Sri Lanka and the Maldives
Sri Lanka
Early (I mean way early because we had an 8am flight and the Colombo airport suggests you arrive 4-5 hours early for your flight) Thursday morning, Bob, Hannah, and I arrived at the Colombo airport to head to India… unfortunately, in the mix of booking all our travel, Bob got a little mixed up and forgot India is one of the countries we have to apply for a Visa in advance. Unable to fly without a visa, we wound up back in Colombo for two days (we have our visas now and fly our tomorrow!). On the plus side, the extra two nights gave me time to post my blog about Sri Lanka and the Maldives before leaving the country. I’m counting it as a victory.
So, Sri Lanka… that’s the little country below India, right?
Yes, Karen, I was just getting around to that. Don’t rush me. Sri Lanka is a largely buddhist country (though with strong hindu and smaller muslim and christian minorities) shaped like a giant teardrop in southern Asia, just below India. From 1983 to 2009 (25 years!) the country was caught up in a civil war between the Sri Lankan government, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; or, essentially the Sinhalese majority, and the Tamil speaking, and largely hindu minority, who moved to the country from India in the 2nd century, who felt they were not treated as equals and wanted to create their own separate state within the northern and eastern parts of the country. During the war, the country was riddled with violence. The Tamil Tigers attacked public buses and temples with suicide bombers killing innocent civilians; the Sri Lankan government forces took part in large-scale human rights violations, including murders, kidnappings, and unlawful jailing. An estimated 100,000 people were killed, and another 800,000 displaced.
However, since the end of the conflict in 2009, the country has made a remarkable recovery. It is now safe and open to tourists, so people around the world can marvel at the ornate temples, and ancient ruins that have existed for thousands of years, as well as go on safari to see elephants and leopards, and drink fresh coconuts on the island’s many beaches.
Speaking of beaches…
Christmas in Bentota
Bob, Hannah, and I arrived in Sri Lanka on December 21st, but we hardly settled in at the monastery before we took off again to spend the weekend at the beach for Christmas. Though Bob told Hannah and I we were staying at an inexpensive hotel that had a short drive to the beach, on the morning of Christmas eve, we actually pulled up to a gorgeous resort, where the door to our room opened up directly onto the beach. With Bob’s love for beaches and Hannah’s love of surprises, I almost should have seen this one coming…
We spent the 24-26th hanging on the beach soaking up the sun. Hannah and I became masters of water aerobics and body boarding, and were even visited by santa (aka a thin Sri Lankan man on roller blades in a santa suit with a creepy blushing santa mask).
I promise I saw more of Sri Lanka than a beach resort…
The majority of our stay was spent at St. Sylvester’s monastery in Kandy, with BVC volunteers Gabe and Jon. While Jon and Gabe stayed in the cloistered monastic area with the monks, Hannah, Bob, and I stayed in a guest house just next door, and took our meals in a separate guest dining room. In some ways, this separation did not allow us to get to know the monks as well here as at other monasteries, but it also gave us a lot of freedom, and free time. Bob used this time to actually get to work on his book (most likely just so Hannah and I would stop pestering him). Hannah and I, often accompanied by Jon and Gabe if they weren’t busy with coaching or tutoring, would spend our days heading into Kandy, the city just near by; going for hikes or flying kites; or volunteering at Mother Theresa’s home for “special kids”.
St. Sylvester’s Monastery
To get in to Kandy, you have two options: you can take a tuk tuk (a small three wheeled vehicle that works like a taxi), which costs about 200-400 rupees (with 150 rupees to the dollar thats around $1.30 to $2.60) depending on how good you are at haggling, or you can take the bus, which costs 16 rupees (yep. About 10 cents). The bus is obviously cheaper, but in the mornings and when school gets out it can end up crammed with people all down the center aisle and even hanging out the doors, and since they are unable to maneuver around traffic and have to make stops to let people off are a bit slower; tuk-tuks weave around through crowded two lane roads, making them a bit faster and since they are everywhere, also a bit more convenient. Our usual move was to take a bus into town and tuk-tuk back, but it really depended on the time of day and, during busy times, how much we felt like being crammed up against strangers while awkwardly trying to not to fall into a different strangers lap at every sharp turn (if that amount felt equivalent to $1.50, tuk-tuk it was!). We also always took a tuk-tuk when Bob was coming into town. Getting him into a tuk-tuk was not easy, but we got a system going where the boys would help us life him in, and then his wheel chair would be taken apart and stacked on top of whoever sat next to him.
Tuk-tuk rides with Bob get a little squishy…
Usually when we went into Kandy we had some errands to run, but we always found time to head to the pastry shop to get donuts (which they put frosting on top, and cut open like a bagel to spread more frosting), vegetable roti (a flatbread rolled up around a spicy filling), or vegetable curry filled pastries and to swing into our favorite juice shop, Smiley Fruits, were you could get freshly squeezed juice from almost any local fruit (Mango, papaya, soursop, woodapple…). We would also often go walk around Kandy Lake, where local vendors sold snacks, and offered to let you take pictures with trained monkeys or pythons.
