Sri Lanka - Day 1

The first experience flying out of Doha has been a real kick! The airport was very crowded because so many expats are getting out of Dodge for the holidays. First we put our checked baggage through a scanner and picked it up at the other end and headed to the airline check-in. Everything went pretty smoothly and when we got to security I couldn’t believe how lax it was – the guy on the scanning machine wasn’t even looking at the screen to check anything. I took my laptop out of the case, but that wasn’t necessary. At Doha International Airport there are no jetways so you board the planes going up the stairs. So the planes are quite a way from the terminal and you are bused out to the planes. So when you get to the gate, they put you in something like a holding pen until the buses come. It takes a long time to board planes this way.

Our flight went by way of Bahrain and arrived in Sri Lanka at about 5:15 a.m. We were very tired; and had to wait at immigration for over an hour. It was a mob scene and you really had to be pretty pushy to get to the front of the line. After that we waited over another hour to get our luggage. We were so tired, but we got to the currency exchange where I cashed in 1000 Qatari Riyals (about $300 CDN) for 29,500 rupees!!! One rupee = $0.10!We found our driver very easily – he was waiting for us with a sign with my name on it.

Then we took off for Pinnawala and the Elephant Orphanage. CJ and Lisa did some napping along the way, but I couldn’t sleep – there was too much to look at! The country is so green and lush - quite a contrast to Qatar!!

Potato plant

The streets and roads are very narrow and there is all kinds of traffic – very few cars, but lots of buses, motorbikes, bicycles, tuk-tuks (the little three wheel scooter thingies). I couldn’t believe how many people could get on a motorbike. I saw one family with the father driving, the mother on the back, a child of about 6 in front of the father, and a child of about 2 in front of the 6-year-old – and only the dad was wearing a helmet! The fastest you can go outside of the cities is about 60 km/hr so it was a slow trip – about 2.5 hours to Pinnawala; then we had another 2.5 hours to our hotel for the night. There are small villages all along the way and I loved looking at the stalls and small shops, the people in their brightly colored clothes and warm and welcoming smiles.

Typical village scene in Sri Lanka

There are dogs everywhere – even sleeping in the road – they get up and move or the traffic moves around them. I saw school children in their white uniforms. It was Saturday and there was no school, but the children go to their schools for extra tutoring from the teachers and the students wear their uniforms for that.

The elephants were so incredible. I’ll let these photos speak for themselves (although they hardly do it justice):

Our hotel for the next two nights is in on Lake Kandalama – an enormous man-made lake - and is built into the side of a hill in the jungle so you don’t even see it until you are upon it. There are monkeys that come right up on your balcony and there are signs on the balcony doors warning you not to leave the door open because the monkeys will come in and swipe your stuff! I sat out on the balcony writing in my travel journal and watching some monkeys off in the tree tops. I just can’t believe this – it’s just too amazing! I also have some wildlife in my room – a little gecko is sharing my space. I’m afraid I may name him!

Hotel on Lake Kandalama (view from lake)

View of infinity pool at hotel on Lake Kandalama

Monkeys at hotel at Lake Kandalama

It is monsoon season in the northeast part of the country and we are now staying in the central part of the country up in the hills, so the rain comes in each day late in the afternoon. It is jungle and when we arrived it had been raining and the clouds were low over the hills. It is so lovely. The pool is what is called in infinity pool. It looks like it runs right into the lake. When were in the pool we looked over the edge of the pool down toward the lake and saw an elephant with a rider passing by.

More adventures tomorrow!!