Ruby would have just taken the birthday cake into the pool and spent the whole afternoon there.
But she did pause on the way out for the paparazzi to snap a quick photo.
Easter!!
We managed to rouse of our jet-lagged slumber a couple days after arriving to go to church and do a little Easter-egg hunting.
Ruby took it very seriously.
Barkley tried to help, but got a little distracted by all these new tropical digs. He actually has been known to stop and smell flowers after all.
All her hard work paid off!
And Gavin was pretty pleased with his find.
Ruby took it very seriously.
Barkley tried to help, but got a little distracted by all these new tropical digs. He actually has been known to stop and smell flowers after all.
All her hard work paid off!
And Gavin was pretty pleased with his find.
24-hour flight
In case there was any doubt in our minds just how far away Sri Lanka really is, the flight over here took care of that! It doesn't help when you have to arrive at the airport a full 5 hours before the plane leaves, either. That's what happens when you fly with a dog, 11 pieces of checked luggage, and this pile of stuff, which was actually just our carry-on items. That's right, try getting through airport security with all this:
We had Ruby pretty well set up with cartoons on her I-Pod, which was strapped to an extra snuggly panda for easy viewing.
Knowing just how long the flights were really going to be (19 hours total in the air!!), Gavin tried for a quick getaway in the departure lounge!
The first flight from DC to Doha was surprisingly not so bad - bless those bulkhead aisle seats, I could actually stretch my legs out all the way! But then you're also sitting so very close to business class...it's as if you can taste it.
Anyway, we got to Doha after the first 14 hours, and tried to bargain our way into the business class lounge, but nothing doing. We paid our way into the "Oryx" lounge, which seemed pretty comfortable at first - lots of free snacks, showers, low lighting to encourage naps, and soft chairs. 7 hours later the free snacks had long since lost their luster, and the comments about our cute but exhausted children were less and less friendly. 5 more hours on the plane, and we finally arrived. We're pretty sure Barkley went the whole way without a walk. Anyone remember the scene from Austin Powers just after they thaw him out after 30 years of cryogenic freezing? Yeah, it was pretty much like that when we finally got him to a tree. Poor puppy, but he survived!
We all survived too, but won't be jumping to get on another plane for awhile, that's for sure. Here's what 10 time zones worth of jet lag can do to a person.
We had Ruby pretty well set up with cartoons on her I-Pod, which was strapped to an extra snuggly panda for easy viewing.
Knowing just how long the flights were really going to be (19 hours total in the air!!), Gavin tried for a quick getaway in the departure lounge!
The first flight from DC to Doha was surprisingly not so bad - bless those bulkhead aisle seats, I could actually stretch my legs out all the way! But then you're also sitting so very close to business class...it's as if you can taste it.
Anyway, we got to Doha after the first 14 hours, and tried to bargain our way into the business class lounge, but nothing doing. We paid our way into the "Oryx" lounge, which seemed pretty comfortable at first - lots of free snacks, showers, low lighting to encourage naps, and soft chairs. 7 hours later the free snacks had long since lost their luster, and the comments about our cute but exhausted children were less and less friendly. 5 more hours on the plane, and we finally arrived. We're pretty sure Barkley went the whole way without a walk. Anyone remember the scene from Austin Powers just after they thaw him out after 30 years of cryogenic freezing? Yeah, it was pretty much like that when we finally got him to a tree. Poor puppy, but he survived!
We all survived too, but won't be jumping to get on another plane for awhile, that's for sure. Here's what 10 time zones worth of jet lag can do to a person.
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