Baby elephant

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

An Elephant

Sadly no leotard this afternoon on our first game drive. Spotted deer. Buffalo. Bunches of birds. Crocodiles. And elephants. Besides the ears,  one big difference between Asian elephants and African elephants is that female Asian elephants never have tusks and only a small percentage of male elephants do. We saw one of only five tuskers living in yala national park.  This is him. 

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Anniversary Toast

Today is not just our anniversary. It is also Adhi Poson Full Moon Poya, a public holiday celebrating the birth of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. A public holiday. Plus no beef or alcohol is to be sold. 

We asked our guide to stop yesterday so we could buy a bottle of wine for tonight.

This is all they had. There is a reason that the only time I drink beer is on holiday.

Cheers!

What a Long Strange Trip it’s Been

I am being metaphorical now...talking about a different trip entirely.

Today Michael and I are celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary here in the tea country of Nuwara eliya, Sri Lanka.

Thirty years married. Just shy of 33 years together. 

And they said it wouldn't last.

We showed them.

Happy Anniversary, Michael.

I love you, still.

We chose to come here for this special day because we loved visiting the tea country in Munnar, India and wanted to see those beautiful hills again. We have seen mountains of rice paddies and vineyards and lavender. But I think tea plantations are the most beautiful. 

So the following are a few photos of this area. It rained heavily before our arrival and was still forecast to rain during our stay but we have been most fortunate enjoying very little mist, fast moving clouds due to intermittent high winds (look at the trees on the top left of the one image), but also bits of sun (actual shadows in one pic).

Lucky in weather, lucky in love. We're so lucky.

You Say Po-TAY-to. I Say Po-TAH-to.

Let's talk dogs.

In Java, we pointed out to Jaeson that all of the dogs in places like this look pretty similar: that centuries of inbreeding that takes them all back to about 40 pounds with erect ears and curled tails. Mostly beige.

In Sulawesi, we didn't see as many dogs. Sadly our inquiries resulted in being informed that many people there still eat dogs and were cautioned not to venture out to visit the biggest local markets unless we were prepared to see evidence of the same.

Now in Sri Lanka, there are dogs EVERYWHERE. Litter-aly, EVERYWHERE. 

At home in Anguilla, we call them bush dogs.

Here they are street dogs. 

They are protected in as much as it is against the law to willfully kill one (though death by car does not count).

However, no one really helps them much, either.

There are apparently some attempts at catching and releasing them with rabies vaccination and/or spaying (just the females I gather), but that is really More to benefit the human population. The dogs all have mange and though I haven't googled it, I would suspect fleas and ticks and intestinal parasites and heartworm and tick fever. But they seem happy enough in spite of their plight. Perfectly calm. Not skittish. Generally very quiet.

Here is my montage:

STREET DOGS AT THE GATE

STREET DOG AT THE RUINS IN POLLONARUWA

STREET DOG IN THE ACTUAL STREET

STREET DOG AT THE TRAIN STATION

AND EVEN A STREET DOG TAKING IN THE VIEW FROM 1,200 STEPS UP ON TOP OF SIGIRYA

How totally insane is that? What in the world would make him walk to edge and look off?

This morning, we went for a stroll outside the hotel in search of the street peacocks, and I called out to the first street dog at the gate., "Hey, Street Dog, how ya doin'?"  And he proceeded to bark at me. And bark at me. And follow us down the road barking at me.

Apparently he wasn't keen on the name at all.

Perhaps, you can call him Po-tay-to or Po-tah-to or Ray or Johnson. But ya doesn't have to call him Street Dog.

Whew! That Was a Grueling Day

Ok, sitting on a train now between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya having paid the 12 dollars to upgrade to first class. Probably a bit more legroom and the seats actually spin around so the everyone can always be facing forward but I have to think that the bumping and the jolting is the same throughout. Safe to say, I think, that this is the roughest train we have ever been on even beating out the rickety old locomotive that took us from Cuzco to Macchu pichu.

But I digress....yesterday.

First stop was the palace/fortress on top of Sigirya (or the Lion Rock). I never bore you with tons of historical or archeological details. That is what google is for. Suffice it to say that some king a bunch of years ago knew that one of his relatives was off in a foreign land mustering forces to return and to stage a coup. So he found the granite plateau in the middle of a valley and built a fortified palace on top. Moats. Gardens. Pools. One queen. 500 concubines. 10,000 soldiers. That sort of thing.

