OUR SERENDIB

Colombo

So much time has passed since my last entry and I'm afraid catching everyone up on events chronologically is a feat that I am not prepared to undertake so I will just give a quick update.

As some of you may know, Jim and I opted to live in Colombo rather than in Kandy.  After our partial glimpse at the region know as the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka, we headed back to Colombo to find our future home.  We are happy to say that within only two days we found our beautifully clean and fully furnished apartment.  It is located in the bustling Tamil neighborhood of Wellewatta and is within walking distance to the ocean (although one must walk over well-traveled train tracks to reach it).

So, after so much complaining about Colombo, all it took was a month and a half, without air-conditioned restaraunts, movie theaters, and metered taxis, for our appreciation of its cosmopolitanism to come to full fruition. 

But, don't think just because we are accepting the western luxuries of the city that we are isolating ourselves too much from the "real" Sri Lanka.  Shortly after our return to Colombo, there was a Hindu procession at about 8 in the morning called the Vel Festival that began just down the street from our hotel and made its way several kilometers through the streets of Colombo.  This was one of the most beautiful and rich displays of devotion that I have ever witnessed and a real awakener to the fact that I am most definitely living a world away from the US.

More pictures and video to come!

Sigiriya and beyond

After our visit to Dambulla, our driver Steven took us on to Sigiriya to our midrange hotel creatively named Hotel Sagiriya.  We were pleasantly surprised as we made our way through the gate and to the entrance.  The Hotel is open and airy with a spectacular view of Sagiriya rock.

Another vantage:

Sagiriya rock, which is actually the plug of an eroded volcano, is said to have been used, yes once again, as a hide out. This time the escapee was the 5th century "ruler" King Kasyapa who is said to have fled the ancient capital of Anuradhapura after murdering his father and attempting to usurp the throne from his brother.  King Kasyapa built an elaborate palace complex which included intricately planned gardens at the base of the rock. 

Unfortunately for you and me both, after 5 minutes into our exploration we discovered that something was going terribly wrong with our camera (does anyone know about CCDs?). 

So while you won't be able to come along visually for our entire visit, I hope that I can adequately and very briefly recap some of our experiences for you...................

We walked along the many paths, the remains of ponds and former gardens flanking us on either side.  With great frustration, we were interrupted several times by touts wanting to be our tour guide or sell us some useless trinket.  As far as I know these salesmen have no affiliation with the government site but are allowed in freely to greet aka harass the visitors who have just paid US$20 to enter. 

Once we reached the base of the rock we climbed a bit and reached the famous Sigiriya frescoes that are said to have been painted in the 5th century.   

The next leg of the climb was incredibly steep.  As you can barely see in this picture, the metal stairs were built out of the rock and narrowed down to allow only one foot per step as one approached the summit.

So, we made it to the top, relaxed for a bit and enjoyed the shade and the strong winds.  The view of the surrounding flatland and jungle were amazing.  Overall we had a good time, but were glad to mount our descent and to return to our hotel for a dip in the pool.

Shortly after our visit, I discovered this news article concerning Sigiriya.  Apparently the wasps, who make their massive nests off the rock walls, started attacking visitors to Sigiriya!  About 100 visitors have been hospitalized as a result.  I'll take a broken camera over a wasp attack any day!

Dambulla Hike

About 2 hours north of Kandy is the town of Dambulla wherein lies the Dambulla Caves.  The cave temple is said to have been a place of refuge in the 1st century BC by King Valagamba who was hiding away from the invading army at the time.  The site has been undergoing renovations since then as is apparent by the brand new gargantuan Buddha that greets visitors upon entry.

It is quite a climb to the top especially in the sweltering Sri Lankan heat.  But, alas, we finally made it and saw before us the striking colonnaded structure built out of the large boulder. 

The site consists of 5 caves and a few smaller niches for the devales (this one is to the god Kataragama who can be recognized by his signature peacock). 

Each cave is elaborately painted from ceiling to floor and is filled with sitting Buddhas, lying Buddhas, meditating Buddhas, well over 2,000 images of Buddhas in total. 

Next stop on the Ancient Cities tour, Sigiriya

Culture Shock!

Care of Wikipedia:

"Culture shock is a term used to describe the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within an entirely different cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country. It grows out of the difficulties in assimilating the new culture, causing difficulty in knowing what is appropriate and what is not. Often this is combined with strong disgust (moral or aesthetical) about certain aspects of the new or different culture.

Recently, some researchers claim that culture shock does have many positive effects on intercultural sojourners, like increasing self-efficacy and helping improve self-motivation"

So, I didn't anticipate it, because I mistakenly thought I was a pro, but it hit me like a speeding train.  It all started one fateful day whilst searching for an apartment in Kandy.  An overly eager tuk-tuk driver agreed to take us to our first apartment, which we had found online, and lucky for us on the condition that we let him show us the apartments that he knew about.

When moving to a place like Sri Lanka or to any other foreign country, it just happens that there is a constant battle with one's judgment.  Do I "go for it" and pet the porcupine?  Do I put that strange berry in my mouth that the village man just picked from the tree?  Or do I politely decline the fish-smelling salad, although culturally risky, to safeguard my future health?  You get the idea.  So with an adventurous spirit we let this pushy driver show us the "apartments".

One after another we were shown uninhabitable dwellings and each time we had to convince the tuk-tuk driver that it was not for us.  And when I say convince, I mean "beg and plea with him to take us away from the place" convince.  It seemed our driver was moonlighting as a real estate agent of sorts, no doubt to collect what ever commission he would require from the landlord of our choosing.  When we refused the apartments he then tried to charge us a ridiculous amount of money for his "services".  So, the 2-hour "adventure" turned into the beginning of the above-mentioned "strong disgust" of culture shock.  This combined with a stomach bug led to several blurred and unaccounted for days of my trip.

But, despite the difficulties in navigating a country whose citizens rely on tourism at times thankfully and at times with deep spite, the process of assimilation takes time and in our case woke us up to the obvious.....Kandy is NOT for us!  And as a bonus, my self-efficacy is off the charts!

Here are some nice things we experienced that reminded me to lighten up!

After our disaster with the real estate tuk-tuk driver, we stuck with a driver we like named Samaricon. These are his adorable kids who had just visited Temple.

This is Mr. Kasir.  He invited us  to the yearly meeting of the Hill  Country Malay Association of which he is the President. 

Next stop Ancient Cities......