February 19, 2002.
Dear family and friends,
The teardrop, tropical island of Sri Lanka, is splashed down in the Indian Ocean just miles from India. In fact, the two countries are almost joined by a series of small islands called Adam's bridge, and it is not hard to imagine a bridge being built one day. But Sri Lanka is light years away in most respects. But before I get to Sri Lanka, a few post script notes on India.
My last letter was sent from Varkala as I was preparing to depart from Trivandrum, the largest city near the southern tip of India. The train from Varkala to Trivandrum is an easy trip of just over one hour. From Trivandrum I wanted to go to Kanyakumeri for my last day in India as it is the very southern tip where the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea all meet. A government workers strike on that day caused all tours to be cancelled, so I decided to go on my own on regular buses, and I'm glad I went. It was quite exciting actually, to be at that point, dipping my toe simultaneously into all three famous waters.
It was an interesting trip back to Trivandrum as several buses were also cancelled and I ended up having to take an alternate route back, but managed it with the help of yet one more of the locals.
My mind has just been crammed with the sights, sounds, and smells of India, and I leave with some considerable mixed feelings. On the one hand, I cannot overlook the poverty and squalor. India is being buried under a pile of plastic; bags and bottles are discarded everywhere. I have been told that the average cow in India dies with 20 pounds of plastic in its gut.
Deb Kindness, our Intrepid tour leader, told me of one of her clients, an American lady, who, while travelling on a train, was invited to share a lunch with an Indian family. After finishing her lunch, she gathered up her plastic wrapping etc. and was looking for a receptacle to put them in, when her Indian companion took them from her, and along with her own trash, promptly threw them out of the train window. The American lady was quite shocked, and explained to her new friend that, had she done that in America, she would be subjected to a substantial fine. The Indian lady said, "You should be moving to India, Madam".
On the other hand, I will never forget the Indian sunrises and sunsets, the incredible timeless beauty of a farmer plowing his field with a team of bullocks while women in saris of every colour tend the rice paddies. Nor will I forget the people. But for now, goodbye India.
My flight from Trivandrum to Sri Lanka took less than one hour, and I arrived in the very modern, clean airport at Colombo. I cleared customs and immigration and entered the main terminal anxious to meet Sherine and Kushan Dharmarwardena, Supipi's Aunt and Uncle. Kushan had e-mailed me Sherine would be holding up a sign with my name on it, and sure enough, there was Sherine, also anxiously, trying to pick me out in the crowd. Sherine and Kushan had been worried they were going to be late in getting to the airport due to the traffic so they had phoned ahead to a friend who works there, and asked her to try and meet me in case they were late. Their friend asked Sherine what I looked like, and Sherine, never having met me, said, "He looks like Santa Clause". My actual age had apparently not been forwarded from India. In any event, they were on time and it was great to meet them after our many e-mail exchanges.
Kushan is a management consultant and gives management seminars (team building, time management, supervisory skills etc.). With the help of Sherine, their sons Dilanka (who lives with Greg and Supipi in Melbourne) and Dinesh, Kushan has built up a large number of regular clients including many banks, most major hotels, and many garment manufacturers. The family has lived many years in Australia, and consequently he is a great "no worries" guy. On the other hand, he has become addicted to vegemite.
Kushan and Sherine could not have been more gracious and helpful to me in making my short stay in Sri Lanka truly unforgettable. They arranged for a car and driver for me, booked my hotels, treated me to everything I could remotely want, and worried constantly over my getting lost. I cannot thank them enough, and I only hope to have the opportunity to reciprocate when they, hopefully, come to Canada.
Sri Lanka is very tropical with extensive coconut palm and banana plantations, and consequently it is lovely and green. No one talks about the weather, it is always the same, with a temperature along the coast a constant 30 degrees.
Sri Lanka has been suffering from over two decades of unrest and violence resulting from Tamil demands for independence. The Tamils are largely the descendants of Indians brought to Sri Lanka by the British as pickers for the tea plantations. The violence has been quite bloody over the period but finally with the election of a new government in the past couple of months, tensions have eased and talks to end the dispute are under way. When this matter is settled, I predict Sri Lanka will be the new tourist destination "hot" spot. It has so much to offer.
The day after I arrived, I was given a walking tour of Colombo by Nissanka, a long time friend of Supipi's Dad. He was a great companion and we did the downtown tour. It was a quick tour, but I saw many of the spots of interest.
The next day, I left with my 'car', a nine-passenger Toyota Hiace van, and driver Karunarathne, on a four day, three night tour.
