About goodbyes, new adventures, night safaris and

About goodbyes, new adventures, night safaris and making new friends...



Sunday July 25th 2010
Friday we go to the temple one last time to say our goodbyes. The monks are sad to see us leave, as they have just gotten used to us. Maybe we return, who knows. We pick up Miss Mala from school at 11.30 and go to her house. School’s out and the most amazing thing happens. The kids pray their thanks and then walk up to the teacher, get on their knees and kiss her feet. Then she ushers them over to us and they bend and kiss ours!?!? We are told it’s out of respect for the teacher. I wonder what will happen if we have our kids kiss our feet in school, haha. It was quite an embarrassing experience though. Have 4 year olds fold their hands and kiss your feet…. Because we didn’t know what to bring when you visit someone’s house here we bought her a goodies bag. Shampoo, soap, bodylotion, cookies. All luxury for people here. She’s quite poor, she has 3 sons and no husband (he left her). She only works from 8.30 till 11.00, so I am sure she doesn’t make much. Her oldest son is sponsored to go to school by a Canadian family, her middle son is in the same temple she works at (Talpe Temple) and her youngest is in school. Her house has 3 rooms. One living, one bedroom for the oldest and one bedroom she shares with her youngest. No bathroom, no running water part from the tab outside. A makeshift shower in the backyard but no toilet. She has a kitchen but no stove to speak of. She’s happy with her gifts and we have tea. The rest of Friday we hang out around our pool. Danielle and the twins come too and we have a lovely afternoon. At night we go to Claudia and Frank’s for dinner. An AMAZING house ready to be published in “Elle Wonen” on the Galle Road, overlooking the ocean. Really amazing and only for 240 Euros rent… really… this country does have it ‘s advantages. Dinner is great, it’s really nice to hang out with Dutch people, other than tourists (the conversations tends to deepen a bit more) and we use their computer to call home. When home we pack our bags and sleep for the final time in our mansion. At 7.50 (10 mins prior to agreed) Sudu and mate Bartu are ready to pick us up. We load up the van and head out. After 30 mins. we realize why we had to leave at 8am to be somewhere at 2pm which is no more than 120 km. The (one and only road here) is full with vans and busses heading towards Kataragamba. Whole families, curry pots and pans, suitcases etc. are loaded up and slowly make their way towards the festival. Sara and I are so very grateful (and proud of ourselves) for making the decision to take a private van. Apart from it being super comfortable, we have Sudu to take care of us. He’s such a sweetheart. 26 yrs old, surfer when the surf season starts, otherwise waiter at Wijaya’s, he’s (other than most Sri Lankan men) not interested in us in any other way than friendship. He understands westerners quite well and he’s very intelligent. Bartu, his cousin drives and around 12.30 we arrive at Tissa (the name is much longer, but can’t remember). The drive is amazing. Along the coast, through lazy towns the landscape changes from lush jungle to dry a dry savannah like desert. During the drive I was remembered about Cuba and about Australia. I think I can compare the landscapes with these two. We are at Randji’s house, our safari tour guy and a personal friend of Bartu. We get a room at his house (paid of course), pack a small backpack to take into Yala and head out. We buy some drinks (alcohol) and water and drive to the campsite just outside Yala. We have Sam on board, our personal camp cook and we set up camp. Well, we try. They have no clue how to work a tent (Sara and I could easily do it w/in 10 mins, but we don’t want to crush their dude-ness-ness). We let them struggle for a while until they give up and just leave everything lying around. Randji, Sudu, Bartu, Sara and I head out in the 4WD truck into Yala park. It’s unbelievably hot and dusty. I feel gross after 15 mins, knowing I have 4 more hrs on the truck and no shower.. oh well. Sara and I laugh about this and just enter that state of mind where nothing matters anymore. Yala is great. Randji has been a tracker for 20 yrs so he knows where to go and find the animals. In the brochure you’re promised elephants, deer, crocodiles, peacocks, pelicans, monkeys, wild buffalo, leopards and iguanas. We see ALL, but the leopards. I loved the elephants. They came so close to the car and were quite angry as they had a baby in their midst. Randji spoke some calming words though and the mother backed down and let us take pictures of the herd. Later we ran into a group taking a mud bath, which was pretty amazing to see. Around 6.30pm you have to leave the park and we head towards the camp. Sam, in the meantime, prepared a fire, some lanterns, rice and curry, but still no tents. Sudu tries again, but we shoo him away and within 15 mins we have a tent. The boys don’t even want to bother with setting up their own, so they will sleep under the stars. We have an amazing dinner, fresh fish (bought from the fisher men who were fishing in the lake when we arrived at the campsite), rice&curry (what else?) and gin with sprite. The temperature drops to a pleasant 20-something and we talk, laugh and drink. Later the cook from a nearby camp joins us and we’re treated