The Adventures of Michalina

There is so much catching up to do on this blog.... Hopefully I will get it done before I fly home and forget everything!

After a rest in Colombo and a refill of Mark's mom's amaaaazing food, we went to an Elephant Orphanage. We were running late so we had to run to be able to feed the baby elephants, but boy was it cute! They seriously guzzled the bottles of milk in about 3 seconds, so we had to take our photos really fast. Then we went down to the river and looked out at all the elephants having a bath. Some of the elephants got scrubbed down with coconut shells. Others just flopped down into the water for what seemed like hours with only a bit of their bodies showing, their trunks occasionally coming up for air. Others showered themselves with their trunks. It was really cute to see them all interacting and doing their elephant things!

The next day we left on our next round of adventures. We stayed at a beautiful bungalow that we had all to ourselves in the middle of the jungle at Laxapana. On the way there we stopped to have a dip in a little river (with freshwater crabs in it!) and have some tea while the radiator got topped up. It was a very uphill drive. At the bungalow there were some really cute dogs and a cat that I made friends with. The dogs had leeches on them though, which was pretty nasty. I got sick with a cold this day so I slept a lot. We had a really yummy barbecue that the boys made, too. There were also huge clove trees in the yard! They had some cloves drying under our covered outdoor eating area.

We rested up here for a day before going to our next hotel that was near to Adam's Peak. Adam's Peak is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians. There is a giant footprint at the top of a mountain that, depending on your faith, either Buddha, Shiva, or Adam made. In Singalese the peak is called Sri Pada. When the British came along and took over everything they renamed it Adam's Peak and declared it was Adam's first footprint when he came to Earth. Whatever way you slice it, it's a tall pointy mountain that really hurts your legs to climb. I really respect the little kids and elderly people who make the climb!!

We started the climb after midnight. It only took us about 3.5 hours even though we were trying to make lots of stops and go slow. The whole climb is stairs, with many tea and refreshment shops along the way. When we started it was not crowded, but by the time we got to the top many people started to appear. We visited the temple at the top and saw the footprint. It was about a meter long, but covered with a cloth so you could only see the outline of it. We also rang a really big bell, which you are supposed to do if it is one of your first times climbing the peak. It was quite cold at the top so we layered up in all the clothes and blankets we had and waited for the sun to come up.

Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy. So when the sun finally rose at 6:30 we couldn't really see it. This made the mountains slowly illuminate in a misty blue/purple colour. This was neat to see because we had been climbing in the dark before! (Which was probably a good thing, because we couldn't see how much farther we had to reach the top. It really was a struggle in will power!!)

Climbing down was really neat because we saw the lush landscape light up with misty sun rays, and I got to see all the vegetation around us. I kept feeling like I would lose control of my legs on the way down my knees were shaking so badly, but fortunately I made it. We had breakfast and a nap before we were on to the next destination!

Emma feeding a baby milk.

Super soaker elephant. This one stayed almost totally submerged the whole time we watched!

This elephant remind me of a twirling ballerina.

Bath time for the herd!

This elephant kept reaching up to us for leaves!

Cloves drying by the roadside.

A really cool ants nest I saw in a tree! They seem to have built with mud around these baby coconuts! I had to stand on a railing to get this shot whilst avoiding leaches.

Me and the boys scoped out the start of the hike beforehand.

The view to the top of the peak when we started from our hotel. It looked very daunting...

We followed the moon rise on our way up

Lotte lights incense before we tie our string.

The first three times someone climbs Adams Peak they can sew some white string with a packet of herbs to a pole, then unwind the string up the stairs as far as it will go, weaving it with other people's threads. We took turns unwinding the thread.

Thread trail

The slow sunrise illuminated the scenery we couldn't see when we were ascending.

Beautiful views climbing down.

My favourite photo.

The last part of the climb was the most difficult. You can see why!

Jan. 21:
I took the bus up to Colombo in the morning. When I got to Mark’s house we had king coconut with rum, and then Josh arrived from India. Then we had an amazing Sri Lankan lunch. Mark’s mom is a fantastic cook. She made the best food I’ve had in Sri Lanka so far! Everything was so fresh, and the dishes were never ending! Then we went out for “tea,” which was actually drinks, at some fancy hotels by the beach. We had some trouble getting in because of the dress code and we were dressed as a bunch of western kid bums, but it was fine in the end. We also tried some awesome shrimp seafood from a cart on the beach. Then back at home we had a spectacular dinner with crab and a million other delicious dishes. It was a great food day!!!