Karunarathne may have oversold his English speaking ability a bit to Sherine and Kushan when they hired him, but we got along excellent. He was a very gentle man, and worried over me nearly as much as Sherine and Kushan. Most probably any communication difficulty was my fault (language meister Merv) rather than his. I know he sure tried to communicate. As previously, many words are repeated twice. As an example, rather than saying "fish", Karuna would say "fish fish", expecting that I wouldn't understand the former, but knowing I would recognize the latter as a gill breathing vertebrate that lives in the water. The head waggle is not quite so ubiquitous here in Sri Lanka, but in Karuna's case, a "no", or "I don't know", was a one side head flop, and a "yes" was a nod that started at his waist.
My tour was mainly of the ancient cities of Sri Lanka, generally known as the cultural triangle. Traffic was light as we drove northeast out of Colombo along good highways often lined with huge trees (called Rain trees, I was told) that in many places crowned over the top of the roadway like a bower. Our first stop was Anuradhapura, ruins of an ancient capital where kings ruled for 1,000 years commencing in the 4th Century BC. Next we visited Polonnaruwara, capital city for 200 years in the 11th and 12th Centuries AD. I also visited Sigiria, an incredible rock fortress from the 5th Century AD, and the Dambula caves, a group of five caves containing about 150 Buddha statues of wonderful detail and beauty.
The fortress at Sigiria is built on the top of a 200 meter high knob of a hill reached by a stairway hung on the side of solid rock face. On the way up there is a long sheltered gallery with paintings of beautiful, bare breasted maidens. One guide referred to them as "the full 750's". 750ml, I suppose he meant, and that seemed about right to me. There were once 500 paintings but only a handful remains today. The view from the top is spectacular as well. They were all wonderful sites, and a good introduction to Sri Lanka's long and textured past.
As the Singalese language has words with so many syllables, you will know how badly I garbled them. About two days after we left Anuradhapura, I finally pronounced it correctly. The look of pure delight on Karuna's face was wonderful.
The weather during those first three days was a mixture of sun and rain (we're at the end of the monsoon), but generally, it has been quite agreeable. A picturesque sight is to see the many cyclists leisurely pedalling down the road, holding a large colourful umbrella over their heads. Incidentally, umbrellas are used as protection from the sun much more than hats are. I like that idea very much as I seldom wear hats; they make my head hot, my hair hurt, and my nose look too big. On the other hand, a large umbrella seems to make my nose look about right. Western dress is much more common here in Sri Lanka, yet some women do still wear the sari, and many men sensibly wear a sarong, which seems to me to be the best apparel for this climate.
After leaving Dambula we stopped for lunch at Hotel Kandalama, a beautiful new facility set on the hillside surrounded by dense vegetation. It is a very modern structure that somehow does not seem out of place. Kandalama was awarded the first Green Globe in Asia for environmental and cultural sensitivity.
From there we drove south to the old capital of Kandy. It is a beautiful little city situated beside a lake (many of the lakes in Sri Lanka are man made as is this one) surrounded by green hills. It is quite high here and the temperature quite comfortable. Kandy also is the site of Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Tooth, where it is said that one of Lord Buddha's teeth is kept. The temple is a grand structure, surrounded by a moat. You don't actually see the tooth. What I could see was a room, said to contain a casket, said to contain a box, said to contain a smaller box, said... Well, you get the idea. Tooth or no tooth, the temple attracts many Buddhist worshippers and tourists. It is one of the most heavily guarded places I have seen, having been the target of a terrorist bomber in 1998.
Sri Lanka is largely Buddhist, so statues of Lord Buddha are everywhere evident. It has been very interesting for me to see all of the various religious and spiritual differences over this trip. From Buddhism, which essentially holds that all men are equal and redemption is from within, and there is no god (hence it is more a philosophy than a religion), to Christianity where there is one God and that is God, and his messenger is Jesus Christ, to Islam, there is one God and he is Allah, and his Prophet is Mohammed, to Hinduism, with Brahman the One, but assisted by 329,999,999 other gods and goddesses (honest, that's what my guide book says). (In India I have also seen naked Jain mystics, having foresworn all material things, walking down the road.)
I must say Buddhism has some appeal to me being rational based, rejecting castes, and stressing the attainment of nirvana through one's own actions. I am a bit struck, however, by the apparent contradiction of the worship of Buddha, given His words of all men being equal, including Him.
The Buddhist flag is also everywhere. The flag consists of vertical stripes of blue (kindness), yellow (intellectual awareness), red (power or strength), white (purity and honesty), and orange (sobriety). One final stripe is on the right edge and is of the same colours, top to bottom.
After leaving Kandy, the highway started to climb and we wound our way up into tea plantation country. There are few sights I have seen more beautiful than this. The tea plants are densely sown and are pruned (or picked) to about three feet in height so that it looks as if a plush carpet has been rolled out over the hillsides. The highway twists and curls around the hills, the tea plants right up to the roadway. Around the plantation houses tall, stately trees (May trees I am told) have been planted. They have the most beautiful orange/rose coloured blossoms. The whole scene is simply wonderful and I loved it.