Sengalese songs supported by drumming on the empty water tank. Sara and I are really tired, dirty and dusty and go to bed around 11. As it is full moon, the lake lights up, the night animals let themselves hear and we can just walk around w/out a light. The boys keep drinking and singing, but I manage to fall asleep and sleep until 6.30am when we are woken by Randji for breakfast. We pack up and leave an hour later. When we arrive at his house we have a long shower, and sleep for about 5 hours. Around 2 we head out to a nearby hotel for rice&curry and a dip in the pool. Now (5.30pm) we wait for (more) rice&curry and until we leave to go to the parade at Kataragamba, which starts around 10pm. Along the lake here in Tissa, hundreds of vans are parked and whole families are bathing in the lake and the side streams. It’s an amazing sight. Everybody is happy because of poya (full-moon) and because of the extra day off. I have really enjoyed yesterday and today. The camping was so cool and something I always wanted to do. I could get over that initial ‘no shower, oh what to do now’ thought and fully enjoyed every second of it (as did Sara who has the same cleanness-obsession as I have). Kataragamba is going to be something tonight, so I am going to have a short nap before dinner and finish here.
Later.
M&S
Wednesday July 28th 2010
Well, that is something else, the Paharara (parade) in Kataragamba. Before we go there, Randji’s wife cooks an amazing rice&curry and around 8.30 pm we set out to Kataragamba, about 16km north of Tissa. A parking space is hard to find, but once we find one we’re ready to go. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. It’s said this festival attracks more than one million people, maybe even more. It’s is so busy, I ‘ve never seen so many people in one space. And everybody is camping out. It’s (in our eyes) utterly disgusting, smelly and filthy. Like a human garbage belt, that sounds harsh, but I don’t know how to describe it otherwise. Whole families sleep on the ground, garbage and urine smells, rotting food. It’s dark, people are exhausted from driving for sometimes days. The people at the end of the parade have to wait until 3 am until it finally passes them and the whole route is about 3km long. We (Sudu, Randji, Sara and I) decide to walk to the start of it. We see the tail of the procession walk by on their way to the temple to get a blessing and Randji knows that the people who sit in the front rows will leave once the parade passes so we can take their seats (on the ground). So we wait a good 45 mins for the parade to pass and another 30 for it to turn around once at the temple. We do get front row seats on the floor and we watch it pass. Elephants, drummers, dancers etc. It’s an amazing sight. Colors, smells, people in trance from dancing and twirling. The last elephant, the biggest one, has millions of flower cords draped around it and it’s sprayed with perfume. On top sits a woman in a tent made of flowers and she’s bowed to and people fold their hands when she passes. It’s 12.30 am when it’s finished and we walk back to our car. Even more families are asleep now, beggars try to get some cash, the garbage piles are even higher, but we think we did see something pretty amazing. In the end it’s just like any other parade, maybe like Carnaval, but for some reason this one has that special mystic touch to it.
We are woken up by Randij early on Monday morning to continue our travels to Arugam Bay. It takes us 3,5 hours over course of no more than maybe 100km. The landscape changed again and we had to drive a greater part through another national park. Arugam Bay is heaven on earth. It’s a tiny village. Half Tamil, half Muslim and only one strip of houses along the beach. Waves are breaking at the point called Surfers Point and fisher boats are pulled up on the sand. We find Gecko’s, our home for the next 4 days and have a hearty brunch. After brunch we have to say our goodbyes to Sudu and Bartu and that is actually sad. We hung out with them so much, they’ve looked after us so well and Sudu, ever patient, always answered all of our questions about his country and his life here. Later that evening we get a text message saying how he appreciates the trust we had in him and the good times. We swim in the sea, drink beer and are enjoying this time of having to do absolutely nothing. The men here are a bit annoying and we do encounter a fisherman jerking off in the sea. He circled around us in the sea a bit and then Sara sees him doing it. It is really gross. We tell the staff about it. And they tell him off, but sunbathing on the beach is off limits. The minute we set foot on the beach at least 2 or 3 will sit down close to us and stare. I mean, it’s understandable, we’re walking around in bikinis and they are very religious Muslims, but still. It gets incredibly annoying. So we take our sarongs to the waterline, drop them there, run into the sea, swim, run back out, back to the safety of Gecko’s. And we are jealous of all the white guys enjoying the surf and not having to worry about anything. Yesterday (Tuesday) we meet a bunch of Danish guys and we hang out with them. We go swimming with them and it’s fine. We see a lot of couples here, and the girls are left alone, it’s just single ones, like us, who are harassed a little bit.
Other than that… Sun, sea, surf…. What else is there to wish for….

Love, M&S