Jan. 22:
Today we woke up at 4:30 am and were in the van by 5. We went to a beautiful ancient temple on top of a very high and very steep set of stairs on a rock hill. On top of the big rock was an ancient stupa and remnants of the castle and village that was up there. The king used to live there. It was a lookout for British invasions. Buddhas tooth relic was also hidden there for some time, as it was with other temples in the country. There were beautiful tall grasses and wildflowers with bees and beetles on them. There were giant bees and small black and blue striped bees that moved very fast. There was also a depression carved in the rock for herbal medicinal baths nearby.

Next we went to the tallest real rock Buddha statue in the world! It was very big, and unfortunately they were constructing a roof over it so it was surrounded in scaffolding.

Next we had lunch by a lake. The local police hooked us up with delicious takeout rice and curry. The police there are friends with Mark’s dad. A fisherman took us for short traditional canoe rides on the lake, and were serenaded by some local musicians. And Lotta fell in the water when she was washing her hands! I was also enquiring to Mark about betel nut and magically some appeared from the police officer! So we had to try it. You rub some pink paste on a leaf and fold it up, then chew it up with the betel nut chunk. Eventually your spit turns from green to bright red. Betel is good for your digestion because it is so bitter, but it also rots your teeth out and causes mouth cancer. Apparently I was really good at chewing it!

Mark’s dad (and family) is well respected in the area not only because he is a successful businessman, but because he is extremely generous to people and has helped many local people out. His family has a crazy life story and have had a really tough life. And they have been so generous and welcoming with our group!

Next we checked into our hotel, and then visited another small temple. It had a pond with a very charismatic turtle and fish.

Next we went to see the oldest tree on record!! This tree is important because it is a bodhi tree. Buddha studied under a Bodhi tree. This particular tree in Sri Lanka is descended from the original tree in India from a branch. It is 2500 years old!! The original branch is held up by many supports. We got to set some flowers at the temple at night, and light some candles and incense. There were many people praying there. It was an absolutely beautiful night!! It was very special for all of us.

Nearby is the largest stupa in the world! It was built by a king who was very well-liked. It is in a perfect half circle shape, and engineers still don’t know how they got it so perfect with the tools they had back then!! There is a giant ruby at the top, like all stupas, and some of buddhas relics and some treasure are sealed in the chamber inside. No one goes inside, ever. The stupa was finished being built around 137 B.C.E.

Jan 23:
Today we went to a temple and rock peak where Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka to the king. We climbed up a little rock peak where seven monks levitated to the top and explained Buddhism. Then we went up to a mountain peak that had another ancient stupa, and we almost got kicked out because one of us was not wearing proper clothing. We saw a giant squirrel, tons of butterflies, water lilies, and butterfly wings everywhere! Then we went to a fancy conservation hotel that had 4 kilometers of canopy walkways, and a beautiful meditation platform.

Jan. 24:

Today we went to an ancient city of ruins in Anuradhapura. It was very neat to see all the old foundations and Buddha statues everywhere. The rest of the day we had a rest day. Lotte and I got an ayurvedic treatment at the hotel. We got a massage, an herbal steam in a wooden space pod with a face massage with aloe vera, a head, face, and neck massage, then a rest in a sauna that was made of termite mud and the floor was covered with herbs. All this was only $40 for 1.5 hours! We were in heaven…

Jan. 25:
Today we went to see Sigiriya, a giant rock with the ruins of an ancient castle on top, surrounded by extensive water gardens and systems at the top and bottom of the rock. The rock is the magma plug of a volcano that eroded away long ago. Here is the simplified history that I can remember:
So one day there was a king who had two sons. One son was from a queen, but one was from a random lady. The king liked the unroyal son better. One day the unroyal son killed his father, the king, by stoning him to death (actually the same lake we canoed on a few days before turns out!!). The royal son fled to south India in fear of his life because he had some connections there. Meanwhile, the new king built a massive castle at Sigiriya, in case his brother came to attack him. One day his brother did come to fight him, and they went to war. The king realized he was losing so he killed himself to save his army. The victorious son refused to live at the castle where his evil brother lived, so he moved somewhere else.

Sigiriya has swimming pools and water reservoirs on top of it. They still don’t know how they got the water up there without motorized pumps!! It is very steep! It was many, many steps to get up there.

Next we went to Dambulla caves. They are several Buddhist caves on a rock mountain. The paintings inside are incredible! And there are many Buddha statues in each cave. There were also some aggressive monkeys that attacked Lotte and Mark to steal their flowers!

Yapahuwa Temple. Lots of stairs!!

The top of the rock. See an ancient stupa on the right. This was the place of an ancient castle.

Wildflowers. My favourite!

View from inside one of the caves.

Tallest Buddha carved from a piece of rock.

Buying flowers at the oldest tree

Lovely Lotte

The oldest tree with a record of care over all those years!! The scaffolding is holding up the original branch brought over from the original bodhi tree in India.