The top of the rock is some 660ft up off the floor of the valley.

For our purposes, today, ascending to the very top involved 1,202 steps. I assume that is paces not stair steps (though there are mostly stair steps) and I suspect that does not include the walk from the car park to the first stair step. But you get the picture.

The steps are mostly what you would expect: irregular in surface and rise, sloped downward in front due to wear, built for much smaller feet than ours, and dusted with fine sand to add that extra touch of slipperiness. Not particularly fun for me and just ideal for a big guy like Michael with a bad back, occasional vertigo and awaiting knee replacement.

He decided that he would only climb so far as the cave with the few remaining frescoes of topless women. (Big surprise.). Even so that was probably two thirds of the way up, past the water garden, the boulder garden, the terrace garden and the sign that warns that if the bees swarm and attack (people have been killed) they would shut down the sight and we would not receive a refund for our tickets. Then up the spiral staircase to the little cave where you can't take pictures anyway. Then back down another staircase and along the mirror wall (where they polished to granite ridiculously smooth and shined it with egg whites, honey, and beeswax...though they don't do that anymore.

At that point, Michael followed his hat (that had blown off in the wind) down one level and then all the way down to wait for me at the bottom. My forced march had only just begun. Our guide, apparently buoyed by cutting his numbers in half, picked up speed. Aggravated and waving me on even when I paused to let a mother and child pass heading back down. When we got to the final staircase (sturdy and level man-made metal, thank god) I had to stop him and insist that I needed to at least take a photograph.

Then he got behind me and started pushing my back as I walked at a steady pace in a steady line of other visitors. Finally, I had to tell him that I was, after all, still nearly 60, that I would continue at my pace, that I promised not to fall but there would be NO PUSHING.

I made it to the top and then we ran around taking photos. The view towards Colombo. The view toward Pollonaruwa. The view toward our hotel. The swimming pool. The throne. The ancient walls. And the last two steps of the 1,202 that sit in the middle of the palace. A monument to the insanity of assuming anyone has ever counted them. Regardless, I did not step on them so I could tell Michael that I didn't go all the way to the top either. 

And then we were heading back down. Like a horse that has made the turn that he know takes him back to the barn, there was no stopping him now. Seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that coming down can be easier but potentially more treacherous than going up, he bounded back down. Breaking stride occasionally but never really stopping. By the time we caught up with Michael at the bottom I assumed he had been waiting for some time when he says that he might have been sitting for 10 maybe 15 minutes when the guide with him said, "look, there is your wife already".

TripAdvisor warned us that coming DOWN can take 60-90 minutes, and our driver predicted a 3 hour round trip. 

Even going up very slowly in the beginning, I had completed the circuit in just under 2 Hours! And the guide asked for a Tip!

Off we headed for our afternoon tour at the ruins at Pollonaruwa with a stop for lunch at a restaurant in the rice paddies for a buffet of local fare eaten off of lily pads.

where I ate way too much even though it didn't seem like much. So I was physically uncomfortable and already weary from the mountain when we stumbled from the car to tour those ruins. Mercifully, on the flat but a staircase here or there into and out of some maze of temples that are all now a blur complicated by the fact that our guide here was missing several teeth giving him quite a cumbersome lisp. In summary, ancient toilet, Buddha, Buddha, moonstone, Buddha, and frescoes interspersed with dizzy spells.

Then the drive home where Michael miraculously spotted the elephant.

Yes, quite a full day.

Wildlife

Just a quick blog. I am exhausted. We are exhausted. More on that later when I am not falling asleep with my fingers poised above my virtual iPad keyboard.

(In fact, I did fall asleep so it is morning here now.)

We haven't gone to a national park yet but in addition to the palm squirrel mentioned earlier we have already seen (first few photos are not my own):

A smaller squirrel, a giant squirrel, monitor lizards,

Spotted deer

Three different kinds of monkeys including the purple-faced version 

Black-headed ibis

And

A Common kingfisher

And on the way home last night, as Michael and I were both falling asleep in the car (we have a driver), out of the corner of his eye he spotted this on the side of the road in the middle of everywhere

Not bad.

