We land in India after some luxury thanks to an upgrade to business class on Sri Lanka air. It was sweet and pretty funny to watch them try and cram in the meal and fruit juice and champagne and steamed towels and all the other goodies we Deiters deserve into the hour and fifteen minute flight. We arrive in India full of expectation and trepidation. In our travels we have run into a fair amount of people with India horror stories. Some about the dreaded "Delhi belly," others about aggressive touts, and of course plenty of garden variety wackiness involving cows. Even those who profess to love it begin with a long pause when you ask them what they thought about India as if they are trying to put together a response that won't result in you canceling your flight. After months of this we were approaching India like we were running a marathon, i.e. It's gonna be miserable while it's going on but you'll be proud you did it when it's over. Thankfully for the Deiters these people are a bunch of lying liars and Debbie downers to boot and India has been an amazing, if sometimes maddening adventure. We probably benefitted from doing diet India..er I mean Sri Lanka first so that we got a little taste of what's to come and southern India is universally understood to be way less crazy than the north (so I reserve the right to take back all the nice things I'm saying at any time) but thus far India has been wonderful and great fun as you are about to find out. Our first destination was a beach town called Varkala that is perched on a couple hundred foot tall cliffside with a strip of shops and restaurants and sets of stairs that lead down to the beach. There is a large Tibetan community here so our first meal was "momos" which are delicious little dumplings that go great with a strong ocean breeze and a cold kingfisher beer. We lazed away the afternoon from our perch on the cliffs, talking about our plans for India and coming to the realization that it was time for haircut number two because as I was droning on about the browns not having a coach, Tash almost dies laughing out of nowhere because she says my "helmet hair" would make me perfect for the job as I would be "just like one of the guys". After lunch we went down for a stroll on the beach and saw our first bizarro pack of Indian dudes in jeans and sneakers cruising the beach and staring at girls....like STARING at girls. From where I sit, the uniform for girl staring just makes it weirder. "What are you wearing to the beach? Why jeans and sneakers of course!" It's just bizarre. India gets a pass from me on a lot of things cause it's their country, I've been here for two weeks, and who am I to judge? But this ritual is just beat and will extend all the way to the move where "I'm TOTALLY not taking a picture of you on my cellphone that I have tucked under my arm so I can tell my friend on facebook that you are my girlfriend" shadiness. Anywho after walking around for a while it was dinner at our hostel and an early night cause sometimes being Deiters is exhausting. The next morning we decided on a long walk down the cliffs that we hoped would end at a restaurant Tash found that specializes in the local "keralan" cuisine. We started off by watching paragliders get ready to jump off the cliff and then wandered down to see like 7 cows nose deep in a little pond tryin to stay cool and avoid the flies. Further on was about 20 local men pulling in a giant fishing net (like fifty yards by 30 yards) then we saw a bunch of sea eagles swooping down on something...we moved up with eager anticipation, had they teamed up and caught some giant fish? Was it a beautiful nesting site with baby eagles? Nope it's a giant pile of trash....majestic.. Somebody had tossed like 1000 Styrofoam takeout boxes off the cliff onto the beach and sent these birds into a frenzy. And basically that's India, where lurking around the corner from your amazing experience is some senseless craziness that makes you wanna scream WHHHHYYYYY? It's generally a 90/10 ratio and if you can deal with that then India is amazing and if not it will consume you. But the Deiters can deal, so we pushed on lookin for the restaurant and got our first "Indian head wobble" when asking for directions. The wobble is a simultaneous combo of the yes and no head shake and covers the spectrum from absolutely yes to no way never, but is often somewhere in between. It is hilarious and maddening when you are trying to determine "if this is your bus" so as to not go 12 hours in the wrong direction and you get the wobble in place of the firm yes or no you crave. You can try to press and clarify and confirm all you want but all you're gonna get is wobble baby wobble and so you roll the dice. After some conflicting directions we walked back to the start and had lunch and found out about an open mic-ish live music thing at a bar that night. It was pretty good and if you brought anything from a sitar to a guitar you could get on stage. The people watching was even better because apparently when westerners go to India they loose their minds. You want to rock a white linen on white linen suit? Go for it. Wanna dress like Johnny Dep from pirates of the Caribbean? Done. Funky hat? Only one? Open front silk kimono? Cool. The funny thing is it's not even dressing like the locals because the locals mainly wear normal clothes (see jeans and sneakers above). It's more of the hipsterish trait of tryin real hard to look cool while also acting like your not tryin hard, harmless and often hilarious. That night (as many of you already know) ended with me drunk dialing every contact in my phone (sorry bout that) as I couldn't resist the sweet allure of viber out and good wifi. Thankfully they shut the router off before I could get down to past employers and others on the drunken "do not call" list.
