Sri Lanka

What do I think of Sri Lanka?  I'll try not to.  I don't know what I expected from Sri Lanka but this ain't it.  I have been thrown for a loop and humbled from thinking travel is a pony ride in May.  Testament to the resilliance of life is that anything here survives beyond infancy.  Yet despite all the carnage and despair, the locals are pleasantly friendly, smiley, and keen to show genuine interest in your personal story.  But I require a new and greater level of acclimation and adjustment as Sri Lanka is crustier than any of the countries I've been to thus far.  Breathing the air through anything short of a surgical mask can be hazardous.  I don't imagine India being worse but I'm about to find out.  Sri Lanka is the launch pad into India.  I suspect I may be jumping from the fryer to the fire. 

In Colombo, the Cricket World Cup is being hosted.  And as a result, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces are out in full gear trotting & strapped with Russian firepower.  It's their Cricket World Cup message: "Watch the test, then go home quietly!"  I find Colombo to be frightening.  The locals assure me the situation in Sri Lanka is well improved since the cessation of the Tamil Insurgencies.  My imagination lacks ability to envision what could have been before.  Concrete bunker rubble homes and shack-roofs' twisted metal are the choicest dwellings in this town.  Village after village looks like they've been bombed.  Heavy, major floodings in the southeast and a zillion un-detonated landmines in the northern hills make tactical planning an urgent priority.  We can't go there and we won't stay here!  

I've opted for Kandy, a city up in the central highlands where temperatures are friendlier and the air a bit more 'see-through.'  By bus, the trip takes 3 hours and costs 65 cents.  But neither the bus's dash-mounted Satya Sai Baba snow dome nor the blue plastic Ganesha elephant god bouncing on a spring carried enough Shiva power to haul us up into the hills.  We quit and broke roadside.  It was the little bus that couldn't.  But I've got a good feeling about the new bus.  Rigged with golden Buddhas whose tiny lights blink and flash when we brake, they keep me relaxed as we speed our luggage-laden, rooftop-heavy, hoopty of a bus up nasty, hairy, & curvy mountain roads all inches from stupidly steep drops.  A disaster in the making?   It wouldn't be the first time a bus tumble & crush made headlines here.  I'll stay attentive to the blinking Buddhas, they're helping me. 

Kandy has culture.  Home to fire walking, local music, dance and dress, it's a great place to take in some Sri Lankan arts.  But to be fair, Kandy is loud, filthy and aesthetically unpleasing.  I need something, anything else.  Strike two!!

Time out!  Hold the phone!  What?  Take the noose off, this priosner has just been pardoned.  Huh?  Don't write off Sri Lanka just yet because the beaches here rival the best coastlines in Australia and Hawaii.  Fully recovered from the 2006 Boxing Day Tsunami, the beaches are long, white, and immaculate with crystal-clear, warm, & glassy turquoise waters on the doorstep of the Maldives.  Oh my, do I feel a sense of rebirth to have landed here, this place is phenomenal.  This is just what the doctor ordered.  It's been ten weeks since I've had my feet in the sea.  Ahh, am I ever in the mood to sun, sand & surf after all the noise and pollution that is Colombo, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.  This is the ticket!  At home at last.  I think I fancy some fresh pineapple.  I might even read another book.  Yeah, we're staying right here in Eden's garden until D-day to India.  Third time's a charm...

Travel on My Wayward Son

Singapore Chinatown has Dim Sum 

As I suddenly find myself eating an unexpected yet savory dim-sum in Singapore, a question begging an answer arises; How did everything come to this?  Not that I don't approve of dim-sum, it's just that Singapore and Malaysia were a never a thought in the plan.  But I digress.  The original blue-print for this journey was to explore Taiwan, visit Hong Kong, and take adventures through VietNam.  The alternate plan: fall back on Chiang Mai if all else falls. 

Aside from an unexpected month in China, another in Cambodia, and a few weeks along the Mekong in Laos, I'd say all went well and to plan.  But as six-months travel pass under my feet, my options become clear: Go home and work, go to Japan and work, or keep on truckin'.  Instinct & desires compell me to travel further...  "But to where?", I ask the little voice inside my head, "Where do we go now?"  The response is clear;  "You must pilgrim through the oldest and most populous nation on Earth.  The ancicent civilization of India.  The timing is right.  The season is right.  The location is right.  The price is right.  It's now or never.  Carry on my Wayward Son, go on and get some!"  So, like playing a little unexpected 10th-inning baseball, the game is tied and about to get exciting.  We didn't order this but we'll take it. 

I have purchased a direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sri Lanka for a ten-day vacation there before I delve into the South of India for six weeks.  Hence, a jaunt from Thailand to India has given birth to some unforseen extra bonus travel in Malaysia, plus a side-trip to Singapore just because, and to Sri Lanka as a 'pre-India' warm-up.  It's icing on the cake; above and beyond the original deal. 

From here on out, all bets are off.  My plan is out the window.  I have done what I have set out to do and I don't know what will happen a day from now.  We're flying blind, but with the wind.  All I can do is jump into the saddle and live life moment to moment on this one.  Time, money and health will dictate what happens from here on out.  I'll keep you posted as reality unfolds itslef.

Batter Up.... Let's play some ball!!