Hannah and I trying our first falooda at Smiley Fruits
However, what Kandy is most known for is the Temple of the Tooth- a large, ornate buddhist temple in the center of Kandy built by the last king of Sri Lanka that houses the only remnant of buddha: his tooth. I visited the temple twice, once with my parents, and once with Bob and Hannah (the temple has a secret back entrance where an elevator has been put in, making it shockingly wheelchair accessible). The temple is over 200 years old and filled with gold leafed flowers, and ornate paintings and carvings. The tooth relic is kept in a special shrine on the second floor, and as the holiest site in Sri Lanka for Buddhists, many will come through every day leaving flowers and flower petals as offerings.
When we weren’t going into Kandy, we would often take a walk up the hill from the monastery. Just above was St. Benedict’s school, where on weekends people from the area would play pickup games of cricket. There would also often be kids up there flying kites, and Hannah and I even purchased our own hand made kite to join in on the fun 🙂 Up the road from the school there was also a buddhist monastery that Father Clement brought us to visit. Father Clement tood us that about 20 years ago the Benedictine and Buddhist monasteries did not get along, but today they are friends and even attend important events at each others monasteries. If we continued a little further up the path, we could hike on the hill behind and look down over Kandy. In the afternoons, we could also join the monks for volleyball at the monastery. Though I am an awful volleyball player, Hannah and I enjoyed playing because it was the main way we got to spend time with and get to know the monks at St. Sylvester’s.
About halfway through our time in Sri Lanka, we started volunteering with the Sisters of Charity just outside of Kandy. Just like the site we volunteered with in Kenya (and many of the Mother Theresa homes), the sisters there cared for children and women with special needs. This site was home to around 50 kids and 30 women. In the mornings, we were able to help out with crafts (painting, coloring, and necklace making), playing with kids in the sensory room, or assisting the physical therapist, followed by helping feed the children lunch. The afternoon was less structured and women and kids seems to wander around without much to do, so if we came then we would just try to play, and talk, and keep the women and children busy (which really mainly consisted of pushing kids around and around on the merry-go-round outside). Not only did Mother Theresa’s offer us a meaningful place to help out, it also was a good way to make some new friends as the site had other volunteers visiting from all over the world.
Exploring Sri Lanka
On a few occasions, we also took trips outside on Kandy. Our first trip was a weekend trip to Sigiriya, Dambulla, and Pollunwara. Since the trip was too far to take a tuk-tuk, this was the one time we actually got Bob on and off public buses (a serious team effort by Hannah, Gabe, Jon, and I, plus some understanding bus drivers). Our first stop, was in Dambulla (about 2 hours away by bus), which is home to a set of buddhist temples made right in the natural rock caves. The temples range from 200 to 1,000 years old that are intricately painting and filled with large statues of buddha. Afterwards, we took about a 30 minute tuk-tuk ride to Sigiriya where all but Bob (he’s not great at walking up stairs it turns out), climbed 1,200 stairs up a steep, rock; at the top you are able to see the remnants of an old palace, and look down on the kingdom below. We took another hour bus ride that night to stay in Pollunwara. In the morning, we hopped in tuk-tuks that brought us through the ancient city. Towards the end, the drivers started making some sneaky phone calls and another driver showed up with already stamped tickets for Bob and I, while Hannah and the boys had to get out of there tuk-tuks and walk through the woods near the exit- turns out our sneaky drivers were making some money on the side by sneaking around the actual entrance and exit and pocketing the ticket money themselves!
In early January, we had to head to Colombo to extend our visas. While we were there we had to chance to meet up with a group of current and alumni johnnies who live in Colombo! The 11 of us, class of 1994 through class of 2018, met for dinner and had an amazing night laughing, talking, and reminiscing about our school 🙂 The night even included a magic show by a Johnnie named Orlando (who was very popular at SJU for doing magic shows on the 2am link). Since I had heard all about Orlando at CSB/SJU but never actually seen him perform, I could not have been more thrilled. He did not let me down; he put on a show right in the restaurant and even got the waitstaff involved!
Finally, while my parents were in town, we took a trip to the pinnawala elephant orphange. Bob, Hannah, and I had an amazing experience at an orphanage in Kenya where orphaned baby elephants were cared for and then released back into the wild (we even adopted one!), so we had high hopes. However, this orphanage seemed to be far more for tourists benefit than for the elephants- many of the elephants were chained up, they didn’t have much space to roam, and none of them get re-released. Still, it was cool to see elephants up close and we even got a chance to feed one.