We ended that evening in the small tea plantation city of Dickoya where I checked into the Upper Glencairn Bungalow. This was the home of the British engineer, a Mr. Walker, who was responsible for the construction of most of the highways in the area. The house was built in 1906 and was packed with charm, set in a garden, surrounded by tea plantations. We have come to this point as I plan to climb Adam's Peak. The peak is 2224 meters high and on the top is a footprint which, depending on your conviction, is the footprint of Adam when he stepped down to earth after being cast out of heaven, or the footprint of Lord Buddha, or of God Shiva. It has also been attributed to St. Thomas, an early apostle of India. (Mohammed apparently stepped down to earth elsewhere.)
I woke at 1:00AM, and quickly got ready. The hotel had hot coffee and a bagged breakfast ready. As we left, Rajah, who worked in the hotel, pointed out the trail of lights snaking up into the black sky showing the way to the peak some 25 km distant. Karuna and I drove to the base at Delhousie, arriving at 2:30AM and ten minutes later I was on my way, trekking to the top. The peak is reached by 7.5 km of staircase. The way up is well lit and there is a tea/snack stall every 100 meters or so. The first one kilometre was rather gradual, some stairs, some path. But after that it was almost continuous steps, some 4,800 in all. It was the last 4,700 that were killers for me.
The hike up was torturous. There are almost no landings, just step, after step, after step, some cobblestone, some split stone, some concrete. I kept looking up, hoping for a landing, or hope upon hope, the top itself. But the steps seem to go forever. It was agony. My guidebook had said the trek took between 2 1/2 and 4 hours. Three hours and ten minutes after leaving the bottom I finally arrived at the top. The top itself is quite small with a tiny temple covering the "footprint" surrounded by a flat area totally covered by pilgrims who had climbed up the previous evening. I had met many pilgrims coming down as I was going up, (and there were only a few tourists heading up with me) so I was surprised to see so many still up there.
I had a tea and found myself a place to sit to await the sunrise, the whole purpose for the middle of the night start. The sky started to get light and as it got lighter the crowd hushed and it was dead quite and still. The moment the sun bobbed up over the horizon a soft "oooohh" came from the crowd. It was magic.
Very soon a religious ceremony commenced with chanting and drums after which the little temple was opened and we could all file through to view the large footprint shape at the very top. I watched as the sun climbed and cast a shadow of the mountain on the valley far below. It was a perfect triangle coming to a sharp point. I then rang the bell placed there for pilgrims like me. You are supposed to ring the bell once for every time you have climbed up. I rang it four times in case I don't get back.
At 8:05 I started back down. The views were magnificent. I had recovered somewhat from the climb up, but that soon passed. The climb down for me was actually 4,800 falls, each fall broken by a step. One hour and forty minutes later I arrived at the bottom, totally knackered, spent, wasted. Karuna was there anxiously waiting, glad to see me and I eternally grateful to see him. I think he was actually quite proud of me as I arrived back about two hours before two younger Dutch guys (who had also left from our hotel) even though they had set out before me. What a climb. I have no doubts it is the toughest climb I have ever done and I can assure you I won’t try a more difficult one in future.
Karuna and I drove back to Colombo that afternoon, me revelling in my accomplishment in spite of the very sore legs.
After a great nights sleep, Kushan drove me up to Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage, the best opportunity imaginable to get up close and personal with elephants. There are about sixty of them, a couple as young as two months. You can mingle with them as they are herded into the river to bathe or while they are fed. It's a great sight.
The next morning Kushan saw me off on a bus as I headed to the south for some relaxation on the beach. I quite like bus travel. I'm a bit of a curiosity being the only tourist on board. Very soon after getting on, everyone on the bus knows where I'm going and they all take the responsibility for getting me off at the right stop and ensuring I make the proper connections. One ‘down side’ of bus travel is that all buses are equipped with amp systems that would be the envy of any rock band, and they are usually cranked to the max. Worse, most of the tapes played have been so stretched from over playing they warble horribly.
I have wanted to come to the beach at Sri Lanka since Sunil, Supipi's Dad, said to me when I was extolling the beauty of Australian beaches, "If you think these are nice, you should see the ones in Sri Lanka". Well, the beaches in Australia are wonderful, but it is hard to beat those here. They are broad, sandy sweeps with palm trees bordering right up to them, and of course, the opalescent blue Indian Ocean rolls in.
Back to Colombo I went to say goodbye to my new friends, Sherine, Kushan and Dinesh. I have had a wonderful time and seen a great deal in my short stay. The people of Sri Lanka are as generous and friendly as the people in India are friendly and generous. And there is no missing the Sri Lankan trademark, a smile from ear to ear. At 10:30 Sherine, Kushan and Dinesh dropped me off at the airport and I'm on my way to Bangkok to meet Carole, and Lorraine a week later. Thanks again, "No worries", and two thumbs up.
And to all my family and friends, I think of you often and I hope you are all well.
Merv.