The next morning brought bright rays of sunshine ...and the type of hangover that makes you hate bright rays of sunshine. As my mom would say this wound is "self inflicted" so I won't boo hoo about it but it was a long day made longer by the fact that we were homeless having checked out of our room in preparation for our train trip up the coast to our second stop, a place called Allepey that afternoon. After a day of suffering and dreaming of lying on our couch at home, ordering from Franks pizza and watching tons of bad T.V. (our traditional hangover cure) we headed to the train station where we learned that in India the Deiters are kinda celebrities. I know this because after we plopped down on our bags (still mostly hating life) I turned around to find an Indian woman and her son standing right behind us. I looked at the kid who was doing the hide behind mom's legs thing and then at the other 20 family members staring from a bench a few feet back then back to mom who said "he wants to shake your hand". I laughed out loud and stuck my hand out which really spooked the little guy who was still trying to work out what the hell this pale skinned Adonis he saw before him really was. He tried to bail but was shot down after some Hindi from his mom which translates as "oh no no no, you made me come over and disturb this handsome man, now you're gonna shake his hand." So shook we did and after he realized that he didn't loose any fingers or turn to dust we worked our way through a series of increasingly intricate high 5's to the delight of the surrounding family. The train came and dropped us in Allepey after 3 or so hours where a guy from our guest house scooped us up and took us to our new home right on the beach. The place is run by "Babu" or rather two friends who both answer to Babu cause it's "easier for white people to remember". The place is great for hanging out and making friends but both babu's are early 20ish guys and the place looks like its run by two early 20ish guys. Tash was a little shaken up when we were greeted by a giant rat who scurried out a hole in the wall when we opened the door to our room. Having once been a 20ish guy myself I plugged the hole in the wall with an empty plastic water bottle and...boom problem solved. Tash was not so sure and had a why are we in India look on her face that only resolved after a few rat free hours. Allepey is home to the "backwaters" where you can rent your own houseboat and cruise around something like 900 kilometers of interconnected lakes and rivers. The night of our arrival we arranged for a boat the next morning and then settled in for some Tandori chicken and hangin out on an elevated bamboo hut above the beach at the hostel. This hut proved to be the star of the show at the hostel and I guess because the rooms are less luxurious than business class, people spend most of their time up there watching out for rats and making friends. We met a group of Israeli's who lived on Kibbutz's back home and treated us to an impromptu jam session with a guitar and a nose flute (yeah, you read that right) as well as a cool group of regular Indian guys who were friends with the "babu's." The next day was a trip on our very own "houseboat." For the second time on the trip (and ever) we had our very own staff and we were pleased with our boat which we booked sight unseen and was a very nice bamboo number with a private perch up top as well as a bedroom with a comfy bed and A.C. (it was one of the nicer rooms we have stayed in). As we set off in the morning we were a little put off by the number of houseboats and were concerned that it might turn into a houseboat traffic jam rather than a romantic river cruise. There were like two hundred of them and in a few years this activity may jump the shark but after we pulled out of the "parking lot" we found the slow jog up the river to be quite relaxing from our perch above the wheelhouse (Deiters are nautical now). After cruising around a bit we pulled up next to a rice field to have lunch before setting out on a slow stroll to our evening destination just off a large lake. It was pretty sweet to hang out and chat while watching life go by on the river. The waterways are like roads and the shores are covered with houses, schools, churches, bars and everything else you might find driving around a town in India. Things were going swimmingly until we posted up for the evening and got sorta pressured into buying some "tiger prawns" which are apparently a delicacy in Saudi Arabia? (our boatman was emphatic about this point) and were pretty expensive considering they were not our