More later.

 Really just had to get some sleep

Hodgepodge

Today was an interesting day.

Our driver picked us up this morning and we started out on a 5 hour drive to Sigiriya.

Not very far along he pulled over on the side of the road; and without a word, got out of the car.

Being the astute diagnosticians that we are, the fact that he was checking the right front tire led us to believe that we might have a flat.

When he got back in the car, he still didn't offer an explanation. So we asked, and I swear he said it was just a stick that he ran over.

However, a little way up the road, he stopped again, backed up and pulled into a tire repair shop that looked a lot like a tire repair shop we would find in Anguilla. "Ten Minutes", was all he said as he got out of the car. They then jacked up the still running car with us sitting in it and repaired the tire. We were back on our way.

Until a little while later when we were flagged down by two policemen standing by the side of the road in the shade of a tree. Again, sort of how Anguillian policemen would do it. A wave of the hand. You stop. Get out and walk back to them. Apparently they declared that our driver had overtaken another car in an illegal/unsafe fashion and fined him for it. Don't get me wrong, I think our driver ALWAYS overtakes other cars in an illegal/unsafe fashion; but doesn't everyone always in this part of the world?

The only thing on the schedule for today besides getting to Sigiriya was to stop for a tour of a local village. In our travels w have been on many of these. Cue the elephants. Cue the weavers. Cue the potters. Thrash some wheat, that sort of thing. But it is comething you do. In this case we strolled about 100 yards down a hill where the oxcart drivers were waiting. We have been forewarned of this part of the tour and had, from the get go, made it clear that we did not want an oxcart ride. Even so we had to decline it two or three more times today. The oxcart was going to take us just a little further to the "catamaran" that would take us across the lake to the village. I put catamaran in quotations because technically the vessel was a catamaran, but it was just a wee 15 feet long with a wood plank deck made of a 4x8 sheet of plywood.  Meanwhile, storm clouds were brewing so our driver and the village guy were debating whether or not we should chance the crossing. I was thinking (1) how is Michael going to get in and out of that boat and (b)is a little boat with metal rails in the middle of the lake a wise place to be in a thunderstorm? One minute the two guys were trying to convince Michael that it would be all right and that we should get into the boat. And the next minute they were telling us to walk quickly as it started to rain. A comedy of errors for sure.

In the end we made it back up the hill in a light rain that stopped immediately thereafter. And proceeded on to our hotel on the lake where they have a bar and all the trappings with the notable exception of a liquor license.  *sigh*

Have We Lost the Wonder?

I mentioned before that we forget that Jaeson hasn't been to this part of the world...that this was all new to him.

On the other hand, this morning I am pondering how it has changed us having been to so very many places.

We are waiting in a beach hotel in Negombo, Sri Lanka to begin our touring.

Not much of a beach to be sure, (see attached photo of friendly but itchy local dog and broken down catamaran) but I give myself leeway for being particular about beaches at this point in my life.

However, when did we stop looking at each other and declaring in hushed and reverent tones "Can you believe we are in (fill in the blank with any of some 70 countries)?

To this day I vividly recall turning that corner on a hillside south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, seeing that huge umbrella acacia tree and nearly crying at the thought of being in Africa.

So, first, let me ask, Can you believe we are in Sri Lanka?

Second, let's talk about some little things.

Like the absolutely worst seats on the plane from Manado to Jakarta. The agent gave us exit row seats which was lovely. But none of the seats on the plane reclined. None of them. At all. And I swear they were worse than vertical...that they were in fact slightly leaning forward. Just awful.  But then the agent for Sri Lankan airways gave us bulkhead seats that not only tipped back but have over 3 ft of leg room. I don't know if they take pity on us because we are foreigners or because Michael is 6ft 3in tall. But whatever the reason, thank you.

Next, when we landed in Jakarta (that being our 5th landing in Indonesia in a week), there was, for the only time, a small, potted coconut palm just set right in the middle of the jetway. Certainly there was some reason for that. So, first quiz of this trip.....WHY? What was the significance of that? My google searches have yielded absolutely no insight at all.