The ‘rents
My mom and Todd took their first international flight EVER to come visit me in Sri Lanka [obviously the favorite child ;)]. The two of them stayed in Kandy and I was able to show them around the monastery, sites in Kandy, and Mother Theresa’s. We also took our own day-trip to Sigiriya and Dambulla; for old folks (will I lose favorite child status for that comment??), they not only dominated the 1200 stair climb, but were also troopers about standing on the 2 hour bus ride home when the bus not only had all the seats full, but also had two rows of people squished into the center aisle. We also took a 6 hour train ride over looking the tea plantations to Ella, where we stayed in a guesthouse in the small backpackers town. From Ella, we took a day trip to Udawalawe National Park where we had the chance to see asian elephants, peacocks, crocodiles, and water buffalo. Todd’s only complaint as we drove through elephant filled, protected lands in a safari vehicle was that “it was really bumpy and they should really pave the road”. Aside from taking thousands of pictures at the actual tourist sites, my parents were equally excited to have our tuk-tuk driver stop on the side of the road so they could take pictures of the many monkeys that wander around playing in the trash, and in Todd’s case, taking pictures of the totally unsafe construction going on around town, presumably to take back and show to his other friends working in risk management at Traveler’s Insurance. But, tacky tourists as they were (thank goodness I was able to talk my mom out of her fanny pack!) I was so glad that they were able to visit and experience Sri Lanka with me.
The Maldives
On February 1st, we took off for our Christmas surprise trip to Maafushi island in the Maldives! We flew into the main island, Male, and were met by our “taxi,” a speed boat that would take us to Maafushi. If landing on an island, and boating across an unbelievably blue ocean wasn’t enough, I had the extra satisfaction of discovering that my little sister Sawyer was also at an airport that morning… in North Dakota… wearing 8 layers of clothing with frost on her eyelashes (ahhh… making your siblings jealous will never get old).
This is literally right outside of the Male airport.
We spent our first two days relaxing on the beach and working on our tans, but on our third day all three of us went SCUBA DIVING!! We spent the morning training in the lagoon with the owners of the dive shop, a snarky french man named Marc, and an incredibly kind Maldivian man named Adham, who spent the whole day ensuring Bob had the best possible scuba experience. In the afternoon, we got on a boat and were brought out to dive in the open water. Adham was again paired up with Bob, while Hannah and I were paired up with an 18 year old nicknamed Koko (how crazy is it to be certified as a dive instructor at only 18!). We swam around a reef where we were able to see all kinds of coral and brightly colored fish (I saw Nemo!) and though we weren’t able to dive deep enough to go inside (as newbies we are allowed to go down to 12m), were able to see a shipwreck below us. It was truly incredible!
The following day, the adventures continued as Hannah and I took a half day snorkeling trip where we were able to see and swim with sea turtles and sting rays! Since Hannah and I were the only ones there not with a significant other or family and made it clear we wanted this to be the fun boat, we definitely got special treatment by the staff- almost all of the go-pro photos they took were of Hannah and I, they took us out separately to show us the best snorkel spots, and invited us to sit up in the front of the boat with them. Everyone else may have a life of love and happiness, but jokes on them because they also have flash drives filled with go-pro photos of Hannah and I having a way better time. (Note the turtle right next to my right arm in the photo :))
One of the funniest/ most ridiculous things I think we have done on this trip was when the 3 of us got wind that, though the Maldives is a muslim country where alcohol is illegal, there is a boat just off of Maafushi that has a bar. Not wanting to miss out, the following evening, we transferred Bob into a boat, that taxied us out to another larger boat, and then had Bob carried upstairs on that boat (because the hallways were too small for a wheelchair), all so we could sit for a few hours and laugh about it while drinking exorbitantly priced cocktails with an English guy and a couple from Austria. **Note to future caregivers: NEVER underestimate the lengths that Bob will go to to have a good time and a drink.
On our last full day, Bob decided we were going to make the very most of it. We rented a private boat and two guys took us out for a day of snorkeling in the ocean, watching baby sharks from a sandbar, and hopping to a second sandbar to eat lunch with our toes in the ocean. The two guys who took us out were Maldivians- one didn’t even work for the excursion company, he was a prison guard on the island who just happened to be a good friend. Yet, just like the immense kindness were found scuba diving, the guys took such great care of us, especially Bob. At one point while Hannah and I were out in the water, the prison guard, without being asked, even dug a little hole in the sand for Bob to sit in, buried his feet in the sand, and took photos of him relaxing there. Later, he cleaned up all of our things, taking special care to keep our phones and cameras up high away from the sand and water.
That night, the care and thoughtfulness of the people who live and work there continued when two of the guys we met at the scuba shop invited us to have a Maldivian barbecue. The 22 and 23 year old guys bought all the supplies, then brought us to a little barbecue site where they cooked up the fish and potatoes “Maldivian style”, using coconut shells for charcoal (as a Minnesotan, I struggle to even fathom living in a place where there are so many coconuts, you can jut gets bags filled with the shells for free). Bob, a known seafood snob, had the best fish of the week that night, and we were able to spend the night trading stories about what it is like growing up in snowy Minnesota, and on a small island in the Indian Ocean (their upbringing had a lot more snorkeling, eel bites, and spear fishing than I remember from mine…).
The next day, we woke up early and squeezed in a last swim and paddle board, as well as a final goodbye to the guys at the dive shop, before getting back on our water taxi and flying back to Colombo. Tomorrow (visas in hand this time) we will be flying to India to spend time at the Monastery in Kerala.
The Bennie Abroad 