favorites and we had already paid for dinner as part of the package. So Ok, we agree to get one tiger prawn each which doesn't impress the boatman or his cousin (the prawn salesman). Then things went to the next level when dinner was served and our boatman asked if he "could share our alcohol" (queue sideways glances from the Deiters / he meant the gin we brought for late night boat drinks) . Hmmmm, ok so that's weird but sure, and I offer to go upstairs and get it after we're done eating but there was no need for that apparently as he bounded up the ladder and retrieved the bottle. Then we pour the boatman and the captain a drink after an awkward moment where we had to convince him that the free gin we were offering was in fact alcohol. Boatman wasn't sure and eyed the glass wearily before slugging down a G&T like it was a shot and launching into a story about how its a "big problem" on the other boats because the crews drink all the time but on his boat we were getting good service because "we don't drink till night time" ( That's reassuring right?) At this point the captain/driver was an older fellow who didn't speak English but was fluent in how weird things had gotten and escorted his boatman buddy to the back of the boat so we could resume/start our romantic dinner. Things were fine for a while and we thought ok that was weird but harmless and this is India and blah blah blah until I go to the bathroom and my man is back with an empty glass looking for a refill. After being reassured that this was the last time and not knowing what else to do Tash topped him off and he does the down the hatch move again and then spins around and almost throws up off the side of the boat (ya know, cause you're not supposed to drink straight gin a half a glass at a time). Thankfully this was last call for our boatman but this weirdness put a damper on what would, and should have been a really romantic and special evening (bummer). Having been in India for a while now (as I type) I would have just said no and that would have been it, but we were new, and maybe its a custom, and we don't want to be rude and so on. The next morning was breakfast on the lake and then a slow cruise back to the dock before heading back to our hostel. We spent the day hanging out with other travelers up on the perch, trading stories and watching locals play some fierce volley ball on the beach at sunset. Before long we were headed off for our first night train to a beautiful beach called Gokarna.....where we would be extorted by the police...and I would administer my first rabies vaccine to a puppy...stay tuned.
Varkala beach from the cliffs
on our walk
cows keepin cool
Now that's how you fish
There is cool colorful stuff like this everywhere
AMERICA! *%$# YEAH! Comin again to save the Motha #$%@ Day Yeah
The catch from the net
more cows chillin
Tandori chicken. Yes its as good as it looks
The hosts from our first hostel
Mmmmmm Garlic Nan
A kitten I found
That's the nose whistle, you gotta really get it up in there to make it sing...shrakatuku!
From the house boat
same
tish laying out on a lounger
Me on the boat, in need of a haircut
Another houseboat
a local fisherman
A kingfisher on the river
River panorama
That's a tiger prawn
Sunset on the river
Cooked tiger prawn
More fishermen
our boat men
Camels on the beach in Allepey
"Gigi and Maoz" our musical Israeli friends
That my friends is a Masala Dosa, its got potato goodness inside
Holy Cow
This dog just came in and hopped up next to me
mmmmmm Trash
Our first night bus
Me dishing out a sweet hi 5
Backwater boat trip
More from the boat
Sunset vollyball
Same
Sunset in Allepey
Same
Guys goin fishin
Same
Cruising on our Houseboat
The beach in Varkala
E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles
Houseboat with tish
Tish laughing at my hair, yeah its sideways but you get the point
Hey all, hope you guys are doing well and are staying out of all those storms. We are currently enjoying the height of luxury at the Double Tree in Goa India. Tash got it for free on points and it has completely ruined us. Down comforters, high speed internet and the best shower I've had since we left the states, getting back out on the backpacker trail is gonna be rough. India's been wild and we'll tell you all about it real soon. Till then here is a Sri Lankan breakdown complete with pic's and vids. Lastly we want to wish a belated happy birthday to My Aunt Tete. For those who don't know, she was a great nurse, she always got me the biggest pile of presents at Christmas, and She is an avid reader of our little blog. Happy Birthday Tete! Love Sean and Tash.