Then coming through immigration in Colombo, Sri Lanka there were not only the standard duty free shops selling liquor and chocolates and perfume but vendors peddling: musical instruments, kitchen wares, huge televisions, washers, dryers and refrigerators! This is not a quiz as I asked our driver and apparently Sri Lankans  working abroad are permitted certain concessions when they return home. I saw someone with a tv balanced on their luggage cart but wasn't lucky enough to find anyone toting a stove.

Finally this morning we saw a squirrel. On the beach. Let me repeat that. We saw a SQUIRREL on the BEACH. That was a new one. My google search on that one revealed that there is such a thing as a palm squirrel. It looks more like a large chipmunk. And the nest in the same tree was apparently hers (or his) not the bothersome crow's. (Second pic)

So, we shall endeavor to remember how lucky we are to enjoy these experiences and to appreciate even the little things...especially as our tour has already been revised due to three days of heavy rains north which have closed the roads and will divert us away from Willpatu Park for leopard searching safaris and add in the ruins at Polonnaruwa. 

Happy trails.

Where’s Michael

Those of you who know Michael may know that he isn't a diver. This part of the trip was mostly about him being with Jaeson and me while we dove. As you might imagine, in dive locations there isn't much to do besides dive. He did have the opportunity, though, to take a little land tour inland to find black macaque.

And the shy and elusive and nocturnal tarsier

Muck Diving

The tiny creatures are present on the reefs too, but Muck Diving is part of the draw in coming to this part of this world. 

Macro, they call it, because of the lens it take to photograph them. In actual fact these are teeny tiny creatures. Honestly, crabs the size of a pencil eraser, shrimp that small too. One little worm that looked like a 1cm piece of thread on the coral. And the challenge of trying to see these things while floating in the water just above a silty, fine sand surface that you are trying desperately not to inadvertently stir up. Everyone searching along the dark sandy bottom, searching  and searching...finding something. Then searching and searching...finding something else. 

Honestly not my cup of tea. Not likely to do it again. But still good to have done it once (or 5 times, I guess). Otherwise how would I have ever seen that peacock mantis shrimp I posted earlier or a vast array of these kinds of little guys:

All Creatures Great and Small

The reef dives in Sulawesi were chockablock full of fish. Some I had seem before, versions of others I hadn't (black snapper rather than yellow or red, billions of bright blue tailed trigger fish, Napoleon groupers, long nosed butterfly fish rather than their snub nosed relatives...) and tons of ones I had never seen or heard of before: crocodile fish, scorpion fish, frog fish with their articulated elbows walking slowly on the bottom in a lumbering gait... even anemone fish, those Nemo clown fish and other colors hiding in those finger like anemones but also wrapped up in colorful carpet anemones - at night time wearing them like "shawls" with just their wee heads sticking out. There were pajama fish in their polka dot "pants" and webbed "belts". And black and bright blue ribbon eels. So many it is impossible to remember them all. 

Under the Deep Blue Sea

Diving...Bunaken Island off the north side of northern Sulawesi.

First, keep in mind that I have only ever been diving in Anguilla. Certified there about 4 years ago.  Never been diving anywhere else. Hardly ever done even two dives in one day since as locals we go out at 9a and are back home by 11a to go about our day. The thought of diving 13 times in 4 days was daunting. But that's what tourists do.

Furthermore, dives in Anguilla can be coral reef dives that tend towards about 60ft maximum depth just working along the reef or wreck dives that drop to about 70 feet, work around the flat, and then ascend straight up again.

Bunaken has walls. On the first dive the current was strong enough that the drift seemed to take us past the reef as if we were in a car barreling down the road. The second wall dive found me at 89feet before I decided I didn't need to follow everyone else down to 100 ft to see a turtle. I see turtles all the time. I was willing to wait.

That said, the diving is spectacular. Michael sees pictures from dives in Anguilla and says, "wow, is that what it looks like!" And I say, "not even close". The camera flash introduces the light spectrum at depth that does not naturally filter its way all the way down for the naked eye. Much like the northern lights look better?/ different through the camera lens.

That said, this time when we looked at jaeson's pictures, I said, "here it looks every bit as stunning as that and in fact it seems even more colorful". I imagine that is because I am seeing more at one time than the picture so the amount of color was overwhelming.

