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| Independence Day with Mark's family and the monks |
Feb. 4 was Sri Lankan Independence Day. We all got to dress up and served 10 monks lunch. We met them down the street and a traditional drumming group walked to Mark's house with all of us. Mark's family prepared a huge feast with over 20 different dishes! The monks gave a speech and explained what this day was all about (essentially giving the monks food and other practical gifts so that we could practice giving), and then we fed them the different dishes in the large bowls they brought. Then they blessed us all individually. It was so special! I was so nervous about spilling something on one of the monks as I was serving them. I made it through several dishes, but by the time dessert came around and I was assigned jello to distribute, I was getting careless. I spilled jello on the youngest monk.... it was so embarrassing.... The monks were all lighthearted and were laughing at us the whole time anyway, so everything was fine. Such a fun day!
Next we set of for safaris in Yala and Udawalwe national parks. We went on a river safari along the way that our driver insisted on taking us to. It was pretty lovely, but touristy. We didn't see much along the river, the main point was to take us to a cinnamon making demonstration, and to a fish foot spa on the river. These were both fun activities, and it was nice to have a break during the long drive!
We were staying in super fun camps in the both parks: basically thatched palm roof open air buildings to eat and sleep under. All our beds had mosquito nets, and besides the giant spider that Lotte woke up to on her net, we were all pretty safe form the bugs (It might have been a dangerous leopard spider.... but Mark saved us.) At Yala we were staying near the beach. We could jsut hear the waves while we were sleeping, and the beach was incredibly gorgeous. Perhaps one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been on. The red sand that blended into the desert landscape higher on shore...the huge wind swept sand dunes...it was all very inspiring. We went to the beach both days, and we found dead sea turtle and tortoise remains, a crested bird skull, and an adorable dog family. I spent a long time with these dogs on the day we climbed the dunes on the far side of the beach. First I just met the mom, who was very gentle, but later she brought her puppies over to meet me. The girl was the same as her mom, but the boy was rambunctious and nippy. When we were leaving some time later the mom brought the dad over to meet us. He had the same rough and rambunctious attitude as his son! What an adorable family.
The first morning we got up at 4am and went on the first safari. Yala is a very crowded park, there were jeeps everywhere!! We drove all around looking a peacocks, water buffalo, a few wild boars and an elephant. It was a pretty dull safari honestly, since usually we would at least have seen a ton of elephants. We went back to our place feeling a bit bummed. The next day, however, we decided to go on another safari, and this day was also my birthday. We saw so many cool animals!!! So many peacocks were displaying today, we saw elephants, the place where they dump all the bones and remains of animals that died (sooooo cool!!), and a LEOPARD in a tree! We got to watch the leopard for a while and we saw it stand up in the tree, yawn, and scratch its face with its foot. It was such a special moment!! We all felt very lucky.
To prepare for the safaris, we watched a video at Mark's house that showed an elephant reaching into a jeep filled with people and waving its trunk around violently while everyone screamed. The driver can't move the jeep because then the elephants will chase it. Mark did not allow us to bring any food on the safaris for this reason. We saw an elephant on my birthday. There were many jeeps crowded around it, but when the elephant started acting aggressively, all the jeeps started panicking and trying to reverse, but there was nowhere to go because of all the jeeps. One jeep reversed into our jeep shortly after we pulled up. We could see on the road ahead the elephant had grabbed someone's backpack out of their jeep and chucked it on the ground. We eventually got past all of the jeeps and drove past the elephant once it went into the bushes a bit. I thought that was a dumb idea. Turns out it was the same elephant as in the video we watched!! I was certainly counting my blessings then..
We also had a barbeque on the first night in Yala in the yard. A wild boar was sneaking around us. I saw a shooting star. The place was magical.
After the safari we went on to Udawalawe park, where our camp was on a lake. We had kayaks to use, so I went on a birthday kayak around the lake while the boys fished. There were some stray dogs who lived there. We named them Black Dog and Moon Moon. Black dog was friendly and covered with sores, and Moon Moon was the tiniest little shy white dog, who was also very stupid. I only got her to smell my hand once, she was terrified, which was sad. I loved them both. There was also a dog that we named Long Nipple Dog (LND) that came to visit. She looked like Moon Moon but a bit larger, she could have been her mom. Anyway, one day a big brown Intruder Dog came to intrude on the happy dog family at our camp. Black Dog was the only one who took it seriously. He tried to address Intruder Dog and be friends with him, but Intruder Dog only growled. Moon Moon and LND did not take this threat seriously. Instead they tried to play with Intruder Dog and when that failed, they traipsed around rolling on the grass and peeing. They really had no concept of the gravity of the situation. Lotte and I watched them for a long time narrating their escapades and crying with laughter one afternoon.
One morning I led a little yoga class for the others as per Josh's request. They were so sore the next day they did not want to do anymore yoga. (Perhaps foreshadowing to my own horrible yoga experience later in the trip, "Stretch maximum!!!"-more on that later).
There was also a GIANT lizard that lived in the lake by our camp. One morning I was exploring the shore and what I thought was a 6 foot crocodile jumping into the water was actually this lizard. Mark had stayed at the camp in his childhood, and knew the daily routine of the lizard. Every morning at 6am it would swim from one end of the beach to the other and sun itself for a while. What a neat creature! Sorry I couldn't get a photo of it!
The other best thing about our safari trips was that I got to eat fresh water buffalo milk curd every morning with honey! What a dream life...
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