After another stop in our favorite south east asia transit
city Kuala Lumpur (we spent a night this time, a Japanese man stole my flip
flops for a brief period, not much else happened) we landed in Colombo in Sri
Lanka. We were brimming with excitement because we felt like this next leg of
our trip through Sri Lanka and India will be totally different than anything we
have ever done. Whether it’s the culture, cuisine, people, customs you name it,
we are fired up to experience something totally new. After landing in Colombo
we made our way to our guest house and dropped our bags before walking down to
the beach to see the Indian Ocean around sunset. It was sort of brownish
because the water was a little rough but it was beautiful. Kids played on a
fishing boat and hundreds of crows flew by in huge flocks before shooting down
into the trees all at once. Once the sun dipped down we headed back home and
had some homemade “rice and curry” which is Sri Lanka’s main traditional dish.
Essentially you get a bowl of delicious curry with your meat of choice and
several other side dishes that can change based on what is available to the
chef at any given time. We were treated to shredded beets (way better than it
sounds) Abrugine (an eggplant mix) Dahl (a lentil mash mix) and some Jasmin
rice. It was absolutely out of this world and dethroned the F.O.B sandwich from
way back in Rarotonga as the best thing we have eaten on the trip so far. After
some wine on the balcony we had a good night sleep before starting our journey
down the south western side of the island, around the southern tip before
heading up into the central highlands and back to Colombo. This first leg had
us taking a train south. Buses were also available but our hostel manager/awesome
curry chef friend advised us that the train was a pleasant and scenic way to
head down to our initial destination, a beach town called Unawatuna (it means
no worries). On the way to the train station we were giddy as a walk through a
market provided an into to Sri Lanken Market culture which differs from other
market cultures in the apparent goal is to berate potential customers through rickety
loud speakers until they rush into your stall like its black Friday at best buy.
Because we are white and therefore rich as hell and probably dumb to boot our
presence kicked these dude’s into overdrive. I’m sure I will come to loathe
this ritual (especially if I have to face it with a hangover) but for now it
was new and quaint.At the train station
we had a few firsts. We got our first “short eats” which are fried little
mystery treats sold anywhere and everywhere, some are spicy, some have egg, or
potato, or who knows. If you’re hungry you buy like 4 or 5 for a dollar and
hope you get lucky, which most of the time you do. Another hilarious note about
short eats is that they are sold in sheets of what is clearly someone’s
homework stapled into a bag shape. (and you thought you were recycling by
separating out the plastic and glass? Step it up a notch America) The next
first was an introduction to the very modest Sri Lankan/Indian dress code. A
woman walked by Tash with her 12 year old son who was staring at her like she
was washing a car in a wet t-shirt and daisy dukes (early 90’s rock video
style). The woman was so thrown off by the sight of tash’s shoulders that she
literally covered her sons eyes with her hand and crossed the street. When the
train came people boarded in a manner similar to getting on the last life boat
on the titanic. It was a knife fight, and it was made infinitely more difficult
by our big bulbous bags. The ride was beautiful…we’re told…but as we stood the
whole 4 hours our view was limited. What we did see was a hilarious parade of
touts who thought that a jam packed standing room only train was the best place
to sell goods ranging from fried shrimp to comically large (like 5 foot long)
balloons (“ya know what I could go for right now, a huge balloon”) All’s well
that ends well however and before long we ended up on the beach in beautiful
Uniwatuna. We found a pretty good room right off the main drag and settled in
for 2 days of sun and fun. Activities included eating our first “kotthu roti”
where a big piece of roti bread is frantically chopped up on a griddle and
mixed in with chicken and veggies and cheese. It is fantastic and the roti
chopping process reminded us of how they chop up cheese steaks in our fair
Philadelphia. We also saw a turtle while swimming in the ocean before stopping
for a libation at a beach bar and meeting our first American friend of the
trip. Her name is Jill and she is from NYC and we had a blast together. We laid
on loungers drinking beers and swimming while touts went by offering a bunch of