That said, here is a wee sample:

A Ring of Fire

Ok, catching up. Before I get into my tales from 25 meters under the sea, let's start with our stay here at an airport hotel at Jakarta as we wait for our onward flight to Sri Lanka.

I tend to forget that Jaeson has never been to this part of the world. Sights that we have seen many times are new to him. So after we asked a half a dozen people where to find our airport shuttle bus to the hotel (after several unsuccessful attempts to call the hotel), we settled in for the 5 km ride in stop and go traffic. Then we turned off onto a teeny tiny road or path or barely a pedestrian walkway maneuvering between an array of little local food stalls. Hmmmmmm. I pulled out the phone to google the hotel for a picture of the $50/ night including breakfast accommodations. Needed to put my own mind at ease....just as I showed Jaeson and Michael the screen, we turned again onto the hotel property...big lobby, valet parking, big sigh of relief.

Jaeson was off at 6a for his flight home. Michael and I have until noon. At breakfast this morning, i glanced at the tv screen ( do restaurants everywhere have TVs now?) and saw the banner "Merapi erupsi largi ". Mt. Merapi is near Yogyakarta. You can see it in the background of photos of Borobudur on a clear day (I.e. not ours). It erupted a little bit a couple of days before we started this trip. Apparently two days after we left Java it erupted again and and has done so 4 times since Monday with some evacuations nearby.

You may have heard of Krakatoa. Yeah, that was near here. And now that I think of it, our first trip to Indonesia in 1991 yielded some stunning sunsets in Bali thanks to the early activity leading up to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. (You might have heard of that one, too) 

Guess we have been pretty lucky in our comings and goings to this part of the world where volcanoes are everywhere you look...

See here....two from the plane landing in Sulawesi.

Been a Bit Under the Water

No posts in a while because

(1) we had yet another travel day on Saturday flying from Yogyakarta to Jakarta and on to Manado, North Sulawesi. (That made 5 flying days out of 6.)

(B) since then Jaeson and I spent two days diving three dives a day around Bunaken Island.

There was a 30 minute panic on arrival into Manado as no one from the dive resort was there holding up a sign with our names.

The confirmation didn't have the actual name of the hotel on it just the dive company.

And the phone numbers were not going through.

It was a well researched group so it isn't that we were worried we had been scammed but we just didn't know how to get to them.

Finally found a cellphone number and made contact.

Apologies were made. A driver arrived. And all worked out in the end.

And the diving has been spectacular. My cellphone doesn't work under water so Jaeson has all/ any photos...

But the numbers and diversity of sea life is staggering. The corals are stunning. And the water is even warmer than in Anguilla.

We have seen crocodile fish, frog fish, scorpion fish, black and blue ribbon eels, blue spotted rays, one shy reef shark, tons and tons of angels and triggers and long-nosed butterfly fish, a school of black snapper, a couple of good sized Napoleon wrasse, teeny tiny shrimp, crazy colorful nudibranchs, sweet lips and the truly jaw dropping probably 6 inch long peacock mantis shrimp. And we haven't even done a night dive yet.

I leave you with this pilfered internet image of a mantis shrimp. Crazy.

        

Ganesh

Prambanan is a Hindu temple and I wanted to find the statue of Ganesh. A bunch of stairs later,here he is.

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Prambanan

And this afternoon

Borobudur

This was indeed a very, very, very long road. Every single flight was delayed. Connnections were missed multiple times resulting in 5 different iterations of our itinerary just to get us to San Francisco including one "grab your bags and get off that plane" directive from one of the many airline booking agents with whom we spoke in the process.  We had given ourselves 30 hours from landing on the east coast to taking off from the west coast and even so we got to the gate mere moments before boarding commenced for the flight to Hong Kong. 

We made it in the end and were in position, as planned, on the top of Borobudur temple for sunrise this morning. More pictures to follow. Just wanted to document our successful arrival.

It's a Long Road to....... Borobudur

Today we will only make it as far as Charlotte for a 16 hour lay over.

Then Charlotte to San Francisco to Hong Kong to Jakarta to Yogyakarta.

Having cashed in miles for business class,  though,  there will be lots of on board pampering and premium airport lounges along the way. 

Barring any travel delays (perish the thought) I will catch you again from the far side of the Earth.