stuff you don’t want (what, no balloons?) The strangest was an old man who
grabbed tash’s feet and with great concern offered a massage that would reduce
“the water in your feet” which if left untreated would be fatal. Tishy’s ankles
we’re a little swollen from all the standing/travel, and when I disagreed with
his prognosis, he brushed me off like an attending physician saying, “I’ve been
doing this massage for thirty years” with an ominous (she’s not gonna make it
style) shake of his head. His credibility was undercut later that evening when
he came to our dinner table on the beach and asked very politely if we wished
to purchase a whole range of street drugs (note to future employer’s and our
mom’s, we said “no thank you”). Our afternoon with Jill soon turned into an
evening where we laughed at a 50ish German woman who clearly had taken our
masseur friend up on his offer and was dancing like a slow motion version of
the wacky inflatable arm flailing tube man that you may have seen outside of a
car dealership. We were trying to pin down her age and Jill got the bright idea
to go around and ask everybody their age, dutifully recording it in her iphone
like it was just “totally normal stuff” until she got to our dancing queen and
this super awesome plan completely came off the rails. Apparently they don’t do
random informal age surveys in bars where this lady is from. She was less than
pleased and made this clear to everybody until whatever “medicine” the good Dr
had prescribed got her back into the beat. Her mood improved to the point that
later on I would win a free beer from Jill by dancing with this lady for a
whole song. After that we ran into some Estonians who had served with the US in
Iraq and some interesting/crazy/sad stories. I won’t get on my soap box for
more than this sentence but it’s important that we don’t forget about people
from tiny countries like Estonia who made tremendous sacrifices on our behalf
when we went looking for all those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.Anyway, things were going swimmingly until
one of the guys got super excited about pictures we were taking on tash’s
Iphone. Apparently they register excitement in Estonia by biting things and this
dude chomped down on her phone and cracked the whole screen…..and the
Estonian-American friendship bridge we were building. It was an accident but
still. The next day had us moseying on down the road to a place called Marissa
were we went whale watching and saw a turtle, a bunch of dolphins and 3 or 4
huge blue whales. It was amazing, and super cheap at $30 each. The whales are
in the area year round and the Sri Lankan’s do a good job of respecting their
space so they don’t get spooked and leave. Basically some boat will spot a
whale and the rest of the boats will line up on either side of it and chug
along as it comes up to breath and shoots off a huge water jet (just like in
the cartoons) before diving to find food for like ten minutes. Having completed
the main Marissa activity we hopped a bus and headed down the coast to another
beach town called Tengale. Upon arrival we conducted and exhaustive search for
accommodation on this one stretch of beach that is littered with hotels and
restaurants. We haggled a guy down for a room in a place with a beautiful
garden and a nice beach bar, but because the grass is always greener we decided
to give him a firm maybe and check out some of the other places. After about an
hour of searching we decided to book the first room which had of course been
snatched from under our noses about 10minutes before we came back. We decided
to try our luck in the town proper which is a few minutes from the beach and
all’s well that ends well cause we found a great room with an amazingly
friendly staff. We spent our time in tangale eating delicious rice and curries
from restaurants perched above a different beach across the street from our
hotel and sipping wine on our balcony while listening to a remembrance vigil
for tsunami victims at a Buddhist temple across the street from our place. At
night you had to keep your head on a swivel between sips because giant bats
were flying around everywhere, doing their best to protect us from the hoard of
mosquito’s intent on Deiter’s for dinner. One day in Tangale we decided to take
our lives into our own hands by renting a moped to tour around. We have done
this before and find it to be an awesome way to find out of the way spots and
activities and generally take in the sights. In Sri Lanka this turned into a
white knuckle death ride of giant busses blaring their horns and friendly Sri
Lankans “sharing” each others lanes as they loosely observed the speed limit.
To add some spice to the journey you also have dogs and giant lizzards who
wander on the road to take a nap, blanketed in the knowledge that you’re
skilled enough to drive around them. I was less confident in my abilities than
they were, I was also not sold the protective value of my plastic street hockey
style helmet. But as I always say, we’re Deiters, and therefore indestructible
and we survived our journey with minimal trouble, stopping at a beach for a dip
and getting some wine at a wine store. A quick note on that. In Sri Lanka “wine
stores” are horrible opium den-ish places where the dregs of Sri Lankan society
go to exchange an empty pint of moonshine for a full one with vendors who are
safely protected from these rogues by big iron bars. Because most Sri Lankans
don’t drink and alcohol is prohibited in many places, booze has been pushed
down to the social status of liquid meth drank by glassy eyed men with red
teeth (from chewing the buzz inducing beetle nut). It’s bizarre, and also
hilarious to elbow your way through these walking dead zombies to enquire about
which types of red wine are on offer. On
the third day in Tengale we arranged an awesome elephant safari to Uda Walawe
national park. Riding up in the afternoon, we passed some trees that were absolutely
covered in giant bats before switching into an open top safari vehicle and
heading into the actual park. Right out of the gate we drove up on an elephant having
a bath beside the road, sucking up water with his trunk and tossing it onto his
back. Over the next few hours we would see many more elephants as well as birds,
a few jackal, and a crocodile. Or favorite part was by a big lake where a herd
of elephants charged into the water and played around before getting out
together, trunks blaring as if they were joking about what a great time they just
had. After that it was back home for some more rice and curry before packing
for the bus up north into the central highlands. The bus was $2 each which is a
great bargain for a four hour ride. The downside was that once again we had to
stand the whole way which is way harder on the bus on windy mountain roads than
it is on the relatively straight railroad. Once again if you wanted a fried
shrimp snack, a piping hot chai, or a ridiculously large balloon you could be
certain that some tout would be forcing his way through the standing room only
crowd to give you whatever you needed. Up and up we went on a winding mountain
road until reaching our destination in a town called Ella, which is a fun
little place with some good eats and many hikes into the surrounding mountains.
Our guest house was also home to the number one restaurant on trip advisor
which was convenient and the owner was another in the long line of super
friendly Sri Lankans that we have met. Honestly the delicious food and the
friendly people have been the two things to really stood out about Sri Lanka
for us Deiters. As for Ella we spent our days hiking up into the mountains and
our nights relaxing on our porch with a bottle of red wine. One hike took us up
“little Adams peak” where the weather was very cooperative and we got great
panoramic views of the countryside that stretched out all the way down to the
sea. Another day we hiked up to a place called Ella Rock which turned out to be
a big sweeping hillside that reminded me a bit of something from the sound of
music. To get there we were told to “hike on the train track” which we thought
meant hike on the safe, and clearly marked path next to the train tack but
meant hike for 2K on the actual train track including a “Stand By Me” section
of elevated bridge. Thankfully the track remained train free and the views were
amazing. That night we looked at the rest of our Sri Lankan itinerary and decided
to audible and head back down to Unawatuna on the beach rather than extending
our time in the north. We figured that some more relaxing beach time would be
nice before we headed off to India and most of the north would be similar and
probably less spectacular than Ella, with the biggest draw being a temple where
they have a tooth from Buddha…seriously…but you don’t even see it cause its
locked in like a tiny tooth coffin…so the beach it is. Despite some backtracking
this turned out to be a great decision. We stayed at a hostel with a beautiful courtyard
and a pool and were made to feel like family by Melanie and Christian who owned
the place. We made quite an entrance when the tuk tuk driver tried to double
the agreed upon fare and Tash and I gave him a verbal thrashing as Melanie and
Christian awkwardly stood by holding our welcome flower Lei’s. They took it in stride
though and would later treat us to a free cooking class after I schooled
Melanie’s little brother in badminton. We also met a couple of cool ladies from Finland who have traveled extensively and were great fun (one was a NICU nurse).The place was so relaxing that we only
left once to go into a neighboring town called Galle where we walked along an
old fort by the Sea at sunset and had a delicious dinner at a family run restaurant
where mom came out of the kitchen to make sure everyone enjoyed their meal. The
three days in Unawatuna were lazy and relaxing and a perfect cap to our time in
Sri Lanka. After that it was back to Colombo for one last rice and curry and our
flight to India. Sri Lanka was a wonderful and interesting addition to our trip
and featured some of the best food and friendliest people we have met in our
travels. What's more they found it in their hearts to upgrade us to Business class on the way
to India. Well done Sri Lanka
Tash in Unawatuna
our room complete with mosquito net
Me dancing with the Old German lady
A blue whale
A pretty beach, too rough for a swim
a panorama with tash
A sweet hammock that tash got stuck in.
Our first Sri Lankan Sunset
Rice and Curry
The rice and curry Chef/hotel owner
"Short eats" in a stapled together homework bag
Fried shrimp and stuff on the Train
The beach in Unawatuna
I caught a hermit crab
Me and our friend Jill
An island off Marissa
Dolphins
The beach in Tengale
Dog's on Blogs- I named this guy Johnny Football
Another beach in Tengale
A big ole' Lizzard
Mmmmmmmm trash
"Is this helmet on right?"
A beach in Tengale with a shrine to the Tsunami victims
Another rice and curry
The courtyard of our hotel in Tengale
Those are all bats
Me and tish on Safari
An elephant taking a bath
Same
Same
A peacock
Another elephante'
Now with tish
Elephants in the lake
Same
And again
Same
This is when they were coming out of the water
This is my new exercise plan
Dogs on Blogs
Me with a pregnant cow
Mountains around Ella
A man working at a tea plantation
That little ribbon is the road we drove in on
Me on a mountain
Now with tish
Same
Black and white tish
Makin friends with a cow. Note the handprints on the top and side. This cow had been recently decorated for a ceromony
Finally a sign that makes sense
Kohttu Rotti
Tish enjoying a cocktail
Dogs fighting right in front of us
Then makin' up
Time for an eyebrow trim?
They ironed all of our clothes to dry them and they came back HUGE!
Me and tish on Ella Rock
A waterfall from Ella rock
Another rice and curry
The flip flop guard
A Sri Lankan train
Same
More workers on a tea plantation
A lake in northern Sri Lanka
This is where Buddha's tooth is
A giant Buddha at the train station
Me ordering some breakfast
This is what breakfast came in
the view from the train
I finally gave in and bought a balloon
Pretty sweet huh?
Our last rice and curry
You know what I could go for? A coffee from Strabeans.
This is Melanie's little brother about to open a coconut for the curry
Tash grinding a coconut
Melanie doing the same
Hilarious sleeping Dog on blog
A cool sunset
Tash making a curry
Melanie and Christian
Our Swedish friends Pia and Nini
They were so friendly
Right before I taught him a thing or two about badminton
A kid playing cricket
This rug is made our of leftover cookie monster pajamas. I know because I own a pair of them at home. See the eyes? It's a dead giveaway
A colorful temple
More rice and curry- soooooo good
Good ole' Colgard
The number one way to prove you don't belong in Business class is to start taking a bunch of pictures of yourself
Why yes I will have some more champagne.
Me and a baby goat
Tish waiting for a train
Tish behind the gate in a wine store
A cool tree in the safari park
Standing on the bus
More from Adams peak
Now with tish
A cow we met
Boom
Hillarious
"did I remember to wash my hands?"
"Ahh who cares"
Knuckles spring, perfect for washing down that Knuckle sandwich
